Monastics interest me a great deal, dedicated as they are to the properties of attention, and I’m interested in how the contemporaries of the “greats” might have felt about their proximity to sainthood, to what degree they might have found themselves pushed either to imitate or to denigrate it in favor of something less flashy.
i also love monastics and since you enjoy (as do i) modern 'translations' of these monastic texts, can i /please/ interest you in the texts of Nils Sorsky? He was a Russian Orthodox monk who became an ascetic and was very good at it, because he liked being left alone. unfortunately being very good at monk-ing made a whole bunch of people keep pestering him for advice on how to be a better monk, so he wrote an entire text that is essentially "how to be a really good monk: step 1 is leave nils sorsky, specifically, alone. if you have questions figure it out yourself. step 2 is stop talking to nils. this is 99% of what you need." and it amuses me endlessly.
You know, I was skeptical, but ready to be impressed, as to whether you could elaborate the Thomas Merton thing into a whole novel, but I can *absolutely* see a very thick volume of Lives of the Saints: Hater's Annotation. Hilary Mantel already did the Thomas More entry at some length, of course.
‘“I am the serenest!” Bikram shouted to the estimated crowd of 20,000 yoga fans, vigorously pumping his fists. “No one is serener than Sri Dhananjai Bikram—I am the greatest monk of all time!”’
How do you solve a problem like Teresa...
I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that this exists!
hello where has The Public Domain Review been all my life
When the pick-me girl gets right angular gyrus epilepsy and makes it her whole personality smdh
i also love monastics and since you enjoy (as do i) modern 'translations' of these monastic texts, can i /please/ interest you in the texts of Nils Sorsky? He was a Russian Orthodox monk who became an ascetic and was very good at it, because he liked being left alone. unfortunately being very good at monk-ing made a whole bunch of people keep pestering him for advice on how to be a better monk, so he wrote an entire text that is essentially "how to be a really good monk: step 1 is leave nils sorsky, specifically, alone. if you have questions figure it out yourself. step 2 is stop talking to nils. this is 99% of what you need." and it amuses me endlessly.
I love me some Teresa and now I love her even more through your huffy hater, who I also love
The OG Flying Nun
You know, I was skeptical, but ready to be impressed, as to whether you could elaborate the Thomas Merton thing into a whole novel, but I can *absolutely* see a very thick volume of Lives of the Saints: Hater's Annotation. Hilary Mantel already did the Thomas More entry at some length, of course.
The line ‘I am sure it is possible even for monks and nuns to become competitive with one another’ reminded me of this classic Onion piece:
https://www.theonion.com/monk-gloats-over-yoga-championship-1819563855
‘“I am the serenest!” Bikram shouted to the estimated crowd of 20,000 yoga fans, vigorously pumping his fists. “No one is serener than Sri Dhananjai Bikram—I am the greatest monk of all time!”’