I love it, Ben, good for you. John Eldredge makes the case that the average Christian is being discipled by the internet (i.e. where do you turn to for answers to your questions, God or google) whether they know it or not (From: Experience Jesus, Really.) Lately, I have been concerned with my own attention span and the impulse I have to reach for my phone every idle moment. With the coming changes that AI will bring to the world economy, I suspect the future will belong to those that have protected their brains from the algorithm.
When do you expect your book will be released? I can't wait to get it.
Thanks! Yes it is easy to lose sight of the important things or to step back and reflect when we have phones on hand at all moments. The book won't be ready til next year; I was originally thinking early next year but it'll probably be late. My Gothic Top Fifty is actually slowing down the book work slightly, as is another project I am starting (to be announced soon) which feels more urgent. But on the other hand, all these essays here involve photo editing and thinking that will speed up the book production quite a bit.
💯 agree with and support your transition to focus your posting energy and effort here to Substack. To that end, you’re inspiring me to start up a Substack to record my thoughts, accumulated learnings, and miscellaneous ramblings about my “all things Roman” obsession. The small amount of posting I’ve done in Insta has always been more about sharing my fascinations of the moment rather than building up a following. For one thing, my fascinations are too broad, and the thread tying them together is mostly limited to the random paths my brain.
I’m grateful for these kinds of posts, and I hope more people recognize the value of it as well.
I like substack notes too, am using them more and more. You can add up to six photos, write more than in instagram captions, and later embed them posts. And scrolling through the notes feed feels healthier than Instagram. Instagram is still the place for cat videos tho! 😸
I am enjoying and learning so much from your Substack writing. Yes, the Gothic cathedrals and museums are breathtaking. You take great pictures. But even more impactful to this agnostic is seeing all that FAITH put on display. The masons and glassmakers were not just putting up a building; they were worshiping their God in the way they knew best. It is inspiring.
Recently I have been attracted to histories about the monks and scribes who worked in awful circumstances to create the marvelous illuminated manuscripts that have survived over the centuries. Their faith was just as strong as the cathedral builders and their efforts were contemporaneous.
Thanks for letting me know, I am glad you are enjoying it. Yes, illuminated manuscripts vie with cathedrals for the most "medievally" of medieval art. They are like little jewels to a cathedral's monumentality. And, of course a lot of cathedrals and other "greart churches" were part of a monastery complex.
I love it, Ben, good for you. John Eldredge makes the case that the average Christian is being discipled by the internet (i.e. where do you turn to for answers to your questions, God or google) whether they know it or not (From: Experience Jesus, Really.) Lately, I have been concerned with my own attention span and the impulse I have to reach for my phone every idle moment. With the coming changes that AI will bring to the world economy, I suspect the future will belong to those that have protected their brains from the algorithm.
When do you expect your book will be released? I can't wait to get it.
Thanks! Yes it is easy to lose sight of the important things or to step back and reflect when we have phones on hand at all moments. The book won't be ready til next year; I was originally thinking early next year but it'll probably be late. My Gothic Top Fifty is actually slowing down the book work slightly, as is another project I am starting (to be announced soon) which feels more urgent. But on the other hand, all these essays here involve photo editing and thinking that will speed up the book production quite a bit.
💯 agree with and support your transition to focus your posting energy and effort here to Substack. To that end, you’re inspiring me to start up a Substack to record my thoughts, accumulated learnings, and miscellaneous ramblings about my “all things Roman” obsession. The small amount of posting I’ve done in Insta has always been more about sharing my fascinations of the moment rather than building up a following. For one thing, my fascinations are too broad, and the thread tying them together is mostly limited to the random paths my brain.
I’m grateful for these kinds of posts, and I hope more people recognize the value of it as well.
Thanks! Yeah Instagram can be a good short notebook but everything is so ephemeral. Fine for some stuff but not ideal for most real thinking.
I like substack notes too, am using them more and more. You can add up to six photos, write more than in instagram captions, and later embed them posts. And scrolling through the notes feed feels healthier than Instagram. Instagram is still the place for cat videos tho! 😸
I am enjoying and learning so much from your Substack writing. Yes, the Gothic cathedrals and museums are breathtaking. You take great pictures. But even more impactful to this agnostic is seeing all that FAITH put on display. The masons and glassmakers were not just putting up a building; they were worshiping their God in the way they knew best. It is inspiring.
Recently I have been attracted to histories about the monks and scribes who worked in awful circumstances to create the marvelous illuminated manuscripts that have survived over the centuries. Their faith was just as strong as the cathedral builders and their efforts were contemporaneous.
I appreciate how these threads intertwine.
Thanks for letting me know, I am glad you are enjoying it. Yes, illuminated manuscripts vie with cathedrals for the most "medievally" of medieval art. They are like little jewels to a cathedral's monumentality. And, of course a lot of cathedrals and other "greart churches" were part of a monastery complex.