Whats Michael Knowles Reading These Days?
https://www.dailywire.com/news/whats-michael-knowles-reading-these-days  A lover of poetry, the host of The Michael Knowles Show and the author of the new book Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds, rarely reads contemporary fiction and loves to steal books from Andrew Klavans house. MK: On my nightstand at the moment are The Managerial Revolution by James Burnham and The Complete Father Brown Stories by G.K. Chesterton. The long-neglected Burnham, a Trotskyite-turned-conservative philosopher, seems to have understood the true character of the mediocrities that have come to rule us better than just about any other political observer since. And a single Father Brown story contains more wisdom than most full-length books. MK: I read multiple books at a time. Usually I have about four books going at the same time: two physical, two audio. MK: I very much enjoyed Elizabeth Levs How Catholic Art Saved the Faith. As far as canonized great books go, I picked up Boethius Consolation of Philosophy again a couple of months ago for the first time since college, and it only gets better with age. MK: I rarely read contemporary fiction, but when I do its by Andrew Klavan since I can pilfer the paperbacks from his house. In the world of non-fiction political writing, (Spencer) Klavan the Younger makes the list, as do Roger Kimball, Victor Davis Hanson, Yoram Hazony, Adrian Vermeule, Patrick Deneen, Tim Gordon, and all the Claremont/American Mind guys, to name just a few. But it bears mentioning that some of the best political commentary around today is published by pseudonymous Twitter accounts with names that pun on long-dead philosophers. MK: The books, homilies, and columns of Fr. George Rutler have greatly shaped my spiritual outlook. Newman, Chesterton, Scupoli, and C.S. Lewis  damned Protestant though he was  have influenced my thinking as well. But pride of place on the list of writers goes to the divine poet, Dante. MK: I prefer the term practicing Catholic inasmuch as I intend to keep practicing until I get it right. Well, too bad, because they are. The book I have read more than any other is Genesis, both for its unsurpassed wisdom into human nature and also because I always manage to get through it on my many failed attempts to read the Bible cover to cover within the span of a year. In my defense, Catholics prefer to read the Bible liturgically  which reminds me not to forget the Book of Revelation, which is itself a mystical reading of the Holy Mass. MK: Unlike most people, I tend to read fiction for work and non-fiction for pleasure. I generally read philosophy, theology, or history, though detective stories are a guilty pleasure. MK: In the introduction to The Nigger of Narcissus, Joseph Conrad defines art as a single-minded attempt to render the highest kind of justice to the visible universe, by bringing to light the truth, manifold and one, underlying its every aspect. Art, therefore, appeals primarily to the senses, and literature attempts to make you feel[but] before all, to make you see. I love poetry  mostly the kind written by dead, Italian men but also some written by dead Englishmen and even a handful of poems written by living men such as Dana Gioia and A.M. Juster. MK: Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed The Movement. MK: The genres have not changed, but the authors have. In my wayward youth, I enjoyed the popular writings of libertarians, neoconservatives, and the most excitable Enlightenment thinkers. Since that time, I have moved on to sturdier minds. MK: Michael Oakeshotts Rationalism in Politics helped to shape my political ideology by convincing me to eschew ideology, which he describes as the formalized abridgment of the supposed substratum of rational truth contained in the tradition. Edmund Burke persuaded me to prefer the age of chivalry to that of sophisters, economists, and calculators, and he demonstrated the superiority of generous loyalty to rank and sex, proud submission, dignified obedience, the unbought grace of life, the cheap defense of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise, and the subordination of the heart which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom to the shallow theorizing of the latest radical and his five-point plan. MK: Probably St. Thomas Aquinas, whom I would ask to describe what he saw that made all his writing seem like so much straw, though I suspect he couldnt tell me. The Catechism of the Catholic Church. MK: My favorite book as a child was Make Way For Ducklings, and I just bought a copy to read to my son. When I was a bit older, I greatly enjoyed Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard. MK: Ive spent months working through Spenglers idiosyncratic Decline of the West and years chipping away at Ayn Rands lexical chloroform, Atlas Shrugged. I feel that I ought to read both, so I persevere. MK: Aristotles Politics is probably the best. In the interest of charity, I will refrain from naming bad political books that I have read recently, with the exception of Ta-Nehisi Coatess Between the World and Me, which is both inane and poorly written. MK: An eclectic group of writers influenced the book, including Mao Zedong, Karl Marx, Simone de Beauvoir, Ruth Perry, Antonio Gramsci, Herbert Marcuse, Allan Bloom, John Milton, George Orwell, Theodore Adorno, Roger Kimball, Jacques Derrida, Wilhelm Reich, Martin Jay, Paul Kengor, Niccol Machiavelli, Robert Hughes, Stanley Fish, John Locke, Carol Hanisch, and William Bradford, among others. MK: At our present moment of confusion, I am eager to read an account of where precisely the West went wrong  if such an account is even possible. I have a hunch I know the answer, but in the spirit of ecumenism I will refrain from venturing the guess until someone publishes a persuasive account or I do the requisite research to put one together myself. MK: There are many books that I have always meant to read and not yet gotten around to reading, and there are many books I am embarrassed not to have finished, not the least of which is War and Peace. MK: The Messianic Character of American Education by Rousas John Rushdoony revealed to me just how deep the rot in our school system runs. MK: Poetic Diction by Owen Barfield. MK: Taking Dante and Shakespeare off the table to give mere mortals a chance, I always find myself going back to Lewis and Chesterton. MK: They would find a 2013 Macbook Air if Im feeling modern and practical, an Olivetti Lettera 35i if Im feeling nostalgic. MK: There are many writers from the other side of the political spectrum whose views I find worthy of contemplation  notably Marx and Marcuse. I shudder to think what they are contemplating from the other side of the ground. MK: Andrew Klavan would be a good choice since he is an excellent writer and knows that I would haunt him if he were too hard on me. He is also in good health and stands to live a long time unless he keeps smoking my cigars. MK: I plan to keep slogging through Spengler and Rand, lest they defeat me. But, in the words of Robert Burns, the best laid schemes o mice an men gang aft agley, an leae us nought but grief an pain, for promisd joy! [] But och! I backward cast my ee, On prospects drear! An forward tho I canna see, I guess an fear!  The Daily Wires Matt Kemp and Jacob Falach contributed to this feature. The views expressed in this opinion piece are the authors own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire. The Daily Wire is one of Americas fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member. Share this: Twitter  Facebook