Four Questions with Carey Wallace

Everyday Liturgy: I really enjoyed your novel The Blind Contessa’s New Machine, but there is this other piece of your writing I didn’t enjoy as much: your essay in Comment “On Discipline.” That article has been nagging me to set aside time to be creative and write (I’m writing this during one of my two hour blocks). It’s like a ghost that haunts me and whispers “be disciplined” every time I watch more than an hour of TV. How are ways you have found to keep the habit of discipline fresh and alive?

Carey Wallace: The best way to keep discipline fresh is simply not to break it. When we work consistently, our work creates its own momentum, so that even when we encounter hassles or resistance, we’re willing to fight through them because we can’t wait to finish the chapter, or song, or painting we’ve been working on. That creative urge won’t sweep us towards creation every single day: that’s why we need discipline, for the days when it doesn’t. But when we apply discipline consistently on the hard days, we’ll find that there are fewer and fewer of them as the power of our work, and our ability to access it, becomes stronger and stronger.

That said, a disciplined life is not a life of constant work. It’s a life of choices, carried out. We make choices about what to work on, and when. But we also make choices about when to stop work and rest. If we make choices about when to work and rest, rather than being prompted by anxiety, guilt, or exhaustion, both our rest and our work are sweeter, because we aren’t torn by whether we should be doing one when we’re in the midst of the other.

I love television, and rest is important. We just shouldn’t be watching television when we’ve committed to work. And we shouldn’t keep working when we really need to rest.

EL: The publishing world is changing at a rapid pace. How do you see your work as a writer changing in the next few years?

Carey: Jorge Luis Borges talks about the fact that all good writing, throughout time, has so much in common that you could easily believe it was all written by the same author. It’s stunning how “modern” Greek plays seem — even the jokes are still funny, thousands of years later. And it’s amazing how timeless some “modern” authors feel, from the moment their work comes into print. The machinery of publication may make it easier or harder for a season to get read or get paid, but I don’t think the real work of a writer ever changes. And I believe good work will always find a lasting place.

EL: You’ve been working on this new project Songs About Books, could you tell us a little about it?

Songs About Books is an EP of songs that I wrote and recorded about the books I love, in celebration of the paperback release of The Blind Contessa’s New Machine. It includes tracks about Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor, The Arrival by Shaun Tan, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Sweet Bird of Youth by Tennessee Williams, and So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell. It’s my way of saying “no artist works alone” and pointing back to some of the writers who have lit my own way. It’s not for sale, but I’ve been making it available for trade. If anyone would like a copy, they can just send me something they’ve made. So far, I’ve received fine art, a knit bunny, a handmade bag, homemade cookies, paper flowers, a ceramic tea cup, photographs, jewelry, and dozens of other amazing items. I’ll be posting them in a gallery on my site soon, but in the meantime you can find out more information about the project here on my website and email me for trade directions at theblindcontessa[at]gmail[dot]com.

CAREY WALLACE | songs about books from Zeke Anders on Vimeo.

EL: What are some words of encouragement you have for fellow artists as they pursue their work as an artist?

Carey:  Be the best listener in the world. Listen to the people who came before you. Listen to the people working beside you. Listen to crazies on the street and clerks in the stores. Listen to singers and clowns. Listen to the ocean. Listen to the news. Listen to yourself. Listen for the voice of God.

And also, don’t listen to anyone.

Twenty Five Books Every Christian Should Read

Renovaré, the spiritual formation organization, has come out with a book about Christian books, the provocatively titled Twenty Five Books Every Christian Should Read. Gathering together editors from Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant traditions, the list comprises the following books:

1.  On the Incarnation  by St. Athanasius
2.  Confessions  by St. Augustine
3.  The Sayings of the Desert Fathers
4.  The Rule of St. Benedict  by St. Benedict
5.  The Divine Comedy  by Dante Alighieri
6.  The Cloud of Unknowing  by Anonymous
7.  Revelations of Divine Love (Showings)  by Julian of Norwich
8.  The Imitation of Christ  by Thomas à Kempis
9.  The Philokalia
10.  Institutes of the Christian Religion  by John Calvin
11.  The Interior Castle  by St. Teresa of Avila
12.  Dark Night of the Soul  by St. John of the Cross
13.  Pensées  by Blaise Pascal
14.  The Pilgrim’s Progress  by John Bunyan
15.  The Practice of the Presence of God  by Brother Lawrence
16.  A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life  by William Law
17.  The Way of a Pilgrim  by Unknown Author
18.  The Brothers Karamazov  by Fyodor Dostoevsky
19.  Orthodoxy  by G. K. Chesterton
20.  The Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins
21.  The Cost of Discipleship  by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
22.  A Testament of Devotion  by Thomas R. Kelly
23.  The Seven Storey Mountain  by Thomas Merton
24.  Mere Christianity  by C. S. Lewis
25.  The Return of the Prodigal Son  by Henri J. M. Nouwen

I have read Confessions, Divine Comedy, Institutes, Pilgrim’s Progress, The Way of the Pilgrim, the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Mere Christianity, which comes out to about 25% of the list. I have On the Incarnation, The Practice of the Presence of God and The Cost of Discipleship sitting on my “book queue” shelf, waiting to be read. Almost all of these books have been on my radar, and I would want to eventually read every one, except for Brothers Karamazov—I just can never really get into Russian writing.

Which of these books have you read? What would you add to the list? Subtract from it?

Raising Children in a Media World

Media is everywhere. It is transforming, communal act. Media is the language in which our culture speaks, informs and attempts to understand the ever-changing world we find ourselves in.

Place a child into the mix, and things get a bit more complicated. People have been asking, and will continue to ask: How should my child engage the media? What is wrong or improper for children to view? At what age is it okay? Is it ever okay? How does my child become discerning.

The two prominent metaphors for media engagement are consumption and conversation. To me, consumption implies a passive, couch potato mentality. I will sit here and let the commercials and shows wash over me. This metaphor sees entertainment as the goal of all media. The second metaphor is conversation. This implies a relational stance toward media. The person and the media are on equal levels, and media is something to be engaged, wrestled, contemplated and critiqued. This metaphor sees art as the goal of all media.

On a whole, I think it is better to teach media as conversation, not consumption. In conversation with media, we ask: How does our worldview interact with a book, music or film? How do we engage with a piece of art? How do we tell if something is art or not?

When viewed as a conversation, media is not an adversary. Instead, media is a gift. Every person is all called to be creative and generative, whether you lay down brick or lay down tracks. This is so crucial to raising children in a media world, because unless a child understands that he or she is a creative being they will feel unworthy to engage culture and become a consumer. For that reason, it’s more important to teach critical engagement with a movie than it is to label certain media “safe for consumption” and certain media “bad or poisonous.” An example:

Harry Potter was largely dismissed as misguided or satanic by much of the evangelical world when it came out, yet it has a lot of Christian allegory in it and, if you take J.K. Rowling at her word, a broadly Christian worldview of justice and the defeat of death and evil.

On the flip side, the Twilight saga has been accepted by many evangelicals because it teaches abstinence. Yet, what does Twilight say about young girl’s sexuality, other than that a young women should find her worth in making men fight for her and that young women should use their virginity as a weapon or bargaining chip? (A great read on this is “Why Are You Apologizing For Bleeding?“

Media has always surrounded and saturated any culture; culture can only be built and conveyed through media. As Christians, living both within and outside of a culture, I think it is important to teach media discernment and disciple young adults in such a way that they can look at media critically and meaningfully. Over the next few weeks I want to look at the specifics of raising children in a constantly evolving media world.

The Mad Farmer: Wendell Berry’s Agrarian Poetic (Part 4)

Part four of my series on Wendell Berry’s Mad Farmer character is now up on Sustainable Traditions. Here’s a good summary of what it’s about from editor Jason Fowler’s intro to the piece:

In this post we are reminded that we are to cultivate an agricultural and communal vision that marries the wisdom from the past with a view towards the distant future. If the result is unorthodox and against the popular opinion of the day- than so be it- we are contrarian as a means to enact a restoration of what has been broken.

If that sounds interesting, head on over and read the article. Also, please keep Jason’s family in prayer over the next few days. Something pretty significant is happening in their family’s life.

The Writer’s Life

My essay “The Writer’s Life” was published last week in The Curator. An excerpt:

I had been to a Borders for the first time in high school, surveyed all the books, and pondered the obviousness of the situation: if there were so many books of poor quality, of dubious claims, of frivolous titles and rows of books I found no interest in, it would not be that hard at all to get a book of my own up onto the shelves. Surely there was a place for my own creation, and it wouldn’t even be that hard.

There is also a great piece on mockumentaries, “Meta-Mocks,” by Dylan Peterson, in this weekly edition.

Wendell Berry’s Agrarian Poetic (Part 3)

My third post in my five part series on Sustainable Traditions is up. An excerpt:

The Mad Farmer warns that mass-marketing, profit, and middle-class’s insatiable need for consumption will lead us into a mindlessness and carelessness that allows us to be manipulated and controlled by politicians and corporations.

Join the conversation over there.