The Mailbag: November '21
This week I’m sharing a few Q & A responses to emails from cavaliers. Please feel free to reach out to me at sonofchivalry@protonmail.com.
Chiv,
Any thoughts on workout music?
- Rodrigo, 35, Houston
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Dear Rodrigo,
This is a very important subject. I’m convinced that degenerate popular psyop music messes with your energy and costs you significant thrust on your big lifts.
I love “Compostela ‘Ad vesperas Sancti Iacobi’” and “Le Chant des Templiers” by Ensemble Organum and Mercel Pérès–excellent knightly chants. Serious Reconquista/Crusades energy here, good for saving Christendom and hitting PRs:
https://open.spotify.com/album/78wUmOGFuFPvBkH76dl9C6?highlight=spotify:track:75rsG7geaWrdPkBxwCr3rf
https://open.spotify.com/album/4N6UVYJK7xi3K8489hukgH
(I have to give a s/o to @LandsknechtPike for introducing me to the first.)
Hopefully you enjoy these as well!
__________
Hey Chivalry!
What are the best books on King Arthur? My father read some of the stories to me when I was a boy and now I want to revisit them but don’t know where to start. There are so many choices.
- T.L., 22, California
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Dear T.L.,
I’ve been trying to work my way through the sources recently. When I’ve finished, I’ll write a longer post describing and ranking them.
In my “Chivalrous Reading List, Part I,” I recommended Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. Tennyson is still good, of course, but I now believe the best place to start is Howard Pyle’s telling of the saga. I recently read the first of his four books (The Story of King Arthur and His Knights) and found both the author and his work delightful. His grandfatherly warm-heartedness and his admiration for Arthur come through from the first pages of his introduction.
One of my favorite features of the Pyle sagas are the moral lessons he summarizes at the end of an episode. This might seem like a bad idea, but it speaks to Pyle’s abilities that he pulls them off beautifully. For example, after Arthur draws the sword from the stone and establishes his claim, the chapter closes thus:
Thus Arthur achieved the adventure of the sword that day and entered into his birthright of royalty. Wherefore, may God grant His Grace unto you all that ye too may likewise succeed in your undertakings. For any man may be a king in that life in which he is placed if so be he may draw forth the sword of success from out of the iron of circumstance. Wherefore when your time of assay cometh, I do hope it may be with you as it was with Arthur that day, and that ye too may achieve success with entire satisfaction unto yourself and to your great glory and perfect happiness. Amen.
It takes a beautiful soul to write something like that. There’s so much to say about his work. I’ll write more about that shortly, so stay tuned. And let me know what you think if you get to Pyle.
__________
Dear CG,
I am 24 years old. My (former) girlfriend who I was about to propose to just changed her mind and told me she doesn’t want to have children. This is an absolute dealbreaker for me, so I ended of our relationship. I’m very sad but I’m trying to move forward. Now it’s back to the dating game. I’m ashamed to say I got a little too comfortable when I was with Danielle. I put on a few pounds. So I need to lose weight. How do you feel about the Mediterranean Diet?
- Tim, Ohio
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Dear Tim,
I’m sorry to hear about your difficulties, but glad you had the clarity and decisiveness to take this step.
As for diets, I am fundamentally opposed to almost all of them. As for that specific one, Nina Teicholz (author of The Big Fat Surprise, a shocking book) makes a compelling case that the Mediterranean Diet is simply a repackaging of Ancel Key’s low-fat nonsense, with all the romance of Greece but without regard to what Greeks actually eat. To paraphrase a famous domestic terrorist, the low-fat diet and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
The only dietary principle that I accept is to eat the things your ancestors likely ate. No newfangled foodstuffs or ingredients or cooking oils, just the old ones. I eat a hearty diet of quality meats, dairy, vegetables, fruits, and some grains. Contrary to what we’ve been told, saturated fat does not make a person fat. Butter, whole milk, bacon, New York strips—these things are wholesome. It’s sugar, HFCS, seed oils, and all that junk which makes us fat.
Unfortunately means that eating out should be a rarity.
If the goal is to lose weight, the main strategy should be a program of heavy lifting and conditioning (hillsprints, martial arts) and old-fashioned eating (lots of protein, lots of saturated fat, minimal sugar). I also think that walking is profoundly helpful.
Godspeed to you!
__________
Sir,
I’ve been reading a lot of the books on your reading list and really enjoying them. Are there any novels set in modern times that deal with chivalry or what it means to be a man?
- Bryan, New Jersey
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Dear Bryan,
This is a good question. Though the early 19th century is not what you might call modern times, Jane Austen is certainly interested in manhood—depicting many men who miss the mark for a variety of reasons, and a few who hit it. Pride and Prejudice, for example, features Mr. Bennet (negligent father), Mr. Wickham (wicked cad), and Mr. Collins (clueless sychophant), all of whom set up a fine contrast with Mr. Darcy (misunderstood knight).
As for more contemporary novelists, Evelyn Waugh (Brideshead Revisited, The Sword of Honour trilogy) and Tom Wolfe (A Man in Full, Back to Blood) show men progressing, or trying at least, towards manhood in a world that makes such a task difficult. But off the top of my head I’m having trouble thinking of many others. You’d have to turn to historical and fantasy novels (Walter Scott, Steven Pressfield’s Greek fiction, JRR Tolkien’s epic, etc) to find others truly interested in riveting examples.
For the most part, novels seem to depict manhood in decline. Men are adrift, chasing ridiculous dreams (Jay Gatsby), contemplating suicide (Quentin Compson), ruminating on their impotence (Jake Barnes). Fathers are so often absent, either literally or figuratively. Women are frequently the more interesting characters in a novel. (It’s probably worth remembering that the father of all novelistic protagonists was Don Quixote, a famous caricature of chivalric ideals.)
With all this in mind, one should read a healthy dose of ancient epics and medieval songs.
Best wishes–
__________
Dear CG,
I just met an awesome girl. I could make a very long list of reasons why she’s so great—she’s smart, funny, athletic, and gorgeous, and on, and on. She’s everything I could want in a damsel. The problem is that she’s an agnostic and I’m a serious Catholic. Do you think this could still work?
- R.T., 24, South Carolina
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Dear R.T.,
Happy to hear about your W!
Your situation is a tough one. Without knowing more of the specifics, there’s not much I can say, other than the obvious: pray for guidance.
It strikes me that there are multiple questions facing you: 1) Do you hope that she will convert? 2) What is the likelihood of that? 3) If it doesn’t happen, are you okay with a religious split between you and the potential mother of your future children?
Acknowledging that there will be exceptions, I am nevertheless not optimistic about the prospects of a religiously divided household. My own parents were divided, and it wasn’t ideal. You know what they say about the family that prays together—it’s a cliche because it’s true.
I recently saw a tweet claiming that a wife should adopt her husband’s political views—not necessarily because it’s her spousal duty, but because that’s the effect that an excellent man should have on his lady. The same should go for a religious conversion: you show her such a loving and charming and studly example of the Faith that she converts.
But it’s far from guaranteed. Which brings us to more questions: 4) Are you the guy to make this happen? And 5) Is she worth that gamble?
Godspeed to you, sir!