Ask Nathan Anything

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I guess we're doing this now?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Favorite fictional books and book series?

[Some of My Best Friends Are Gay]

Based on my posts here, and assuming I was eligible and had the relevant prior experience, would you vote for me in a Presidential election?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Favorite fictional books and book series?

The Makioka Sisters, which is a social-realist recent-history (set just before World War II, written during and immediately after) Japanese novel, something of an Austen pastiche, is my favorite individual book. The Tolkien legendarium is my favorite series/"body of work", but I don't think Tolkien's main strengths are with the nuts and bolts of writing so my favorite author qua author is Flannery O'Connor. I particularly like Wise Blood by her. My other favorite novels include A Canticle for Leibowitz, The Idiot, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Real World (which is a Japanese crime novel), Brideshead Revisited, Fingersmith, Don Quixote (which I just read and fell gradually more and more in love with as I went), and various works of children's and young adult literature, some of them recent and some of it less so.

I know you asked about fiction, but my favorite nonfiction writer is probably Orwell. My favorite poets include Christina Rossetti, Gerard Manley Hopkins, W.H. Auden, Pier Paolo Pasolini (to the extent that translation captures him), Yosano Akiko (before her ultranationalist turn), Dylan Thomas, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. I really need to read more novels written before the twentieth century; I like a lot of the conceits of Victorian literature but have limited fluency (so to speak) in actual Victorian works.

I also like C.S. Lewis and the standard stable of great women writers of the Heian period (Lady Murasaki, Sei Shōnagon, etc.).

Based on my posts here, and I assuming I was eligible and had the relevant prior experience, would you vote for me in a Presidential election?

I'd vote for you in the general but you wouldn't be my first choice in the primary.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Favorite fictional books and book series?

The Makioka Sisters, which is a social-realist recent-history (set just before World War II, written during and immediately after) Japanese novel, something of an Austen pastiche, is my favorite individual book. The Tolkien legendarium is my favorite series/"body of work", but I don't think Tolkien's main strengths are with the nuts and bolts of writing so my favorite author qua author is Flannery O'Connor. I particularly like Wise Blood by her. My other favorite novels include A Canticle for Leibowitz, The Idiot, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Real World (which is a Japanese crime novel), Brideshead Revisited, Fingersmith, Don Quixote (which I just read and fell gradually more and more in love with as I went), and various works of children's and young adult literature, some of them recent and some of it less so.

I know you asked about fiction, but my favorite nonfiction writer is probably Orwell. My favorite poets include Christina Rossetti, Gerard Manley Hopkins, W.H. Auden, Pier Paolo Pasolini (to the extent that translation captures him), Yosano Akiko (before her ultranationalist turn), Dylan Thomas, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. I really need to read more novels written before the twentieth century; I like a lot of the conceits of Victorian literature but have limited fluency (so to speak) in actual Victorian works.

I also like C.S. Lewis and the standard stable of great women writers of the Heian period (Lady Murasaki, Sei Shōnagon, etc.).

I know substantially little about Japan, and even less about its literary tradition. What made you fall in love with the country and/or its history and culture?

I think we've discussed Liebowitz, which I read ~2013, in the past. I should probably reread it at some point. I'd considered buying We Have Always Lived in the Castle when the whole thing about Hill House was big due to the Netflix series, but never got around to it. Do you recommend Shirley Jackson? Since I stumbled into a better job, I've started buying books again, but my recent fiction purchases were a John Le Carre novel and the five ASoIaF books. I foolishly let my mom sell (or try to sell) the seven-book Narnia book set we owned (nothing fancy, just the typical book fair package) last year and was considering trying to reclaim or buy that. Lastly, a Japanese crime novel sounds fascinating.

[afleitch]

Have you been to Europe?

[Senator Incitatus]

Favorite small town in Massachusetts? Mine is Ashfield.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I know substantially little about Japan, and even less about its literary tradition. What made you fall in love with the country and/or its history and culture?

It was sort of serendipitous. I was in high school towards the end of the late 90s-late 2000s anime and manga glut, and then when I got to college I met a professor who was also a Buddhist priest and taught a bunch of courses related to Japan and its religious landscape. I took a couple of those and fell in love.

I actually ended up despairing of a lot of things about Japanese society around the time of Abe's second House of Representatives landslide in 2014. I still think it's a fascinating country and remember my time there (and my time studying it) very fondly, but over the past couple of years I've had to actively work to maintain my familiarity with and interest in what's going on in Japan.

I'd considered buying We Have Always Lived in the Castle when the whole thing about Hill House was big due to the Netflix series, but never got around to it. Do you recommend Shirley Jackson?

I'm not sure. She's super feminine and super disturbing. I think you'd like her plots and writing style a lot but I'm not sure how you'd respond to her characters. I'm far from convinced you'd respond poorly, though, so I say definitely give her a try.

Have you been to Europe?

Yes! I spent a couple weeks in Ireland many years ago and then another two weeks in Italy just last fall, a few weeks before I started posting again. Italy definitely left me wanting more and I'd be more than happy to pay Ireland a return visit too, as well as the UK, which I didn't get to when I was there before. My phone lock screen and background are currently pictures I took in Assisi and Naples, respectively.

If you couldn't live in New England or Upstate New York, what other parts of the country would most appeal to you?

Indiana or California because I have friends there; New Jersey or SEPA because I have family ties there and have lived there before and more or less know how life works there. I'd be reluctant to live anywhere in the South (more because of the climate than because of the culture) and most of the rest of Middle America has places I'd be happy to visit but wouldn't really want to live. Maybe New Mexico?

Favorite small town in Massachusetts? Mine is Ashfield.

I have to go with Shelburne Falls because I've been almost-consistently familiar with it throughout my life. I'm also fond of Adams (not North Adams, although I don't actively dislike North Adams the way a lot of people seem to either). Charlemont is pretty but there's not much to (as they say) "do there". Can you tell I take the Mohawk Trail a lot?

[Senator Incitatus]

Big fan of Shelburne Falls also. Forgot about that.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Speaking of Adams, do you have a favorite member of the Adams family?

What is your ancestry?   Have you looked much into your genealogy?

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Cleveland Steamer or Cosby Sweater

What’s your favorite television program?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Speaking of Adams, do you have a favorite member of the Adams family?

I like Henry Adams, he of the Education. The Gilded Age New England intellectual and literary scene was generally pretty lackluster but the personality expressed in the Education has a lot of points of tangency with my own and I really enjoyed reading it when I did (very early in undergrad). No doubt if I reread it now I'd recognize the class snobbery that a lot of critics see in it and like it a lot less.

What is your ancestry?   Have you looked much into your genealogy?

My mother's ancestors were Italian (Campania and Basilicata) on her own mother's side and Russian/Polish Jews (Bialystokers, mostly) on her father's. (My full name is pretty distinctly Jewish.) On my mother's side we've had a presence in the Springfield, Massachusetts MSA ever since coming to America. I know the full names of all but one great-great-grandparent on that side (I'm missing one maiden name. Her first name was rendered at the Port of Philadelphia as "Souvia"). We don't talk about my biological father but my stepfather is from a lace-curtain Baltimore Irish family that later transplanted itself to New Jersey.

What’s your favorite television program?

I'm currently really into Killing Eve. I used to have an overall all-time favorite but don't really any more.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Any other questions? I'm bored with the non-FC boards at the moment and I like talking about myself more than I try to let on.

[S019]

Do you like Massachusetts?

Opinion of Charlie Baker?

Would you vote for Baker or Markey in a hypothetical and unrealistic 2020 Senate, Warren or Baker for a hypothetical and unrealistic 2024 Senate?

Opinion of Karyn Polito?

Does Karyn Polito have a political future in Massachusetts, other than being Lieutenant Governor

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Do you like Massachusetts?

Yes, I do! I'm proud of my state.

Opinion of Charlie Baker?

Not very high. I think he'd probably govern well to the right of how he in fact has if he were a governor elsewhere. I don't think he'd be a hyper-dogmatic Brownback type or anything, but I do think a lot of the "socially liberal and fiscally reasonable " persona is conditional, and it's not a persona I like very much anyway.

Would you vote for Baker or Markey in a hypothetical and unrealistic 2020 Senate, Warren or Baker for a hypothetical and unrealistic 2024 Senate?

I'm pretty content with both Markey and Warren, and would vote for both against any remotely plausible Republican opponent.

Opinion of Karyn Polito?

I don't know much about her. My impression is that she's to the right of Baker but I don't know by how much. The only specific policy thing I really know about her is that she's the driving force behind a lot of the Baker administration's initiatives to combat domestic violence, which are one of the things Baker's doing right imo.

Does Karyn Polito have a political future in Massachusetts, other than being Lieutenant Governor

Possibly. I think she'd be a definite underdog if she ran to succeed Baker (especially if it were against Maura Healey, who's way higher-profile in-state), but I wouldn't count her out entirely. She's not getting elected to anything federal in a million years, though.

[All Along The Watchtower]

How can Episcopalians simultaneously be consummate Moderate Heroes in terms of religion and Social Justice Warriors in terms of politics?

Moreover, do a majority of Episcopalians even qualify as Christian today? (ok, I’m trolling...sorta.)

Finally, what does it say about Christianity in the Current Year when (it seems to me, at least) that the majority of people who know anything substantial about Christianity aren’t Christian? (This is a roundabout way of saying that most Christians don’t seem to know anything substantial about Christianity, although that’s unfair of me and I’m being very elitist, this is why Trump won, Onward Populism etc.)

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

How can Episcopalians simultaneously be consummate Moderate Heroes in terms of religion and Social Justice Warriors in terms of politics?

The short answer is that it's a mystery to me too, but for what it's worth, Episcopalians who are classic via media moderate heroes theologically tend also to be more politically moderate than Episcopalians who are closer to UU-in-an-alb-ism.

Moreover, do a majority of Episcopalians even qualify as Christian today? (ok, I’m trolling...sorta.)

I think a majority of Episcopalians probably do still believe in the divinity of Christ in some form, so yeah, they're Christians. Whether they're theists is actually a more open question in many cases than whether they're Christians...

Finally, what does it say about Christianity in the Current Year when (it seems to me, at least) that the majority of people who know anything substantial about Christianity aren’t Christian? (This is a roundabout way of saying that most Christians don’t seem to know anything substantial about Christianity, although that’s unfair of me and I’m being very elitist, this is why Trump won, Onward Populism etc.)

I would say that it goes to show that the "post-truth" mindset set in on the American religious scene somewhat earlier that it set in elsewhere in American society. Whether this is a sociological happenstance, evidence that there's something inherently "proto-post-truth" (as it were) about the nature of Christian truth-claims in general, or somewhere in between is a question I'll leave to subtler theologians than I.

[RFayette]

What decade do you think had the best music, and who are your favorite artists? 

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Is Nathan your real life name, and if not what are the origins of your username?

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Do you hold any strong opinions on architecture?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

What reasons should I have to be hopeful that the rest of my life won't be miserable

I'd need to know more about your circumstances to be able to answer this with specifics, but in a general sense, you should always be hopeful that the your life will improve because at least some of your circumstances are within your power to ameliorate (even if many are not). The question is whether there's hope that it'll improve enough for you to be happy, and nobody can answer that question for you but you.

What decade do you think had the best music, and who are your favorite artists? 

I don't really have a good answer for the first question because I can think of lots of music that I like from every decade from the 1920s onward. My favorite artist right now is Florence and the Machine. I also like Leonard Cohen, Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler, Vera Lynn, Joy Division/New Order, Connie Francis, and a bunch of the midcentury jazz piano greats like Bill Evans and Bud Powell.

Is Nathan your real life name, and if not what are the origins of your username?

Yep, Nathan's my real name.

Do you hold any strong opinions on architecture?

I do, yeah. I adore Gothic revival (more than medieval Gothic, in many cases; I especially like Carpenter Gothic), think Brutalism is underrated if it's in an environment with a lot of trees but absolutely terrible if it's not, hate practically every style that's emerged since Brutalism, and think Islamic and Asian architectural styles should be better-known in the West. I love New England vernacular architecture and in general think that architects building new buildings should default to either vernacular forms or the same general style as surrounding buildings unless they have an unimpeachably strong vision for something else.

[H. Ross Peron]

What are your favourite kinds of cuisine as well as individual dishes?

Do you listen to any podcasts and if so which do you recommend?

What are your favourite anime series of all time?

Given your strong interest in Japanese culture and history, do you take a similar interest in other East Asian cultures especially that of Korea?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

What are your favourite kinds of cuisine as well as individual dishes?

I like Italian, Japanese, Indian, and sometimes Chinese and Mexican (usually Tex-Mex because I secretly have basic bitch tendencies). My favorite dishes include puttanesca, unagi donburi, malai kofta, hot and sour soup (when it's made right), and sesame noodles, which I think of as a Thai thing. I also came to really like truffle-flavored pastas and risottos when I was in Umbria last fall.

Do you listen to any podcasts and if so which do you recommend?

I'm not a huge podcast person. I've listened to some Penumbra Podcast stuff and enjoyed it, though, and one of my best friends listens to a bunch of religious studies podcasts that she says are really good and that I've been meaning to check out.

What are your favourite anime series of all time?

Most of my favorite anime are ones that I don't really want to cop to liking on Atlas Forum specifically, although they're not objectively shameful in the sense of being pornographic or anything. I like a lot of stuff that was popular in the roughly 2006-2011 period when I was first getting really into anime but has since been lost in the sands of time. I wasn't crazy about the moesh**t boom during that timeframe but I also didn't hate it as much as some people did. There's also a lot of stuff (like The Tatami Galaxy and Gankutsuou) that I didn't really appreciate sufficiently when I initially saw it but keep coming back to in retrospect.

Given your strong interest in Japanese culture and history, do you take a similar interest in other East Asian cultures especially that of Korea?

Sort of, yeah! China has long interested me too, and I'm becoming more interested in Korea recently because a woman I have/had a crush on is living there now (she's from Texas originally). I know the broad strokes of Korean history (especially Korean Christian history because it was covered in my Asian Christianities class in grad school) but not most of the specifics.

I actually tried to study Chinese before settling on Japanese, but turned out to be terrible at it.

[All Along The Watchtower]

What is your opinion of this this article's thesis?

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Do you ever plan to write another timeline? Winds from the East was fantastic!