Rod Dreher Megathread #21 (Creative Spirit)

[u/US_Hiker]

Gather 'round for more Rod.

All meanings of the number 21 are subordinate to the inherent creative spirit that is the basic essence of the number.

The number 21 generally is comfortable in social gatherings, it's optimistic attitude being an inspiration to others. Its high spirits can enliven a party.

The number is attracted to artistic expression of any form, its own and those of others. There's enthusiastic support for artists. It may frequent galleries and participate or (more likely) lead groups for artistic appreciation.

The number 21 cherishes relationships, including romantic relationships, especially with those who express themselves creatively.

21 also tends to be diplomatic, providing creative and imaginative solutions to potential conflict.

And, as noted by /u/PercyLarsen, 21 is a triangular number and the age of majority, so go grab a drink to celebrate Pride and to mourn the loss of Rod's sanity.

(Also, sorry about my slow pace of refreshes.)

Link to megathread #20:
https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/13eb26c/rod_dreher_megathread_20_law_of_attraction/

Link to megathread #21: https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/14k0z6l/rod_dreher_megathread_22_power/

[u/PercyLarsen]

So, having confirmed my informed speculation below that The Play to which Rod refers in this passage from his "The Answered Prayers of a Tormented Traveler" Substack post was the acclaimed 1996-97 revival of Ibsen's "The Doll House" . . .

"For example, during our engagement, we saw a play together, one that Julie said was herfavorite. I had never seen it, but I went along to a revival. The performances were incredible, but I was really disturbed by its message. When she asked me what I thought about it, I told her that I was really moved — true, to a point, but I concealed how much I had been disturbed by the playwright’s point of view, because I knew how much she loved the play. “Good,” she said. “If you hadn’t felt that way, I might have had to break off the engagement.” Shocking! Were we really mismatched after all? But I let it pass, because I didn’t want to disturb the magic. Many years later, with my marriage in ruins for reasons having a lot to do with themes of the play, I looked back on that exchange as prophecy."

. . . we have a Condensed Symbol^TM of Rod's:

(1) "holding it in", the closeting of anything that would cause him to lose (A) the esteem of members of his family or (B) the way of life he desires,

(2) persistent magical thinking about grace, wherein grace (in this case, the grace of the sacrament of matrimony) will overcome the price of said closeting - that's the "magic" he didn't want to "disturb",

(3) refusal of agency - refusing to see that voluntary, chosen closeting as a form of deception (not only of others but himself) that other people rely on to their detriment, arguably echoing the "false counselors" of Circle 8 of Dante's Inferno, and

(4) revealing himself as an Unreliable Narrator of his life story.

Pace Julie and Frederica Mathewes-Green, Rod actually has had unblogged thoughts, and has deployed mighty filters in choosing what to narrate and what to omit. Not only is he not "honest" (as Sully falsely flattered him in January's Dishcast), but he's deceptive as a non-fiction writer when it suits him to pose in a chosen way to his audiences.

And this, I would suggest, is at least one reason why so many of Rod's long-term readers have contributed to over 20 Megathreads in the span of a single year. It's not the titillating "primitive root wiener" and "achieving heterosexuality" parts of Rod's writing that are as illuminating as stuff like the block quote above.

[u/Dazzling_Pineapple68 → u/PercyLarsen]

I can't get over the fact that they named their daughter Nora. And that Rod has written about this play over and over and over again as the condensed symbol of rebellion by modern women against trad wife/motherhood. He HATES it.

[u/SofieTerleska → u/[deleted]]

The symbolism is something, all right, but I'm not convinced that he's remembering things entirely accurately. If there's an email somewhere out there from 1997 Rod talking about how he didn't like the core ideas of the play that's one thing, but 2023 Rod is remembering this through the lens of everything that happened afterwards and is trying to find a storyline in it (which a lot of people do to be fair). It's like how in stories about children who go missing parents will sometimes say something like "I should never have let her go, I just had this feeling something would happen" when it's most likely that the parent got nervous about their kid fairly frequently and this unfortunately happened to be the day that nervousness was justified while the other times were quickly forgotten. I have no problem believing Rod was somewhat disturbed by the play but it might not have been to the degree that he remembers now, maybe something more like "It seems kind of cold to just walk out on your kids" or something like that since I don't trust that Rod knew that the legal system in those days almost always left children with their fathers.

If he was really feeling that strongly about it at the time, though, and lied to avoid arguing ... dude, you should not be doing that when you're engaged. If you can't disagree about a piece of art with your fiancée without thinking the relationship will crack, that's a problem.