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When it comes to revered surnames in conservatism, the hall of fame would have to include Reagan, Buckley and Scalia. So when a Scalia offers up a summer reading list, it’s worth paying attention.
Christopher Scalia is one of nine children of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and his “list” is actually a book: “13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (But Probably Haven’t Read)."
The timing couldn’t be better.
This time of year, we are awash in summer reading suggestions, most of which are heavy on “beach reads” and light on substance. I’m not sure how many conservatives are rushing to read Bill Clinton’s latest collaboration with James Patterson, “The First Gentleman," so it’s nice to have some other options.
In an excerpt of his book published by The Dispatch recently, Scalia rued the decline of fiction reading in America. He notes that a 2023 report from the National Endowment for the Arts found fewer than 4 in 10 Americans had read novels or short stories the preceding year — the lowest share recorded in the survey and down 4% from the previous year. Similarly bleak numbers have been reported by Pew Research Center.
“A skeptic may be asking, ‘So what? If I want to learn about conservatism, why don’t I just re-read my favorite biography of Winston Churchill, a memoir by a prominent conservative politician, or the latest edition of a thoughtful periodical? What can I get out of fiction that I can’t get out of a book about things that really happened or are really happening?’” Scalia wrote.
His answer: “Great fiction is a source of beauty, and beauty is good. Great fiction is also a source of truth, but (per Emily Dickinson’s advice) truth told slant.” It helps to shape us, makes us more empathetic, shows us how to best live.
Surprisingly, he quotes former President Barack Obama, who said, “The most important set of understandings that I bring to that position of citizen, the most important stuff I’ve learned I think I’ve learned from novels.” The inclusion signals that this is no polarizing diatribe that will conclude with the words “Cry more, lib.”
Also surprisingly, he does not want us to spend the summer reading Ayn Rand.
His list includes “Rasselas” by Samuel Johnson, “The Blithedale Romance” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “Waverley” by Sir Walter Scott, all available at Project Gutenberg, a free online library.
Other novels on the list include “The Children of Men” by P.D. James, “A Bend in the River” by V.S. Naipaul, “The Index of Self-Destructive Acts” by Christopher Beha and “Scoop” by Evelyn Waugh.
Scalia doesn’t stop at 13, but like a literary Pandora, goes on to recommend novels you might like if you especially liked one of these.
In this age of soundbites, hot takes and alarmingly decreasing attention spans, a resurgence of this sort of reading might be the prescription this country needs.
Hyperbole and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
A 30-year-old pregnant woman who suffered a catastrophic brain injury is on life support in Georgia until August, when doctors hope her son will be able to survive outside the womb.
I wrote about the story of Adriana Smith last week, focusing on how the debate over “personhood” figures into her case. There’s another story here, however, about how one family’s tragedy has been subsumed into the abortion debate.
Although this is a heartbreaking story full of nuance, commentators jumped into the pool of hyperbole with both feet, with headlines like “A brain-dead pregnant woman is a horror story. It’s Republicans’ fault.” The coverage is similar to what we’ve seen when a woman has died after a chemical abortion, like “The Women Killed by the Dobbs Decision” published by The Atlantic. America has become, to the minds of some abortion-rights supporters, a reproductive dystopia not entirely unlike “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Meanwhile, the number of abortions taking place in the U.S. are slightly up.
Relief from this expression of Dobbs Derangement Syndrome was offered in an unlikely place: The season finale of the HBO series “The Last of Us.”
The show, which is based on a “woke” and violent video game and stars actors who are loudly progressive in their worldview, has a scene in which a pregnant woman is dying. Without revealing too much of what happens, let’s just say that the writers make clear that there is a moral compulsion to try to save the baby.
Even when a story is threaded with nuance, even Hollywood sometimes acknowledges the worth of a child.
Recommended Reading
Valerie Hudson is concerned about a little-discussed addition to the budget bill that would hobble laws that states have already enacted:
“Make no mistake: those guardrails are needed more than ever as AI capabilities increase. There are new AI-based threats coming into focus for which we dare not wait another decade to tackle.”
The Trojan horse inside the ‘big, beautiful bill’
Jacob Hess digs deeper into the sentiments expressed by New York Times columnist David Brooks in an op-ed entitled “I’m Normally a Mild Guy. Here’s What Pushed Me Over the Edge.”
“I agree with Brooks that our gaze must go deeper than policy level details to the moral and spiritual realm if we want to understand what’s taking place in America right now. But I disagree with him that Trump and Vance are somehow intentionally causing harm — ‘trying to degrade America’s moral character to a level more closely resembling their own.’
“Yet, there’s something important in what Brooks is saying that’s worth considering, especially his contention that we’re continuing to separate ourselves as a country from some of the higher ideals that motivated our founders.
Here’s what got David Brooks angry last week
Naomi Schaefer Riley observes how much our culture changed since the TLC show “What Not to Wear” aired from 2003-2013. A reboot now encourages people to wear whatever we want, regardless of how it affects others’ perception of us. Perhaps this is not progress?
‘What Not to Wear’ had a good message. Its reboot, not so much
Endnotes
Last year, while looking for Christmas music on the radio, I came across the wonder that is K-LOVE, the rapidly expanding radio network that plays “positive, encouraging” Christian music. I heard a couple of their hosts bantering last weekend about an unusual question: If you had to pick one, what would be your last American meal?
A host’s child was going to South Africa for the summer and his parents let him choose his favorite American meal the night before he left. He picked pizza, which didn’t seem right. (Wouldn’t that be your last Italian meal?) Neither did some of the choices the hosts made — apple pie, as American as it may be, is not a meal. And you can get a cheeseburger pretty much anywhere in the world these days.
After way too much thought on this, I’ve decided mine would be Chick-fil-A, or any fabulous 24-hour diner. Right to the Pointers, what would you choose? And what novel would you recommend adding to Scalia’s summer reading list? I’d offer “Dear and Glorious Physician” by Taylor Caldwell and pretty much anything by Christopher Buckley.
Email me at Jgraham@deseretnews.com, or send me a DM on X, @grahamtoday. As always, thank you for reading and being part of the Right to the Point community.