The New Pantagruel

Dateline: 9 June 2006

In the introduction to Writings of a Deliberate Agrarian, I mention that even for someone like me , who is not a particularly deep thinker, the riches of agrarianism can be clearly seen and easily grasped.

After reading the book, Marlene’s sister, Barb, told me she very much enjoyed it, but disagreed with the part about me being a deep thinker. She thinks I am a deep thinker. Well, I guess I’ve got her fooled. What I am is someone who enjoys reading the deep, insightful writings of others and then bringing elements of basic truths found therein down to my level where I then incorporate them into my writings.

With that thought in mind, I’d like to tell you about The New Pantagruel. It is a web magazine that offers some great examples of the deep, insightful writing that I like to read. It is the kind of writing that I really have to think about and put some effort into understanding. But when I do, I usually come away with some choice fruits.

Caleb Stegall edits The New Pantagruel. He recently e-mailed me about my Deliberate Agrarian web site and my new book. I think I went to The New Pantagruel web site once in the past when surfing the web. But the odd name, curious subtitle, and strange graphics did not draw me in. However, Mr. Stegall’s e-mail introduction to read some articles led me to return and take a closer look.

If you would like to check out The New Pantagruel, I recommend the following articles:

Agrarianism by Jeremy Beer

Localism by Allan Carlson

Community by Caleb Stegall

Welcome to The New Pantagruel

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Herrick

I had a link to their article on agrarianism a few months ago, maybe thats how you stumbled on the site before. My friend and cousin-in-law "Papist Pete" introduced me to it. I really enjoy the stuff there.

Anonymous said...

Boy, some of that stuff is deep. Too deep for the Milkmaid to just quickly skim. I have printed off some of the articles to study before bed. Maybe I can chew on them a bit that way.

Herrick, not only are you a deep thinker but you are an eloquent writer. After all your subtitle includes the word "ruminations". I think it is an admission that you don't just inhale thoughts but bring them up slowly and chew and rechew them for better digestion.

It does kind of amuse me that this site takes such basic simple stuff we live out daily and adds such a deep philosophical spin to it. But, it is good to understand on an intellectual level our basic behavior.