One quibble: "pulchritudinous" means "excessively beautiful, comely, lovely." I think putrid may be a better fit?

Yes. I realised when I woke up this morning that I was trying to be too clever by half with my language and edited this a little.

The ancient and pre-colonial periods of literature of India, China, and Japan spawned some lovely works of poetry and philosophy that are oft ignored in classrooms and conversation

Indeed. The Records of the Three Kingdoms, and their fictionalised counterparts, the Romance, as well as The Tale of Genji come to mind here.

The Left is all breadth, no depth. They only care about the message. This has been bothering me about all popular entertainment for a long time. I'm almost ready to kill my television.

I agree. I actually did this a couple of years ago and cut off my cable subscription because I was just sick and tired of the trash that was being marketed on TV as "edgy" and "critically acclaimed". These days about the only TV shows I watch are "Top Gear" and "Last Man Standing"- the last remaining bastions of blokey silliness and old-fashioned values.

They swam in the river in the sunshine and fresh air and it was a day like no other. Antidote for cultural poison.

Spending time in the outdoors of God's country does indeed have that effect.

Otherwise, excellent piece. I read Wright's Awake In The Night Land for the third time not long ago. It was my first introduction to his work. I'm now working on his Golden Age trilogy. Finally, sci-fi, and just plain old literature, I can enjoy.

You can never go wrong with the classics. And not just the European or Eurocentric ones. The ancient and pre-colonial periods of literature of India, China, and Japan spawned some lovely works of poetry and philosophy that are oft ignored in classrooms and conversation. I can't bother talking with many people these days, about much; not because I don't want you (usually I'm amenable to conversation) but because no one knows anything about anything. Horrible.

The Left is all breadth, no depth. They only care about the message. This has been bothering me about all popular entertainment for a long time. I'm almost ready to kill my television. Mr. C. enjoys football and hunting shows so we keep it around for that. Otherwise, it's poison. Yesterday we took the kids to the mountains for a day of hiking and throwing rocks in the river – they're all under 6 yo, what else would a kid do? They swam in the river in the sunshine and fresh air and it was a day like no other. Antidote for cultural poison.