Carnivalesque

Godspy has an interview with Caleb Stegall, editor of The New Pantagruel. The name of the publication (from Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel) came from Stegall's idea that, "some kind of resurrection of the Carnivalesque as a possible mediating force between religion and modernity."

Stegall goes on to say, "A number of commentators have mentioned that tNP has something vaguely 'Catholic' about it. I find that fascinating. I don't think this evocation of the Carnivalesque is necessarily 'Catholic,' but I think I understand the transposition of the two because Protestants have never excelled at evoking the Carnivalesque. In one of the ironic twists of the Reformation, the Protestant desire to arrive at a 'critical' understanding and implementation of tradition ended up closing off the Carnivalesque spaces in society. Catholic culture on the other hand, with its ordering of life around the ritual of the Mass, is better situated to foster such spaces."