The Scandalous Gospel

Catholic Colbert has not fallen into a black hole after all. Last night’s interview with Peter J. Gomes has roused me out of oblivion. I’ve been a fan of Professor Gomes since he published The Good Book.

Watching him nudge Stephen out of character last night was simply delightful. The premise of his book is that Jesus shakes up the status quo. His message for contemporary readers is that too often we don’t want to be shaken out of our clinging to the way things are.

Take a look at their exchange. I’m off to the library to get a copy of the book.

Make Me America

I’m having a great time with the Make Me America website. Hats off to Hachette and Electric Pulp for a great book launch site. Here’s my best photo so far, but I have great plans for the next few days. Go to CatholicColbert on flickr to see the other shots.

Blowing the Pope’s book “out of the holy water”

Welcome back, Catholic Heroes! Looks like we’re back in business after a server crash, but I lost Tuesday’s post. I was rather fond of it, too. Here’s the clip from Monday’s show. And don’t miss the official website for I Am America (and So Can You). New on the site since Tuesday is a religion randomizer.

Stephen’s new book released on Tuesday. If you haven’t got a copy yet, the link over in the far right sidebar will take you through my Amazon Associates account. I’ll get few pennies to offer my hosting service in exchange for keeping the site on their servers and keeping their servers up and running. If you have to choose between the book and the audiobook, I highly recommend the latter. Stephen would of course want me to remind you that real heroes will buy both!

He’s woven the Bible and religion through much of the book, with of course an emphasis on why Roman Catholicism is the best. Don’t look for any character breaks of sincerity, though. It’s the “high status idiot through and through.” I’ll be back with some quotes in the days to come.

I Am America audiobook teaser

We’re less than a month away from the release of Stephen’s new book, I Am America (and So Can You). The link below is the audiobook, which promises to be especially wonderful. Word is that guest voices will include Stephen’s wife, Evelyn McGee Colbert, and several other friends and partners in crime. The link over to the lower right in the sidebar is for the book itself. More on both in the days to come. In the meantime, here’s a little tease of a snippet on religion, courtesy of the Hatchette Book Group and the fine folks at No Fact Zone (they had it first and they’ve got two more clips for your listening pleasure).

Upside down and backwards

The Report is halfway through a two-week break and I’m killing the last hour or so before a three-day weekend reading some of my favorite blogs. Here’s my favorite Q&A from the Publishers Weekly interview with Stephen on his upcoming book, I Am America (and So Can You):

PW: What about the rumor that if you read I Am America backwards it’s the unreleased last book of the Left Behind series?

SC: Backwards and upside down. And you have to be able to speak Aramaic.

Guess I better work on my Aramaic before October…. Details on the books can be found through the link in the sidebar. The audiobook also promises to be more than worth the money if Wigfield is any indication.

Our heat wave has finally broken, rendering thought possible again, and with the long weekend I may start working on the next courses for Colbert University. Watch for some clips from the work in progress next week.

Harry Potter Seclusion

UPDATE:

“Hermione’s a dude, Voldemort is the ghost of Harry’s father, whose real name is Rosebud, and on the very last page Harry wakes up in bed with Susanne Pleschette.” –Stephen Colbert

Okay, folks, I’m going into Internet seclusion until I read the book. See you on the other side of the Deathly Hallows.

In the meantime, Stephen and The Report received four Emmy nominations this past week, and so I give you the clip “Kneel Before Your God“

Happy Bloomsday

In which our hero, Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, DFA, reads the part of Leopold Bloom in a chapter from James Joyce’s novel Ulysses
at the Bloomsday on Broadway XXIV celebration in 2005. (For more on Bloomsday, go here.)

Here’s the audio for the Lotus Eaters chapter. (Tip o’ the hat to Truth at Colbert Heroes, where you can also find the audio for the Calypso chapter.)

I’m an English major from way back (Marquette ’83, Northwestern ’84) and studied both Joyce and Irish history in several classes. This is a masterful reading of the novel’s stream-of-consciousness June 16th day in the life of an Irish Jew named Leopold Bloom. In the Lotus Eaters chapter, one of his stops is into a church where Mass is going on. Written by an Irish Catholic, read by an Irish Catholic. Enjoy!

Here’s the lead from the Time Out New York article cited elsewhere on the site, just before this reading took place in 2005:

It’s not just his shtick: Stephen Colbert actually is smarter than you. The poker-faced correspondent from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is famed for his wrongheaded but smarmily confident TV persona, but it turns out that Colbert, 41, is a devout Catholic with the intellectual firepower to back up his religious and political lampoonery. He quotes Shakespeare and Robert Hayden at the drop of a hat, and seems equally comfortable parsing theology and the foibles of media personalities. Burnishing his brainiac profile, Colbert will be performing in the 24th annual Bloomsday fete at Symphony Space, the celebratory reading of James Joyce’s Ulysses (“Bloomsday” refers to June 16, 1904—the date of the events of the novel).

Hearing Voices

I was hoping for Joan of Arc as an example, but I’ll settle for Moses. From Thursday’s show, the interview with Daniel Smith, author Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination. I really enjoy watching Stephen dial the intensity of his character up and down depending on the guest.

Science and Religion—Formidable Opponents?

Not for Stephen Colbert, although possibly for his stubbornly one-sided persona, whose ignorance is only exceeded by his arrogance. At Book Expo America this past Saturday, Colbert had this to say in response to a thoughtful question during the Q&A:

“I’m really interested in religion, I’m really interested in science. As someone who was raised by a mother who was a mystical Catholic and a father who was an immunologist, those things mix in me in a really interesting way, I think, and it’s a nice combination. It doesn’t make you immune to mysticism, unfortunately.”

I couldn’t resist using this for my inaugural post. It’s a theme that runs through many of his conversations with those who interview him out of character and it provides the foundation for his brilliant and often biting satire. Through the laughter, we find ourselves thinking about the issues he raises night after night.

Major tip of the hat to No Fact Zone for covering the run-up to Stephen’s appearance BEA. Their own correspondent WordsWithGrace asked the fine question at the breakfast.

Watch excerpts of the panel presentation here:

and the Q&A here. The relevant question is about the fourth one in.