John J. Reilly, Requiescat in pacem
John J. Reilly of New Jersey, orthodox Roman Catholic, lawyer, essayist, book reviewer and amateur meta historian, entered eternity Wednesday, May 30, 2012. May light perpetual shine upon him.
I have posted a brief and entirely inadequate tribute to Mr Reilly on my Live Journal site; joetexx at livejournal dot com. I would like to do a little to help keep the memory of this talented man alive.
I urge everyone with an interest in the philosophy of history, religion, science fiction and cultural history to look at it. The great majority of his writings may be found on the website homepage under his name. His blog, 'The Long View', and his bulletin board forum, to which a variety of interesting folks contributed over the years, are archived at the site.
http://www.johnreilly.info/index.html
I ran across Mr John J. Reilly's website in the late 1990's searching for references to the philosopher of history Oswald Spengler. Within about a week I had read every essay and review on his site, as well as his (then) only published book, Spengler's Future. I wrote him a fan letter and received a gracious and funny reply; I have followed his work ever since and learned a great deal about topics as diverse as airline regulation, esoteric fascism and traditionalism, the zombie apocalypse, evolutionary science, and of course, Oswald Spengler.
The homepage is not hard to navigate but his writings are grouped by subject matter (politics, eschatology, science) rather than type (fiction, essays, reviews) so the interested reader will want to browse a little on the separate pages.
His books are:
The Perfection of the West
Apocalypse & Future
The Perennial Apocalypse
Spengler's Future (a Basic computer program to predict the future of Western
Civilization; the last Emperor of the West will die in his sleep in A.D. 2601
and no successor will be elected).
Amusing short fiction and alternate history:
President H. P. Lovecraft
Cthulluism and the Cold War
The Irish Empire
C. S. Lewis: An Alternative Obituary
The Stopping Problem (Alan Turing and the end of the world)
If Jesus Had Never Been Born
The Hour of the Laity (lycanthropy in upstate New York)
I believe I played some role in prodding Mr. Reilly to write his review of Kim Stanley Robinson's alternate history "The Years of Rice and Salt", where the Black Death reduces Western Christianity to an obscure sect.
Friends and admirers of John Reilly may wish to visit Man of the West, the homepage of Matt Beck. Mr Beck and other frequenters of the Long View forum are looking into ways of continuing the forum and the legacy of John Reilly archived there
.http://www.manofthewest2000.blogspot.com/2012/05/friends-of-john-reilly-you-are-welcome.html
I am planning to gather a collection of quotes from John Reilly's essays and reviews that have struck me over the years.
I'll start off with:
Victorian attitudes toward sex varied, though Ms. Himmelfarb is careful to debunk some of the extreme anecdotes on the subject as later satires. (Victorian matrons did not really put little skirts around the bottoms of their pianos to cover the legs. I, for one, am disappointed.)
Review of The Demoralization of Society From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values by Gertrude Himmelfarb 1997
Link to obituary below:
http://obits.nj.com/obituaries/jerseyjournal/obituary.aspx?n=john-j-reilly&pid=157878396
JOHN J. REILLY JERSEY CITY John J. Reilly of Jersey City, 58, passed away on May 30, 2012. Beloved son of Jean Reilly (nee Harkins) and the late John Reilly, dear brother of Donna Reilly (Dennis Goonan), Mary Spence (Jack Spence), Nancy Reilly Zollo (Louis Zollo) and Nora Reilly, and uncle to David, Jennifer, Elizabeth, Kathryn and Michael, he was also cherished by many compassionate friends, especially those with whom he worshiped at Holy Rosary Church. After graduating from St. Peter's College and earning his law degree from Georgetown University, he embarked upon a career as a writer, editor and attorney. His keen intellect and wry sense of humor resulted in many publications and a world-wide network of correspondents. His intellectual pre-occupations ranged from theology and in particular eschatology to politics, cultural history, and the philosophy of science and literature. He published four books including Apocalypse and Future, Notes on the Cultural History of the 21st Century. John regularly appeared in First Things, Kirkus Review, and had been an editor at Culture Wars before he with-drew in protest to a drift toward anti-Semitism which he publi-cally denounced. John also maintained a blog, The Long View, where John serenely surveyed the world and opined that, indeed, everything is going to be ok. John's intellectual interests also expressed themselves in various societies in which he was active including The International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations, the Center for Millennial Studies, the Simplified Spelling Society, and American Literacy Counsel. A man of breathtakingly ecu-menical feeling, he was without compromise a true and devout Catholic. It must have been his faith and his character formed by it and by his loving family that made him without a doubt the most optimistic expert on apocalyptic movements and dys-topias. John explained himself thusly: After long thought, I realized that the most important thing in life is to be helpful. So, I have taken to explaining things, carefully and empathetically, and often at very great length 'Spengler with a Smile' is how I usually characterize the organizing principle. The loss of John's self effacing cheerful genius has left the world a darker place and for those who were privileged to share his company, a son, brother and friend whose absence will always be felt. A wake will be held on Friday, June 1, from 4 - 8PM at McLaughlin's Funeral Home, Jersey City. A requiem mass will be held at 10AM on Saturday, June 2, at Holy Rosary Church followed by interment at Holy Cross Ceme-tery in North Arlington. In lieu of flowers, John would have appreciated donations to Holy Rosary Church. .McLaughlin Funeral Home 625 Pavonia Avenue Jersey City, NJ
I have posted a brief and entirely inadequate tribute to Mr Reilly on my Live Journal site; joetexx at livejournal dot com. I would like to do a little to help keep the memory of this talented man alive.
I urge everyone with an interest in the philosophy of history, religion, science fiction and cultural history to look at it. The great majority of his writings may be found on the website homepage under his name. His blog, 'The Long View', and his bulletin board forum, to which a variety of interesting folks contributed over the years, are archived at the site.
http://www.johnreilly.info/index.html
I ran across Mr John J. Reilly's website in the late 1990's searching for references to the philosopher of history Oswald Spengler. Within about a week I had read every essay and review on his site, as well as his (then) only published book, Spengler's Future. I wrote him a fan letter and received a gracious and funny reply; I have followed his work ever since and learned a great deal about topics as diverse as airline regulation, esoteric fascism and traditionalism, the zombie apocalypse, evolutionary science, and of course, Oswald Spengler.
The homepage is not hard to navigate but his writings are grouped by subject matter (politics, eschatology, science) rather than type (fiction, essays, reviews) so the interested reader will want to browse a little on the separate pages.
His books are:
The Perfection of the West
Apocalypse & Future
The Perennial Apocalypse
Spengler's Future (a Basic computer program to predict the future of Western
Civilization; the last Emperor of the West will die in his sleep in A.D. 2601
and no successor will be elected).
Amusing short fiction and alternate history:
President H. P. Lovecraft
Cthulluism and the Cold War
The Irish Empire
C. S. Lewis: An Alternative Obituary
The Stopping Problem (Alan Turing and the end of the world)
If Jesus Had Never Been Born
The Hour of the Laity (lycanthropy in upstate New York)
I believe I played some role in prodding Mr. Reilly to write his review of Kim Stanley Robinson's alternate history "The Years of Rice and Salt", where the Black Death reduces Western Christianity to an obscure sect.
Friends and admirers of John Reilly may wish to visit Man of the West, the homepage of Matt Beck. Mr Beck and other frequenters of the Long View forum are looking into ways of continuing the forum and the legacy of John Reilly archived there
.http://www.manofthewest2000.blogspot.com/2012/05/friends-of-john-reilly-you-are-welcome.html
I am planning to gather a collection of quotes from John Reilly's essays and reviews that have struck me over the years.
I'll start off with:
Victorian attitudes toward sex varied, though Ms. Himmelfarb is careful to debunk some of the extreme anecdotes on the subject as later satires. (Victorian matrons did not really put little skirts around the bottoms of their pianos to cover the legs. I, for one, am disappointed.)
Review of The Demoralization of Society From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values by Gertrude Himmelfarb 1997
Link to obituary below:
http://obits.nj.com/obituaries/jerseyjournal/obituary.aspx?n=john-j-reilly&pid=157878396
JOHN J. REILLY JERSEY CITY John J. Reilly of Jersey City, 58, passed away on May 30, 2012. Beloved son of Jean Reilly (nee Harkins) and the late John Reilly, dear brother of Donna Reilly (Dennis Goonan), Mary Spence (Jack Spence), Nancy Reilly Zollo (Louis Zollo) and Nora Reilly, and uncle to David, Jennifer, Elizabeth, Kathryn and Michael, he was also cherished by many compassionate friends, especially those with whom he worshiped at Holy Rosary Church. After graduating from St. Peter's College and earning his law degree from Georgetown University, he embarked upon a career as a writer, editor and attorney. His keen intellect and wry sense of humor resulted in many publications and a world-wide network of correspondents. His intellectual pre-occupations ranged from theology and in particular eschatology to politics, cultural history, and the philosophy of science and literature. He published four books including Apocalypse and Future, Notes on the Cultural History of the 21st Century. John regularly appeared in First Things, Kirkus Review, and had been an editor at Culture Wars before he with-drew in protest to a drift toward anti-Semitism which he publi-cally denounced. John also maintained a blog, The Long View, where John serenely surveyed the world and opined that, indeed, everything is going to be ok. John's intellectual interests also expressed themselves in various societies in which he was active including The International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations, the Center for Millennial Studies, the Simplified Spelling Society, and American Literacy Counsel. A man of breathtakingly ecu-menical feeling, he was without compromise a true and devout Catholic. It must have been his faith and his character formed by it and by his loving family that made him without a doubt the most optimistic expert on apocalyptic movements and dys-topias. John explained himself thusly: After long thought, I realized that the most important thing in life is to be helpful. So, I have taken to explaining things, carefully and empathetically, and often at very great length 'Spengler with a Smile' is how I usually characterize the organizing principle. The loss of John's self effacing cheerful genius has left the world a darker place and for those who were privileged to share his company, a son, brother and friend whose absence will always be felt. A wake will be held on Friday, June 1, from 4 - 8PM at McLaughlin's Funeral Home, Jersey City. A requiem mass will be held at 10AM on Saturday, June 2, at Holy Rosary Church followed by interment at Holy Cross Ceme-tery in North Arlington. In lieu of flowers, John would have appreciated donations to Holy Rosary Church. .McLaughlin Funeral Home 625 Pavonia Avenue Jersey City, NJ