I’m Going To Hell
I don’t think you have to be Catholic to enjoy these seriously funny mini-biographies of “badass” Popes (via Ezra Klein):
Pius II (1458-1464)
Pius II proves that appearances can be deceiving. At first glance, he’d seem to be in the running for biggest fancy lad in the history of the Papacy. He was a “humanist,” which means that he read every bit of fruity Latin poetry he could get his hands on and then made ever-so-clever jokes about it with his similarly overeducated friends. Oh, how they giggled!
He seems like the kind of guy whose head you’d like to flush in a toilet, doesn’t he? Well, it’s a damn good thing you didn’t try it, because Pius had a very powerful, very spooky man who was willing to do whatever the pope told him: fucking Dracula. Seriously.
Despite the uneven tone, they’re relatively well written. I think the first two or three are strongest.
(Note, to those of you that might say that England is hell: I can’t argue. Point taken.)
“a very powerful, very spooky man who was willing to do whatever the pope told him” … that’s a riot. ha ha.