“Metzger's project is to describe a phenomenon that is widely shared but eludes communication in language, that is, the special mental states attainable only in groups sharing a common ritual focus. There are threads of liturgical theology here, but to the extent that it is philosophy, its building blocks are not thought experiments and distinctions, but the stuff of reality. The fine grain of the old-growth wood making up a church matters for the singing, the dark of a cave matters, the minimum viable singing group to produce "the feeling" (one tenor and one treble) matters, and all this matter is in service of "the feeling" of shape note singing. I'm reminded of Felicitas Goodman's Speaking in Tongues, an ethnography of religious glossolalia, but this work revels in the personal rather than indulging in the academic custom of removing the teller from the tale. The reader will come away wanting to do the thing, to engage in shape note singing in a group, and Metzger assures us that it's just a matter of showing up and trying—one's brain will gradually adjust to the syllables that at first seem like nonsense.”
—Sarah Perry, author of Every Cradle is a Grave:
Rethinking the Ethics of Birth and Suicide