tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14970113669221458832024-03-12T22:04:37.325-07:00Glory of Kings"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, the glory of kings to search it out."
Musings on our world from a Trinitarian viewJ. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.comBlogger460125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-83102910754632204552017-03-24T23:18:00.001-07:002017-03-24T23:18:14.486-07:00These Days Mercy Cuts so DeepA Severe Mercy<br />
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How to even begin? This ought to be required, read and re-read at a young and impressionable age: let it leave an indelible divot on a soft-formed soul: black marble on a new grave, a walk through the terminal ward; hold the car-struck kitten's head and watch it die. Let spring meet winter while it's young. Would that make it any easier? No? Then no one ought ever to read this book. It should be banned, burned, forever forgotten and wholly unmade with the one ring and a summer snow. Let it die with a dying fall.<br />
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As I must begin, let me begin by saying that this book was beautiful. I cannot emphasize that enough, and probably won't even try. Their love was staggering. As full and conscious and devoted as any I've ever heard of. It was liltingly lovely, with the literary lives, the shining barrier, the conversations with Lewis and Joy, St. Udio's (Studio), the yacht, and so, so much more. It was a truly lovely, heartbreaking book.<br />
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The title is taken from a comment from Jack (C.S.) Lewis. He was speaking to Sheldon Vanauken, the author, and said that as all mortal loves must die, perhaps it was a "severe mercy" for the love to perish with one of the lovers. For this book is the finish of a fairy tale love and ends after the "happily ever after," with "to the end of her days."<br />
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I made three abortive attempts to begin this book. I don't do that. Ever. It simply does not happen. I will usually read a book in a day, sometimes as long as three, or not at all (writers like Dalrymple and Dunnett take a bit longer). If I start a book, I either finish it fast or I put it on my "who on earth was their agent and how can I hire him" shelf, also known as the "if this moron got published why am I still working ninety-hour weeks in North Freezing Dakota" shelf. The "Left Behind" and "Twilight" shelf. This book was none of the above. I didn't even try to review it for the first four months. The abortive attempts all ended on the same page, with me setting the book aside as I wept bitterly and thought of Pound: "His dice be not of ruth."<br />
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So now I am left in an awkward position. This is one of the most brilliant books I've ever read. One of the most worthwhile, the most lovely, the most useful, and will become among the most often referenced. But for me it was easily, hands down the most devastating: Narn I Hin Hurin was a tale for toddlers; Notes From Underground was pleasant by comparison. There is nothing I've read that brought me closer to the edge of nihilistic "God damn You God!" despair as this book. If you have a month you can set aside for becoming a hermit, reading the Bible, this book and raising cute little cuddly fuzzy things, do it. If you've not yet been hit hard by death, read it now, while you can. If you are at the beginning of a relationship, give Glory to God, READ IT NOW. Not tomorrow: now. Not even because of the death, but because of the life up to the death. If ever there was a love that ought to have been given the resurrection without the death, it was theirs. Imitate it.<br />
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But if you've loved and lost, and to love means to lose, sooner or later, then I don't know what to say. You might take comfort in this book. I didn't: I came as close to praying for death as I've done since I lay on a bed with my face buried in my dead wife's wet hair. I understand suicide: the desire to go to sleep abut a cold bare wall for the last time, to never again wake up with her freckled face before your eyes until you open them, to not face that same damned day again: to go to sleep for the final time. I understand that. I know that longing, and it is a small step to an irrevocable fall. If you are prone to morbidity, don't read this. It will kill you.<br />
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So there it is. The most beautiful, self-sacrificial love I've ever seen, ever heard of, preserved forever. The way to obtain a love like that. Its birth, life, redemption and death. The prose is extremely good; the friendship with Lewis, priceless; the references to books and music, invaluable; the cost, absolutely catastrophic. Make your choice. But if you can at all read it, though you have to put yourself on a Haldol drip and communicate by clicking your straight-jacket clips with your teeth as a result, do so.J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-55567738836755637612015-01-05T08:52:00.001-08:002015-01-05T08:54:15.788-08:00Little Green Potatoes<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18007564-the-martian" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="The Martian" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1413706054m/18007564.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18007564-the-martian">The Martian</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6540057.Andy_Weir">Andy Weir</a></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1156870785">3 of 5 stars</a></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Well that's the second most startling opening line I've ever read, only surpassed by Stephen Hunter's <em>Dirty White Boys</em>. And that, unfortunately, is the best aspect of the book: it is funny. It's suspenseful, well-written, interesting without being technical, and fun, but again: why do we care about this guy? His sense of humour is about it. Live or die just changes the book from comedy (in the modern "ha ha" sense) to tragedy (in the modern "oh, how sad, now bring me another beer" sense). I didn't care about any of the characters, except maybe Johanssen (sp?). And that's just cause she's short, and I (naturally) made her Irish (in spite of the description). I think my thought process was something like, "Heck with Andy Weir; she's getting freckles so I have someone to like." <br /><br />That said, it was a good book, and worth reading. I apologize for the negative(ish) review: I'm just tired of passive protagonists. Give me a ballad for a change: someone we can like for reasons beyond "common humanity" or "funny." Honestly, had he killed himself to prevent his crew from risking their lives to save him, I would have liked him more. Write a note to be sent home with the next mission and take the morphine.</span><br />
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-88666703988200605112015-01-05T08:32:00.001-08:002015-01-05T08:52:54.787-08:00He's No Vestal<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7001422-selected-works" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Selected Works" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405703013m/7001422.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7001422-selected-works">Selected Works</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/25157.Alexander_Pope">Alexander Pope</a></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1156825657">5 of 5 stars</a></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pope's <em>Essay On Man</em> is in my opinion one of the best (and most criticized) treatises on the Sovereignty of God and man's role in relation to Him that I've ever read, and it's written by a morally degenerate lapsed Catholic hunchback.<br /><br />I well remember how I was first introduced to The Little Monster, and through him, to poetry in general. I was sixteen and walking home at one in the morning from a dishwashing job. A bookstore had a rack of dollar books outside. I picked up what I thought to be a biography of a Pope named Alexander (I have always had strange compulsions when it comes to books), and found when I got home that it was just poetry. I didn't crack the spine again for two weeks. From the day I did I don't think I put it down for two months. <br /><br />Pope is terrible. He is savage, ruthless, cynical and hilarious: the kind of man you don't want to like but can't risk offending. His wit is unparalleled, his life tragic, and his tremendous legacy is now rotting into the leaf mulch of other author's minds. Yet he's one of the greatest poets of the English language, and we can't escape him: <br /><br />"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread," <br />"To err is human, to forgive, divine," <br />"Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never Is, but always To be blest," <br />"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man," <br />"</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The world forgetting, by the world forgot. </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d,”</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br />"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As, to be hated, needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace," <br />"A little learning is a dang'rous thing," <br />and many, many more. <br /><br />And these are just the more well known, too. My favorites aren't necessarily in the list:<br /><br />"Oh sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise<br />By mountains pil'd on mountains, to the skies?<br />Heav'n still with laughter the vain toil surveys,<br />And buries madmen in the heaps they raise."<br /><br />"Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of Fate,<br />All but the page prescrib'd, their present state:<br />From brutes what men, from men what spirits know:<br />Or who could suffer Being here below?<br />The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,<br />Had he thy Reason, would he skip and play?...<br />Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,<br />A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,<br />Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd,<br />And now a bubble burst, and now a world.<br />Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar,<br />Wait the great teacher Death, and God adore."<br /><br />"From Nature's chain whatever link you strike, <br />Tenth or ten thousandth, break the chain alike.<br /> And, if each system in gradation roll<br />Alike essential to th' amazing Whole,<br />The least confusion but in one, not all<br />That system only, but the Whole must fall.<br />Let Earth unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,<br />Planets and Suns run lawless thro' the sky;<br />Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl'd,<br />Being on Being wreck'd and world on world;<br />Heav'n's whole foundations to their centre nod,<br />And Nature tremble to the throne of God.<br />All this dread ORDER break—for whom? for thee?<br />Vile worm!—Oh Madness! Pride! Impiety!"<br /><br />"(on writing)'T is not enough no harshness gives offense,<br />The sound must seem an Echo to the sense:<br />Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows,<br />And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;<br />But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,<br />The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar:<br />When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,<br />The line too labours, and the words move slow..."<br /><br />Yet lacking from all of this is what he is most famed for: the savage, cruel, rifle-shot couplets that damn those he dislikes to eternal fame:<br /><br />"Virtue she finds too painful an endeavor,<br />Content to dwell in decencies forever...<br />She, while her lover pants upon her breast,<br />Can mark the figures on an Indian chest;<br />And when she sees a friend in deep despair,<br />Observes how much a Chintz exceeds Mohair...<br />Of all her Dears she never slander'd one,<br />But cares not if a thousand are undone.<br />Would Chloe know if you're alive or dead?<br />She bids her Footman put it in her head.<br />Chloe is prudent—Would you too be wise?<br />Then never break your heart when Chloe dies."<br /><br />I simply cannot recommend him highly enough. Granted, I don't necessarily find that Homer is improved by translation into epic couplets, but that error in judgment aside, Pope is one of the most worthwhile authors ever to write. <br /><br />Yet there is one more thing I have to say. I've heard Pope simplistically slandered by Dickens and Dalrymple for a line of his, and I've started to get touchy about it. He has a fantastic passage in <em>Essay On Man</em>:<br /><br />"All nature is but art, unknown to thee;<br />All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;<br />All discord, harmony not understood;<br />All partial evil, universal good:<br />And, spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite,<br />One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT."<br /><br />The "whatever is, is right" is what seems so commonly to be opposed, but here I find myself in very strange agreement with a person whose life horribly belied the words he penned.<br /><br />But to understand, we have to look at Hume's "problem of evil for the existence of God." If evil exists (and it does), then either God is not all good (and is fine with evil), or He is not omnipotent (and can't stop evil), or there is no God. Leaving aside Hume's lack of a definition for evil (apparently, protoplasm that offends him at these temperatures), there is one enormous assumption that is entirely glossed over. This makes no sense unless you operate from the presupposition of "God and Creation exist for my comfort and pleasure." <br /><br />This is what Pope so profoundly disembowels in his fantastic <em>Essay On Man</em>. <br /><br />IV "Go, wiser thou! and, in thy scale of sense,<br />Weigh thy Opinion against Providence;<br />Call imperfection what thou fancy'st such,<br />Say, here He gives too little, there too much:<br />Destroy all Creatures for thy sport or gust, <br />Yet cry, If Man's unhappy, God's unjust;<br />If Man alone engross not Heav'n's high care,<br />Alone made perfect here, immortal there:<br />Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,<br />Re-judge His justice, be the God of God.<br /><br />In Pride, in reas'ning Pride, our error lies;<br />All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.<br />Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes,<br />Men would be Angels, Angels would be Gods.<br />Aspiring to be Gods, if Angels fell,<br />Aspiring to be Angels, Men rebel:<br />And who but wishes to invert the laws<br />OF ORDER, sins against th' Eternal Cause.<br /><br />V Ask for what end the heavn'ly bodies shine,<br />Earth for whose use? Pride answers, ' 'T is for mine:<br />For me kind Nature wakes her genial Pow'r,<br />Suckles each herb, and spreads out ev'ry flow'r;<br />Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew<br />The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew;<br />For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings;<br />For me, health gushes from a thousand springs;<br />Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise;<br />My foot-stool earth, my canopy the skies.' "<br /><br />He is correct: the world and all in it are made for the Glory of God, not our comfort and pleasure, and whatever is, is right; Dickensian humanism be damned.</span><br />
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-41301870074940818372014-12-21T03:14:00.000-08:002014-12-21T03:16:45.305-08:00Sample Prose<div class="s2">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="padding-left: 36px;"></span><span class="s2">Williston. A small town suffocating under the weight of the greatest boom in American history and it’s torn between burning the witches and resignedly saying, “More weight.” And I’m the problem: I’m one of the bad boys of the Bakken.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="padding-left: 36px;"></span><span class="s2">Furthermore, I get to tell strangers that I work for Savage. “Oh, you’re going to CNA School? Congratulations. I work in the oil fields for a company called Savage. Yeah, last winter it hit about minus seventy degrees Fahrenheit, but by May it was above zero again, and come July it was a hundred. But by mid September it starts to get a bit nippy, say, twenty below. No, only about ninety hours a week, but we’re allowed to work extra shifts, so it’s not too bad at all.” The trick is to say it nonchalantly then change the subject. Because if they ask, they will eventually find out that I glance down at a hundred grand a year doing a job that requires the intelligence of a whack-a-mole game and the stalwart courage of a vole of retiring disposition catching sight of a tail twitching above the grass (that would be "none;" do try to keep up...). Mostly I push buttons. I also sometimes glance up from my book to watch the thing that the buttons are on. Plus, we have our own personal heaters and forty minute breaks every hour. Seriously. But we usually have to work two out of every three weeks and there are no outlets to charge our phones in our booths, so I guess it evens out.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="padding-left: 36px;"></span><span class="s2">Savage sounds like a pretty brutal name for a pretty brutal company, but turns out it’s just the name of the family that started it. Yeah, it’s a family business. And they’re Mormon, to boot: the company actually has a no profanity clause in their employment contract, which is about as effective as putting up a chain link fence to keep out the mosquitoes: we’ve only got one </span><span class="s3" style="font-style: italic;">supervisor</span><span class="s2"> that doesn’t cuss, and he’s a Catholic with nine kids and the ability to work thirty hours a day while remaining oblivious to dry sarcasm. He actually believed me when I told him “</span><span class="s2">lol</span><span class="s2">” stood for “lots of love,” but I couldn’t maintain it for fear of him sending someone a text reading “Heard your dad died, </span><span class="s2">lol</span><span class="s2">.”</span></span></div>
J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-5655908540926597182014-12-21T02:38:00.000-08:002014-12-21T03:20:44.759-08:00The Craft is all I Love<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32767.At_the_Mountains_of_Madness" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="At the Mountains of Madness" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388341769m/32767.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32767.At_the_Mountains_of_Madness">At the Mountains of Madness</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9494.H_P_Lovecraft">H.P. Lovecraft</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1137276497">2 of 5 stars</a><br />
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I'm beginning to realize that if I keep track of which people recommended which books, my holiday shopping will drastically change. <br />
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I'm rather bemusedly reminded of the time my Lordship professor informed us that he'd accidentally assigned us four times the amount of reading that he was allowed to (this in a school whose first year reading list book stack was taller than I was), so he told us we only had to read the odd-numbered pages (but quizzes and tests would include information from the even pages as well). I'd have liked this book more had I only read every other page. It was well-written: very well-written. But that's half of the problem: why was it written at all? If someone wants to inflict this kind of thing on humanity, at least he could have the decency to write it like a Pakistani immigrant attempting to compile a phone book so that no one would ever read it. I grant you, the concept was interesting. Actually, it was downright brilliant. But it was entirely the wrong genre. We have one hundred pages of suspense for half a page of rather dry revelation with the shock value of seeing trouble with great legs walk into a private eye's office in a noir film. Is it Chinatown, Jack? <br />
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If we cared at all about the character, or any of the characters, then there might have been some tension. My favourite "person" was the dog and he died, or rather, was dead when I started to posthumously like him (I figured that a dead dog, on top of being worse than a live lion, had more of an excuse to have no personality than all the other characters did). But we know the narrator lives, as it's his memoirs, and we know that a lot of people die, as we find them, well, dead, about page thirty, and we never really cared to begin with: they're just the girls dropping their tops to start the horror film (not literally: I'm talking motifs here), or whatever no-name actor is standing next to Harrison Ford. The problem is the utter lack of Harrison Ford.<br />
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All in all, it was erudite and sophisticated, and would be a fantastic twenty-page story. Sorry Lovecraft, but you're going to gather a good bit of dust over the next few decades.
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-61841172816661839942014-09-29T01:44:00.002-07:002014-09-29T01:44:39.415-07:00The Devil of Ramadi<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11887020-american-sniper" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="American Sniper" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348628279m/11887020.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11887020-american-sniper">American Sniper</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2728589.Chris_Kyle">Chris Kyle</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1066976304">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Ghost-written books are always a bit awkward. The writer tries to create structure without losing the voice of the author. In this case it made for a fast (if disjointed) read.<br><br>Chilling. Were I to describe this book in a word, that would be it. Often humorous, often moving, informative throughout, all these are overshadowed by the story continued beyond the book, by the life and death of the man, the hero, the legend, the devil. Why the hell did the flag fly full-mast that day? It's almost enough to make me get a flag solely to fly it low in memorial, were that not something that would infuriate him were he still alive.<br><br>I simply have to say that despite the language, despite the occasionally dubious morality, everyone ought to read this book. We too rarely bear in mind that the luxury of family is provided for us by those that give up theirs; the luxury of ethical discussion is safeguarded by those who do not discuss, but obey; the luxury of life is ensured by those whose instinct is to jump upon a grenade instead of out of a door, whose very reaction is to die so that others can live. <br><br>It is not a job, it is a calling. They are not merely soldiers (as if there were such a thing as a "mere" soldier), they are the wall between us and the world that we don't have or want to face.
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-74628749465079390022014-09-14T06:52:00.001-07:002014-09-14T06:52:19.521-07:00Hitchens<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13529055-mortality" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Mortality" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1337177391m/13529055.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13529055-mortality">Mortality</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3956.Christopher_Hitchens">Christopher Hitchens</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1054549733">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
First off, this is a quick read. Very quick. Secondly, this is the best nonfiction I've read since Vanauken's <em>A Severe Mercy</em>.<br><br>Hitchens can undoubtedly write, and he is in peak form here. A serrated wit, a pragmatic realism, an impending end and an open-eyed anti-theist watching its inexorable approach. At times darkly funny, at times lightly flippant, always erudite and often drawing us off into an unexpected and absorbing aside, his account is entirely transfixing, glass-edged and heart-breaking. Typically philosophical, uncharacteristically personal, it is an excellent book, and his wife's afterword is devastating.<br><br>I don't know if this was the intent, but the structure of the book is as ghastly macabre, as haunting as it possibly could have been. It is chronological, beginning with his diagnosis and slowly, finally devolving into the disjointed, eerily aberrant, inchoate musings that the publisher informs you—in small print at the bottom, as a parenthetical aside; nothing important here—were unfinished at the time of his death. He was dead. I hit this mid stride and was slammed with the shock of seeing the author with whom I was conversing abruptly drop dead in the middle of his sentence, and slowly fade away even as I adjusted to the feeling of having stepped into a moving train.<br><br>I think he would have liked it that way.
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-37376457307530699412014-09-01T05:00:00.000-07:002014-09-01T05:03:03.954-07:00From the Son of a Gunn<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13058266-wordsmithy" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328054619m/13058266.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13058266-wordsmithy">Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/30465.Douglas_Wilson">Douglas Wilson</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1042240197">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
"Taking care of your preschoolers or being deployed with the Seventh Fleet is far to be preferred over purchasinng a backpack and heading off to find America, or even worse, yourself." <br><br>So begins a book that I feel far too inadequate to review, as if I were asked to give a comic introduction to Bob Hope: I'd much rather shut up and sit down.<br><br>Having said that, read this book. Again and again and again. Memorize the blasted thing, and buy and read all the books he recommends. Or just follow him around till you see a chariot then steal his coat.
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-31395607767057978232014-09-01T04:44:00.002-07:002021-04-01T02:50:43.191-07:00(Unless it Doesn't)<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3876.The_Sun_Also_Rises" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="The Sun Also Rises" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1331828228m/3876.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3876.The_Sun_Also_Rises">The Sun Also Rises</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1455.Ernest_Hemingway">Ernest Hemingway</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1042232748">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
How have I just given Williams three stars and Hemingway four? More importantly, what does this say about the state of my soul? Bless me Father, for I have sinned. <br /><br />I found Hemingway to be far more friendly than I'd expected, though I have a feeling that our friendship might begin to feel a bit strained after page 250 and I'd have to go talk to Wodehouse or Chesterton before coming back. He has a light, playful, terse type of prose whose minimalism and lack of distance conceal what feels like a deep-seated cynicism. In any case, I'll be reading a lot more of Papa Hemingway, though never again <em>The Snows of Mt. Kilimanjaro</em>.
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-59517441623779142062014-09-01T04:19:00.000-07:002014-09-01T04:21:41.631-07:00The Place of the Lion<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/143226.The_Place_of_the_Lion" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Place of the Lion" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347473162m/143226.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/143226.The_Place_of_the_Lion">The Place of the Lion</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/36289.Charles_Williams">Charles Williams</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1042212657">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
When first I encountered Charles Williams, I sat stunned at his feet as the heavens were rolled back as a scroll and earth opened to receive my abandoned flesh. This time I had a beer. <br><br>I give this book a solid 3.5 stars, but Goodreads allows for no such nuance, so I (ever the cheerful cynic) err on the side of "all shall be hell" and just give it three. But don't get me wrong: it is a book well worth the read, just not so, well, not so tight, if you will, as <em>Descent Into Hell</em>. Yet it is vintage Williams, and therefore like nothing else you will ever read. The prose is still sublime, the characters are still so real as to almost make us mere caricatures of them, and the dialogue disdainfully dares you ever to speak again. I suppose that my discontent lies purely in the premise, which while still furiously fantastical, failed to be as personal as I was expecting after he burned, buried and exhumed me in our last meeting.<br><br>But permit me a few samples:<br><br><br>Interpretation of infinity by the finite was pretty certain to be wrong.<br><br>They also probably liked their religion taken mild—a pious hope, a devout ejaculation, a general sympathetic sense of a kindly universe—but nothing upsetting or bewildering, no agony, no darkness, no uncreated light.<br><br>"I think you're rather unkind," Damaris answered. "We both like each other—"<br>"Dearest, I don't like you a bit," Anthony interrupted again. "I think you're a very detestable, selfish pig and prig. But I'm often wildly in love with you, and so I see you're not. But I'm sure your only chance of salvation is to marry me."<br>"Really, Anthony!" Damaris got up from the table. "Chance of salvation indeed! And from what, I should like to know?"<br>"Nobody else," Anthony went on, "sees you as you are. Nobody else will give you such a difficult and unpleasant time as I do. You'll never be comfortable, but you may be glorious. You'd better think it over."<br><br><br>The book is well worth reading, especially if—like me—you are tempted to attempt to tame the furious ideas of philosophy, or the shattering theophanies that lie within theology, if, in a word, you seek to fit your little world on a leash or teach it to only make wee-wee in the potty. For in this book the Ideas, Powers and Principles break free and nearly unmake the earth before Mercy harnesses the whirlwind so that we feel naught but a slight breeze.
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-11651212668754147792014-02-16T18:04:00.000-08:002014-02-16T18:04:30.604-08:00Heather May SiskHe was a boy who played the games, and she was a girl who watched. He had shaggy hair that looked weird on him, and he tucked his t-shirt into his shorts, never having been informed how mortally uncool that was. On top of that, being born and raised in California had somehow invested him with a semi-Irish accent that most people thought was fake. It probably was. <br><br>
But if he was unaware of the ins and outs of cool, he had semi-creepy stalker guy nailed. People usually didn't like him, but then he would talk to them and they found themselves telling him everything, bad hair, worse clothes, weird accent and all. He listened well, understood everything—whether explained or not—sympathized perfectly and they found in him someone that truly knew them. Then they liked him, until the next day when he'd forgotten that he'd so much as met them, let alone become their dearest friend. Then they disliked him again, just with better reasons this time. <br><br>
But her? She had a big smile, huge eyes and surprisingly little else. Unless it had recently rained, in which case she had extremely excited mad-scientist bouncy hair. And it rained a lot. On rain days, she resembled a very surprised, mischievous chipmunk with a fro. And half of the time her laugh was more visible than audible, shaking her tomboy farm-girl frame until her enormous eyes entirely disappeared.
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But usually she sat, appearing happily astonished on her counter in the corner, leaning forward, legs swinging, shoulders shrugged to her cheeks with her eyes wide above them as she talked to Hayley. They giggled like girls the world over, and all the boys played all the harder knowing that the girls were watching, not knowing that the girls were not really watching them; not knowing that the girls were talking about movies, clothes and lip gloss; not knowing that the girls neither knew nor particularly cared what game the boys were playing, let alone who was winning. But the girls were polite enough to "ooh" and "ah" whenever, in the interest of arousing interest, some boy was simultaneously introduced to the laws of physics and a wall.
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When the game ended, the boy rapidly found himself in front of the girl, laughing at her bouncing legs. Hayley said something that made her laugh just as he was about to ask her a question and his train of thought promptly jumped off a cliff. Freckles he'd known, but dimples? Had she no conscience?
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So they talked till she went home, and the next week he found her in the corner with Hayley, legs still bouncing, and they talked, and the next, and the next. But he always remained the boy who played, and she the girl who watched. She only once told him why, and though he'd asked, for once he neither sympathized nor understood, nor did he even really listen. She knew him, and he thought he knew her.
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Then the boy moved twice in as many months. And he forgot the girl who watched as he switched families, siblings and churches.
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He became the boy who played the games in other groups, and she the girl who no longer watched the games at all. She sat on a bed, not a counter, and her feet did not bounce. She no longer talked to Hayley, but to her mom, and neither of them giggled when the doctors cut off her feet to save her heart.
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The girl who watched died in a hospital far from her home and farther from the boy who played the games. She sent him a heart-shaped necklace: her broken heart and his.
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The boy now has even shaggier hair that usually looks weird, or at least wild, without any assistance from him. He sometimes tucks his shirt into jeans, but never shorts. He invented a story for the accent, and occasionally he still plays the games, bad knee bad shoulder bad back and all. But usually he is found quiet on a counter in a corner, experimentally bouncing his legs, and watching. J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-16574859152198100592013-12-16T00:21:00.000-08:002014-12-21T02:50:38.432-08:00Stop the Whistling Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe<br />
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Dare I even speak such heresy? Watch the movie, don't read the book.<br />
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Qualification: if you have ever been accused in the vernacular, with digressions every third or fourth word (as Dunnett says), of being a narrow-minded bigoted Bible thumping hate mongering idiot whose continued existence would give humans a bad name if only you were a human, or if this description of you would be recognized by someone you didn't realize thought she was dating you, then watch the movie, don't read the book.<br />
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The movie is great, so long as you don't read too much into certain parts. The movie is wholesome and good and clean and one that (I think) I'd be fine showing in the presence of certain not so pink now as they were before nieces of mine, save for a few moments of violence that the story hinges upon. On top of that, it's one that cannot fail to absolutely captivate. I cannot praise it highly enough.<br />
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The book is prolific with immorality, though probably no more than most novels, and a lesbian (relationship? love affair? physical relationship?), well, a lesbian something is the center of the book. In the movie, it's a friendship, and a lovely, lifelong friendship, a David and Jonathan kind of friendship, just with a significantly cuter cast.<br />
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So, three of five, and barely three: three for the sake of the five star movie.J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-25143761985332460592013-05-07T08:33:00.001-07:002013-05-07T08:35:11.855-07:00I Thought Ashes Were Light<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/252577.Angela_s_Ashes" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Angela's Ashes" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348317139m/252577.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/252577.Angela_s_Ashes">Angela's Ashes</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3347.Frank_McCourt">Frank McCourt</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/609344952">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”<br /><br />So begins Frank McCourt's autobiography. And he's right: he had a hard life. But I still don't see that he had any cause to inflict it on the rest of us. I had a rather unpleasant childhood but at least I didn't write a book about it, and if I ever do it will be with significantly more humor and vivacity than this book contained. It wasn't a bad book, it just has absolutely no redemption.<br /><br />The plot (spoiler): guy meets and impregnates girl in Brooklyn. Guy marries girl, the author is born. Lots of kids born, lots of kids die, father descends into alcoholism and can't keep work. The family goes "on the dole," more kids die, more drinking, more rampant poverty, cruel family, vicious teachers, etc. Then the war. Dad goes to get a job in England, never sends money. Mom gets sick but lives, Frank learns to steal, then gets a job, saves, steals and whatever else he can do to get enough money to move back to America, and the book ends. But oh look, it's an inclusio: we begin with a broke guy having sex in New York, and we end up with a broke guy having sex in New York. Yay!<br /><br />Perhaps it's as bleak as it is due to looking back on life: whatever you endure as a child is normal. You have no standard beyond your own experience to judge by, so if you ever move from a difficult life to an easier life, you'll come to view your earlier years with more disfavor. But when you are going through them, they're fun, lively and thrilling, not just such extreme, bland lows as we might remember. Definitely not as bad as he remembers. But, c'est la vie.<br /><br />I will say that between this book and Beloved, I'm beginning to wonder what kind of masochistic guilt motivates the Pulitzer committee: there's something there that isn't right. Sure, a book with no evil is an evil book, but a book with no good is hardly better.
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-74975994639248209532013-05-05T14:10:00.006-07:002021-04-01T02:59:50.537-07:00Please Stop Pattering<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9682816-kill-me-if-you-can" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Kill Me If You Can" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344263782m/9682816.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9682816-kill-me-if-you-can">Kill Me If You Can</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3780.James_Patterson">James Patterson</a><br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/607775810">1 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
It has been rumored among the more unfeeling of my "friends" that Jesse is a cynical man. "Jesse," they say, "is a bloke" (I give all of my friends British accents so I don't feel badly for hating them); "Jesse," they say, "is a bloke who, when confronted with a beautiful, short, single, Calvinistic paedobaptist redhead with a flurry of freckles on her cheeks and a copy of Chesterton in her hands, assumes that she'll either turn out to be his sister, in favor of low-church liturgy, or she'll get hit by a truck. But probably two out of three."<br /><br />True, not one among them is necessarily the brightest Guinness in the fish tank: I glum no puddles; I wiggle no marsh. I sail the ocean (usually) beating Lucy. Have they not heard my life motto? When I am faced with evils too great to be borne, such as Briana prevailing against me at chess, or Andrew shaving, or Dave, I say "Why so downcast, O my soul? Why so disquieted within me? This shadow too shall resolve into beauty, for if it didn't, then it wouldn't, and that would just straight-up suck." Am I not joyful? Is not this optimism at it's absolute, fatalistic finest?<br /><br />I say all of this as a prelude to my review of Patterson. If any of you are aspiring smithies of the words, should any of you meander through Anglo-Saxon dictionaries looking for gems to glean, should any of your fingers be as inkstained as Jo March's and you know who I'm talking about because you read everything no matter what kind of feministic drivel with wretched sentence-construction it is, then buy this book. Don't read it yet, but buy it. Five years from now a moment will arrive. You will re-read that first chapter of yours and realize with horror and despair that some thirty-five year old unemployed twit sleeping till two pm in his mom's basement, living off of Doritos and Coco-Puffs who spends his time on-line gaming with twelve-year-olds, <i>that </i>idiot wrote a blog post in ten minutes maintaining that Counter-Strike was totally way more awesome than Halo <em>and his blog post was better written than your chapter</em>. That moment of terrifying clarity will arrive. When it does, and you realize that you write like a Pakistani immigrant who learned English for the sole purpose of compiling a phone book, that you can't put your pen to paper without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge, when your only hope seems to be gainful employment or suicide—at that moment, pick up this book, say audibly "this man is a NY Times best-seller," and read it. When you're halfway through, you'll print your manuscript and send it to his publisher complete with a request for an advance and a promise of two new books for him next week.<br /><br />It was the worst book I've ever finished, and I've read Rick Joyner, Left Behind and Twilight. Was it train-of-thought? Three hundred pages, two hundred chapters? His characters have the depth of a mud puddle on a newly paved street after a drizzle and I know damned well which one I'd prefer spending my time with. Especially if worms are involved. I got it for a dollar, read it in an hour and felt as incredulous as Goliath looking at David, just fewer projectiles. <br /><br />If prison libraries stock books like this then I think those against water-boarding as "cruel and unusual" have been straining out gnats through their teeth.
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-35055144260496504802013-04-24T16:40:00.002-07:002021-04-01T03:00:49.176-07:00No, He Isn't French.<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16360.Murder_in_Mesopotamia" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Murder in Mesopotamia (Hercule Poirot, #14)" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1308808558m/16360.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16360.Murder_in_Mesopotamia">Murder in Mesopotamia</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/123715.Agatha_Christie">Agatha Christie</a><br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/599107012">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
My first introduction to Poirot via the written word, and I can't get David Suchet out of my head. For the most part it doesn't matter: the finicky Belgian seems to have possessed the poor chap, save for his age. He's too young to be Poirot, and the moustache ought to be just a wee smidge bigger. And yes, computer, I know it's not a word, I don't care. Not a full smidgen, not even a small smidgen, but a wee smidge. But again, it was save for his age, and that did jar me a good deal. Here I was expecting a Belgian with a bit of hair on the sides, and his head is described as an egg? Not fair to me and my poor nerves.<br /><br />I've always considered myself a writer (non-practicing, of course). But this authoress went out of her way to shun credit: the person that wrote this let us know that the person that wrote this was informing us that someone else wrote it. In other words, Christie summons a Dr. to call in a nurse that happened to be present to write the account, so Poirot has unusually little face time. I presume it's unusual, that is—as I said, it's my first Poirot. In any case, I loved it. Light, flippant, and not too obvious (yes, I admit it, I was wrong: not only did I not guess the murderer, but the method of murder escaped me). I was right on a couple of less important mysteries, though, so my back shall be patted.<br /><br />Christie is also a well known authoress for a reason, and the heroine / authoress of this little book is just great. She describes one character as being straight out of a P. G. Wodehouse novel, while another affords her no greater opportunity for kindness than "he must have been a lovely baby..." She's saucy, practical and entirely reminiscent of Lewis' old school of English innkeepers that view customers as a nuisance, but tempered with self-deprecating homour, compassion, and a good deal of grit. Just another fun book.
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-33772679489036526042013-04-24T16:10:00.002-07:002021-04-01T03:02:34.520-07:00Terry Pratchett, You Saucy Mynks.<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/386372.Mort" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Mort (Discworld, #4)" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347389909m/386372.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/386372.Mort">Mort</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1654.Terry_Pratchett">Terry Pratchett</a><br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/599082905">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Two things to note. First, I'm sorry Terry, I've resisted you too long. Second, if you giggle like a girl, and you are, in fact, not a girl, it can be rather uncomfortable to do so in a library full of huge hairy smelly unwashed homeless people that know where you sleep and carry pipe wrenches in leather holsters on their hips.<br /><br />This book was just straight funny. Pratchett has a Wodehousian turn of phrase, and I caught both a line from Mortimer and a philosophy from Lewis, who of course published it some forty or fifty years before I oh-so-proudly formulated it for myself. Pratchett tends to get a bit dry when he grits his teeth, spits on his hands and tries to force a plot into the book, but aside from said plot, the book was just great. Complete with red-headed freckled princess, awkward clumsy kid who takes an apprenticeship with a rather lonely Death (bones optional was the selling point), Death's adopted daughter and a two thousand year old wizard; yes, this book was fun. Kudos, Little Miss Ligon.<br /><br />A few snippets:<br /><br />After five minutes Mort came out of the tailor's wearing a loose fitting brown garment of imprecise function, which had been understandably unclaimed by a previous owner and had plenty of room for him to grow, on the assumption that he would grow into a nineteen-legged elephant.<br /><br />(A bit later, talking to Death:)<br /><br />"What are we going to do now?"<br />D: BUY YOU SOME NEW CLOTHES.<br />"These were new today—yesterday, I mean."<br />D: REALLY?<br />"Father said the shop was famous for its budget clothing," said Mort, running to keep up.<br />D: IT CERTAINLY ADDS A NEW TERROR TO POVERTY.<br /><br /><br /><br />She had silver hair, and eyes with a pearly sheen to them, and the kind of interesting but impractical long dress that tends to be worn by tragic heroines who clasp single roses to their bosom while gazing soulfully at the moon.<br /><br />An inner-city area sorely in need either of governmental help or, for preference, a flamethrower...It didn't have so much a neighbourhood as an ecology...<br /><br />(Of a river:) Even before it entered the city it was slow and heavy with the silt of the plains, and by the time it got to The Shades even an agnostic could have walked across it.<br /><br />(A wizard's front door plaque:) Igneous Cutwell, DM (Unseen), Marster of the Infinit, Illuminartus, Wyzard to Princes, Gardian of the Sacred Portalls, If Out leave Maile with Mrs. Nugent Next Door.<br /><br />...the kind of person who throws all his socks at the wall and wears the ones that don't stick...<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Yes, this book was fun.
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-90451347912272868422013-04-24T15:28:00.002-07:002013-04-24T16:08:28.349-07:00Well and Glad.<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3228917-outliers" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Outliers: The Story of Success" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344266315m/3228917.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3228917-outliers">Outliers: The Story of Success</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1439.Malcolm_Gladwell">Malcolm Gladwell</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/599047980">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Gladwell, par for <em>his</em> course, remains preeminently readable and manages to assemble a pleasant, interesting book. But of his books, this one I liked the least. Perhaps too much Dunnett and Wiman make a simple sentence vaguely soporific; perhaps sleeping in my car in sub-zero weather leaves me less rested than I thought. <br /><br />Either way, it was still a quick and pleasant little read. His thesis, simply (and far more pedantically) put, is that the miraculous stories of success of which we are aware are less miraculous than they seem. Maybe there was a sandbar, maybe mom did pack me a lunch, whatever. Rather than a miracle, a perfect sort of storm occurs, getting Bill Gates thousands of free hours on a computer when such a thing was unheard of, and getting Oppenheimer off of an attempted murder rap (yes, murder). Thus, when opportunity appears they are in the perfect position to grab the proverbially knocking hand and either take it off at the shoulder or drag the body in with it. <br /><br />So the vast majority of professional Canadian hockey players are born toward the end of the Canadian hockey cut-off year: a kid that's seven years eleven months tends to be larger and stronger than a kid that's seven and a day, so he makes the team, gets the practice, gets sent to the camp, gets the extra practice, gets noticed by scouts, gets drafted, gets brain damage and ends up spending his fortune being fed soup through a straw; long live the Queen. The flurry of Jewish doctors and lawyers succeed because they were descended from the flurry of Jewish immigrants that had to work obscenely long and hard hours, passing the habit on to their children (who wiped the floor with the lazy earlier immigrants, like us), and many other circumstances, including Asian math skills of all things. <br /><br />The magic behind success? 10,000 hours. Simple, straightforward. If you want to excel at anything, if you want to master anything, put in 10,000 hours. Or just marry aforementioned Jewish doctor or lawyer.<br /><br />This book ends, however, with a rare, hushed, even sacred view of Gladwell's personal life—a touch that's absent his other analytical books, a touch that ushers the reader into the realm of confidant and Gladwell into the realm of human. So intimate a gesture intimates to me that when I part the covers of his next book, I'll probably sit back, light a pipe and greet an old friend whose conversation I've ever enjoyed, but one that I feel I'm finally getting to know.
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-49873396039975341172013-03-09T19:11:00.001-08:002013-03-09T19:14:50.172-08:00Broke and Broker<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1110.The_Broker" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Broker" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320488156m/1110.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1110.The_Broker">The Broker</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/721.John_Grisham">John Grisham</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/556948156">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
This is probably my favourite of Grisham's books, despite a smattering of sentimental cliches that make me desire to inspect the brains of some fairly central characters with a fire poker. The worst one: <br /><br />(She:) "Have I offended you?"<br />(He:) "You could smile more."<br />She nodded slightly and her eyes were instantly moist. She looked away, through the window, and said, "I have so little to smile about."<br /><br />This type of thing, along with the rhythm (wretched) of most of his prose convinces me that Grisham ought to be a screenwriter, not a novelist. The singular strength that has propelled him to stardom is that of his plots, which usually aren't bad. It is a rare writer that can combine intriguing plots with good prose and fully developed characters. Grisham is one for three, and that one is occasionally debatable. Yet, with his characters flat and his prose poor, I'm still reading him due to my inability to pass up fifty cent books when coins are flirting with the pens in my pocket. I'm just not reading him fast enough to be done with him before I'm annoyed at him.<br /><br />To top it off, he spent six months in Italy "researching" gelato, architecture, cuisine and language for this book. I empathize. Let us say with the Hindu: life is suffering, get a helmet. P. T. Barnum's famous quip that no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public gives me hope to one day become independently wealthy. Perhaps my first book ought to take place in the Mediterranean instead of Mexico...
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-71092732138986702522013-02-20T09:51:00.003-08:002013-02-21T12:00:15.204-08:00Arguably<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10383597-arguably" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Arguably: Selected Essays" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327934041m/10383597.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10383597-arguably">Arguably: Selected Essays</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3956.Christopher_Hitchens">Christopher Hitchens</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/541506671">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
The late Christopher Hitchens shared one tremendous skill with his less notorious brother: the boys can write. And they aren't cowards. They remind me—I apologize in advance—they remind me of the scene in <em>Miss Congeniality</em> when fifty contestants for Miss Universe or whatever say they want world peace and then Sandra Bullock wants harsher punishments for parole violators. I get exasperatedly amused at Dufflepuddish people violently bowing to the variable light breeze of being PC and (all hail) Tolerant. No wonder they do yoga—I get whiplash just listening to them. But neither of the Hitchens brothers are cowed by the intelligentsia. Neither of the brothers are PC, nor are they crass, as most of those attempting to avoid the PC charge are. To top it off, Christopher Hitchens' fame gorged itself on the miracle-grow of (gasp) Intolerance in a world that tolerates everything but intolerance.<br /><br />This book is quite simply splendid, and has something for everyone. From P.G. Wodehouse to John Brown there is great stuff on almost every page. Hitchens' research is impeccable, though his conclusions are often flat-out wrong (says the twenty-seven year-old who happens to be nine years into his four year degree). But wrong conclusions are often more profitable than simply reading all the things that you'd have written yourself, which seems a type of mental asexuality, if you will. Only with the introduction of that which is wholly other can your mind give birth to new thoughts, new life; without the stimulation of controversy the mind atrophies. And Hitchens, true to form, manages to polarize even from beyond the grave. He'd be pleased to know that a girl (whose appearance leaned toward the ailing piscine, as well as being endowed with... "sufficient" ears attached at right angles) managed to challenge the record for the standing high-jump when I expressed my reservations regarding Hitchens' views on Lincoln. (I shrieked "NO HE DIDN'T" in Applebees, and my server ended up wearing my root beer. I tipped well.)
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-81623124070024606202013-01-25T10:32:00.000-08:002013-01-25T10:34:41.532-08:00For a Glory and a CoveringMay the Mennonites forgive me. And the Pierces. And Becca in an odd month. I am to be found in 1 Corinthians 11:1-16: the head-covering passage. And, to paraphrase Lewis, if your mind is shut, let at least your Bible be open.<br><br>
The typical reading of this passage is that "a woman's hair is her covering; let's move on." And to an extent that's all good and true; verse fifteen is anything but ambiguous: a woman's hair is her glory and covering. But, should you have the misfortune to read the entire passage with one of your eyes only halfway closed, you'll come across a problem that cannot be satisfied without extremely... well, "flexible" exegesis. That problem is verse six: if a woman is uncovered, then let her also be shorn.<br><br>
If the only covering in the passage is hair, we're in trouble. For Paul would be saying, "If a woman has no hair, then let her hair also be cut off." No, there have to be two heads spoken of. And the only other "head" for a woman in this passage is man.<br><br>
So here's my thesis: verses 1-5a are speaking of the heads that verse three mentions: God the head of Christ, Christ the head of man, man the head of woman. After that, hair is introduced and the types of "heads" alternate, but not before. This would mean that verse six could be interpreted as "If a woman is not under authority..." This also makes it clear as to why men ought not to be covered: the authority over a man ought to be Christ, not the woman. And if a woman is acting like a man then she might as well look like one, and all hail Marine haircuts. But if looking like a man is shameful for a woman, then let her act in a feminine manner: let her be covered. <br><br>
So the fundamental principle of the passage? Men are to act like men. We ought to take responsibility. Women are to act like women. They ought to submit to man as Christ submitted to God. <br><br>
But this has further ramifications. Christ's submission to God was in spite of His equality with God, and a woman's submission to her husband is in spite of her equality, which she ought not to consider something to be grasped at. The passage goes on to say that neither woman nor man is independent of the other. So—and be careful here—a woman's relationship with her husband ought to be similar to that of Christ's relationship to God: a wife ought to be able to say a good half of John 15 without batting an eyelash. <br><br>
And of course, if her hair happens to hit the small of her back or at least go "poof" in a light drizzle, all the better.<br><br>
Blessings,<br>
JBJ. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-36464728396842625422013-01-05T12:51:00.006-08:002021-04-01T03:15:46.534-07:00The Inked Girl With Poor Instincts Regarding Nature<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6892870-the-girl-who-kicked-the-hornet-s-nest" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Millennium, #3)" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327708260m/6892870.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6892870-the-girl-who-kicked-the-hornet-s-nest">The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/706255.Stieg_Larsson">Stieg Larsson</a><br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/496551696">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Only one review for the trilogy; I know, I'm tight lipped. But if they aren't read as a series they really don't make sense. Each book deals with a different aspect of Salander: her genius and dysfunction, her history, and finally her redemption. The plot was intricate, the prose was on the good side of decent and the characters fantastic. Often horrible people, but well drawn, like some of da Vinci's sketches: one wonders why on earth he bothered drawing that particular person. True, if you see a car wreck you'll see people around with cameras, but that type of morbid fascination doesn't always extend to the corners in art. With Larsson, it kind of does.<br /><br />There is a disturbing moral vacuity that one finds on reading him. Adultery, theft, murder--all are acceptable. Rape is horrific, burning a rapist alive is good. Sodomy is appalling, unless it's in revenge. The one moral standard seems to be severe justice: if they deserve it, They will damned well get it. So if you are looking for a dark trilogy with a cataclysmic eucatastrophe in the redemption, Lisbeth is a fascinating girl. Definitely has Aspergers with her antisocial, mathematical mind, and her life gives flesh to the rage-filled vengeance on all those who prey upon women. The trial is a fantastic upset and very enjoyable to read.<br /><br />
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-30315937860681042032013-01-05T12:38:00.002-08:002021-04-01T03:17:15.539-07:00Ecce, Charles!<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/960493.Descent_Into_Hell" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Descent Into Hell" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347691153m/960493.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/960493.Descent_Into_Hell">Descent Into Hell</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/36289.Charles_Williams">Charles Williams</a><br /><br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/496528379">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br /><br />
Charles the Inkling Williams. Wow. I've been planning on reading him for some time, but had been hesitant due to mixed reviews from unnamed persons. Upon finding Frank Peretti upon their shelves, I happily heaved their advice overboard and bought the first Williams I could find, which happened to be <em>Descent Into Hell</em>.<br /><br br="" />Reviewing this book is hard. It's a type of Supernatural Realism with a heavy dose of Mythical Faerie, and blended with some of the most superb, even sublime prose that I've encountered. Nothing really happens in the book, even with a succubus and opened graves. You feel, at alternating chapters, as if you're walking either up a flight of stairs into an open vista of a far green country bordered by breakers curled like a lover's wet hair, or as if you're walking down a flight of stairs into a cellar of unnamed and unknown horrors with a whispered voice hissing "mad, mad, you are mad..."<br /><br /><br />There are two truly "main" characters, and then there are a handful of peripheral characters and one central character. There are two, yea verily even three timelines coinciding; there is Lilith and Death, there is Poetry and Life. There is the Real, and there is the Fake; Zion and Gomorrah, and I could explain the entire book without giving a single thing away. <br /><br />The only explanation for Williams being as unknown as he is is two-fold: either this is by far his best work, or he was simply overshadowed by the vast output of Lewis and the incomparable genius of Tolkien. But this book is so very worth the read. I'll be adding him to my shelves as often as I find him.
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-57299906568009233422012-10-17T17:10:00.000-07:002012-10-17T17:10:28.792-07:00Essay 4: Movie on ExodusJesse Broussard<br><br>
10.15.12<br><br>
Phil / RelS 303<br><br><br><br>
Prompt #7:<br>
If you were making a film based on the Exodus account in Exodus through Deuteronomy, what three key passages would you consider essential to include? Explain why you chose the three you chose. How do these passages capture important aspects of the Biblical Exodus account? If you refer to Tooze’s “Moses and the Reel Exodus,” be sure to cite it.<br><br><br><br><br>
1). Were I to make a movie about the Exodus, it would be centered almost entirely on the life of Moses. His life simply dominates the story. As a result, the three scenes that I would find essential for a movie would be, first, from Pharaoh acquiescing to Moses and letting Israel go until the Crossing of the Red Sea; second, Israel at Mount Sinai sending Moses up the Mountain; and finally, Moses’ Song and Final Blessing as he prepares to die.<br><br>
2). The first one is self-explanatory. The Exodus is a “going-out," so we have to have something for them to "go out" of, and tossing in the tyrannical Pharaoh simply sweetens the plot. He makes a magnificent villain, and is just as magnificently destroyed: unwilling to weaken his empire by losing all of his unpaid laborers, he ends up nearly destroying his empire by losing not only his unpaid laborers, but his army and his life. And the catalyst in all of this is Moses. <br><br>
3). Moses seems to live his entire life as an intercessor: between Israelite and Egyptian (with fatal results), between Israelite and Israelite, between Israel and Pharaoh, and all of this is merely a prequel to his epic role as the intercessor between YHVH and Israel, which is established in the delivery of Israel from the land of Egypt through the Red Sea. His victory over Pharaoh within the land of Egypt sets him up as the leader of Israel, and the Red Sea solidifies his role in granite and steel, the "horse and rider thrown into the sea." <br><br>
4). But the Red Sea "battle" demonstrates far more than this. Israel (and many Egyptians with them) is following Moses out of Egypt as if they were a conquering army. They are sent forth with the spoils of the Egyptians as all Egypt mourns behind them: the devastation of Passover is most destructive, most desolate when the Angel doesn't pass over. And this is but the climax of a long list, the tenth destruction wrought by God through His chosen intermediary, Moses. The Israelites have seen the might of Egypt buffeted by blow after blow until it's finally smashed, driven to its knees sheer by the miracles of God—“the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword"—and now, standing on the edge of an ocean with an already defeated army behind them, the instant response is one of abject terror; the instant reaction, to blame Moses. This attitude of rapid forgetfulness and seemingly nescient oblivion to all that has happened in the extremely recent past characterizes Israel throughout the Exodus wandering.<br><br>
5). In spite of Israel's doubt and faithlessness, God saves them through Moses' upraised arms: a surer validation of Moses' role as YHVH's chosen vessel there can be none. Then the pursuing force is slaughtered at their very heels, again through Moses' operation. So this part of the narrative demonstrates Moses as YHVH's chosen representative without any room for doubt, and as such is an absolutely essential part of any story from this narrative. Omitting it would be akin to writing a history of Islam without mentioning Mohammed. <br><br>
6). The second period that I'd choose to focus upon in a film would be when YHVH descends upon the mountain, and Israel decides to send Moses to speak for them. Not only would this be one of the most breathtaking and terrifying scenes imaginable—a mountaintop glowing as if the sun itself was settling upon it, the blinding light shrouded through billowing, blackening smoke thick as flesh that battles to mask the flames within, all while seven thunders round a throne shatter the deathly silence of the desert like a Seraph war: the great and terrible "qol" of YHVH described by Ezekiel when the Glory-Cloud descends to the earth and alights upon a mountaintop—not only all of this, but it is also where the stipulations of the covenant are established, the covenant that Israel proceeds to violate for the remainder of her history; the covenant that plagues her like a bastard child through the remainder of the Exodus narrative and every narrative from that day on.<br><br>
7). In a very true way, this mountain is the foundation of the nation of Israel. This mountain is their identity: they are the chosen people of YHVH, and this is where His choice is revealed. This is His covenant with them, and every judgment they receive, every time they are occupied, conquered, or beset by disease, drought or any "act of God," it is all due to their violation of this covenant, and can only be repaired by repentance and a return to their God. For, if they are faithful and obey, He will be faithful and establish them in the land that He promised to them. <br><br>
8). Very telling is the fact that Israel demands that Moses go between God and them: they fear that the Presence of God will destroy them (a fear that we see repeated almost every time the Angel of The Lord appears). No great surprise when we think of the sight that greeted them. But the requisite corollary is that they don't have this same fear of Moses. Indeed, as the mere mouthpiece of YHVH, they don't seem to fear him at all: is he not a man? Here is the saying proven true that a prophet is only without honor in his own country, for Moses is hailed as a savior of Israel in every age save his own. In his own he is opposed time and time again; attempts to replace him as a leader are endless, while on God's end, there are threats to replace Israel with some more prescient (or at least polite) followers. It is only Moses' intercession for those that seek to destroy him that preserves the line of Israel.<br><br>
9). After the destruction of Pharaoh and the theophany of Mount Horeb, the Song of Moses seems a bit anti-climactic: no great storm, no ocean divided by wind, just a poem. But it is this poem that foreshadows the cyclical nature of judgment, repentance, restoration, fall and judgment that constitutes the remainder of Israel’s history. As the Jewish Publication Society’s commentary on Deuteronomy puts it: <br><br>
In recent years, under the impact of studies of Near Eastern treaties and biblical covenants, scholars have proposed that the poem belongs to a genre that they call the "covenant lawsuit." This genre is supposedly based on the literary form that a suzerain would use in appealing to the gods to condemn a vassal for violating the terms of a treaty that they had witnessed; the suzerain would do so prior to declaring war on the vassal to punish that violation.1<br><br><br>
10). The quotation goes on to assert that this interpretation seems to be too limited, though noted Old Testament scholar Meredith Kline, in his Treaty of the Great King: The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy spends a great deal of time defending it quite adequately. But whether or not the poem is a covenant lawsuit, the poem definitely affixes curses for obedience and blessings for obedience to the covenant, and it is these blessings and curses (further enumerated in Leviticus 26) that haunt Israel’s history at least until the end of old Jerusalem in AD 70.<br><br>
11). The reason for these blessings and curses is put forward in the poem quite simply. As Israel is the chosen nation of YHVH, their obedience and disobedience reflect upon Him. They either honor Him or dishonor Him, but they cannot, as His people, fail to reflect back to Him. In the words of The Torah, a Modern Commentary:<br><br>
In Moses' song, it is not compassion that motivates God; rather, it is the divine honor that must be protected. Israel is both endangered and saved because it is close to the Divine and is thereby involved in God's needs as well. God must be seen to be God, and if Israel endangers that majesty it must suffer the consequences. At the same time, it will be rescued from perdition because God cannot allow Israel to be destroyed. The fate of the covenant people is thus forever hammered out on the anvil of history, for the ambivalence of the divine Partner makes Israel the object both of love and of anger. The nations are the tools of divine action, but God's goal is to create an evermore loyal and observant Israel. Thus does the song explain the relationship, and in the mouth of Moses it becomes a statement of fundamental belief.2<br><br><br>
12). The Song of Moses threatens Israel with the consequences of her status. She is an example to the nations; she is the child at the chalkboard: her failure to keep the covenant of YHVH will be punished with a terrible and public punishment, and her obedience will be blessed, to the wonder of the corners of the world. This is the legacy established by Moses, and this is a fitting end to the Exodus.<br><br><br><br><br><br>
Endnotes:
1. Page 509, Tigay, Jeffrey H. The JPS Torah Commentary: Deuteronomy. Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society, 1996.
2. Page 1403, Plaut, W. Gunther, and David E. S. Stein. Torah: A Modern Commentary. New York: Union for Reform Judaism, 2006.<br><br><br>
• Three fundamental aspects of a film narrative include: Pharaoh acquiescing to Moses and letting Israel go to the Crossing of the Red Sea; Israel at Mount Sinai sending Moses up the Mountain; and Moses’ Song and Final Blessing are the three most essential aspects of the Exodus narrative for a film to include
o Pharaoh’s decision through the Red Sea Crossing
Foundation of the entire Exodus narrative
Sets Moses up as the leader of Israel
Demonstrates YHVH’s faithfulness and Israel’s disbelief and forgetfulness
• YHVH had already performed miraculous signs to affect the freedom of Israel
o Israel at Mount Sinai sending Moses up the Mountain
Again, a veritable visual assault
Demonstrates the overall relationship between Israel, Moses and God
• Israel’s fright and Moses’ intercession
• The Fear of the Lord is only present when He Is Present
• Moses as the intercessor receives the commands from YHVH and the blame from the people.
Further demonstrates Israel’s forgetfulness
Establishes the covenant of the law that Israel later continually violates
o Moses’ Song and Final Blessing
A promise and a threat
• Covenant lawsuit
Israel as a chosen nation
• Her sins and her failures reflect on YHVH
Works Cited:<br><br>
Plaut, W. Gunther, and David E. S. Stein. Torah: A Modern Commentary. New York: Union for Reform Judaism, 2006.<br><br>
Tigay, Jeffrey H. The JPS Torah Commentary: Deuteronomy. Philadelphia Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society, 1996.<br>
J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-70146182316122635772012-10-14T22:46:00.005-07:002021-04-01T03:21:15.116-07:00Evangellyfish, Doug Wilson<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13131149-evangellyfish" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Evangellyfish" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328002054m/13131149.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13131149-evangellyfish">Evangellyfish</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/30465.Douglas_Wilson">Douglas Wilson</a><br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/430281286">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
As you wipe your feet before entering the house, here I shall open with a confession: when I was introduced to the writings of Douglas Wilson, I didn't like them. I have gone this far, allow me to go further: having all the literary discretion of a vacuum cleaner and taste located solely in my mouth, I owned, read, re-read and enjoyed books that shall not here be named, but were written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. <br /><br />Now that my ethos lies in a smouldering ruin, allow me to say that my appreciation for Wilson's writing has increased enormously over the years. But even with this confession, there is simply no denying that Evangellyfish is the high-water mark of his writing to this point: from the dedication onward it is absolutely hilarious, fluctuating from wry cynicism to popping optimism, lightly flippant without sacrificing depth; all in all, wholly refreshing. It skips around from character to character with an obviously deep affection for all of them, and the entire story is heavily scented with grandpa's whiskey cavendish, deep belly-laughs and a warm, winsome joviality. The shift from perspective to perspective is smooth as a jazz progression, and there's nary a two dimensional character to be found, from the twitterpated bellhop to the drily cynical priest that doesn't even appear in the story: every person has depth, flesh and a certain level of sympathy. It is a sheer, racing delight to read, sprouted from a bed of Wodehouse and Chesterton, fertilized with Lewis and Mencken, and—dare I say it?—deeply rooted in the blues.<br /><br />On a side note, any of you who read the story when he began posting it chapter by chapter will be, as the KJV would say, astonied. Not only is everything better and lighter, the ending creates a new world. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
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J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1497011366922145883.post-32744106188575413532012-10-13T21:54:00.001-07:002012-10-13T21:57:52.330-07:00Adam, Noah and the New World2. Some argue that the flood story begins as an "uncreation" story and ends as a re-creation story. What elements of Genesis 1-3 and Genesis 6-9 support that interpretation? What would the effect be on the primeval history of Genesis 1-11, if this interpretation is followed?<br><br>
1). My essay is taken from the second prompt, and my thesis is quite straightforward: the text, in similarity of speech, story, and in the numerological indication, necessitates a de-creation and re-creation interpretation. I'll begin by taking the textual indications--similarities of word choice, location, etcetera, and then will move on to overarching thematic elements that are similar or identical, and will conclude my argument with the numerological significance that the author gives us in the age of Noah. I will then move on to one possible interpretation of the Noah and Ham facet of the narrative in light of this reading.<br><br>
2). Before noting similarities in the text, we need to understand that the deluge was leveled primarily against dry land (which had been cursed in Genesis 3), man (taken from the cursed earth), birds, and land animals (which at the least, live on the cursed earth). Sea creatures would have had a grand time, taking field trips to the Carpathian peaks; light and dark, sun, moon and stars would have been unaffected, while the land would have been covered and man and land animals would have been annihilated. Therefore, if this is a de-creation, any de-creational language would mirror the creational language of dry land, man, birds and the animals, and that is how we find it. This language is infrequent, but impossible to misconstrue: Genesis 7:21, 24 give us almost a verbatim destruction of the Genesis 1 creation. "Cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth... everything that creeps upon the earth..." in Genesis 1, compared to "cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth..." in Genesis 7. This, combined with the otherwise rare phrase "in whose nostrils was the breath of life" that in Genesis 7 is a persistent refrain, force us back to the 1st chapter's account of creation.<br><br>
3). Also important to note is the flood narrative's consistent reference to the earth: twenty one "earth's" (a combination of two numbers that are already significant to the Hebrew mind: three sets of seven) as well as three "face of the ground" references. There is an obvious preoccupation with the earth being cursed, and we as readers are not allowed to forget it. Creation was defaced and is being washed.<br><br>
4). Perhaps less striking than the verbatim textual similarities but no less apparent is the order in which events happen: in Genesis 1, water above from water below, and water below from the dry land. In Genesis 7, the water below undoes the creation of the land, and the water above undoes the separation of the two firmaments. Creation literally is working backwards. Then we are given the primordial picture once again: the earth is formless and void, and the ark, not the Spirit of God, is "moving" upon the surface of the waters. But soon, the darkness and light are separated as the clouds break, the intermingling waters are separated (the rain stops), then the water and dry land begin to separate, Noah opens the window and there are sun, moon and stars; he sends out a raven and a dove and the birds and fish are restored, and finally, beasts and man descend from the ark: the new creation.<br><br>
5). The final part of the narrative mirroring is when the ark comes to rest upon a mountain (Genesis 8:4). Looking closely at the text we can see that the Garden of Eden was also on a mountain (the rivers proceeded from it, and we're presuming that water has always flowed downhill). So, we have men, on a mountaintop, surrounded by animals and descending water. God gives them a promise, a command, and attendant blessings and curses, much of which is a strict repetition--often a verbatim repetition--of His earlier dealings with Adam. But here, for the first time, capital punishment is instituted, eating animals is allowed and eating blood is forbidden: man is given yet greater responsibility and freedom, while this time, all the surrounding animals, instead of plants, are for their use. Now all of this so far has been fairly clear and self-explanatory, the kind of thing any serious student would notice on a first reading of the text. But this next part is slightly more abstruse; it kind of goes out onto the skinny branches of exegesis, though it fits, as Dunnett would say, like an old man cutting cloth in an attic. <br><br>
6). Numbers have a huge role in the Hebrew mindset. The Bible is full to the brim of genealogies, lists of tribal populations, and strict (though not chronological) accountings of the timing of events. In Genesis we're given genealogies that in some cases have an obvious significance: Enoch lives a perfect "year" of years, 365, and disappears; his son dies in the year of the flood, just failing to reach a trinity of tens (ten x ten x ten). The two "sevenths" from Adam are starkly contrasted: Lamech, the murderous poet, and Enoch, the disappearing prophet, and this is just the surface of this one genealogy. Now in this particular narrative, we're given Noah's age again and again and again, and always in the set of three: in this year, and this month, and this day of the month. But the most notable of these is the last of these sets of three, in verse thirteen of chapter eight: "And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first (month), the first (day) of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry." <br><br>
7). This is the big change: the ark has come to rest, the dove has not returned, the rain has long since stopped, and here, the ark is opened. Here, the world is again presented to man. This is when man again looks out over the creation. And when does it happen? The first day of the first month of the first year after Noah's six hundredth year. God created the world in six days, and on the seventh, He rested. Noah lived six hundred years, and now he is viewing the earth again. The work is done, the world has been de-created and re-created, and now the waters, the ark, and, in a sense, Noah, are all at rest. If this is not at the least a sideways nod to the six days of creation, our author is singularly dense, and, as we are given ample proof, dense is one thing that he is not.<br><br>
8). But as I said before, this could be construed as reaching. So let us follow it out. If we are being referred to creation in verse thirteen of chapter eight, what ought to happen next? God ought to give man a mandate. He does so in verse sixteen. Man ought to express dominion over the animals, and verse twenty of chapter eight satisfies that requirement. We ought to find man in a garden, and in verse twenty of chapter nine, after the extended covenant, we find this as well. There ought to be a snake in that garden, and we are given Ham. The list goes on. <br><br>
9). So there are simply too many similarities for this to be anything but a new creation, but how ought this to alter our reading of the text? This is my final point, and it is one that I shall have to buttress a great deal. I am seeking to posit that we are given a second "fall in the garden story," and that, loosely and typologically speaking, Noah ought to be read as an image of God, Ham as the snake, and Shem and Japheth as man. This may at first seem counterintuitive, as we have a drunk "god" and a view of dad naked in place of a fruit (not to mention the snake-man Ham), but upon closer inspection, it fits remarkably well, as I will demonstrate.<br><br>
10). The first thing to note is that Noah has labored, and is now resting, as God had done with His garden in Eden. So far, the interpretation fits. But now we come to the issue of "drunk," and this is one of the chief objections to the interpretation that I'm supporting: how can Noah represent God if Noah is drunk? The Hebrew language is not perfect, but it is quite clear on this point: the word rendered "and became drunk" at the absolute least means that Noah drank like he'd just turned twenty-one. The word is never interpreted as anything less than a lot to drink, so any wiggling within various meanings of the words is out, but why is this a problem to reading Noah as an image of God? This is long before man is given any command to avoid drunkenness, so construing Noah's actions as inherently sinful is a long, long stretch, as there is nothing in the text that criticizes him. Also, he's in his tent, not dancing naked in the streets: the text is just as clear on that point. Ham has to enter his tent to see his father's nakedness, so his father is "covered" by the "garment" of the tent. And finally, even if Noah is acting like Attila with a harem like Suleiman's, the author is the one drawing the allusion, and he deliberately avoids making a judgment of any kind, so we ought to follow his example if we would see what he wants us to see. <br><br>
11). So Noah is in his tent, in relaxed attire, and Ham saw the nakedness of his father. The text here does allow for Ham's sin to be anything from raping his father to simply walking in at an inopportune time, and the only thing that sheds any light on what he does is his brothers' response, designed to undo what Ham did. And what do they do? They cover their father with a garment, while keeping their heads turned so "the nakedness of their father they did not see." The text says that Ham uncovers and sees, while Shem and Japheth cover and do not see. Without any further elucidation by the author, the reading that does the least violence to the text is to assume that Noah was naked (or nearly) in his tent, and Ham invaded his father's privacy, then told his brothers. <br><br>
12). The reaction of Shem and Japheth is very interesting, however. First off, they refuse to see their father (another allusion to God, who is always shrouded in smoke or behind a veil). But they do seem to feel that immediate action needs to be taken, so they (naturally) take a garment, place it over both of their shoulders, and walk it backwards into their father's tent (drawing, perhaps, an allusion to the veil in the tabernacle with the stitched cherubim facing outward [itself drawing an allusion to Eden]), where they drape the garment over their father. As opposed to, for example, telling Ham to knock it off. Why? Why is this elaborate act of clothing their father necessary?<br><br>
13). The key to this whole story is the garment. In the Jewish mindset in particular, your garment, your cloak, was your sign of office. This is why David's conscience smote him for cutting Saul's robe while Saul was going to the bathroom (lifting his hand against the Lord's anointed), why Elisha got the cloak of Elijah, why tearing your robe was such a humbling thing, and why Joseph's brothers were so furious when their brother was given a cloak of many "breadths"--a cloak stretching to the palms of the hand and soles of the feet--which we (for some inexplicable reason) translate "colors." <br><br>
14). So the action of draping a cloak over their father was, in a very symbolic way, not only Shem and Japheth's refusal to shame or mock their father, not only their way of honoring him, but also their way of submitting to him, their way of investing him with the authority that he was temporarily divested of. This explains why the curse upon Ham is in terms of submission to his brothers. It is also wholly possible that Ham took his father's cloak, and this is the garment that the brothers draped back over him (though the text is silent). So, the snake takes fruit from the tree--he takes the authority of God--and he offers it to mankind, who take it. Ham uncovers his father's nakedness--he tries to remove his father's authority--and "offers" it to his brothers, who refuse it.<br><br>
15). If this fails to convince that the author is drawing a parallel, it is all but proven by what follows: Adam sinned by taking to himself the office of God (judging good from evil), and his sin was followed by his son Cain's sin of building a city (God had commanded man to spread out and Cain responds by building a city). Ham attempts to rebel against the office of his father, and is thwarted, and his sin is followed by his grandson Nimrod's sin of building a city, which is also thwarted. So the story of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth is the story of a new mankind in a new garden, in which man is not rebellious and cursed, but submits, and is blessed; a new world in which man's sinfulness will be checked, and not overrun the world as it did before.J. A. Broussardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09389505545740155291noreply@blogger.com0