"'It is ever so with the things that Men begin: there is a frost in the Spring, or a blight in the Summer, and they fail of their promise.'
'Yet seldom do they fail of their Seed,' said Legolas. 'And that will lie in the dust and rot to spring up again unlooked-for. The deeds of Men will outlast us, Gimli.'"
I had so much on my plate these last few months. I've been busy with a promotion at work, readying a home for sale, an adoption process, and growing a beard. In short, I'm screwed. I've read 13 books. Yeah, I know. The year is far spent.
The Trilogy is done. I refuse to offer any more commentary. If you have read it, then you know. If you will not read it, then nothing I can say will suffice. I read the whole thing, and even the appendices, which are excellent. Tolkien created a world, not a set of books. They are to be read and enjoyed and absorbed.
I have been cajoled by several friends and family members to resume reading and blogging. Evidently, more people are reading this stuff than my five followers! Thanks for your readership, and I hope I am entertaining.
Anyhow, this is a brief posting just to let all know, as Legolas reminds: "Oft hope is born, when all is forlorn!"
Today, in support of my foolish endeavor, turn off your iPod, the TV, whatever it is that brings you your digital opiates, and pick up a friendly book. And become a follower of this blog. The Tide is turning!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
WTT/WTB: One WIzard, Preferably Grey
"Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
None for the Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie,
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."
-- The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien
Day 52. I fear I am going insane. The reading part is easy enough, but being disciplined in blogging does not come naturally. Fortunately, reading the Lord of the RIngs trilogy does not leave one wanting for material. I have taken to jotting good quotes from the books I read in order to structure my blogging. As I wrap up book one, The Fellowship of the Ring, I realized that all my quotes, save the opening Elvish poem, are all Gandalf's.
Now, I am presuming that everyone who would care to read this post would have already known who Gandalf is. If not, then why waste your time reading me when you are missing out on the best piece of literature written in the modern era. Really. And as Gandalf is the touchstone of this literary dynasty and has been immortalized in Peter Jackson's series of movies, and is really now a cultural icon, what more ought I have to write about this venerable phronemos? Ha!
The world is in need of a good wizard. Not some kid with an owl and coke-bottle glasses. I mean Gandalf. Wizardry should be used to bless beer, beat down Nazgul, and defend civilization. Tolkien knew what was what. Which should be no surprise, given his life and calling. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was a veteran of the First World War, a philologist, and die-hard Catholic gentleman. He was also a man of honor and duty, and by all accounts a romantic. It is instructive to read how he met and married his wife. Tolkien was a complex dude, and he required a complex protagonist.
It is not often that a work of fiction, high fantasy even, can actual offer up practical advice for modern times. But try this: "Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Do not be eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the wise cannot see all ends." Or this: "... he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." What captures my fancy with Tolkien's Grey (So Far) Wizardry is it is not spells and incantations, but actual wisdom, practicality, fortitude, and leadership. You'll notice these traits would serve us well in the halls of power now-a-days, yet you'll not notice them in those same hollow halls.
The Fellowship takes the hand-off from The Hobbit, and sets the stage for the greatest battle in all of literature. WIth all due respect to the Iliad and Beowulf, LOTR kinda steals the show. Not just a great story of a great battle between Good and Evil, it is a great tapestry of stories of people. The character studies put on by JRRT are superb.
I took my three children to the public library on Friday. I let them pick books, by whatever mysterious aesthetic a 2, 3, and 4 year old use. I have read many of the new kid's books. Almost all are trash. Some are just so vapid as to make me indignant. Others grind their axes so hard that sparks seem to fly from the shelves (E.G.: Boy chose "The Last Polar Bear" in which we learn that Global Warming has murdered all the Ursa north of Anchorage. Yah son, we suck. But not as much as this book's impact upon your literary development! HAHAHA) I cannot wait to read the Trilogy to my children. I will point to Saruman, and say watch out, for there are Sarumans with us still, and to Aragorn or Gandalf and say to my son, that is how we ought to act. And to Arwen for my daughters. Tolkien had seen war, and practised love, and seen wisdom. He saw society begin its turn to a post-modern age. His myths and fantasy were influenced by this, and we would do well to learn from it. They are intrinsically great stories, and extrinsically true stories.
So I continue my quest. I have had one question as to the integrity of my methods. Specifically how it is that I reject most of our disposable, digital culture, but use the medium of the blog. I don't reject the ability of our digital age to reach people and communicate important ideas. Hence the blog. I do reject the consumerism/relativism/progress for the sake of progress that is typical of most mass media, hence no television. A valid question fair reader. It might be a fine line, but it is the line I walk.
So, in closing America might need to hit Craigslist and make a posting WTT/WTB. I listen, read, watch the weasels we have accumulated as our leaders at all levels of government. We argue policy, not principle. We arrange interests, instead of debating ideas. I read Tolkien. I compare. I hang my head in shame, no longer wondering at our sad state of affairs. Because we can bitterly bemoan our governors, but they and their systems are only a reflection of ourselves.
Tomorrow, the Two Towers. Gotta just grin and get my "Book on"!
N.B. to all those who watched the LOTR movies and think you can skip the reading. Two words for you- Tom Bombadil. Nuff said.
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
None for the Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie,
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."
-- The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien
Day 52. I fear I am going insane. The reading part is easy enough, but being disciplined in blogging does not come naturally. Fortunately, reading the Lord of the RIngs trilogy does not leave one wanting for material. I have taken to jotting good quotes from the books I read in order to structure my blogging. As I wrap up book one, The Fellowship of the Ring, I realized that all my quotes, save the opening Elvish poem, are all Gandalf's.
Now, I am presuming that everyone who would care to read this post would have already known who Gandalf is. If not, then why waste your time reading me when you are missing out on the best piece of literature written in the modern era. Really. And as Gandalf is the touchstone of this literary dynasty and has been immortalized in Peter Jackson's series of movies, and is really now a cultural icon, what more ought I have to write about this venerable phronemos? Ha!
The world is in need of a good wizard. Not some kid with an owl and coke-bottle glasses. I mean Gandalf. Wizardry should be used to bless beer, beat down Nazgul, and defend civilization. Tolkien knew what was what. Which should be no surprise, given his life and calling. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was a veteran of the First World War, a philologist, and die-hard Catholic gentleman. He was also a man of honor and duty, and by all accounts a romantic. It is instructive to read how he met and married his wife. Tolkien was a complex dude, and he required a complex protagonist.
It is not often that a work of fiction, high fantasy even, can actual offer up practical advice for modern times. But try this: "Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Do not be eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the wise cannot see all ends." Or this: "... he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." What captures my fancy with Tolkien's Grey (So Far) Wizardry is it is not spells and incantations, but actual wisdom, practicality, fortitude, and leadership. You'll notice these traits would serve us well in the halls of power now-a-days, yet you'll not notice them in those same hollow halls.
The Fellowship takes the hand-off from The Hobbit, and sets the stage for the greatest battle in all of literature. WIth all due respect to the Iliad and Beowulf, LOTR kinda steals the show. Not just a great story of a great battle between Good and Evil, it is a great tapestry of stories of people. The character studies put on by JRRT are superb.
I took my three children to the public library on Friday. I let them pick books, by whatever mysterious aesthetic a 2, 3, and 4 year old use. I have read many of the new kid's books. Almost all are trash. Some are just so vapid as to make me indignant. Others grind their axes so hard that sparks seem to fly from the shelves (E.G.: Boy chose "The Last Polar Bear" in which we learn that Global Warming has murdered all the Ursa north of Anchorage. Yah son, we suck. But not as much as this book's impact upon your literary development! HAHAHA) I cannot wait to read the Trilogy to my children. I will point to Saruman, and say watch out, for there are Sarumans with us still, and to Aragorn or Gandalf and say to my son, that is how we ought to act. And to Arwen for my daughters. Tolkien had seen war, and practised love, and seen wisdom. He saw society begin its turn to a post-modern age. His myths and fantasy were influenced by this, and we would do well to learn from it. They are intrinsically great stories, and extrinsically true stories.
So I continue my quest. I have had one question as to the integrity of my methods. Specifically how it is that I reject most of our disposable, digital culture, but use the medium of the blog. I don't reject the ability of our digital age to reach people and communicate important ideas. Hence the blog. I do reject the consumerism/relativism/progress for the sake of progress that is typical of most mass media, hence no television. A valid question fair reader. It might be a fine line, but it is the line I walk.
So, in closing America might need to hit Craigslist and make a posting WTT/WTB. I listen, read, watch the weasels we have accumulated as our leaders at all levels of government. We argue policy, not principle. We arrange interests, instead of debating ideas. I read Tolkien. I compare. I hang my head in shame, no longer wondering at our sad state of affairs. Because we can bitterly bemoan our governors, but they and their systems are only a reflection of ourselves.
Tomorrow, the Two Towers. Gotta just grin and get my "Book on"!
N.B. to all those who watched the LOTR movies and think you can skip the reading. Two words for you- Tom Bombadil. Nuff said.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Weeeeeeeeeee! This blogging stuff is easy!
"All the political application of Economics - that is, all the application of Economic Science to the conduct of families in the State- turns on the control of wealth, and of the things necessary to make wealth." - "Economics for Helen", Hilaire Belloc
Having finished the Hobbit, and now eyeing the Fellowship of the Rings, I thought it prudent to finish the last chapter of "Economics for Helen" this evening. Earlier today, the news announced that wholesale prices of goods had risen greatly, jobless claims had jumped, and a miserable man in Texas flew his Piper Cherokee plane into the side of an IRS building.
Also today, our president lauded our escape from a second Great Depression. The only answer my mind's eye can conjure is that of the immense amount of sand required for a large flightless bird to thrust its head into the safety of pure, unadulterated ignorance. Jobless Recovery sounds a bit like "Jumbo Shrimp".
So it seems that we find ourselves, the American public, the unhappy recipients of the Confucian curse, to "live in interesting times". Never before has any nation owed so much for so little in return. Increasingly it seems we might be the last man standing in a perverse game of fiscal "hot potato", caught holding an immense debt when the music stops.
Belloc would grimace, if he were to review the economy of consumption we have wrought here, in light of his belief that societies of peoples must necessarily be one of three types.
"The Servile State: that is, the state in which the material Means of Production are the property of men who also own the human agents of production.
The Capitalist State: that is, the state in which the material Means of Production are the property of a few, and the numerous human agents of production are free, but without property.
The Distributive State: that is, the state in which the material means of Production are owned by the free human agents of Production."
Belloc also considers and then rejects Socialism/Communism/Marxism as being laughably impractical, the thought of "The State" owning and distributing everything, as this practically means a few men administering the will of the state, and expected to be paragons of virtue which politicians are most definitely are not (c.f.: politicians as dwarves, 2/17/2010's post).
The danger in the Capitalist State is its volatility and its tendency not to provide for the maintenance of the mass of people, what Belloc calls the "Capitalist Paradox". And we might be witnessing the great explication of his theory here in the U.S. of A. The fact is that Capitalism, when weighed against the annals of civilization, is a relatively recent (read "experimental") system of economy, and is a risky proposition.
Capitalism, more so than Servile and Distributive States, is easily disposed to making war. Is this why the last one hundred years has seen more war, death, and destruction than any of the other centuries combined? That the machines and engines of war are so terrible, in this, the age of the Capitalists?
What is also disturbing is Belloc writing about the Social or Historical Value of Money, and his understanding of the dangers of government and banking getting too cozy. I picture Hilaire awaking in 2010, beginning to read about the Federal Reserve, and asking rhetorically- "But of course, they could never print TOO much money, to ruin the economy by hyper-inflating the dollar's value, destroying the currency base, and ultimately destabilizing society itself... because, OF COURSE, they can only print an amount equivalent to the gold or silver on hand, or at worst some contrived fraction of these precious metals. Because, OF COURSE, America being the ruggedly awesome country it is, everyone would have considered the pure ludicrous nature of fiat currency and unchecked currency production. OF COURSE! Right?! Right?????? The danger it represents with warmongering, usury, and the fragile, Wizard-of-Oz-Pay-No-Attention-to-the-Man-Behind-the-Curtain nature of fractional banking!?!?!" But I digress.
If you call yourself an American, and care what America will look like in two generations, then please go find a copy of "Economics for Helen". Read it. Question it's messages, and ask yourself how we can begin to move towards a stable, productive, sustainable State where people and families own the Means of Production, not a few, and not the government.
American is not a land, it is an idea. And the idea is just as viable today as it was in 1776, no matter how much the governing class has mucked it up in the application. The answer is not policy or programs on the government's dole. It's not going kamikaze with a Piper Cherokee. The answer will not be found within the system. The answer is you and me living lives of virtue and sustainable living. So get busy.
And read another book or two. The answer might be written already, if we only look.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Hic Sunt Dracones
"Do we really have to go through?" groaned the hobbit. "Yes, you do!" said the wizard, "if you want to get to the other side. You must either go through or give up your quest. And I am not going to allow you to back out now, Mr. Baggins. I am ashamed of you for thinking of it. You have got to look after all these dwarves for me," he laughed. "No! no!" said Bilbo. "I didn't mean that. I meant, is there no way round?" "There is if you care to go two hundred miles or so out of your way north, and twice that south. But you wouldn't get a safe path even then. There are no safe paths in this part of the world..." -- "The Hobbit", J.R.R. Tolkien
When last we blogged, it was January. The year was young, and my journey was only slightly behind schedule. But, as it is written, life is what happens to you as you plan.
I took a break from reading to study for a promotional test at work, and then found myself in a rut. It was easier to just surf the web, and put off writing and even reading. I have mucked and muddled my way through Economics for Helen by Hilaire Belloc. Mostly, I have been reading the news, and it is not good.
Never taking an interest in business or economics growing up or in school, only recently have I begun to ruminate over the financial world and our present predicament. If you haven't been keeping score at home, allow me to catch you up... FIRE! BRIMSTONE! DOOOOOM!
Times are tough, so I figured there was only one solution: Tolkien. So, in order to escape my rut of reading and blogging, and to seek some solace from the fiscal meltdown and accompanying political circus, I plan on reading The Hobbit and the Trilogy back-to-back-to-back-to-back.
I read The Hobbit today. The opening quote for this post reminded me of the financial landscape. The American public is much like Bilbo and Co, at the entrance to Mirkwood. Ahead is the unknown and danger. And pain. (Spiders!) But until we get on with the pain and tighten the belt, we will be sliding into a greater danger. The federal sovereign debt bubble is going to have to be mitigated, and soon.
As I read on, I found another quote:
"Dwarves are not heroes, but calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not, but are decent enough people like Thorin and Company, if you don't expect much."
If you replace "dwarves" with "politicians", it works better. I yearn for politicians like The Bard of Dale. One that can speak plainly, shoot straight, and can slay dragons. It is a sad curiosity of the American political experiment that we need governors that do not want to govern. Yet we have some how found ourselves ruled by a ruling class. It is positively sickening.
I just filed my tax returns. I got a sizable refund from the federal government. Which is to say, the federal government just repaid my interest-free loan that they had cashed out over the last year. It is hard to get excited about a bully giving you your lunch money back.
It is in this mind that I open the great Christian season of penitence and fasting. My Lent is committed to reading more, watching and worrying less, and appreciating the blessings in my life. Like Tolkien.
Don't Tread on Me! And pass the books...
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Saint Leibowitz, Pray for Us
"Ignorance is King, not many would profit by its abdication."
Not having any particular gift of the Holy Spirit related to prophesy, I do not claim any infallible vision of the future. But there's enough signs and portents for the layman now-a-days to realize that all is not well. We live in an age that is post-Enlightenment, post-modern, and now post-Christian. Humanism and all manner of relativism has grown from a whisper in past generations to the roaring cacophony of the masses. Man has fastened upon War as a primary means of social intercourse.
Science, initially thought to allow Man to harness Nature, has thrown off its cloak to reveal that Man's baser Nature has harnessed Man. Or rather, some men have enslaved every other man using Nature. We have made machines the means of this warring, and to date have stockpiled a staggering quantity, potency, and variety of weaponry. Traditionally, we have never failed to use a newly synthesized weapon system on other men.
In the public arena, there is no longer discourse. Our "elected officials" argue incessantly, leading every debate down a long road to Morton's fork. We have traded ideology for ideas, policy for morality. In America, somehow we have traded a three-fold division of government (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial) for a two-fold, colluding dysnfunction of Republican and Democrat. History will not be kind.
So, if you feel the same way, read "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller. Also, if you disagree, read "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller. In either event, you will have a chilling, witty, and deeply human account of a fictional history much like our very real present that results in a new Dark Age. This is a great story, with a great message. The tale focuses on one particular order of monks and spans several thousand years as civilization is destroyed, re-discovered, re-built, and destroyed again. Dealing with complex issues in a simple way, the book explores seperation of church and state, science and faith, war, bioethics, monasticism, and a deep understanding of Christian vocation. The monks are tasked with preserving all known literature, both secular and holy. A word of caution, the political machinations used as the backdrop in "Canticle" will be eeirily familiar. Eeirie because the book was published in 1960.
One of the greatest facets of this book is that you could just read it for the story and theme, or grab a dictionary because Miller is above all else a wordsmith. You will learn new words, even in ancient languages, and be the better for it. He does not come off as pretentitious. His style, in fact, is a literary sleight-of-hand. As an example, when I finished it the first time, I said to myself, "Hey! I think that was sci-fi!"
Up next is the challenging "Nicomachean Ethics" of Arisotle and "The Abolition of Man" by C.S. Lewis, to whom I owe much in the early part of this post concerning Man and Nature.
So, take heart! I join all Book-leggers, Memorizers, Sports, and Texarkansans in saying in these dark days, "Sancta Leibowitz, ora pro nobis!"
Not having any particular gift of the Holy Spirit related to prophesy, I do not claim any infallible vision of the future. But there's enough signs and portents for the layman now-a-days to realize that all is not well. We live in an age that is post-Enlightenment, post-modern, and now post-Christian. Humanism and all manner of relativism has grown from a whisper in past generations to the roaring cacophony of the masses. Man has fastened upon War as a primary means of social intercourse.
Science, initially thought to allow Man to harness Nature, has thrown off its cloak to reveal that Man's baser Nature has harnessed Man. Or rather, some men have enslaved every other man using Nature. We have made machines the means of this warring, and to date have stockpiled a staggering quantity, potency, and variety of weaponry. Traditionally, we have never failed to use a newly synthesized weapon system on other men.
In the public arena, there is no longer discourse. Our "elected officials" argue incessantly, leading every debate down a long road to Morton's fork. We have traded ideology for ideas, policy for morality. In America, somehow we have traded a three-fold division of government (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial) for a two-fold, colluding dysnfunction of Republican and Democrat. History will not be kind.
So, if you feel the same way, read "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller. Also, if you disagree, read "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller. In either event, you will have a chilling, witty, and deeply human account of a fictional history much like our very real present that results in a new Dark Age. This is a great story, with a great message. The tale focuses on one particular order of monks and spans several thousand years as civilization is destroyed, re-discovered, re-built, and destroyed again. Dealing with complex issues in a simple way, the book explores seperation of church and state, science and faith, war, bioethics, monasticism, and a deep understanding of Christian vocation. The monks are tasked with preserving all known literature, both secular and holy. A word of caution, the political machinations used as the backdrop in "Canticle" will be eeirily familiar. Eeirie because the book was published in 1960.
One of the greatest facets of this book is that you could just read it for the story and theme, or grab a dictionary because Miller is above all else a wordsmith. You will learn new words, even in ancient languages, and be the better for it. He does not come off as pretentitious. His style, in fact, is a literary sleight-of-hand. As an example, when I finished it the first time, I said to myself, "Hey! I think that was sci-fi!"
Up next is the challenging "Nicomachean Ethics" of Arisotle and "The Abolition of Man" by C.S. Lewis, to whom I owe much in the early part of this post concerning Man and Nature.
So, take heart! I join all Book-leggers, Memorizers, Sports, and Texarkansans in saying in these dark days, "Sancta Leibowitz, ora pro nobis!"
Friday, January 15, 2010
Hiatus
"At least five times, therefore, with the Arian and Albigensian, and the Humanist skeptic, after Voltaire, and after Darwin, the Faith has by all appearance gone to the dogs. And in each of these five cases, it was the dog that died." -- G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man
Has it really been a week since last I blogged? It is 15 days into the experiment, and all has gone awry! Fifteen days, at 3.65 per would mean that I should be through 4.1 books. But I alas, I just closed the dust jacket on number three. Life happens. Then again, my romance of literature was late blossoming. This was all foreshadowed.
I didn't learn to read until I was well into the first grade. I was relegated to the "slow" readers' circle in elementary school. I just didn't seem to grasp letters and phonics. Then, it clicked. Although it is too long now to have a clear timeline, it was probably fairly closely matched to the discovery that I was, in fact, near-sighted, and required bifocals at the beginning of the second grade! Sight, after all, being a useful attribute for the act of reading...
And then, as if to make up for lost time, I began a torrid affair with books. The Hardy Boys series was devoured ravenously, plot by set-piece plot. I confess, I dabbled in Nancy Drew, and even when terribly hard-up, a Babysitter's Club. Certainly, I had not developed a distinguishing taste for good literature in those days.
Growing up in a smaller community, I had a close bond with the local library. Many an hour was spent in the stacks. I loved their books, and they loved the late fines I racked up in my absent-mindedness. I believe there may be a new wing named after me, erected solely with the trady taxes levied against me and paid by my mother most trips. Suffice it to say, I read and re-read nearly every book in the building I had any interest in.
It was not that I enjoyed books. I enjoyed them TOO much. When other kids were being grounded or lost TV privileges, I was getting books confiscated. My mom would summon me to dinner, but I was lost in my novel, oblivious to all around me. I learned to read in cars, upside down (a very useful skill in police work), after-dark (with flashlight), and most significantly- fast.
This skill, combined with my knowledge of a wide range of techno-thriller authors typically producing works in the 600-700 page range allowed me to dominate the "Reading Across America" reading contest in junior high. Tom Clancy, I still owe you a few fountain drinks at the Kerr McGee.
Books were an escape. It was exciting to enjoy a new book, and thus find a new favorite author, reading the rest of their repertoire. It was still more exhilarating to discover what authors influenced THOSE authors, to travel back by generations in literary geneology.
But to be a bibliophile can be a lonely business. The digital age has cut and cut and cut. This blog itself is evidence our reading is becoming diminutive. We no longer want the long version. "Gimme the Reader's Digest," is the frequent request. Who can take the time to read a full-length novel anymore? The avant garde, grad students, and other authors. And so, I found myself in the last few years reading less and less. Three kids and two jobs can do that. So too, the digital kudzu grows thick.
G.K. Chesterton's 'The Everlasting Man" has been placed back on the shelf. A fine, if windy read. Chesterton's style evokes a smoky conversation in a pub, preferably over Stout. It is jovial- almost jocular. His charm is his complete disregard for political correctness. He calls Darwinism a "dog". Really. He calls 'em, how he sees them, and somehow ends any major point on an uplifting note, so much so that my normally pessimistic outlook is buoyed by his accurate placement of our human predicament in the context of the history of the world. A great read for anyone who finds Christianity peculiar (it is), and therefore beautiful (it is).
And so it was that I found myself waiting for a court case while reading Walter Miller's "A Canticle for Liebowitz". This is one of my favorite books. More to come on this, but any American novel about the role of books, monasticism, and intrigue in a post-apocalyptic world is a timely read right now. Bank on it.
One can analyze my motivation for any of my more ridiculous and contrarian beliefs, but the motivation for this experiment is simple. I forgot how much I loved reading, and it's time I remembered.
Book on!
Has it really been a week since last I blogged? It is 15 days into the experiment, and all has gone awry! Fifteen days, at 3.65 per would mean that I should be through 4.1 books. But I alas, I just closed the dust jacket on number three. Life happens. Then again, my romance of literature was late blossoming. This was all foreshadowed.
I didn't learn to read until I was well into the first grade. I was relegated to the "slow" readers' circle in elementary school. I just didn't seem to grasp letters and phonics. Then, it clicked. Although it is too long now to have a clear timeline, it was probably fairly closely matched to the discovery that I was, in fact, near-sighted, and required bifocals at the beginning of the second grade! Sight, after all, being a useful attribute for the act of reading...
And then, as if to make up for lost time, I began a torrid affair with books. The Hardy Boys series was devoured ravenously, plot by set-piece plot. I confess, I dabbled in Nancy Drew, and even when terribly hard-up, a Babysitter's Club. Certainly, I had not developed a distinguishing taste for good literature in those days.
Growing up in a smaller community, I had a close bond with the local library. Many an hour was spent in the stacks. I loved their books, and they loved the late fines I racked up in my absent-mindedness. I believe there may be a new wing named after me, erected solely with the trady taxes levied against me and paid by my mother most trips. Suffice it to say, I read and re-read nearly every book in the building I had any interest in.
It was not that I enjoyed books. I enjoyed them TOO much. When other kids were being grounded or lost TV privileges, I was getting books confiscated. My mom would summon me to dinner, but I was lost in my novel, oblivious to all around me. I learned to read in cars, upside down (a very useful skill in police work), after-dark (with flashlight), and most significantly- fast.
This skill, combined with my knowledge of a wide range of techno-thriller authors typically producing works in the 600-700 page range allowed me to dominate the "Reading Across America" reading contest in junior high. Tom Clancy, I still owe you a few fountain drinks at the Kerr McGee.
Books were an escape. It was exciting to enjoy a new book, and thus find a new favorite author, reading the rest of their repertoire. It was still more exhilarating to discover what authors influenced THOSE authors, to travel back by generations in literary geneology.
But to be a bibliophile can be a lonely business. The digital age has cut and cut and cut. This blog itself is evidence our reading is becoming diminutive. We no longer want the long version. "Gimme the Reader's Digest," is the frequent request. Who can take the time to read a full-length novel anymore? The avant garde, grad students, and other authors. And so, I found myself in the last few years reading less and less. Three kids and two jobs can do that. So too, the digital kudzu grows thick.
G.K. Chesterton's 'The Everlasting Man" has been placed back on the shelf. A fine, if windy read. Chesterton's style evokes a smoky conversation in a pub, preferably over Stout. It is jovial- almost jocular. His charm is his complete disregard for political correctness. He calls Darwinism a "dog". Really. He calls 'em, how he sees them, and somehow ends any major point on an uplifting note, so much so that my normally pessimistic outlook is buoyed by his accurate placement of our human predicament in the context of the history of the world. A great read for anyone who finds Christianity peculiar (it is), and therefore beautiful (it is).
And so it was that I found myself waiting for a court case while reading Walter Miller's "A Canticle for Liebowitz". This is one of my favorite books. More to come on this, but any American novel about the role of books, monasticism, and intrigue in a post-apocalyptic world is a timely read right now. Bank on it.
One can analyze my motivation for any of my more ridiculous and contrarian beliefs, but the motivation for this experiment is simple. I forgot how much I loved reading, and it's time I remembered.
Book on!
Friday, January 8, 2010
Deciphering Percy
Walker Percy is my favorite author. So, finishing Lancelot last night was bittersweet. Bitter in that the book was finished, and I would have to read something else. Sweet because I so thoroughly enjoy his style and the depth of his writing. Bitter again, because it reminds me of Percy and our unfinished business.
Lancelot is a dangerous book. I can only imagine some of the reviews it must have received! While I love the book, one cannot read it cold. Without any knowledge of Percy, what he valued, what drove his curiosity, and how he viewed the calling of a novelist, one would be completely lost and certainly scandalized by his protagonist. Lancelot Andrewes Lamar is not an easy character to like. His odd views about society, and his ultimate search for the "Unholy Grail" will not sit well with moralists. Or Percy, but he writes the character so convincingly, one might believe he speaks for the author. ANd therein lies the danger. You must know Percy, and must read all the way to the climatic final scene with Percival to capture the novelist's intent.
Walker Percy was recommended to me by a professor my sophomore year of college. I am in that prof's debt. Once I read one, I had to hunt down all WP's works. After reading a few novels, I read a biography of Percy, Flannery O'Conner, and Thomas Merton entitled "The Lfie You Save Might Be Your Own". I learned Percy contracted tuberculosis after medical school, went to a sanatorium, began reading existentialist fiction, and converted to Catholicism due to the impression made by a college roommate's daily Mass devotion. I read his non-fictional essays, and found that his writing. both non-fiction and fiction, was really a search for the truth about our human condition. He used each genre to move closer to the center of the mystery that is Man, and in the end he answered mystery with mystery, like Job. Maybe that's why I like him.
He claimed, "The novelist writes about the coming end in order to warn about present ills and so avert the end....[but he] is less like a prophet than he is like the canary that coal miners used to take down into the shaft to test the air. When the canary gets unhappy, utters plaintive cries, and collapses, it may be time for the miners to surface and think things over..." I like that. He also noted that novelists, like filmmakers both enjoy "swinging the intellectual cat... doing anything he likes." I like that too.
Walker Percy was born May 28, 1916. He began writing in '62, and wrote Lancelot in 1977. I was born in 1981. In his youth, he became friends with Shelby Foote, destined to become another noted Southern writer, and the two (on a lark) drove to Oxford, Mississippi to meet William Faulkner. According to Percy's account, he lost his nerve, and watched from the car as Foote spoke at length with the famed author on the porch. Reading that, I had the urge in 2000 to drive to Louisiana and find Percy, to sit down with him and ask him only a hundred questions.
Percy died in 1990, a full decade before I discovered "The Last Gentleman" on a dusty library shelf in Winona, Minnesota. So, I never met him, and never drove to Louisiana on a lark. But when I read his works, he speaks. Maybe that's why I like him. Maybe that's why I like books.
Percy's back on the shelf for now, but I have Gilbert Keith Chesterson to keep me company, so no worries!
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