Follow-up re: Amazon's brain improvement tool

This is a follow-up post to Leslie's query about the Kindle. I think I agree with this commentary at The American Prospect. (And I am really loosing my luddite edge--which would be a blunt edge, I guess... I just figured out how to put a link in a post!) Be well!

Beowulf Movie...

Leslie has been asking me to post my thoughts on the new Beowulf movie, so I'm offering the following.

I saw Beowulf (the movie), but I'm hesitant to post any sort of review; there are already so many Anglo-Saxonist (and other medievalist) voices out there talking about it, I don't think I would add much to the many thoughts. I recommend reading a few that have sparked certain amounts of resonance with what I thought about the movie. Here are some names and links to their reviews and thoughts. Beware of plot spoilers.
Michael Drout
Dr. Virago
Jennifer Lynn Jordan (another newly acquainted blogging medieval studies grad student)

The review I most resonate with is Mary Kate Hurley's, over at ITM, not so much for its general perceptions, but for her discussion of what such an adaptation means for the long and continuing history of Beowulf. It's a beautiful post, with great reflections on the life of the poem. She's put into words some of the things I was searching for in my "Prevailing Poetry," and she says them better than I could.

I was was having a conversation with one of my friends in the English MA here at UConn about the Beowulf movie, which then moved into a discussion about translations. Toward the end of the conversation, he mentioned how fascinating it is to realize that we always go back to the Old English poem. Although we keep translating, over and over, those translations still need reworked after a time, the old renderings set aside, the new ones reworked for a new audience. He said that he thinks this was the goal of Seamus Heaney with his translation--to provide a new rendering that spoke to the audience of everyone, not only English majors who would read the poem but also anyone who wanted to pick up the poem and enjoy it. Then he hinted that, someday, even Heaney's translation will be set aside for a new one. But we will always return to the original text, the Anglo-Saxon words that still speak to us and fascinate us from over one thousand years ago. And I think that this life--the life of a poem that keeps speaking to us--is the one that MKH is alluding to in her post. That life is not ended. I especially think the last words of her post speak most powerfully of her reflections:

Maybe there's something yet to learn from this Beowulf, beyond Angelina Jolie's nudity and Beowulf's bad lines. Maybe it can speak to something more than the sum of the parts of the past it inherited. Maybe its resurrection at this cultural moment is itself of value. And maybe we're too close -- temporally, spiritually -- to see this movie for what it might be: another performance of a poem whose ending has not been written yet.

As to my own opinion about the movie, I mostly enjoyed it--as a movie. Walking into the theater, I set aside my critical nature as someone who dissects texts as well as my Anglo-Saxonist side, and I went in hoping to watch and enjoy a movie based upon a story I have loved since I was ten years old. As both a movie and an interpretation, of course it had flaws. Gaiman and Avery made interesting interpretive moves that clearly brought out certain parts of the poem, at the expense of certain other aspects. Of course, those moves also brought out certain aspects that were important to put into the movie. The central plot change--of the relationships between the monsters--helped to smooth over the poem into a more unified poem, with a plot line that moved with connections to everything previously--a sense found in the poem only in the character of Beowulf, not in the actual plot. Of course, this should have been expected, given the nature of plot-driven Hollywood films. I never expected a movie exactly corresponding to the poem; we can never expect that of a movie. But we can at least find certain merits (Grendel's mother playing a philological game with Beowulf's name, the integration of Christian and pagan elements, the postmodern questions about storytelling, to name just a few) for watching the movie and engaging in discussion about it.

[Cross-Posted at Point of Know Return.]

Gift from God or mark of the beast?

Or maybe not either extreme...I just wanted to get this link out for somethoughts on Amazon's new Kindle. Please, my friends and fellow bibliophiles, go and read some of the page and watch their little videos.

How does one react?

[The wannabe-independent-bookstore-owner in me cries out in frustration and despair.]

Friendship, deals and murder.

Scary title, eh? All that for this:

Levity somewhat aside, I must apologize for the image as my drawing and my photography thereof can really only go so far. In my mind Grendel is far more than a simply humanoid monster. He isn't even a perversion of humanity in the sense of Tolkien's orcs [or whichever is which], but really he is a grotesque human. He has lived on the outskirts of humanity, feasting on the self-pity and hate and jealousy that created him, or defiled his lineage, to the point where he chose to refuse the standard signs of humanity. He wears no clothing and does not speak in words. His bones are more solid than twenty men together [good thing Beowulf is strong as thirty, right?], and he has not stopped growing and changing [much like a lizard, ew]. His skin has hardened and toughened from this miserable life to the point where he is more of a pallid fleshy granite. While ridiculously strong [ripping folks asunder and all that], he isn't all body-builder but lithe and still thin from a sick sort of malnutrition. His hands and feet, the strongest points of his skin yet, are calloused to the point of being unfeeling beyond the knowledge of grasping a victim. As you can see I did choose to accentuate both the hands and the feet but also the rib-cage...I don't know why that is part of it, but it is.

I am the least happy with his face and head--not abnormally sized or shaped, just lacking color and general expression. You can see he is frowning [perhaps in thought as he wonders which part to munch first], but I don't imagine him drooling or screaming at all times. Grendel is a representative of pure isolation and antisocial ways and is thereby unable to be content or happy and, therefore in my mind, has become a sort of sullen anger at all times. A profoundly sad rage.

Not that I really have any pity. I just don't think the opposite of good humour and fellowship is anger. I think it is misery and that is why he acts [he hears them partying and gets a little p-oed] as he does.

Make sense? Sorry the text, my favored medium, isn't wholly aesthetically pleasing or coherent. I figured it was good to get this out before I forgot again and someone [coughbrandoncough] threw a hissy fit.

Anyway, this is my Grendel...as crummy as it may be.

--Leslie

[Cross posted at Box of Chaos. In reference to this post at PoKR.]

Prevailing Poetry...

In case any of you are interested, I've posted the contents of my paper presentation about representations of Beowulf in popular culture over at Point of Know Return. It's a three-part series, in light of the upcoming movie.

While visions of Grendel danced in their heads...

Recently, I was talking to a colleague in the medieval studies department here at UConn about the new Beowulf movie, and we hit upon what we think is a very interesting project to undertake. As happy (or unhappy, for some people) as we are to see Anglo-Saxon literature hitting the big screen, it will, like all movies, present an interpretation of the material that will influence a far greater audience than any of the others. Because of this, my friend and I proposed the Grendel Drawing Project to our department. In the same spirit, I'm also proposing the project to readers and contributors of this blog in the hopes that you all will help me in this effort.

Grendel is not described in much detail in the Anglo-Saxon text, and because of this, readers' conceptions of him vary widely. So what does your Grendel look like? Because of this, I'm looking to get as many people as possible to draw Grendel for me, using whatever media they wish. It does not matter whether you can draw well or not--we simply want to see your version. I'd like to use these images in a future project, probably as part of my ongoing fascination with the Beowulf story in popular consciousness. I'm interested (before the movie taints your visions of Grendel) in how many people view the creature in their minds.

I know it's a busy part of the semester for everyone, but in the next few weeks, could you take time out of your schedule to draw up your vision of Grendel? This is supposed to be a fun project, so let your imagination loose! Please feel free to spread the word, too (as I could use images from anyone who has read the poem). If you find the time, email your image to me at: brandonwhawk [at] gmail [dot] com.

[Cross-posted at Point of Know Return.]

Because we're all wading throught he quagmire of life right now...

...here's a little [emphasis on little] motivation...

[And silliness]

*knocks some cobwebs from the corners*

Okay folks, I think it is time to make a few things very clear. Two things, in particular, need addressing. One is that this poor blog is in desperate need of company [it is no good to ignore such a handy device of communication]. The second is that we have also been ignoring an up and coming piece of media that, perhaps, we all should be paying close attention to.

This piece of media is the newest adaptation of Beowulf.

Now, if you're sitting there with your mouth slightly agape and scratching your head saying, "they made another one?" I will inform you, sadly, yes. They have made yet another Beowulf film, one that chills me to my core. To glean more on the subject, here is a trailer link: http://video.uk.msn.com/v/en-gb/v.htm

[Edit to include movie site which now has many clips to watch: http://www.beowulfmovie.com/]

Go. Watch. Maybe try and find some of the other trailers on Youtube. Then, my friends...then we shall talk.

Curiousity Assuaged

Catalog copy (Oxford University Press, no less) for a new book by Richard North on the origins of Beowulf caught my eye. The review of the book by Michael Lapidge (http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/lapidge.html) satisfied my curiousity (and saved me the price of the book). Caveat lector.

Titles I left behind

The kids and I have just returned from over a month in England, and in cramming our belongings and acquisitions into our semi-expandable luggage, some things had to be left. Among them were a few books--left only because some future occupants of the HC flats may pick them up and read them. I'll mention two of them here in case they are of interest to you.

1. Dissolution by C.J. Sansom.
This is a novel set at the time of the dissolution of monasteries (1538 or so) by Henry VIII (boo hiss); the central character is a hunchbacked lawyer named Matthew Shardlake who is sent to investigate the sudden execution-like death of another 'commissioner' sent to prod the abbot of a south-coast monastery into voluntarily surrendering to the crown. It's a mediocre novel, but pretty good social history. It's interesting too in that the author tries to present the very real tensions between the shortcomings of the existing, exhausted monasticism, and the excesses of the emerging, brutal reformist impulses. For those interested in a creative interpretation of social history, I recommend the title, and will probably read at least one more in what appears will be a series.

2. Without roots: the west, relativism, Christianity, Islam by Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) and Marcello Pera, an Italian philosopher turned politician.

In this volume, two lectures (one by each author) are published along with letters between the two. The topic is the role that Christianity has played in the development of European culture and the difficulties that contemporary European politicians are having in understanding and framing that role (particularly in the language of legal frameworks for the EU). I valued the insight it gave me into the current occupant of the Holy See; also, as the other author is an agnostic academic, it was interesting to see the similarities in their arguments that contemporary Europe must acknowledge and re-embrace it's Christian heritage. Both point out, for example, that the heritage of tolerance that allows Islamic intolerance (not that all Muslims are intolerant, but that strain is of particular concern) is a Christian heritage, and that the tension between accepting difference but insisting on reciprocity will require difficulty confrontations. I recommend it.

Sorry this is slim on details, but it's time for the sweet corn to go in the pot! (There are a FEW things that Western NY has that England has not :-)

Er...

I honestly don't know how I feel about this.

http://www.lulu.com/

Thoughts?

Anglo-Saxons in Music...

I recently (re)found and (re)started listening to a band that I've listened to on and off for a while now, known as The Mountain Goats, and in doing so I got a few more of their albums. On the albums, I found a few songs that may be of interest, titled "The Anglo-Saxons" and "Grendel's Mother." While I was listening and thinking about the intersection of medieval and our contemporary music, I also remembered that in the Anglo-Saxon course with MLP he compared a song by Bob Dylan to the Old English poem "The Wanderer"--mostly for some of their similarities in elegiac style and thematic elements.

I'm posting the lyrics to the songs by The Mountain Goats (below), but I also want to ask a few questions and get some reactions and ruminations:
What are your reactions to these songs, especially in their content and connection to the Anglo-Saxons and their culture, as well as Beowulf (in the case of "Grendel's Mother")?
Where else are their connections and intersections of the medieval and popular music--a la Bob Dylan, etc.--that we can point to and discuss? Any thoughts on these intersections? I would hazard a guess that this whole idea connects to our discussions of neomedievalism (such as medieval concepts in postmodern popular literature and movies), but what other reactions and thoughts might you have about these? Furthermore, what sort of concepts do these musical connections to the Middle Ages present about oral transmission, oral art, and poetry in culture? Any thoughts are welcome!

Here are the lyrics by The Mountain Goats:

The Anglo-Saxons

[Spoken:] "We'd like to dedicate this song to our friends, the former inhabitants of the British isles!"

[Sung:] They used to paint their bodies blue,
A couple of them might be distantly related to you.
According to Caesar they shaved their entire bodies,
Except for the upper lip and the head.

Yeah, the Anglo-Saxons!
Yeah, the Anglo-Saxons!

A sub-literate bunch of guys,
Though some sources say otherwise.
Yeah, the Anglo-Saxons!

Yeah, they were men on a mission,
Preserving their poetry by oral tradition.
Yeah, oral tradition is all you get
Until Saint Augustine brought in the alphabet.

Yeah, the Anglo-Saxons!
Yeah, the Anglo-Saxons!
In 1065 they were ragin',
But 1066 brought the Norman Invasion.
Yeah, the Anglo-Saxons!

Grendel's Mother

The cave mouth shines
By pure force of will.
I look down on the world
From the top of this lonesome hill.
And you can run, and run some more
From here all the way to Singapore,
But I will carry you home in my teeth.

In the great hall you drink red wine,
You chew meat off the bone.
I beat down the new path to the castle,
I come naked and alone.
I laid my son on the bier; I burned the wreath,
Fire overhead, water underneath.
You can stand up, or you can run,
You and I both know what you've done,
And I will carry you home.
I will carry you home.
I will carry you home in my teeth.

Redirection to Medieval Sheep...

Several months ago, I mentioned Michael Drout's research in comparing the DNA of medieval ms vellum, which he talked about over at Wormtalk and Slugspeak. In his latest post, he's expounded a few more details and given an update on how the research is going so far. It's fascinating, and looks to lend quite an innovative aspect to interdisciplinary work and the field of medieval studies. Go check out the post for more information.

ITM Book Club...

Some of you may be interested in this post and this post over at ITM (if you don't get to regularly check it out)--announcing an online book club & discussion focused on various aspects of the Middle Ages. I just received the first book in the mail (which I found more than 50% reduced from a seller over at Amazon--perhaps you can find as good a deal if you hurry!), and it's already fascinating reading. Even if you're not into cannibalism (but, really, who wouldn't be?), keep your eyes out for future books, as some of the suggestions look like great reads.

More on What Jack Says...

Following the last thread on Lewis's views of mythology and literature, I dug out a correspondence from a few years ago. It came from Perry Bramlett (a Lewis scholar), who visited Houghton and gave a seminar on Lewis. When I asked him about Lewis's views on myth, he promised to email me; the following was his response. Perhaps it will help focus anyone who wants to read up on Lewis--especially for those who have his woks handy. (Consider the rest of this post quoted from Bramlett's email.)

Walter Hooper's "C S Lewis: Companion & Guide" (if you can find it in the library or order it) has several discussions of Lewis and mythology. And "The C S Lewis Readers' Encyclopedia" (which I wrote for) has a good article (by Wayne Martindale of Wheaton College) on "Lewis and myth."

Lewis mentioned mythology several times in his writings, and some of these are:

1) In "The Weight of Glory" (chap 5) he mentioned mythology and paganism...

2) In the same book (chap 1) he had a quote about mythology and poetry...

3) In "God in the Dock" (pp 57-58, 66-67, 83-84, 132) he mentions mythology as the precursor to Biblical religion...

4) In "Surprised By Joy" (chap 7) he refers to Christianity as the Christian mythology... In the same book (chap 5) he mentions that in mythology he was almost sent back to the false gods to acquire some capacity for worship...

5) In "Reflections on the Psalms" (chap 10) he mentions the death and rebirth pattern in mythology as not accidental and that it teaches the truth that humans must undergo some sort of death in order to truly live...

6) In his "Letters" (24 Oct 1931) he mentions that the desire for a "vague something" as seen in pagan mythology shows a first and rudimentary form of the "idea of God"

7) In "The Weight of Glory" (chap 5) he says that if Christianity is a mythology it is not the one he likes the best... (This was before he became a Christian; he said he liked Greek, Irish and Norse mythology better)

Jack says this...

Conversation with someone (probably one of the R47 group) led me to pick up Gordon MacDonald's Phantastes this weekend. The edition we had on the shelf includes an adaptation of Lewis's introduction to an earlier (1946) anthology of MacDonald's work. The intro is interesting; Lewis pulls no punches in pointing out MacD's limitations:

• The texture of his writing as a whole is undistinguished, at times fumbling. Bad pulpit traditions cling to it; there is sometimes a nonconformist verbosity, sometimes an old Scotch weakness for florid ornament...

Yet for all this, Lewis avers that MacDonald writes fantasy better than anyone else--but that creates a problem for the critic: what is fantasy, after all? Is what MacDonald accomplishes properly a literary art? Lewis' reason for asking this introduces a take on the relationship between myth and literature--indeed, between myth and language--that I would love to discuss with R47-ers and their ilk. Lewis again:

• The critical problem with which we are confronted is whether this art--the art of myth-making--is a species of the literary art. The objection to so classifying it is that the Myth does not essentially exist in words at all. We all agree that the story of Balder is a great myth, a thing of inexhaustible value. But of whose version -- whose words -- are we thinking when we say this? ... For my own part, the answer is that I am not thinking of any one's words. No poet...has told this story supremely well. I am not thinking of any particular version of it. If the story is anywhere embodied in words, that is almost an accident. What really delights and nourishes me is a particular pattern of events, which could equally delight and nourish if it had reached me by some medium which involved no words at all.

Lewis goes on to say that this independence from the words distinguishes myth from poetry. Again, he says it best:

• In poetry the words are the body and the 'theme' or 'content' is the soul. But in myth, the imagined events are the body and something inexpressible is the soul: the words, or mime, or film, or pictorial series are not even the clothes--they are not much more than a telephone.

He goes on to say that myths get under our skin, 'shock us more fully awake,' cause us to question all that we hold certain. They give us delight, wisdom, and strength that we never anticipated. So herewith a few questions:

1. Are you with Jack on this one? (And how does this work with J Campbell's and others' takes on myth?
2. Where do you draw the line around what is and isn't myth, what's primary and what derivative (and where does JRRT fit on that scale?)?
3. Thinking about part of the BABEL project discussion, can he be right in saying that words themselves might not even be needed? (I myself am skeptical on that one -- but I am admittedly logocentric.)

Be well, and post!

Redirection...

For a brief summary of my honors thesis that in turn led to another post pontificating on general thoughts on neomedievalism and its implications for our culture, head over to Point of Know Return: Part I and Part II. Please feel free to leave comments there or extend your comments into a responsive post here.

Where have all the mead halls gone...

...and where are all the bards?

Pop-culture references aside, I have recently realized that thinking about mead halls saddens me.

Why?

Perhaps it is because I am a dreamer with an eye inclined to the heroic, the fantastic, and the charm of things old-worldly. Or perhaps I am wishing for what the mead halls represent: pride, togetherness and a fine oral tradition. Either way, the buildings are no more.

In their steads we have fast food restaurants, diners and the various and sundry bars and pubs. No more does the community get together because they are a community and share that bond. The annual chicken barbeque is close enough. Lost in individual lives, food is tasty but serious meals are a waste of time. Our time-charged consumermobiles drive us from point to point, picking up burgers on the way.

Being a self-proclaimed writer of sorts, I find this disheartening on a number of levels. One is the fact that everything has managed to balance the appearance of being dynamic with a static and homogenized reality that nothing actually seems to happen--nothing worth immortalizing. Birth, growth, school, work and death, with a light chance of success and a smattering of relationships. Another is that, by downplaying the importance of meals and togetherness, individually and as a whole, the would-be bards are ostracized to dark corners and holes to dig up materials for the next contest or open mic night. The bard becomes disconnected rather than immersed, tolerated rather than welcomed.

Food cannot be blamed for it all, though I maintain it plays its own role in the problem. It is also that, in the race to win any more, a body needs so much information with immediacy and in abundance. We have ready access. With food, knowledge and even networked relationships flying hither and yon at the speed of irradiated humming birds, the attention span slips slowly thorugh mechanized processers, diminishing. Bards, for all of their love, interest and care for their communities, have no place here. The places closest to their beloved halls are regular bar stools or the table set aside for the coffee regulars in some small-town diner. Through there has never been such a capacity for communication, people have become distant and dazed. Some lose the ability for apt face-to-face discussions, while others never are given the chance to learn.

Never before has the village that raises the child been so hands-off. In disconnecting ourselves, we have lost our feel for the underlying themes and strings that bind humans together. Ye olde truths and tales from the bard are become relics--shiny baubles and memories of past eras. How quaint.

It seems that communications galore have closed off our minds. People no longer talk with the stars or walk with the gods. The man who swam in the sea last week has met no mermaids and has slain no krakkens.

Like he said...

Hey All,

Pop over to Point of Know Return for a refreshing read of an old standard.

Thanks to Leslie for the loan of the Hitchhiker's Guide omnibus--earth was just detroyed, and I'm sure there's much fun ahead.

What will be our next task?

Credits, Rolling!

These are the members of Riddle 47. Left to right we have Dr. Mark, our fearless leader; Brandon, our actual obsessor; Mandy, our leading femnist scholar; Janie, our resident horse lover and psych person; and me, also known as Leslie, the token daydreamer.

These people are brilliant. Heed what they say and ponder it. You can even laugh sometimes--don't worry. They haven't figured out how to kill you with their brains.

...yet...

[Picture by me. I'm also the token doodling fool.]

The first shall be last...

Well, I don't think God had procrastination in mind when He wrote that one... but since I was the first to suggest this and the last to post, I thought it an appropriate title.
So I'm finally taking the time to recommend books, since I've been shamed into it. They are all pretty light-hearted, since that's what I'm in the mood for currently.

1. The Prisoner of Zenda. This is a classic gothic romance, and a favorite of mine, but not at all a serious book. If you don't already know the plot, it is as follows: English man (highly superior by nature) travels to foreign country and while walking into the woods, comes face to face with the soon to be crowned king. Astonishingly, they look exactly alike! That night (the eve of his inauguration), the king is kidnapped, so that the evil man next in line for the throne can take over in his absence. Englishman steps in, and is inaugurated under the pretence of actually being the king. Being naturally superior (he is an Englishman, after all), he is a very good king...but will he help restore the throne to the rightful king?

2. The Crocodile in the Sandbank, by Elizabeth Peters. This is the first book in the Amelia Peabody series. The main character, Amelia Peabody is an intrepid, bloomer-wearing, feminism spouting, Victorian Englishwoman who has just inherited a tidy sum of money, and spurning matrimony, decides to travel the world. On the way she picks up a "fallen woman" in Rome and the attracts the attentions of a reanimated mummy in Egypt. The series spoofs all kinds of books, from the detective mystery, to the Victorian comedy of manners, to the Prisoner of Zenda-type romance (in fact, I think in one of the later books, she actually reads the Prisoner of Zenda). Underneath the spoof, however, Elizabeth Peters manages to weave in a lot of the concerns of feminism and postcolonialism, especially in the later books (in fact, the middle couple books in the series are my favorites).

3. Speak. by Laurie Halse Anderson. Ok, so this isn't lighthearted. And you may have all read it already, but I suddenly felt the need to recommend it. This is one of the best adolescent books I have ever read, and if you haven't read it, you need to. It would be diffucult to do justice to the plot in just a little blub, so I'll just let you look it up on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Speak-Laurie-Halse-Anderson/dp/014131088X/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-9490063-3798440?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174528455&sr=8-2


Bonus: since I waited so long, I decided to give you a bonus (on a slightly more scholarly level)-- the introduction to Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex. Also, under the topic of medieval stuff, I just finished taking notes from Rape and Ravishment in the Literature of Medieval England, by Corinne Saudners, and it was really interesting, if a bit gruesome.

You might not run across these...

Three books, not already read or discussed by the R47 crew. Well, here are three you may not have run across: a Swedish novel, a work of theology, and a Lewis novel (OK, we may all have read it--but not discussed it).

Den keltiska ringen by Bjorn Larsson. I read books in Swedish when I can to keep from losing touch with that language. This novel is available in translation, though I have no idea how good the translation is. The novel's narrator is an unrooted Swede who lives alone on a sailboat in a Danish harbor. A chance meeting on a ferry, and unsought custody of a doomed Finnish sailor's log book send Ulf and his loner friend Torben (a bookworm with an interest in all things Celtic) on a dangerous sail across to North Sea into a series of near-fatal encounters with political and religious branches of a pan-Celtic revival. It's a pretty good adventure--pushes the limits of my nautical vocabulary in Swedish, so I'm glad I didn't have to translate it. As I was finishing the book, I caught an article in a Swedish newspaper reporting a resurgence of Scottish separatism. Once gain, fiction is prophetic!

Flame of Love by Clark Pinnock. This book is a theology of the Holy Spirit. I'm glad I read it because it forced me to think about the role of the Spirit in the trinity. It is contains some beautiful articulations of Arminian theology's wide and geneours vision of God's grace. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on Trinity (1) , Creation (2) and (especially) Universality (6).

Until we have faces by C.S. Lewis. So maybe everyone has read it already. I think I had started it a couple of times, but I decided to see it through when I was sick an couple of weeks ago. I'm glad I finished it this time, and find it interesting on a couple of levels. I'm mostly intrigued by Lewis' handling of myth. Someday I would like to read it with a group; the episode where the narrator discovers the shrine to the "newly godded" Psyche would be fun to discuss.

Three Books...

In response to the challenge, I give three books, with a little explanation for each. I couldn't decide to recommend only fiction or nonfiction, so I gave three books, each in a different category -- one fiction, one theological, and one literary criticism -- all three of which have affected my thinking. Consequently, this is the order in which I first read them.

1) The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
A novel about a non-conformist architect, this novel follows the protagonist and the main antagonist in their parallel lives. Based mostly on Rand's ideals of Objectivism (her self-made philosophy), this book is a full of story, literary greatness, and provocative concepts to make the reader think.

2) Four Views on Hell edited by William Crockett
Based on Christian views of Hell, this book explores the four major ways of approaching the subject: literal, metaphorical, purgatorial, and conditional. Each chapter is written by the proponent of one of the views, followed by brief responses by each of the other three writers. A good book for anyone interested in Christian theology/philosophy, especially the nature and views of Hell in Christian circles.

3) Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays by Northrop Frye
Four essays on critical thought, drawing on much previous criticism and the tradition of literary history. These four essays touch on historical, ethical, archetypal, and rhetorical criticism as Frye looks at Western literature as forming one great arc of tradition -- difficult to summarize in short, but worth the read for anyone interested in literary theory.

Leslie goes a-listing!

And thusly our suggestions begin to pour forth. My selection is a combining of a current focus and things that I just happen to think are fabulous that I saw sitting on my school shelf. All three are fiction but highly edifying nonetheless.

First and foremost - The Man Who was Thursday by Gilbert Kieth Chesterton.
Not only does this book have one of the most fabulous titles known to man, it is a fascinatingly twisted mystery that makes you wonder. The dialogue is powerful and do I even have to mention the anarchists?

Suggestion the next - Lillith by George MacDonald.
This is not necessarily an easy read, but more than well worth the time. MacDonald's descriptions are vivid and bring to life his magnificent characters and deeply immerses you in his world. It is fairly clear, I would say, why Lewis (as in C. S.) was attracted to his writing. If you're into theological concepts surrounding prayer or Lillith as Adam's first wife, there is a whole other layer for you to explore.

Last but in no way least - Dracula by Bram Stoker.
I adore this novel. It has been long enough that I don't think I can manage quite to explain how or why, but it is fascinating. Plus, a character in it, bet you cannot guess which one, is based on Vlad the Impaler. How cool is that?

Thar ya be. Happy reading.

The Book-Hoard

"If we encounter a man of great intellect, we should ask him what books he reads."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Since we are all admitted bibliophiles, I thought that it would be appropriate for our first discussion to be a reading list. ;~)
(This is mostly an excuse for me to add more books to my list...)
So here's the challenge:
List 3 books that you think are highly recommendable. My only stipulations are:

1. No books you know we've already all read.
2. No books that we've discussed extensively (in other words, Neil Gaimon is a given. As is Hero with a Thousand Faces).
3. No repeats (you can second another person's opinion, but you still have to come up with your own list)

I can't wait to see what we come up with! (and now I have to stop avoiding my work...)

Beoð ge gesunde!

As I write this, our first post, I am merely the scribe among poets; yet I speak for the whole of our group as I present our statement of purpose:
A continuation of the Old English/Old Norse reading group, begun in Autumn, Ano Domini 2005, by a group of scholar-servants at Houghton College, as an effort to prolong our connections after graduation and the parting of our fellowship. The posts on this blog will come mostly from our moments of epiphany and inspiration, as well as the desire to share random knowledge, recommendations, etc.