Literature Versus Fantasy Literature

Oftentimes fantasy literature is criticized exactly for being escapist; that it tries to create in people a feeling of another world they can go to and that distracts them from the important things they are supposed to be doing in this present world. I think there is a distinct and unpleasant whiff of the most repellent elements of Marxism and Leninism in that criticism of escape. ... It subordinates literature and it makes it a kind of propaganda, rather than a kind of art.

Michael C. Drout; Rings, Swords, and Monsters course

We don't need explanation about why I shared this do we? Preaching to the Choir, yep that's what we do here.

Ornamental Typography

Via BibliOdyssey

I truly love ornamental typography. Click through on the link to see many of the other letters in this alphabet.

Jezebel's Real Sin

This highlights again what happens when our eyes are opened by experience and context and we then turn them upon something old and familiar only to see it in entirely new light. It is from Agatha Christie's memoir of trips to Syria with her archaeologist husband shortly before World War II, Come Tell Me How You Live. It's one of my favorite books.

An immense dinner materializes in next to no time, and after it, tired and comfortable, with special delicacies in honor of holiday and Mac's arrival (Turkish Delight, preserved aubergines, bars of chocolate and cigars), we sit and talk, for once of subjects other than archaeology.

We come to the question of religions generally--a very vexed question in this particular part of the world, for Syria is full of fiercely fanatical sects of all kinds, all willing to cut each other's throats for the good cause! From there we fall to discussing the story of the Good Samaritan. All the Bible and New Testament stories take on a particular reality and interest out here. They are couched in the language and ideology which we hear daily all around us, and I am often struck by the way the emphasis sometimes shifts from what one has commonly accepted. As a small instance, it came to me quite suddenly that in the story of Jezebel, it is the painting of her face the or tiring of her hair that emphasizes in puritanical Protestant surroundings what exactly a "Jezebel" stands for. But out here it is not the painting and tiring--for all virtuous women paint their faces (or tattoo them), and apply henna to their hair--it is the fact that Jezebel looked out of the window--a definitely immodest act!

Landscape Alphabet

Early 20th century, L.E.M. Jones.

I love alphabets and the creative ways that artists find to display letters. When I first saw these I fell in love. It was really hard to choose which to include here to try to lure you into looking at all of them.

I love the C for the creative use of the ocean. I love the Y for the cows. I love the cottage and cottager hidden mid-Z, as well as the little pond at the bottom of the hill.

These can be found at the British Museum. Just click on a letter to see it up close. Their description is brief: "Series of 26 landscape scenes shaped as letters of the alphabet; rebound in a 20th-century binding."

Julie has an idea for a solid dance number but Scott is still recovering from jumping through that brick wall.

 We discuss Singin' in the Rain starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds. It's episode 385 of A Good Story is Hard to Find! Join us!

Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose

John Singer Sargent (1856–1925); Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose
via Wikipedia

I've run this a few times before but I love it so much that we're getting it again today.

Just Plain Fun Reading — Dungeon Crawler Carl

The apocalypse will be televised!

You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what.

Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show.

Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the Dungeon. Survival is optional. Keeping the viewers entertained is not.

Definitely silly, enjoyable fluff, especially since I love role playing computer games (Pillars of Eternity, Baldur's Gate 3, Divinity Original Sin 2, etc.). This book series is up to 8 volumes at this point. I read the first few on the Kindle and then turned to the excellent audio as the books got increasingly complicated. It's insanity, but inspired insanity and I was really surprised to find myself tearing up at the end of the seventh book.

This is a self publishing success, with the first book coming out in 2020 and Dinniman continuing to put out a book every year until eventually it was picked up by a traditional publisher. The series has sold almost 14 million copies. A tv show is in the works though I'm darned if I can see how they'll pull it off. I love the story of this author's success!

I also understand why people ask Dinniman to autograph their feet. Read the first book and all will be come clear.

A Marked Stop Brings Right Perception

Taking into account where he was, the interest that had first brought him there when he had been free to keep away, and the gentle presence that was equally inseparable from the walls and bars about him and from the impalpable remembrances of his later life which no walls nor bars could imprison, it was not remarkable that everything his memory turned upon should bring him round again to Little Dorrit. Yet it was remarkable to him; not because of the fact itself; but because of the reminder it brought with it, how much the dear little creature had influenced his better resolutions.

None of us clearly know to whom or to what we are indebted in this wise, until some marked stop in the whirling wheel of life brings the right perception with it. It comes with sickness, it comes with sorrow, it comes with the loss of the dearly loved, it is one of the most frequent uses of adversity.

Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit

I read this to Tom and he said, "That is just simply true." Yes. It is. Little Dorrit ... what a book.

The Valkyrie

The Valkyrie via Brandywine Books

Ceres, Queen of the Asteroid Belt

Ceres, Queen of the Asteroid Belt, JPL Visions of the Future posters

This always makes me think of  Leviathan Wakes. We have a few of this poster series in our hallway. I love all of them.

From NASA/JPL Visions of the Future, a wonderful series of "what if" travel posters.

Ceres is the closest dwarf planet to the Sun. It is the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, with an equatorial diameter of about 965 kilometers. After being studied with telescopes for more than two centuries, Ceres became the first dwarf planet to be explored by a spacecraft, when NASA's Dawn probe arrived in orbit in March 2015. Dawn's ongoing detailed observations are revealing intriguing insights into the nature of this mysterious world of ice and rock.

Human science and God's science

Human science is but the backward undoing of the tapestry web of God's science. ... Is oxygen and hydrogen the divine idea of water? There is no water in oxygen, no water in hydrogen; it comes bubbling fresh from the imagination of the living God, rushing from under the great white throne of the glacier. The very thought of it makes one gasp with elemental joy.

George MacDonald

That idea of picking apart God's tapestry is so apt. Science has its own delights, but in this context it does take the wonder away from nature to think of water as molecules. It makes me think of C.S. Lewis's book Out of the Silent Planet where he pulls from the medieval mindset and makes one feel the wonder and joy and life of outer space instead of the vacuum that we learn first from modern science. It really is all about context.

Feast of the Transfiguration

Theophanes the Greek. The Transfiguration. Early 15th century.

Christ's Tabor radiance is a kind of mirror in which we glimpse the glory that God wills to give his friends. The resplendence of the Transfiguration reveals the fullness of life destined to be ours. The Transfiguration invites us to configuration. We peer into the glory that pours from every pore of the transfigured Christ, we cast off everything unworthy of our personal relationship with the Infinite, and we take on the luster of the Son of God. Jesus gazes back at us with a luminous look of love that make us desire to live his transparent beauty -- to be luminaries. Silently from Tabor's splendor, the Savior begs: "Become what you behold!"

Meditation from Magnificat 

What is revealed here is not only the glory of pure, angelic spirit, but of the spirit through the body, glory of the spiritualized body of man. Not the glory of God alone, not a piece of disclosed heaven, not only the sheen of the Lord as it hovered over the ark of the covenant, but the glory of the God-Logos in the Son of Man. Life above live and death; life of the body, but issue of the spirit; life of the spirit, but issue of the Logos; life of the man Jesus, but issue of the Son of God.

Romano Guardini, The Lord

The Hammock

The Hammock, Joseph Rodefer DeCamp, 1895

Yes, please! Except it's too hot here in Texas (103 yesterday). But when it cools off some, I sure love a hammock.

And the Winner Is — 1947

 Our family is working our way through Oscar winners and whichever nominees take our fancy. Also as they are available, since some films are hard to find. 

We zoomed through this set since we'd seen three of them already and simply couldn't bear the thought of watching the other two — The Yearling (Old Yeller with a deer) and Henry V (even with Olivier we just didn't care).

WINNER

Three very different men return from their time at war only to discover that they have been unalterably changed by their experiences. Can they and their families adjust? I loved knowing that families all over America watched this movie and saw that they weren't alone in their struggles. A truly great film.

 NOMINEES

Simply wonderful and equally good to the winner, in its own way.

A young man, traumatized by his experiences in WWI, rejects conventional life and seeks deep meaning while his frivolous, rich friends experience many setbacks in life. Just as painful as the description makes it sound.

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All the Oscar viewing is here.