Samuel R. Delaney has talked about the importance of reading protocols, and reading SF as SF. I tend to read everything as SF. ...What Walton means by saying she reads everything as SF is that she is always aware of contextual clues that give her hints as to what the world in the book is like.
People talk about SF as a literature of ideas, as if you can't find ideas in Middlemarch or The Hunt for Red October. I don't think it's so much the literature of ideas as the literature of worldbuilding.
In a science fiction novel, the world is a character, and often the most important character.
In a mainstream novel, the world is implicitly our world, and the characters are the world.
In a mainstream novel trying to be SF, this gets peculiar and can make the reading experience uneven.Jo Walton, What Makes This Book So Great
Miss Bates…had never boasted either beauty or cleverness. Her youth had passed without distinction, and her middle of life was devoted to the care of a failing mother, and the endeavour to make a small income go as far as possible. And yet she was a happy woman, and a woman whom no one named without good-will. It was her own universal goodwill and contented temper which worked such wonders. She loved every body, was interested in every body’s happiness and quick-sighted to every body’s merits; thought herself a most fortunate creature, and surrounded with blessings in such an excellent mother and so many good neighbours and friends, and a home that wanted for nothing. The simplicity and cheerfulness of her nature, her contented and grateful spirit, were a recommendation to every body and a mine of felicity to herself.Would that I could do as well as Miss Bates under similar circumstances. She would have driven me just as crazy as she drove Emma with her non-stop twittering. But it helped keep everyone around her both kind in return and generous against her poverty and need. And gave them an excellent example for their own lives.
Jane Austen, Emma
The lesson I learned from my years with the Muslim Brotherhood was the power of a unifying story, embedded in the foundational texts of Islam, to attract, engage and mobilise the Muslim masses. Unless we offer something as meaningful, I fear the erosion of our civilisation will continue. And fortunately, there is no need to look for some new-age concoction of medication and mindfulness. Christianity has it all.Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her story from faith to atheism and back to faith again, albeit a different one. It is a story worth considering for the times in which we live. Definitely read the whole thing.
That is why I no longer consider myself a Muslim apostate, but a lapsed atheist. Of course, I still have a great deal to learn about Christianity. I discover a little more at church each Sunday. But I have recognised, in my own long journey through a wilderness of fear and self-doubt, that there is a better way to manage the challenges of existence than either Islam or unbelief had to offer.
When we wish to correct with advantage, and to show another that he errs, we must notice from what side he views the matter, for on that side it is usually true, and admit that truth to him, but reveal to him the side on which it is false. He is satisfied with that, for he sees that he was not mistaken, and that he only failed to see all sides. Now, no one is offended at not seeing everything; but one does not like to be mistaken, and that perhaps arises from the fact that man naturally cannot see everything, and that naturally he cannot err in the side he looks at, since the perceptions of our senses are always true.Ayaan Hirsi Ali's piece is a splendid example of the journey from believing what you are told to examining both sides for yourself and living based on those conclusions.
People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.
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| Paul Coventry-Brown, Still Life with Lemons |
There’s no happy ending ... Nevertheless, we might well say that is exactly Harriet Beecher Stowe’s point. In 1852 slavery had not been abolished. Slaves were still on the plantations and many of them were in the hands of people like Legree. Her book was written to shame the collective conscience of America into action against an atrocity which was still continuing. So a happy ending would have been, frankly, a lie and a betrayal. ...Shippey only had a half hour discussion of Uncle Tom as a hero and so he glossed over some of the things with which one could take issue in his statement. For example, I'd say that Stowe was trying to provide a role model for all of us, often in the slaves she wrote about, but you have to look at it with a Christian focus to see that clearly.
Most of the charges are basically true. Stowe did stereotype. She did sentimentalize. She offered a role model which later offended African American pride. On the other hand, what she did worked. She wasn’t trying to provide a role model for African Americans. She was trying to make white Americans ashamed of themselves. ...
Perhaps the short answer to her critics is to ask, “Do you want glory, approval, all those good things? Or do you want to achieve your goal?”
Thomas A. Shippey, Heroes and Legends
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| Dusk on Fraser's Hill Source: EatingAsia, published under a Creative Commons 2.0 license |
The greatest sin of the Christian is to be joyless.Dorothy Sayers
That's so true, isn't it? I have often read and heard how different people have become interested in Christ because they wonder how a Christian they know manages to stay joyful and peaceful even under the hardest circumstances. Or even just in everyday life, because, let's face it, that can be hard enough.
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| Clara the Rhinoceros, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, 1749 via WikiPaintings |
I have very fond memories of this book from 2015, always tinged with regret that Jim Butcher postponed the sequel. Now I see that the sequel will soon be released and that's the perfect reason to relisten to this book which I enjoyed all over again. I'm rerunning my review just in case this idea grabs you too.
This is the beginning of a new Jim Butcher series. People live in city-state spires well above a hostile world, using crystals for energy. A likable group of heroes come together when their spire is attacked by a rival. It's got a steampunk feel and a bit of naval emphasis that is intriguing since I'm about halfway through Master and Commander. Oh, and talking cats. Actually with some people who can "speak" cat. It's a different thing altogether and, at this point, pulled off fairly well.
Although there are goggles and airships and everyone is very polite, this is really space opera rather than steampunk. Butcher is using standard space opera-esque characterizations and motivations but the tale that is unfolding is anything but predictable. This is helped along by a superb narrator who would entice me to listen to just about anything he read.
I like the people, especially the aetherialists (spelling is variable here since I listened and haven't seen the print version). Their likable zaniness makes a weird kind of sense. I especially like the subtle flashes of humor throughout, such as Bridget always calling Gwen's attention to the fact that her actions weren't so much heroic as rashly putting them all in danger. And thus Butcher undoes the standard space opera trope at that point by making us realize we were all agreed with Gwen originally because it was just what we expected.
I've been trying to think how to describe the feel of this book and this reviewer's comment struck me as right:
This book is what might happen if Joss Whedon handed Jim Butcher the reins and said, "Dude. The people want more. Pretend Firefly had a half-sibling. Now author a new book series and blow them away."Overall, recommended as a rollicking good adventure in an interesting new world.
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| Ball in the Concert Hall of the Winter Palace during the Official Visit of Nasir al-Din Shah, in May 1873 (1874). Mihály Zichy. Via Books and Art |
Sunset and evening star,This was Anthony Esolen's poem for last week. Find out why Tennyson insisted that it be last in any collection of poetry printed, even if he had written other poems after it chronologically.
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
Alfred Tennyson
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| Still Life - Study of Apples, William Rickarby Miller - 1862 |
Danny Rose (Woody Allen), a hopeless New York talent agent, is a tireless workhorse for his eccentric, unimpressive acts. When Rose signs has-been lounge singer Lou Canova (Nick Apollo Forte), he knows he has to go to great lengths to keep his new client, which means escorting Canova's mistress, Tina (Mia Farrow), to the singer's shows. The only problem is that her ex-boyfriend is a jealous gangster who thinks Rose is her new man and wants revenge.We saw this screwball comedy when it came out and upon rewatching I had only the vaguest memory of the stereotypical characters. What I forgot, or hadn't noticed the first time around, was the sheer humanity exhibited by Woody Allen and Mia Farrow at the end as their characters reach crisis and must deal with it. That raised it up a star in my estimation.
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| Berne Lighthouse, Edward B. Gordon |
I've enjoyed Edward B. Gordon's paintings for many years now. This one is so evocative of place that I can almost feel myself there.
There is nothing as pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothign to believing nothing.This was a completely new perspective and so beautifully put. Trust Maya Angelou for that!Maya Angelou
INCLUDES SPOILERS
On the day of his scheduled execution, a convicted serial killer gets a psychiatric evaluation during which he claims he is a demon, and further claims that before their time is over, the psychiatrist will commit three murders of his own.I'm giving this movie a dual rating.
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| Eugen von Blaas - The Italian seamstress |
“When (my doctor) took me into the office, his hands were shaking and he handed me these papers to sign over to have another surgery and he said, ‘I’m sorry but we did another biopsy and what you have is much more aggressive than what we thought. You have what we think is 10 months to live.’ And my husband and I were quite shocked,” she recalled.
Peterson immediately went to see her son, Julian, who lived nearby.
“I think at that moment, when my son looked at me with such grief and a love that was deeper than I had for myself, what I felt lift off of me was my own cynicism and my own self-doubt because I think I had given that up to God,” she said.
Carolyn Weber arrives at Oxford a feminist from a loving but broken family, suspicious of men and intellectually hostile to all things religious. As she grapples with her God-shaped void alongside the friends, classmates, and professors she meets, she tackles big questions in search of truth, love, and a life that matters. Surprised by Oxford chronicles her conversion experience with wit, humor, and insight into how becoming a Christian changed her.
Halfway through I was already recommending it to every Christian I know. Having finished it I am still doing so.
