I will probably not be America’s Next Top Swordfighter

If I’ve seemed more preoccupied lately than just a trip to Missouri would warrant, there’s a reason for that. I, along with other members of the Viking Age Club and Society of the Sons of Norway, have been slogging through the logistics of a television audition. I didn’t want to talk about it until I actually understood what was going on, but now I think I can. Because it’s probably nothing.

Our club president was contacted a while back by a representative from a Hollywood production company that specializes in reality programs, among them several I’m sure you’ve heard of. They wanted to arrange to meet with us and do some filming, intrigued by the fact that we have whole families (three generations in one case) involved, and by the “live steel combat” we do.

It took some time and some scheduling, but we finally met with one of the executives, a camera man, and a sound man, yesterday afternoon at one of our members’ homes. They interviewed us on camera and filmed our combats and drills.

Does this mean we’re going to be celebrities? Probably not.

As I understand it, what they’re doing is blitzkrieging the genre. They’ve located a large number of people and activities across the country which they think they might conceivably make a show out of (tomorrow, the executive told us, he’d be filming the biggest strawberry shortcake in the world). Then they’ll cut the footage into teasers, and submit them to the networks in batches. Most, obviously, will be rejected. I have no reason to think we’re likely to make the cut.

But it was a fun experience, and the executive was not at all what I expected a TV producer to be like.

I’ll tell you if anything more happens.

Which I doubt.

Where’s Me Mother?

Joyce Gemperlein writes about Nancy Drew and her absent mother. “Nancy immediately goes out on a rainy night with a revolver and falls through the floor of a spooky mansion that she’s broken into in The Hidden Staircase. Then, in The Bungalow Mystery, she escapes a sinking boat, once again sneaks into a creepy house and is clobbered senseless with the butt of a gun.”

Nancy Drew is one of many leading fictitious characters who seek danger without a hovering parent, and her can-do attitude may be something the hovering parent should consider cultivating in their children. For another girl of strong spirit, but with a difficult mother-daughter relationship, see Pixar’s Brave this summer.

The Fulcrum Files, by Mark Chisnell

What was it really like, living in England in the days leading up to World War II? Judging by Mark Chisnell’s novel The Fulcrum Files, it was a time of great confusion and self-delusion. I suspect that picture is accurate.

Ben Clayton, our hero, is an engineer for a British aircraft company, but has been assigned to work on preparing a racing yacht for the America’s Cup race (aeronautics and shipbuilding being sister enterprises). Ben was, as a teenager, one of Britain’s best prospects as a boxer, but he nearly killed another boy in a fight. Horrified, he gave up boxing and became a pacifist.

Pacifism is highly popular and respected in England in 1936. As author Chisnell deftly portrays the era, everybody’s got an ideology—pacifism or communism or Labour or Fascism or Aristocracy, and almost everybody has good intentions. The one thing almost everyone agrees on is that there will not be another war. Impossible. The people wouldn’t stand for another bloodbath like the Great War. Hitler has some legitimate grievances, so throw him a bone and everything will settle down.

But when Ben’s best friend is killed in an accident while fitting a new mast, and that friend is found to have been deeply in debt and involved with shady people, Ben sets out to clear his name. He learns things he’d rather not learn, and eventually has to make choices he’d rather not make. It does no good to avoid the war. The war will not avoid you.

I particularly liked the characters in The Fulcrum Files. They seemed authentic and complex, doing very different, even appalling, things out of a desire to do right. We tend today to see World War II (properly) in very black and white terms, but nobody knew those things in 1936, and Chisnell excels at psychological realism. There’s a love story for the ladies, and lots of boats for those who (like me) enjoy reading about the sea.

The Fulcrum Files does not rise to the heights of the thriller genre, but I enjoy a book that tells a smaller story well. Mild cautions for language, violence, and adult subject matter, but the book is suitable for teens and up.

Gleanings

There are a few things I’ve been meaning to mention lately, and hadn’t gotten around to, largely because of my Missouri trip.

The day I left, The American Spectator published Smoker’s Pride, a little parable I wrote. The comments were amusing, but troubling. It appears that a large percentage of the readers couldn’t take the story beyond its literal meaning. Hint: It’s not actually about smoking.

Bryan Preston at The PJ Tatler gave Troll Valley a nice plug in a post on What’s On My Kindle App.

And finally, one more memory from Ravensborg. One of the meats featured at this year’s Viking feast (though no real Viking ever ate it) was raccoon. And yes, I ate some. Fatty and stringy, in my opinion. Many said it tasted like beef, but I thought it was more like pork, with high notes of… yes, chicken.

Hey, if you were surrounded by Vikings and somebody asked you if you wanted to try raccoon meat, would you wimp out?

What Do Children Read, Publishing Predictions

An editor talks about how J.K. Rowling’s books opened up the world of children lit, and he strays into how nice he thinks it would be to have fewer books printed.

Roger Sutton says we’re pressed to believe children don’t want to read, but they are “reluctant to read what? If you put down that novel and look around, you will see that lots of so-called reluctant readers are reading plenty; they just aren’t reading fiction, which in this age constitutes ‘real reading’ as defined by ‘real readers’—mainly teachers and librarians.”

On the future of print publishing, he says, “Every author in this room is going to disagree with me on this, but there are too many copies of too many books being published. A little curation would be a good thing.” So if libraries were the place to go for holding a book in your hand, then we would have a sane publishing world. Is he ignoring home libraries, or does the future have room for that?

Viking weekend, Viking weakened



Photo credit: Philip Patton.

I’m heading this post with the picture above, because I’m kind of proud of it. Not that I took it, of course, but I think it catches the tragedy and grandeur of its subject as no photo ever has before. A Viking with a secret sorrow. A plunderer with dyspepsia. Credit to Philip Patton, a talented young man who came along with me to Missouri, and returned with many splendid pictures.

But none of them as splendid as this one, I think. Subject matter is all.

As you may recall, I left Thursday morning for Knox City, Missouri, home of Sam Shoults’s Ravensborg Longphort. All went swimmingly, and Mrs. Hermanson, my Chevy Tracker, was running at her best, when we suddenly rolled to a stop just outside Ottumwa, Iowa. Then followed a call to AAA, a wait for a tow, and a short hop to a nearby auto mechanic, who I must say proved to be both honest and skillful, so far as I could detect (I have it now as a principle never to go to the shop the tow driver recommends. I disregarded his advice on this occasion, and did not regret it). I’ll say the shop’s name, Superior Automotive.

Turned out it was the clutch, the same thing that stranded me on the road a couple years ago, and got fixed then (apparently only temporarily). They named me a price I thought fair (I had experience with this repair, after all), and said they could get it done by 4:00 the next day. Since that would allow us to still make most of the Viking weekend, I readily agreed. They gave us a lift to a nearby motel. The next day they actually finished the job about 2 ½ hours ahead of the estimated time. So I’ve got no complaints.

We finished the trip, and still arrived ahead of several people. This is Ravensborg:

Continue reading Viking weekend, Viking weakened

Is This A Dagger Which I See Before Me?

Petrona has a round-up of books eligible for this year’s CWA International Dagger award. There are many Scandinavian titles. The 2011 CWA International Dagger was given to Anders Roslund & Börge Hellström for their novel, Three Seconds (translated from the Swedish by Kari Dickson).

Medieval Jewels Discovered

“An archaeological investigation at Furness Abbey in northwest England has uncovered the grave of an abbot, which includes an extremely rare medieval silver-gilt crozier and bejewelled ring.” (via Brad Day)

Curator Susan Harrison with the Furness Abbey crozier - photo courtesy English Heritage via Medievalist.net

America and National Religion

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. (written by dead white guys)

I think we all readily acknowledge that the United States Founding Fathers did not want a national religion to which all citizens must subscribe. But a number of evangelicals (I think that’s a fair label) still argue that our country was founded on Christian ideals for a Christian citizenry. It’s nice to read John Adams’ statement, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” In fact, it’s a bit chilling to read the context of that line:

While our country remains untainted with the principles and manners which are now producing desolation in so many parts of the world; while she continues sincere, and incapable of insidious and impious policy, we shall have the strongest reason to rejoice in the local destination assigned us by Providence. But should the people of America once become capable of that deep simulation towards one another, and towards foreign nations, which assumes the language of justice and moderation, while it is practising iniquity and extravagance, and displays in the most captivating manner the charming pictures of candour, frankness, and sincerity, while it is rioting in rapine and insolence, this country will be the most miserable habitation in the world. Because we have no government, armed with power, capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. Oaths in this country are as yet universally considered as sacred obligations. That which you have taken, and so solemnly repeated on that venerable ground, is an ample pledge of your sincerity and devotion to your country and its government.

But I say all of this to ask one question. How would your perspective change if you became convinced the United States was not founded as a Christian nation? What if our laws were the same, but we had put to rest the idea that the Founders assumed we all respected the Bible, if we didn’t believe it? Perhaps I shouldn’t say this up-front, but I ask this question out of concern that too many evangelicals value America over the gospel. Some people talk as if God is always on our side–I mean, we’re Americans, so how could God side with anyone else? So they urge others to get with America, and in doing so, they’ll get with God.

If I’m talking to you, let me recommend this thoughtful, encouraging book: The End of Secularism.

Raven’s Ladder by Jeffrey Overstreet

Evil is spreading throughout the land of Jeffrey Overstreet’s third novel in the Auralia’s Thread series. The people of House Abascar are living a hardscrabble life in caves and losing faith in their king, Cal-raven. Some of them think he talks too much of visions and fairy tales. In the previous novel, their caves were attacked by beastmen, men in bondage to a horrible curse which hulks them out like wild, contorted beasts. Now, they worry about vines called “feelers” or “deathweeds” which appear to be spreading everywhere, grabbing men or animals and pulling them into the earth.

In the middle of this, a few visionaries, like Cal-raven, are telling their people of worlds elsewhere. They remember the vivid, almost spiritual, colors that Auralia teased out of nature. They find small spots of those colors in the wild and healing in common things like pure water. Legends, like The Keeper, an enormous dragon who seems to keep a wise, though distant, eye on them, are being revealed. Abascar has a hope beyond any they could imagine, if they can only hold on long enough to see it.

By contrast, the people of House Bel Amica seek the latest pleasures and want to be distracted constantly. They live on the coast where there is a great wealth of food and trade. The Seers rule their philosophy, urging them to pray to moon spirits and pursue their own desires above all. I doubt Bel Amicans ever urge each other to get a grip on reality. When refugees from Abascar find shelter in Bel Amica, their leaders begin to worry they will never want to leave this luxurious city.

Overstreet has created a magical world. I’m fascinated by its natural glory. When the visionary characters do marvelous things or make inspiring culture, they don’t use magic. They apply artistic skill to tease out of the natural world beauty that’s either hidden or disregarded. Though their world is dangerous, many natural elements encourage health, peace, and hope. When these elements are magnified by artists, they comfort some and inspire others to noble work. (Here’s some glasswork that reminds me of something Auralia might have made.)

Raven’s Ladder is a thrilling third part of this four-part series. The revelations that conclude the book are monumental, and there’s a story in the mid-section that appears to put this fantasy world in a new context, hinting at who the Seers are and how mankind came into this place. Noting the title, the focus of this novel is on Cal-raven, Abascar’s king. He wrestles with himself as a leader and as a man and also with his visions of a bright future in pursuit of The Keeper’s tracks. That name, The Keeper, and the faith of some of the characters may lead you to suspect a thinly veiled God-figure. You might think Aslan has been restyled as a dragon, but he hasn’t. The Keeper is a complicated animal, who appears to respond to prayers as well as act like any other intelligent beast. I could say more, but I’d rather you enjoy the mystery yourself.