Author Alex Preston picks ten believers from literary novels. He observes, “Quiet, placid faith fails to stir us. It’s the dark night of the soul that we want in our fiction, the adolescent torment of Salinger’s Franny or the guilt-ravaged Bendrix coming reluctantly to God in The End of the Affair.” (via Books, Inq. and Dave Lull)
The Well of the Unicorn, by Fletcher Pratt
A friend gave me a copy of The Well of the Unicorn by Fletcher Pratt, in order to reduce my appalling ignorance of some of the classics in my own genre. Having read it, I can see why it’s a (kind of a) classic, but also, I think, why it will probably never have a passionate following.
Fletcher Pratt, a prolific author who worked in many genres, as well as nonfiction, in the early part of the 20th Century, was a very fine author. The single thing that impressed me most about The Well of the Unicorn was the fact that he uses antique diction, but unlike most authors he actually uses it well. He very clearly understands the old words and idioms he employs, giving the whole story a flavor of authenticity.
On the other hand, that same diction can be an obstacle to the reader. I have a pretty extensive vocabulary, and I still found the prose a bit of a slog. Continue reading The Well of the Unicorn, by Fletcher Pratt
Phil’s Review of Troll Valley
I finished Troll Valley last night, and like many of you, loved it. His characters have authentic voices and raise questions that are not clearly answered. His main character, Christian Anderson, follows a story arc somewhat similar to the priest of Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory
One of the pastors in Troll Valley reminds me of a preacher I know through family ties. He knows the Bible well and yet is so wrong on select issues that you wish you could push him to become either a wholly sound pastor or a ridiculous fanatic. You might trust him more if he was less complicated, but such complications make the story so good.
One brief scene from the book may illustrate this point. Christian slips into the underworld or faerie land a few times. You might even say the whole story is about how faerie land is breaking in on Chris’ life. One time, he sees a giant hammering away on the manacles tying him to the ground. He’s crying because he can’t get free, but when Chris asks him about it, he says he chained himself down so that he wouldn’t attack the beautiful children who were playing nearby. Now in his chains, he wrestles to get free and attack them. That complex conflict of the heart and will may be the key to Troll Valley. Christian and other characters are limited in ways that keep them healthy to a degree and restrained. They don’t know how to assert their desires in positive ways and chafe at their restrictions until they can no longer stand it. If and when they break free, they make a terrible mess of themselves. Can they handle the self-determination they seek? Some of the restrictions which bind them are not sound ones, which makes the binding worse, and that is one of the major themes that makes this novel wonderful. Continue reading Phil’s Review of Troll Valley
This is me, in PJs.
Photo credit: Shin.
Over at PJ Media, where all the cool kids hang out, Kathy Shaidle rattled a few nacelles the other day by posting a piece called “Five Reasons Star Wars Actually Sucks.” Although the article was primarily an attack (not entirely unfair, either) on Star Wars fandom, she painted with a wide enough brush to step on a lot of general science fiction fans’ toes.
Successful, mature men do not play computer games, attend “cons,” and get excited about overrated science fiction movies from the 1970s.
Come on, all the conservative boys who’ve read this far:
Do you imagine Victor Davis Hanson is some kind of font of boring zombie lore?
Do you think Mark Steyn wastes his spare time playing World of Warcraft? (Trick question. Mark Steyn doesn’t have any spare time.)
No, these men have careers and families, here on planet earth.
So today Bryan Preston took up the gauntlet at The PJ Tatler, with a piece called “Why Star Wars and Sci-Fi Actually Don’t Suck.”
But here’s a little known fact about Star Wars: More than just being a series of two very good films, a pair of decent films and a pair of bad films, it bequeathed a whole industry. I’m not talking about the parallel marketing of the toys, many of which I used to own and now wish I still did because they would be worth a pile of money. I’m talking about Photoshop, and the broader digital imaging industry.
But here’s where it gets exciting and relevant and important. He goes on to say,
Now, if you hate sci-fi it follows that you’ll probably hate both of Lucas’ most successful franchises, but that doesn’t make them bad films and it doesn’t make sci-fi a bad genre. There’s a tendency around to try to force others to stop liking things that we don’t like. Well, I love sci-fi. When I’m not reading up on politics, I’m probably reading either legitimate history or sci-fi/fantasy. Good sci-fi, like good video games, gets your mind going. Lately I’ve been reading a lot of Jack McDevitt and Lars Walker. (Emphasis mine. lw) Both are fine writers with interesting minds who can create a universe and invest that universe with life. I don’t just read sci-fi/fantasy for the escape. I read it because, right now, it’s where the intellectual action is in fiction.
Thanks for the plug, Bryan.
Alternative View of the Good Life
Author Gabe Lyons talks about his son, age 11, who has Down’s.
Cade’s life, and those like his, offers an alternative view of the good life.
These individuals alter career paths and require families to work together.
They invite each of us to engage, instead of simply walking by.
They love unconditionally, asking little in return beyond a simple acknowledgement.
They celebrate the little things in life, and displace the stress that bogs most of us down.
They seem to understand what true life is about, more than many of us.
They offer us the opportunity to truly value all people as created equal.
(via Andy Crouch)
Galvanic meditations
Today we had our biennial (I think that’s the right word. Once every two years. For some reason I find it impossible to get biennial and semiannual straight) CPR and AED training at work. You probably all know what CPR is. An AED is the defibrillating machine various institutions (including ours) keep available in case of emergency.
I was deeply embarrassed to realize I had only a vague recollection of the previous training. If somebody had dropped in front of me with a heart attack yesterday, I’d have been useless. Now I’m up to speed again (sort of) and the instructor told me where to look on YouTube for a refresher video.
Old dog. New tricks. It’s a challenge.
The term “light bill” came to my mind today. Do you young folks know what a light bill is?
When I was a kid, my dad used to talk about paying the light bill. He meant the electric bill. Because back when rural electification came in, in the wake of World War II, that’s what everybody called it. There was one main purpose for getting your house hooked up to the grid, and that was to run electric lights. No more oil lamps (I don’t think they used gas in the country. That was a city luxury) with their smudge and bother and fire risk. Suddenly you could bid the fair day linger a while indoors, and read into the night.
Even then they did other things with electricity, of course. I believe they had a radio before they got electric power, but now they could feed it off an outlet, rather than buying batteries. I’m not sure what else they would have run off electricity in the early days. Ice boxes kept food cold, and clothes washing was still done by hand, at least at first. Dr. Heppelmeyer’s Patent Miracle Nerve Panacea and Hair Growth Stimulator might have warranted a plug-in, at least until it turned the cat’s hair white.
My great-grandfather, whose farm was across the road from ours, was one of the first farmers in the area to have electric light (he was a strict pietist, but loved technology and innovation. This was not uncommon), but he ran his off a battery of batteries, kept up in the attic. When I showed the Norwegian relatives that house at Christmas, one of them asked how they recharged the batteries, and I hadn’t the faintest idea. Perhaps they had to refresh the acid periodically, or scrape off the lead plates. Probably it was something else.
A free plug, and a freebooter
“Lars Walker proves prescient,” says Grim of Grim’s Hall.
I knew he was going to say that.
He shares a passage from Troll Valley that he enjoyed. I’m fond of that one myself.
You too can enjoy this clairvoyant e-book. Kindle here. Nook here.
Not all Norwegians are dull and conventional.
I’ll admit I am, but clearly there are exceptions.
Take the case of Jarle Andhoy, who recently set off from New Zealand in his sailing yacht for a visit to Antarctica, in spite of a lack of the proper permits, and the presence of a repair man who was unfortunate enough to be on board when Jarle and his crew fled the harbor in order to avoid the authorities.
Mr Andhoy told the Norwegian public broadcasting service NRK that the presence on board of the unnamed New Zealander was not part of his plan, but was the result of “a hectic departure” from Auckland last week.
He said it was “a somewhat tricky situation” because the man did not have a passport or papers with him.
But Mr Andhoy insisted: “Everything is on schedule and the atmosphere is good on board.
“We are well prepared for what may befall us.”
It’s almost a fun story, except for the plight of the the repair man, who very likely had other plans, and the fact that three men died the last time Andhoy tried this.
But hey, what do I know? I’m dull and conventional.
Tip: Neatorama.
Answering Big Questions and Overcoming Fear
I respect Dr. Edward Welch from some of his earlier works (a good example, Running Scared: Fear, Worry & the God of Rest
- Who is God?
- Who am I?
- Who are these other people?
Whatever answers we give to these questions point to what we worship, and that’s the heart of the matter.
I look forward to giving my daughters this book to help guard them against the fear of men, which I still find threatening. It’s probably the main reason I don’t feel as if I’ve fully grown up yet.
Urban Parisian Neighborhood: Bad Forecast
Charles-Antoine Perrault shows us photos from another side of Paris, one Gene Kelly never danced in. “In the end, these projects are yet another utopian attempt by modern architects to find solutions to economic and social issues through design. Focusing exclusively on form, they failed to create a sense of place, producing environments that are all but vibrant.”
Three things
I’ve been having a small problem with my beloved Kindle’s battery. It’s supposed to last about 3 weeks, if you keep the WiFi use down, but mine has been lasting about 2 weeks. So I called them a couple weeks ago, and they ran me through some procedures to re-set it. That didn’t do the job, so I spoke to Customer Service on Sunday, and they told me they’d send me a new Kindle. I got it today.
I call that pretty good service. All I have to do now is pack the old Kindle up in the mailer box, and send it back to them for cannibalization.
It’s still under warranty. If the warranty had run out, I’d have to pay a modest fee for the replacement, far less than buying a new one.
I remain a Kindle fan.
Everybody’s talking about the Florida Primary today. I only remember one primary from my years of residence in Florida. I was still a Democrat back then, struggling with the increasingly obvious fact that my party hated both me and the horse I rode in on. I puzzled over who to support for president, and decided that the one who seemed most socially conservative was… Al Gore. Continue reading Three things