Jane Austen died in 1817 at age 41, but how is a bit of a mystery. Now, Author Lindsay Ashford is arguing she may have died of arsenic poisoning.
All posts by Phil
George Smiley Is the Anti-Bond
James Parker writes about author John le Carré’s spy, George Smiley, and the coming film adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Smiley drops no one-liners, romances no tarot-card readers, roars no speedboats through the Bayou. Bond has his ultraviolence and his irresistibility, his famous “comma of black hair”; Smiley has his glasses, his habit of cleaning them with the fat end of his tie, and not much else. There is a cultivated blandness to him, a deliberate vagueness of outline that at times recalls G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown—the little priest’s alertness to sin replaced, in Smiley’s case, by an extraordinary memory and a profound knowledge of “tradecraft.”
(via Mark Bertrand)
Iago: "I Should Have Been a Clown"
Jeremy Webb wrote his play for high schoolers, but it’s gained legs for a broader audience. “I think that it’s great for adults because it breaks all the rules,” said Webb. The one-act comedy has Shakespeare’s characters accusing their playwright of various injustices. (via ProfShakespeare)
What Does God Want For You?
Joel Miller writes about the natural flow of suffering in our lives.
Visit rural Uganda and tell me with straight face that God wants us to experience a life of ease and wealth, that he’s concerned about what kind of car we drive. It’s offensive to contemplate. More offensive to contemplate: say it in the face of the martyrs’ families in Nigeria who don’t even pray that their persecutors would stop, only that they would be able stand when their time comes. We’re not even worthy to suffer for Christ like that.
Joel is the author of The Revolutionary Paul Revere
On Handwriting, Words, and Landscaping
Former President George W. Bush was presented with the Book of Revelation hand-copied by prisoners in a Chinese labor camp. Twenty men wrote out the entire Bible while in prison and smuggled it out the day before their meeting was exposed to officials.
A friend copied an admonition from Trollope on how boring preachers can be, while still tolerated, and what caution young preachers should take from it.
No one but a preaching clergyman has, in these realms, the power of compelling audiences to sit silent, and be tormented. No one but a preaching clergyman can revel in platitudes, truisms, and untruisms, (sic) and yet receive, as his undisputed privilege, the same respectful demeanour as though words of impassioned eloquence, or persuasive logic, fell from his lips. . . . Yes, my too self-confident juvenile friend, I do believe in those mysteries, which are so common in your mouth; I do believe in the unadulterated word which you hold there in your hand; but you must pardon me if, in some things, I doubt your interpretation.
Anne M. Doe Overstreet writes beautifully about working, “ankle-deep in glory and dust,” as a landscaper.
I can do this, I thought, recalling long summers weeding the massive vegetable gardens my parents had. It’ll provide solitude, exercise, and mental space to work on poetry. Mostly true, resoundingly true, and not so much true.
Setting Fantasy in America
Author N.D. Wilson says he used to think you had to be in England to have a magical adventure like finding a forest inside a wardrobe. He is writing his Ashtown Burials series to invite readers into a fantasy that “connects global mythology to everyday Americana, with its roadside diners, truck stops and waffle irons.” He was interviewed by NPR’s Guy Raz, which aired several hours ago.
The Good Book Club, by Rick Dewhurst
When Rick Dewhurst’s new P.I. Jane Sunday is first hired, she is asked to acquire evidence on her senior pastor, who is alleged to be adulterous. For the good of his daughters and the congregation, the pastor must be found out. Within days, the junior pastor of the same Vancouver church is found naked and dead in his swimming pool. As the ugly church politics unravel, Jane uncovers some very twisted people in a large network of corruption.
Dewhurst’s third novel isn’t a comedy like the other two. Jane’s sarcasm spices up almost conversation she has, but the story is serious, straight-forward detective fiction mixed with 1/3 cup of chick lit romance. It all weaves together pretty well. The villains have too much vinegar, particularly the boss of the pack. He comes across as Jabba the Hut.
But I’m not sure this novel is essentially about the murder mystery or the development of the 40-year-old female detective. It’s title, The Good Book Club, draws attention to the dozen or so pages that describe a women’s book discussion group. They chatter about The Great Gatsby, The Shack, and The Grapes of Wrath while the mystery unfolds, each from distinct perspectives which may be meant to represent the schemes in the visible church. Continue reading The Good Book Club, by Rick Dewhurst
"Assassins" Novel Plagiarized Many Works
The author of a debut spy novel, praised as having a strong Ian Fleming influence, lifted “dozens of passages from multiple books, including one six-page stretch lifted from John Gardner’s License Renewed
The Gospel
“What’s the thing that’s supposed to captivate Christians, above all else?” Aaron Armstrong asks at the start of his review of Jared Wilson’s new book, Gospel Wakefulness
The Worldview of Fantasy
“Whatever the case, I think fantasy is not really bound to any religion so much as it is bound to a particular way of looking at the world. Somehow the faeries from the old English countryside infected the intellectualism of Oxford’s finest minds.” E.D. Kain talks about fantasy literature, having published a fantasy story in The Atlantic. (via Books, Inq.)