Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing Heav’nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav’ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa’s Brook that flow’d
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th’ Aonian Mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.
And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all Temples th’ upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou know’st; Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread
Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss
And mad’st it pregnant: What in me is dark
Illumin, what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justifie the wayes of God to men.
All posts by Phil
The Need to Interpret Our Tragedy
Adam Kirsch writes about the novel and our current instant-information environment.
In our lifetime, no event has ignited the human instinct to find and create meaning like the 9/11 attacks. From the first moment, Americans spoke of the catastrophe as unprecedented in its enormous deadliness and sheer surprise; it was natural to feel that America had changed forever in a single morning. But on reflection, it’s clear that neither the scope nor the surprise nor the sheer malevolence of the 9/11 attacks was new in human history. Ten years later, it seems that the real uniqueness of 9/11 was, rather, the sheer speed with which we spectators moved from seeing the disaster to interpreting it.
Though many have written fictional accounts of the September 11 attack and some have argued against the need, Kirsch says the definitive 9/11 novel has yet to be written and may never be. (via Books, Inq.)
Outreach
Thabiti Anyabwile, a great pastor who is blogging with the Gospel Coalition, links to a story from a man who had a visit from a neighborhood Muslim family. “Muslims understand well that predominant and typically affluent cultures atrophy over small amounts of time due to decreased marriage and reproduction rates.”
He also points to another timely article on Islam, fear, and the Gospel’s demands. “It is easy for us to assume,like my friend did, that they are coming for us,” Ted Esler writes. “But we are not the reason for their anger.”
Photographer at WTC Ten Years Ago
“Photographer behind 9/11 ‘Falling Man’ retraces steps”–Richard Drew says, “I don’t like coming down here,” but he went with a Yahoo News reporter to the site of the World Trade Center “to retrace his steps for the first time since Sept. 11, 2001, when he had watched dozens die through the lens of a Nikon DCS620,” to quote reporter Joe Pompeo.
But That Was Before
How To Be a Writer
Harlan Coben talks shop on Speakeasy: “As much as we like to think otherwise, it isn’t the act. Writing isn’t about the process. It is about creating. The joy comes not from the process but from the creation.” He recommends three steps to becoming a writer: inspiration, perspiration, and desperation. These will make you a great writer, or perhaps cure you of the writing bug forever.
Detroit
From our interdisciplinary desk for art and current events, we ask you to consider the chilling, almost fantastic photos in this essay, Detroit’s Beautiful, Horrible Decline.
As You Know, Bob, This List Ain't Bad
I remember a while back we talked about disliking novels with writers as main characters. They were too inspective, we said, or maybe we said “navel-gazing.” I don’t remember. Today, here’s a list of thirteen ways not to start your novel, which look pretty solid.
Now, if you want an example of how to start your great adventure novel (I know you’re writing one during your lunch breaks), roll your eyes over this baby: “From the limbs of ancient live oaks moccasins hung like fat black sausages — which are sometimes called boudin noir, black pudding or blood pudding, though why anyone would refer to a sausage as pudding is hard to understand and it is even more difficult to divine why a person would knowingly eat something made from dried blood in the first place — but be that as it may, our tale is of voodoo and foul murder, not disgusting food.”
Bestselling junk there (taken from this year’s list of Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest winners).
Criticizing the Rewriting of 'Porgy and Bess'
Terry Teachout writes about the strong criticism Stephen Sondheim has of a rewriting of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. “Rightly or wrongly, it’s become customary for a musical to undergo a fair amount of tinkering prior to being revived on Broadway. . . . But Porgy and Bess is no ordinary musical. It is, in fact, a grand opera . . .”