Torie Bosch reviews James Church’s latest novel, The Man with the Baltic Stare
“Church’s real gift lies in intensifying that mystery,” Bosch writes, “presenting to us a nation of living and conniving people, not brainwashed ciphers. In his fourth volume, he sheds more light than has been ever before on the puzzling mix of motives that lurk in the North Korean who stays put.”
Let sin depart, while we His grace,
And glory see in Jesus’ face;
For so shall we sure comforts find
When thus this day we bear in mind. (from the old lyric of “The Sussex Carol”)
The Guardian (UK) reports:
The acclaimed Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi was sentenced to six years in prison today, and banned from directing and producing films for the next 20 years, his lawyer said.
Hamid Dabashi, a professor of Iranian studies at Columbia University, said: “What Iran is doing with the artists, is exactly similar to what Taliban did in Afghanistan. This is exactly like bombing Buddha statues by the Taliban, Iran is doing the same with its artists.”
Now hear me, children. When Santa Claus comes down Santa Claus Lane, he’s gonna be looking for right-thinking children this year. D’you hear me? Orthodoxy. I mean you’d better have your doctrine right or Santa’s gonna put your name on the Naughty List.
Santa’s getting back to his roots this year, and that mean fighting Christian heresy. You got those seeker-shmeeker churches in your town? Those entertainment-driven dives posing as churches? Or you got those preachers who tell you to clean yourself up, pull up your own boot-straps before coming to God for forgiveness? Santa don’t play that. You got that junk going down in your house, and Santa will lay the Holly-Jolly upside your face.
So, you better watch out, punk.
A North Korean sent to assassinate South Korea’s president back in 1968 failed to achieve his mission, despite remarkable successes along the way, and has since become a South Korean citizen and Presbyterian minister. He comments on his past and recent North Korean aggression.
Jared has the goods on how allegory is defined and why Narnia really isn’t one despite what you may have heard.
How then does he define Allegory? Perhaps the clearest definition in the most common language comes via a letter to Mrs. Hook (found in Letters of C.S. Lewis, 12/29/58):
By an allegory I mean a composition (whether pictorial or literary) in which immaterial realities are represented by feigned physical objects, e.g. a pictured Cupid allegorically represents erotic love (which in reality is an experience, not an object occupying a given area of space) or, Bunyan, a giant represents Despair.
Paste Magazine has some beautiful photos of books, bookshelves, books as artwork, bookstores, and alternatively, aisles lined with books. It’s beautiful.
“Must the artist always be vulnerable to being pushed aside by manipulative phonies?” A poem and a little talk by John Tranter from the current issues of Poetry.
Jane Friedman talks about the value of social media and how its critics want it to sell books or merchandise without personal investment.
Carols are buried deep in Polish hearts and may reveal a distinctive beauty in Polish poetry. Cynthia Haven makes this connection when writing about the “Slavic Choral Concert Christmas in Kraków” at the Historic Hillside Club in Berkeley, California, quoting that great poet Czesław Miłosz on the charm and freshness of Polish carols. You can hear a snatch of them on this CD site.
Thanks to Patrick Kurp for this link and his additions to the topic and poem quotations.