Quirk Books is comes a remarkable new Jane Austen classic adapted for modern readers: Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. There’s a fun trailer available. Ben Winters, a writer from Brooklyn, is the one who added the extra bits to the established story. From the press release: “As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon.”
All posts by Phil
Writer Inspired by Bush and U.S. Wars
Tariq Ali is writing non-fiction again because recent history is so fascinating to him. “We are in a world which is very obsessed with individuals, celebrity culture,” Ali told Reuters. “The mistake is to think of the President of the United States as a celebrity.”
That’s a good observation, but note the incredible statement about presidents and Caesars which follows it. It’s ridiculous statements like Bush is similar to Caligula that make many of us disbelieve many modern opinion writers.
Anguish
Some Short Fiction
Loren points out a short short story contest he entered which asks writers to run with ideas from a photo of a wine glass. I would call Loren’s submission chilling, but somehow that word does not fit. . . .
Where Did All The British Babies Go?
Was P.D. James on to something? There’s a shortage of British sperm and egg donations.
Update 2016: Now a fertility clinic is importing sperm and eggs from Ukraine to make up for what they lack in the UK.
John Calvin at 500
July 10, 2009, is the 500th celebration of the birth of John Calvin (also the second annual Hug a Calvinist Day). Calvin gave the people of God an understand of Scripture they could not get from their church leaders and tore down the idea that life was divided between sacred and secular living. Many of his day held the belief that vulgar living, by which I mean common living like milking cows, raising children, trading in the market, and building your home, is not interesting to God. The Lord of creation is only concerned with his worship, prayer, giving to his church, and service in his name. But this distinction is not a true one, and understanding Scripture in one’s first language helps clarify that.
Of course, Martin Luther helped clarify this too.
But in honor of Calvin’s birthday, you can listen to interviews and browse the blogs for tributes. If you have a post on Calvin on your blog today, give us link in the thread.
Here’s an interesting article from the BBC: “Hard work and frugality, the values espoused by Calvinism, are back in fashion as people reassess their lives because of the economic crisis.” And here’s a video on how Calvin’s teaching has influenced World magazine.
The Meat of Allegory
Frank suggests The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe is “a better work of apologetics than Mere Christianity” because it is allegory.
Dirty Politics
Talk something through with me. Why don’t conservatives fight dirty with liberals like they do with us (generally speaking)? Many have argued that we should fight fire with fire. An essay in the National Review argues this point, saying liberals don’t care about anything but political power and will argue any means, however illogical, to achieve their desired ends. So do you believe that and do you think conservatives should return evil for evil as it were? If not, why not?
Reading Narrative
Writers of short fiction may want to look into a notable online magazine, Narrative.
Questions on West Oversea
For those of you who waste your time on the Interweb playing on Facebook or doing who knows what, Lars had a great book published recently called West Oversea. I asked the author, Lars, who blogs right here if you haven’t noticed, a few questions about the book, which is also called “Westward Ho.” These questions may be more interesting to those who have read the book, “Go West, Young Viking,” but even if you haven’t, I hope the following will pique your interest a little more, assuming the strong reviews have not piqued it enough already. And if this introduction has just confused you . . . so let’s get to the questions.
- One of the major tensions in West Oversea comes from a magical object called The Eye of Odin. Is that object entirely your creation or did you pull it from one of the old myths? If it was from a myth, did the story you give in the novel about it’s origin come from the same myth?
A: The myth says that Odin plucked out his own eye in return for a drink from Mimir’s well of foreknowledge. He dropped the eye into the well, and we know nothing more of its history. I suspect I may be the first person to wonder about it.
- In both this novel and The Year of the Warrior, Odin or the power of Odin is a major villain or evil force. Is that just the way it worked out? Did you weigh Odin against other Norse gods when planning stories?
A: I find it impossible to think of heathen gods as having any real existence other than as evil spirits. C. S. Lewis hinted at some order of good daemons, at least in the past, but that’s kind of rarified for my ideas of the spiritual world. In any case, Odin has always been a sinister figure. He can look kind of noble and ethereal in a kid’s book, but in the poetry of the period he’s associated with corpses and hanged men and carrion-eating ravens. He routinely betrays those who put their trust in him.
Thor’s a little more sympathetic, and I treated him more kindly in THE YEAR OF THE WARRIOR. So I guess I’m doing the good daemon thing anyway. I imagine I’ll be sorry someday.
- At one point in West Oversea, Father Aillil has a vision of the future with several distinct figures speaking from their viewpoints. Did you have specific people in mind for those figures? I tried to peg one of them as Sigmund Freud, but I’d have to study them a bit before making my final guess.
A: Some of them are meant to be well-known people, some are just representatives. But I’m not going to spell it out. That would spoil the fun. Or the irritation, as the case may be.
- I could ask the same question of the American natives you describe later in the novel. Did you have specific tribes or people groups in mind there?
A: I did some research on pre-Columbian Eastern Woodlands tribes. But our information on their cultures that far back is limited, and I made a lot of guesses. I think I vaguely meant the “nice” Native Americans to be Algonckians, or their ancestors.
- At one point, Erling, the hero of many and admired figure for many in that time, explains one of the things it takes to be a good leader. As a novelist, do you think you understand different types of people, at least academically if not more so, even if you couldn’t emulate them yourself?
A. I observe leaders and brave men with considerable interest. The novelist’s working question is always, “What would I be like if I were like this person?” We’re very different from one another, we humans, but we’re not so different as to be mutually incomprehensible–in most cases, at least.
- Have you thought about writing a novel in the same time period with a different focal character, say Olaf Tryggvason or someone in his court or maybe St. Olaf after him?
A: I hope to extend the Erling series into the reign of St. Olaf, and to do a St. Olaf-only book to cap the series. And I hope to write a non-Erling Viking book sooner or later. Maybe several.