Sometimes, it dawns on you over a bowl of the frosted flakes that you can’t face the day. That’s why we have comics. More at garfield minus garfield.
All posts by Phil
Fujimura and Gioia
Painter Makoto Fujimura and poet Dana Gioia are in the latest podcast from Mars Hill Audio.
Fujimura talks about the intertwining of his life, his painting, and his faith. Fujimura is also a guest on volume 90 of the MARS HILL AUDIO Journal, an interview in which he talks about the importance of reading as a way of cultivating engagement with the world.
Also featured on this podcast is Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Gioia discusses the NEA Report To Read or Not To Read, which was released last year and which is the subject of in-depth discussion on the latest issue of the MARS HILL AUDIO Journal.
With Renewed Esteem
I could go with a bit more humor tonight, so let me pass on this story I just read here.
I heard a story that browsing through a secondhand store, George Bernard Shaw saw one of his books that he had previously given to an acquaintance with the inscription, “To ________, with esteem, George Bernard Shaw.” He bought the book and sent it back to the acquaintance, this time with the added inscription “With renewed esteem.”
If I’m ever in the same situation, I think I’ll do the same thing he did.
1989 in the People’s Square
Speaking of freedom, on June 3, 1989, many Chinese people were protesting in 100-acre Tiananmen Square when their government, who apparently cannot tolerate dissent, rebuked them. Hundreds were killed, some not in the square but in their homes. Even ambulance drivers were shot, according to this firsthand report from the BBC. It’s a sickening irony that the massacre happened in a place apparently named “gate of heavenly peace.”
This is Chairman Mao’s legacy, forced submission and debasing equality. But I think the Chinese people may rise above it, especially as the gospel spreads. They were made to be more than numbers in The People’s Machine.
Emotion by Measure
“Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature, but the measure can be acquired by art.” — Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) whose birthday is today.
Hardy also said, “Pessimism … is, in brief, playing the sure game. You cannot lose at it; you may gain. It is the only view of life in which you can never be disappointed. Having reckoned what to do in the worst possible circumstances, when better arise, as they may, life becomes child’s play.”
You Can’t Do That, Dave
Fifty teachers/professors with a bit of time on their hands have decided Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is “the science fiction film with the most realistic vision of the future of mankind.” One professor comments, “It is not beyond the realms of possibility that artificial intelligence could turn on its creators.”
Blade Runner was deemed pretty realistic as well as The Andromeda Strain, and that’s not all.
Barry DiGregorio, research Associate for the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology, and a member of the International Committee Against Mars Sample Return, said: “I have been campaigning against NASA’s plans to bring back samples from Mars as I believe they could possibly endanger the Earth’s biosphere with microbial contamination from the planet.
“In a worst case scenario this could lead to an Andromeda Strain-type situation. My concerns are based on the Viking biology data that were conducted on Mars in 1976. NASA have always opposed the claim that their data found microbial life on Mars, however, two NASA astrobiologists have publicly stated otherwise and I have worked with them to bring attention to their finds.”
‘The goat cheese is so good’
Forgive me for wasting your time posting news of authors in Atlanta, because this next story has the smell of greater importance. Mary Rigdon has cleared state hurdles for establishing her cheesemaking dairy, Decimal Place Farm, right in the city. Elizabeth Lee reports:
Rigdon makes the cheese on her and husband Ed’s 18-acre Conley farm, tucked away at the back of a subdivision. They purchased the land 13 years ago, moving from a Grant Park house on a tenth of an acre. Decimal Place Farm is a nod to that house, where she lived when she first got interested in raising dairy goats.
Next time you’re in Atlanta, perhaps you can look her up.
“The Baby-Sitters Club” Author at Book Signing
Reporter Jamie Gumbrecht fawns over an appearance in the Atlanta area of author Ann Martin, creator of “The Baby-Sitters Club” and “Main Street” series. Gumbrecht says the characters in the first series are the Hannah Montana of twenty-something girls. She writes:
I came to believe Martin was a literary figment created by the publishing industry to sell books, like Betty Crocker on cookbooks or Carolyn Keene on Nancy Drew mysteries. I continued to read the BSC books until way after it was cool, but I knew the truth: Ann M. Martin, fiction.
Now, she knows the author is actual. (How’s that for word choice?)
In other Atlanta-area news, father of seven Paul Weathington has taken to writing books for his own children. He says, “A lot of people never thought in a million years that I had it in me. But I’ve always had a creative bug; I just didn’t have a forum for it.” He wrote one of the books on several offeratory envelopes during a Sunday morning service. See the books here.
Lists, Cults, and Men
Sherry is talking about book lists again. This time she points out an article on cult books, quoting a description of the difficulty in defining a cult book. I say it’s any book which quotes from, alludes to, or can be even slightly argued to have been influenced by The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Seriously, can anyone argue with that definition?
Sherry also links to a so-called essential man’s library. Probably worth checking out should you find a spare minute. Just kidding, dudes–I mean, men. That’s a good list. I love those photos.
But speaking of cults, Sherry comments freely on When Men Become Gods by Stephen Singular, a book on Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints and the raid on Yearning for Zion Ranch.
C.S. Lewis, a Writer of Pulp Fiction?
Writer Rod Bennett believes “[C.S.] Lewis was heavily influenced by his many early experiences with ‘trashy’ literature.” He calls him a pulp fiction writer and lays out his case in four posts, quoting from Lewis’ letters where he confesses his enjoyment or exposure to Amazing Stories and Astounding, both pulp sci-fi rags, and many other works considered “trashy” by critics. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, Bennett says. In fact, it was through Narnia that Bennett found interest in Mere Christianity.
[This series is no longer on Bennett’s blog. This is a recycled post from 2006].
If Bennett’s premise raises the eyebrows of any Lewis fans, I think the trouble may be in the words “pulp” and “trashy.” I don’t think Bennett thinks Lewis’ science trilogy is trashy, but influenced by mass market stories of his day which were thought to be trashy by those who claimed to know what good and bad literature should be. But calling Lewis’ stories “pulp” may be the same as calling them “trashy” for some. Pulp fiction is lurid, tantalizing material written for commercial gain or cheap entertainment–nothing of lasting value. Again, I don’t think Bennett is arguing that Narnia and The Space Trilogy are cheap little thrillers, but that may be what comes across in the word “pulp.”