Will is blogging Aquinas now.
The further conclusion is evident that God is eternal. For everything that begins to be or that ceases to be, is affected in this way through motion or change. But we have just shown that God is absolutely immobile. Consequently He is eternal.
That’s what Thomas would blog, if he had been so blessed. I’ll stop before I get sacrilegious.
Jeffery Overstreet’s fantasy Auralia’s Colors (which I swear I want to spell with a ‘u’ as in Colours–why?) has been nominated twice for Christy Awards this year. Be it either the First Novel and Visionary categories, Overstreet’s strong work likely win one of them. Bravo. I intend to review it here and have already submitted a positive review of it to Mallorn, the journal of the Tolkien Society in England. His next book, Cyndere’s Midnight, will be released this September.
Writer James Rollins, whose real name is Jim Czajkowski, is going to be novelizing the latest Indiana Jones movie. “A lot of my books have been compared to Indiana Jones in the past and they just approached me,” he said. “It was a blast. I read the script almost a year ago and security was major issue. I wasn’t allowed to take it home.”
He says his first book was rejected 49 times. “I still am shocked that I am at this stage and one of the reasons that I still practice as a vet once a month is that when people realize I can’t write I have my old profession to fall back on!”
And advice for would-be writers? “There is that old adage to write every day to be successful. I also believe it is important to read every night. By writing every day and reading every night my writing got stronger and stronger.”
Author Shobhan Bantwal has two books with stories of brides and mothers struggling against dreadful cultural opposition to women. Her next novel, The Forbidden Daughter, opens:
“Oh, Lord, I beg of you.
I fall at your feet time and again.
In my next incarnation, don’t give me a daughter;
Give me hell instead . . .”
The best-selling author of The Legend of the Ice People series is having the works translated into English now. From a Guardian interview linked from The Literary Saloon:
Her name automatically raises a lot of literary snobbery in Scandinavia – my Swedish friend, Helena, says that some libraries refused to stock Sandemo’s books (according to Sandemo, this was because they were worried people would steal them). The critics are not kind, but Sandemo says she doesn’t care. “Those people who think they know what taste people should have, they are difficult. ‘This is not a good book,’ they say. I don’t care if there are people who say it is not good literature, because I just think of my many readers who are more important.”
The interview describes some horrible events from Sandemo’s life, including her claim to having killed a man who atttempted to rape her at age 11 or 12. Perhaps her early trauma led her into the occult spirituality she appears to have now. Not that people have to have trauma like this to take up with demons, but it seems to be fertile ground for doing so.
Pardon me a moment for getting personal, but this interview reminds me of a story I read this morning. A woman said she had been sexually abused by her father and his team of Satanists in southern California several years ago. The details she gave are horrifying, but perhaps more horrifying than the details is the idea that such abusive men could be forgiven–that their sins could be passed over by the perfect judge and creator of the universe. And that’s what she said occured. Her father repented and asked her forgiveness as he lay dying in a hospital. How could the Lord forgive such men? Because everyone one of us is just a guilty as they are.
John Piper has a great message on Psalm 51, which deals with this idea near the beginning. The gospel, the love of God, is both shocking and fantastic.
In an article from April 12, 1902, reprinted in Popular Culture by David Manning White (found on Google Books), American novelist Winston Churchill comments on representing historical figures. The reporter asked him if he would present Daniel Webster, should he choose to, as he truly was, warts and all. Churchill replied, “I should consider it wrong to expose the weaknesses of a man like Webster because he is a historical ideal that should not be shattered. The same is true in regard to Hamilton; whereas, with a man like Aaron Burr, I should not hesitate to portray him exactly as he was as that would mean no loss to the historical ideal.” The editor who reprinted these comments was appalled and went on criticize public education.
What do you think of this view? Is there a historical ideal to maintain?
I was reading a book from 1900 that referred to a bestseller of the day, Richard Carvel by Winston Churchill. I said, as perhaps you are saying now, “Is that the Winston Churchill?” No, it isn’t. There was an American novelist named Winston Churchill (born in St. Louis in 1871) and when the British leader (born 1874 at Blenheim Palace) began writing books of his own, he was concerned about confusion with the American. The two men wrote each other to clear things up, like this:
Mr. Winston Churchill is extremely grateful to Mr. Winston Churchill for bringing forward a subject which has given Mr. Winston Churchill much anxiety.
Read one of the letters here. Here’s a bit more on Churchill, the novelist.
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.
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.
“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.”