Loren Eaton riffs on name recognition vs. talent in light of the band U2 performing as street artists in the NY subway. “The super-scraggly quartet of apparently starving artists only looked different than the boys from Dublin; the songs were the exactly the same.” But did they get same crowd in disguise?
Some Say Chivalry is Dead. Blame Revolving Doors.
Theophilus Van Kannel, a Philadelphia-based inventor, hated holding doors open for people, especially wildly good-looking people, and so he gave us the revolving door. People talk about the airflow goodness for large lobbies with revolving doors, but we know what Van Kannel was thinking.
And on that topic, Sabrina Schaeffer explains, “If You Want Sameness, Don’t Expect Chivalry.”
“Well, our brave new world of gender equality—in which we scoff at gender differences and men and women are encouraged to act the same—often proves harmful to women and girls. While the modern feminist movement won women tremendous freedoms educationally, professionally, personally, and sexually, it often leaves women feeling anything but empowered.”
‘The Edge of the World,’ by Michael Pye
The Vikings are hailed as the first Europeans, at least by some French scholars, breaking cultural divisions as well as breaking heads, and made into a foundation myth for our flabby, neo-liberal Europe.
The moment somebody shared a link to this book on Facebook, I knew I had to get it. And I’m glad I did, though I have certain quibbles. Michael Pye’s The Edge of the World reminded me of that old BBC television series with James Burke, “Connections.” It follows a somewhat wandering road of causation from the 7th Century to the 16th Century, showing how innovations that began when the Frisians dug so much peat out of their homeland that they were forced to build dikes and canals to control flooding led to the development of North Sea trade. Trade meant developing the concepts of hard money and credit, which led to abstract mathematical thinking, which led (in part) to modern science.
Trade means choices, and choices mean freedom. In a non-dogmatic way, The Edge of the World is a vigorous defense of capitalism.
There were parts I didn’t care for. Pye falls into the old trap of condemning the monks for denouncing the Vikings, on the grounds that Christians did pretty much the same things. He doesn’t go so far as to suggest the Christians should have just embraced the Vikings and their religion, but I’m not sure what the point is. He makes what seem to me rather conventional comments on people’s “need” to define ourselves by identifying enemies, as if enemies haven’t been in abundant supply throughout history. I suspect he wouldn’t criticize Muslims in the same way for condemning Crusaders.
But all in all an excellent book, full of interesting information, and with a sweeping narrative line. I recommend it.
Spur of the moment Vikings
It’s a strange sensation. I have no homework to do tonight. I submitted my final paper for this semester today, and now I’m done with all that. If I keep a “sufficient to the day” attitude, I have nothing to worry about until my first summer class starts, which happens to be before the end of the month.
But. Today I’m free. I’m 2/3 done with my graduate classes, and I can do anything I want this evening. I can loaf. Or I can tell you about my weekend.
In my youth (you’ll probably be surprised to learn) I had a reputation as a guy who had no problem dropping everything and driving off to a distant town with friends, on a moment’s notice. Saturday was like that, sort of. I think it was Thursday I got a call from Ragnar, who said that we had a Viking gig nobody had planned on, scheduled for Saturday. The hosts thought they’d confirmed with us, and they were planning on us, and had advertised us. We didn’t know about it.
I said sure, I’d go. Rather to my own surprise, I’d worked far enough ahead on my final class work that I was kind of coasting through the last couple weeks. I could take Saturday off without repercussions.
So Saturday morning I rose early, loaded Miss Ingebretsen, my PT Cruiser, with almost my full Viking load, and set out for Litchfield, Minnesota.
Litchfield is located in the west central part of the state, near Hutchinson. The local Sons of Norway lodge, in association with the congregation of historic Ness Church, Acton Township, were holding a Scandinavian festival. Continue reading Spur of the moment Vikings
James Patterson’s MasterClass on Writing
A new opportunity to study with experts and professionals launched this week. Masterclass.com is a video-based instructional site that will allow you to study with professionals like James Patterson, Dustin Hoffman, and Serena Williams at your own pace on any device you own.
Patterson’s class on writing comes with notes, assigned reading, interactive exercises, and the outline of his bestselling novels from 2007, Honeymoon. For $90, you get twenty-two lessons and access to the class and course materials for as long as the website exists.
As I said, the site is new this week, so there are only three courses available now with two more announced. If you take a Master Class now or in the future, I’d love to hear about your experience.
L’Engle’s Mr. Murray on Loving Security
Jordan J. Ballor reveals how “a newly discovered section of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic A Wrinkle in Time (1963), which was excised before the book’s publication, makes clear the author’s classically conservative vision of political and social order.”
The passage was uncovered by L’Engle’s granddaughter. In it, Meg talks to her father about how IT came to run over Camazotz. Mr. Murray replies that old fashioned totalitarianism was involved, but also prosperity and a “lust for security.”
“In a gloss on the famous passage from Paul’s first epistle to Timothy, Mr. Murry concludes that the love of security is “the greatest evil there is.” Placing security as the highest social good leads people to stop taking risks, to cease being entrepreneurial, to give up liberty, and even love itself.” (via Hunter Baker)
Everyone Should Know Aristotle
“Writing a comprehensive and concise summary of Aristotle’s ideas is a difficult task, especially if the author wishes it to be accessible not only to the average reader but also to children in middle school. That ambition is what Mortimer Adler aimed at with this book.” A brief review of Mortimer Adler’s book, Aristotle for Everybody.
The Risk Agent novels, by Ridley Pearson
Recently I reviewed a couple of Ridley Pearson’s Lou Boldt novels, part of a continuing series I enjoy and watch for. I went on to try out another series of Pearson’s, the Risk Agent novels, which are very different stories, though equally well told. Though less to my taste.
The Risk Agent stories have two main characters. One is John Knox (interesting choice of name). John is a former commando, now running an import/export business. He makes good money, but he needs a lot of money, because his younger brother Tommie, whose guardian he is, suffers from an autistic-type disorder. Tommie functions well with good care, but such care is expensive. So John regularly takes side jobs with Rutherford Risk, an international private security firm. He was recruited as a risk agent by an old military friend.
The other main character is Grace Chu, formerly of the Chinese army. She is beautiful (of course), trained in martial arts, and a computer expert. She has a troubled relationship with her family, who do not approve of her career or her wish to marry a man of whom they do not approve.
John and Grace meet in The Risk Agent, in which they deal with a hostage situation in Shanghai. In an adventure they barely survive, they learn to like and trust each other, though they won’t admit to their mutual attraction.
In Choke Point they are sent to Amsterdam to deal with a child labor racket. And in The Red Room they are sent to Istanbul on a strange, off-the-books mission that makes no sense to them and leaves them on the run without support.
There’s an interesting character arc in the Risk Agent books. It’s not only the growing awareness of mutual attraction between the two main characters, but a hard fact about themselves that John already knows and Grace begins to learn. They are both adrenaline junkies, danger addicts. John tells himself he does his risk agent work for Tommie’s sake, but in his clearer moments he can see that his main motivation is his need to live as intensely as he did when he was in combat. If he gets himself killed, Tommie will be left all alone. And Grace discovers that she’s becoming exactly the same.
This intensity is the reason why, although I liked the Risk Agent books well enough, I still prefer the Lou Boldt stories. The level of stress achieved and maintained in these books is so cinematically high – and so generally unrelieved – that it kind of wore me out. I need a few breaks in my action stories, some down time and comic relief.
Still, I think the Risk Agent books will work very well for people who like their action poured straight. I can see them being turned into action movies, and very successful ones.
Cautions for the usual things – language, adult situations, and violence. But not bad by contemporary standards.
Fan Mail for Hunt
Author S.A. Hunt posted this fan letter on his Google+ feed (now defunct) yesterday. It’s a nice Found Reader story.
I don’t mean to hit you in the feels, but I have to share this with you and the community. My brother hates books, hates reading. He’s always had trouble with it, and he always felt like books were a world (really many worlds) he was locked outside of. In the last year he finally got new glasses and reading became a lot easier, he came to me and asked if I had anything lying around the house that he might be interested in reading. I handed him The Whirlwind in the Thorn Tree and gave him an adapted Princess Bride speech: “swords, guns, torture, revenge, giant robot things, mad men with masks, chases, escapes, true love, miracles: you want it, this book has it.”
I kinda backed away slowly, hoping for the best, but Devin hasn’t read a book since high school. Over the next couple of weeks I started getting way more texts than usual: “I just got to the ocean monster,” “text me the name of that town they visit, I wanna name my city after it in Risk Legacy,” “I feel like the world is conspiring against me to finish the last few pages of this book. Every time I have a moment something has to happen! WTF!” I realized that he was going to need the second book before I’d find time to finish it, so I primed it right to his house. He texts me the next day “Yeah that first book cliff hangs hard! Glad I can just pick up the next one, thanks sis.”
He wanted to write you a thank you letter, but he’s less confident with writing than he is with reading, so I got drafted.
TLDR: My brother hasn’t willingly opened a book in his whole 30 years, and your book, your writing just opened a thousand doors. He took WitTT with him EVERYWHERE until he finished it, and now he won’t shut up about it. He beat that book up so hard that he told me he “owes me a new, nice copy.”
Was J.M. Barrie Evil?
“JM Barrie, the Scottish playwright and author of Peter Pan, was born 155 years ago today. Justine Picardie investigates whether he was an evil genius or a misunderstood ingenue.” Was he involved in his brother’s death? Did he dabble in the occult and curse his biographers?
DH Lawrence said, “JM Barrie has a fatal touch for those he loves. They die.” Others said he was “a sympathetic and sensitive soul.” (via Terry Teachout)