Reviews

Film review: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

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So I finally saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. And I enjoyed it. And yet… I understand why some people were disappointed. I suppose I was a little disappointed myself, though that shouldn’t be taken as a thumbs down.

First of all, the good parts. Martin Freeman is a wonderful, wonderful Bilbo Baggins. I can’t imagine how the role could have been better played. Superb casting, superb job.

I liked the visuals. Some people, or so I’ve read, have trouble with the unusually high resolution in which the film was shot, but it didn’t bother me at all. As you’d expect, I saw it in 3D, and I liked that too. There were some wonderful color effects. One of my major take-aways from the whole thing was just how lovely it looked.

My reservations are complicated, and I suppose I’m still thinking it out. A lot of material has been added, in order to grow the original story, which is a pretty quick read, into a twin to The Lord of the Rings. Much of this ought to be legitimate enough for the most exacting Tolkien fan. Instead of taking things out of the story, as they had to do with the first trilogy, Jackson and people put stuff in, and the most substantial of the additions come (or so I’m told, I’ve only actually read The Silmarillion) from Tolkien’s own writings about Middle Earth. Continue reading Film review: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey →

Religion

The Saga of Bethlehem

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(Peter Brueghel the Elder, d. 1569)



[Last year, as a creative and devotional exercise, I composed the following nativity story in the Norse saga style. It has its faults, but I think it’s good enough to re-post.

This version includes some imaginary information not found in Luke’s or other gospel accounts. This is because sagas are very different literature from the gospels, and the telling detail is a necessary part of the technique, even if you have to make it up. ljw]

There was a man called Joseph, son of Jacob, son of Matthan, one of the clan of old King David from Bethlehem. Joseph was an honest man, and very clever at building things. But he didn’t get on with his kinfolk, especially his brothers. One day he said, “I’m going to move up to Nazareth in Galilee. They talk strangely up there, but at least they talk sense, and there’s work to be had.” And his brothers said, “Don’t let us stand in your way.”

Now Joseph was promised in marriage to a girl named Mary, daughter of Heli, daughter of Matthat, also of the David clan, though they had kin among the priests. Mary was a beautiful girl, and very devout. Some people said she was too devout for her own good. One day when she was praying in the house all alone, a mighty messenger of God appeared to her, clad in mail that shone like the sun, and he said, “Hail, highly favored one! You are about to conceive a Son, whom you will name Jesus. He will be a hero, and will be known as Gudsson, and the Highest of All will set Him in the high seat of David, and He will reign over the Jacoblings forever.”

“How can this be?” asked Mary. “I am a virgin.”

The messenger said, “The Spirit of the Secret One will come upon you, and the power of the Highest One will overshadow you, so that the Child to be born will be known as Gudsson.”

“I am the thrall of the Highest One,” said Mary. “Let Him do as He likes.” Continue reading The Saga of Bethlehem →

Poetry

“Man’s Maker was made man”

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Man’s Maker was made man

that the Bread might be hungry,

the Fountain thirst,

the Light sleep,

the Way be tired from the journey;

that Strength might be made weak,

that Life might die.

~ St. Augustine (via Relief Journal, Painting by Guido Reni) Continue reading “Man’s Maker was made man” →

Uncategorized

Merry Christmas

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Candle in Abstract

Tina Clarke’s Christmas Candle in colored ink

Sailing Under the Christmas Sail

Christmas Sailboat by Delilah Smith

The Three Wise Guys

The Three Wise Guys by Brenda York

Ending with something completely different:

The Single Sister's House

“The Moravian Single Sisters’ House on Church Street was used as a combination dormitory, industrial and religious center for single women within the community.”

Creative Writing

Family Reunion: Advent Ghosts 2012

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“Not this again!” William growls.

The traditional roasted chicken and dressing, gravy, green beans, and corn sit steaming on the table while his wife glides about the room, bringing honeyed ham, broccoli casserole, rolls and muffins, tomato and squash soups—everything as overabundantly perfect as it had been every Christmas. Beautiful, but ethereal.

His sons and daughter, their bodies scorched from the fire three years ago, quietly urge him to eat “to forget this weary world.”

Eyes burning, he throws a coat over his pajamas and stumbles into the icy street. His wife follows with a cup of flaming cider.

(Index of all stories submitted to the Advent Ghosts Storytelling Fest)

Music

“What Child is This?”

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Long, long ago, when I used to sing solos in Christmas programs, my standard was “What Child is This?” I made a point of doing all three variant choruses. I’m happy to note that the divine Sissel does the same (no doubt she was a fan of mine).

A blessed Christmas to you and yours.

Bookselling

Best of 2012

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Sam Storms has an 11 book list of his ten best books of 2012, included two books on, if not actually by, Jonathan Edwards. He also worries that D. A. Carson’s The Intolerance of Tolerance will not find the readers who need it.

Crossway has a butt full of recommendations for serious readers (I’m sorry. I meant to type heart-full, but a Twitter trend got in my way #replaceheartwithbutt So juvenile.) Crossway’s staff recommend serious titles each, from John Frame’s The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God to Ender’s Game. They also asked their authors to recommend reading for the coming year, and of course after removing all of the self-promotion, they had a pretty good list.

For more non-fiction recommendations, Tony Reinke of Desiring God Ministry has a list of twelve.

If you haven’t perused the fun novels, etc. at The Rabbit Room, you should.

Authors, Religion

Tolkien Takes Lewis to Task on Marriage Laws

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“My dear L.,” Tolkien writes in a draft letter from 1943. “I have been reading your booklet Christian Behavior. I have never felt happy about your view of Christian ‘policy’ with regard to divorce.” Tolkien did not send this letter to his friend, C.S. Lewis, but it was found and published after his death.

[Y]ou observe that you are really committed (with the Christian Church as a whole) to the view that Christian marriage—monogamous, permanent, rigidly “faithful”—is in fact the truth about sexual behavior for all humanity: this is the only road of total health (including sex in its proper place) for all men and women. That it is dissonant with men’s present sex-psychology does not disprove this, as you see: “I think it is the instinct that has gone wrong,” you say. Indeed if this were not so, it would be an intolerable injustice to impose permanent monogamy even on Christians.

…

Toleration of divorce—if a Christian does tolerate it—is toleration of a human abuse, which it requires special local and temporary circumstances to justify (as does the toleration of usury)—if indeed either divorce or genuine usury should be tolerated at all, as a matter of expedient policy.

Jake Meador discusses this disagreement more in his article for Christianity Today.