The Diversity of Ingiald is my new column, up at The American Spectator today.
Erling’s Word reviewed
It isn’t often I see a review of Erling’s Word anymore. But one was posted the other day by Pastor John Barach of Sulphur, Louisiana.
Perhaps it doesn’t surprise us that Vikings became Christians, but surely it ought to. Or perhaps we’ve never thought about what that transformation must have involved, not only personally but also socially and politically. Lars Walker has. What he describes ought to remind us that history, including the history of the church, is often very messy. But at the same time, the messiness doesn’t mean that Christ wasn’t at work or that the people involved in that messiness were not, in their own flawed way, striving to be faithful to him.
Thanks, Pastor Barach.
I probably ought to mention that if you haven’t read Erling’s Word, you shouldn’t buy it. Buy The Year of the Warrior instead, since it contains EW in its entirety, plus the sequel, The Ghost of the God Tree.
Oh yes, buy Troll Valley too.
Evil Deeds, by Joseph Badal
This one didn’t work for me. Joseph Badal’s Evil Deeds
The hero is Bob Danforth, who starts the story in 1971 as a young, married U.S. Army officer in Athens. One day while he’s at work, his little boy Michael is kidnapped by a gang of gypsies, in the pay of a communist government. This begins a long-standing (and fairly unconvincing) conflict between the Danforths and the kidnappers. They’re all thrown together again in the wake of a second kidnapping years later, the middle-aged Danforth now being a CIA operative.
The major problem with this book was too many coincidences. Instead of setting up credible plot points, author Badal just does whatever he likes to up the stakes, ignoring logic or probability. The many reversals seemed arbitrary to me, and I felt manipulated as a reader.
Badal has also not mastered his English. He uses words wrong (“hoard” for “horde,” for instance), and at one point describes the same character two different ways (I suspect he just forgot he’d used the name already).
Also, the book was too long.
I don’t give Evil Deeds high marks. Your mileage may vary. Cautions for language, violence, and sexual situations.
Come Down to the River
I’m enjoying the enlightening discussion of Flannery O’Connor’s stories on Jonathan Rogers’ blog. You may remember that I wrote about being disturbed by “The River” last summer. That’s the story for this week, and the group has open my eyes to this terrific work. It’s still disturbing, but it’s disturbing like a Reformed pastor’s smack-down now. This will likely be one of favorite stories from now on.
What’s That Coming Around Again?
Has Google effectively taken telecommunications full circle with it’s new Google Tap? With three buttons, space, dot, and dash, Google’s app offers you the ability to send morse code to your friends.
Waitaminute… this is an April Fool’s Joke? I feel used.
A sojourn among the Swedes
I’m suffering from a sort of delayed drive lag today. Considering that my trip to Stromsburg, Nebraska was eight road hours either way, nearly 1,000 miles all told, I came home feeling surprisingly vigorous. I gauge my depletion by how hard it is to unload Mrs. Hermanson, my Chevy Tracker, when I get home, and it wasn’t too bad. Today I’m kind of dragging my feet and taking extra time to make simple decisions, like “Shall I zip up my trousers or not?” but all in all I came away with a good feeling.
Stromsburg, Nebraska calls itself “the Swede capital of Nebraska.” In spite of this, I saw no actual acts of violence committed against Norwegians during my time there. This was their annual Swedish Festival, and in my opinion it was a very impressive one, especially for a community of that size. They generally have a Viking encampment as part of the festivities, and I gather this year they tried to make it an extra large and impressive one. Unfortunately Viking attendance was down. On the upside, they had me.
“See our espalier pear trees bowing out of shape”
Matthea Harvey writes in defenses of her overgrown garden.
Last night the apple trees shook and gave each lettuce a heart
Six hard red apples broke through the greenhouse glass and
Landed in the middle of those ever-so-slightly green leaves…
Angry Birds Matter
Kevin Schut argues that games are good. They are similar to books in that they create new worlds for us. “But creative play, mental challenge, narration, and imagination in today’s games are similar to what we experience when we learn to paint, ride a bike, or bake a non-virtual cake. That’s not to say games should take over all the time we spend on those things! It’s not an either/or equation.”
Everything matters, but watch your time.
Reviewing the Reviewers of Morrison’s Home
This is curious. John Cotter holds the magnifying glass over the reviews of Toni Morrison’s new book, Home. Is it a rich, emotional book or is it not quite what reviewers hoped to read? Perhaps some of these reviewers are suffering from their own expectations? Sometimes when you expect to see the really, really, really awesome and see merely awesome, you’re disappointed. Santa has set me up like that many times.
Friday Fight: Boarspear
It occurs to me a bit late that today is Friday, and we used to feature a live steel combat video on Friday, and you know Lars is out today, on a Friday of all days, so maybe the vikings have recorded some new fights. Oh, look. They have.