Andrew Klavan reviews playwright David Mamet’s new book The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture
In fact, “The Secret Knowledge,” written in Mr. Mamet’s tough and funny style, is entertainingly informative. But the book only really becomes indispensable when it is personal and specific to Mr. Mamet’s experience.
Walker Percy: “The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life.”
John Flavel: “It may keep one more humble and watchful in prosperity, to consider that among Christians many have been much the worse for it.”
Click the links for more from each author.
As Lars said yesterday, he is raiding and pillaging Elk Horn, Iowa, for the rich spoils of the Tivoli Fest. Here’s a bit of what he may be doing this weekend.
This video is from last year’s Tivoli Fest.
Erin O’Connor writes about reading long novels, those works she says Henry James called “Loose Baggy Monsters.”
The psychology of feeling that one should, of giving it a go, of wanting it to work, of bogging down, of eventually admitting–if only to oneself–failure, and, finally, at a later date, when the frustration has faded, of doing it all again–that’s a psychology that is, I think, pretty specific to long works of fiction. They demand a lot of your time–and a lot of you. They will color your imagination and dominate your inner dream-scape while you are involved with them. Reading really long works of fiction is more than reading–it’s having a relationship. It’s not surprising that they evoke some commitment anxiety.
A moving presentation by Pastor Francis Chan on understanding the mind and motives of God related to justice and mercy.
I’m off to Elk Horn, Iowa, as is my wont over Memorial Day weekend, for the Tivoli Fest. If you’re in the area (southwest Iowa) and interested in stopping by, it will be hard to miss us. The festival brochure can be downloaded here.
(The following article by Prof. Torgrim Titlestad of the University of Stavanger [pictured above] was published by Saga Bok Publishers on their website here. What follows is my translation, posted here at the request of Saga Bok. lw)
Changes in attitudes toward the sagas
Up until the 1900s, the sagas were regarded as highly reliable, and Norway had several eminent professors in the field, such as Gustav Storm and Alexander Bugge. But in the past century the sagas have been regarded as generally unreliable as historical sources. Instead, they have been described as brilliant romances. Progressive historians like Lauritz Weibull (of Sweden) and Halvdan Koht (of Norway) promoted this view through most of the 20th Century. Nevertheless it appears that, beginning in the 1990s, this trend has begun to change, and Prof. Sverre Bagge of the Univ. of Bergen was the first, in 1995, to publicly point out the damage caused by this “hyper-critical” view of the sagas. “The early middle ages and the Viking Age remain the most neglected fields in medieval history in Norway. This is arguably the result of source difficulties in the wake of the destructive attack on the sagas at the beginning of that century.” Prof. Vidar Sigudsson of the Univ. of Oslo renewed this critique in 2010: “The harsh criticism which was directed against the use of the sagas as sources resulted in that aspect of our past being neglected.”
The Weibullian and Kohtian view that we must reject the sagas was that, by and large, they are not contemporary records, but were written down about 300 years after the events described. This “modernist” view ruled out any appreciation of the sagas as the product of oral culture: That is, that both Norway and Iceland, as mostly illiterate societies (though runes were used for shorter messages) had developed specialized mnemonic techniques in order to preserve historic events. In this context the unusual skaldic poems must be emphasized. Their unique form (“as if carved in stone”) testifies to the historical confidence of the Vikings, and their trust that this technique of oral memorization would permit memories to live on for a long time. (Similar techniques can be found, and continue to be found, in other mostly illiterate cultures.) Continue reading "The Six Pillars of Saga Reliability"
Sorry for the blog outage yesterday. The ever-conspiring Manx (not Manites–don’t click that link) succeeded in getting around our defenses and taking us down. We will work ever-harder to keep that from happening again. Aside from that, do you have any issues using this blog, any performance issues, I mean? Feel free to use this space to tell us about it.
(BTW, outage is one of those ugly words that looks like contemporary terminology to me, but it’s actually over 100 years old.)
Here’s some optimistic encouragement to Londoners on writing plays. Write the way you speak is fair advice, but I think many creative writers believe they are writing that way when they aren’t. And what if you want a character to sound different than you? What you do then, eh?
(ED: The title for this post reflects my disturbed mindframe.)
I’ve been waiting to see a response from other social conservatives to the recent Gallup Poll which reports that Americans now favor “gay” marriage by a percentage of 53% to 45%.
This year’s nine-percentage-point increase in support for same-sex marriage is the largest year-to-year shift yet measured over this time period. Two-thirds of Americans were opposed to legalized same-sex marriage in 1996, with 27% in favor. By 2004, support had risen to 42% and, despite some fluctuations from year to year, stayed at roughly that level through last year.
I haven’t seen much yet along those lines, so I’ll say something myself. I don’t expect to convince anyone of anything (I rarely do), and it goes without saying I’ll be compared to a Nazi, but I’ll do it anyway, because it’s been on my mind.
First of all, I’m not entirely convinced by the figures. My experience is that people with liberal views are generally oversampled in such polls.
But that doesn’t alter the fact that, beyond question, acceptance of homosexuality has been growing rapidly among Americans. Among young people, it’s barely an issue anymore.
Barring some major critical event, like a movement of the Holy Spirit or a re-make of Rocky Horror Picture Show, it would appear that gender-neutral marriage is in our future. How are we to think about that?
For me, the answer is clear. I shall despair of my country. I do not consider this a minor issue, a cosmetic matter, a sideshow. In my view, even if conservatives sweep all the elections and take all the seats of power for the next century, it will mean nothing if we lose the marriage battle.
It’s a matter of fundamental issues. Continue reading In which I play prophet of doom