I don’t generally do long posts while out of town, especially on weekends. But I think the best way to deliver my report on the International Vinland Seminar today is to write up a summary while my memory’s fresh.
We met at North Park University in Chicago, a school with Swedish roots that I wasn’t familiar with. It reminds me a little of my alma mater, Augsburg College in Minneapolis, in that it’s set (I suspect the admissions brochures say “nestled”) in an urban neighborhood. Nice place, though.
We met in a lecture hall called Hamming Hall, and I got permission to set up my book table. I was in the back of the room, but it gave me a good view, so I just stayed there through the entire event, selling my books during breaks. Continue reading The International Viking Seminar
Indestructible
That’s me. The drive to Chicago wasn’t actually that bad. Nice country, beautiful weather, and the 65 mph speed limit brings out the best in Mrs. Hermanson, miles-per-gallon-wise. But when I got to Chicago, my exit off Highway 90 was closed, and that was a harbinger of things to come. I couldn’t find my motel on the basis of my Yahoo map. I even invested in two cell phone calls to the manager before finally finding the place, about three hours after I should have. My searcing got me lost at one point, and I ended up in Skokie before I figured out I needed to turn around.
Also I accidentally drove past one of the toll stations (something that didn’t use to be possible, before electronic passes). But I saw a sign at a later station with a web site where you can go and do penance. So I think I won’t be getting one of those fine letters based on camera surveillance.
Managed to find the location for tonight’s opening reception. Finally met Prof. Torgrim Titlestad, and sat at his table. We chatted for a while. He’s excited that they’re about to start archaeological surveys for the site of the Battle of Hafrsfjord. That was a sea battle, but I guess they think they’ve found the location. If correct, that will be very exciting.
Also saw (but did not meet) Prof. Birgitta Wallace, former chief archaeologist at L’Anse Aux Meadows. I need to see if I can get her photo for my Vinland PowerPoint lecture. All told, I met three internet friends I’d never actually encountered in the flesh before.
I am bloody, but unbowed. What I am most is tired.
Don't Ask, Sweetheart
Lars’ next tour stop will be on The Hot Author Report today. Stop laughing. That’s not what they meant.
And on Monday, he’s has an interview on Examiner: Virginia Beach. Here’s another post from that blog on what not to ask an author at a book signing. I think there could be more to it than this. I mean if someone asked me where I got my ideas, I’d say the morgue. I steal them from dead people. Now, that was a painless answer, wasn’t it?
Seeing Through to the Invisible
“An artist’s task is to see through the eye into the eternal, into the invisible.” – M. Fujimura
The wonderful artist Makoto Fujimura has written a letter to the North American Church, rebuking it for shunning artists and calling artists back to what he calls their first love.
There will be more “Ground Zeros” created by destructive minds, twisting creative impulses into diabolical powers. Undo what they have done. Stand upon those ashes all around us, and open your hearts: look up, to Create in Love.
He says the church has chosen reason or the rational as ground on which to build and rejected the sensual or non-rational, even though both are part of the created world and both can glorify the Lord. (via Jeffrey Overstreet)
Colors
Anu Garg of Wordsmith.org has a fun list of color words this week: sienna, nankeen, gamboge, sinopia, and solferino.
Rough Country, by John Sandford
Minnesota mystery author John Sandford (John Camp) has not given up his hugely popular series of “Prey” novels featuring millionaire cop Lucas Davenport, but Davenport’s getting a little domestic and long in the tooth these days. In order to continue writing books with sex appeal, Sandford has launched a new series featuring Davenport’s associate Virgil Flowers. While Davenport fulfills male fantasies by having powerful, expensive cars that he drives very fast, Flowers’ fantasy appeal is more organic. Aside from his remarkable clearance rate as a detective, Flowers is apparently walking candy to women (although the author derives a lot of comedy out of frustrating his desires in this particular story).
Readers tired of sex in novels are advised to stay away from Rough Country
Sufjan Stevens and the Popularity of God's Mystery
Musician Sufjan Stevens has draw much fanfare for a couple new album releases and his return to the concert circuit. I learned of this interview via Jeffrey Overstreet’s blog, and I was encouraged to see Stevens labeled as a Christian. Then I came to this:
Q. Do you believe that God can be reached through other faiths? John 14:6 categorically states Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life” and nobody can get to the Father expect through him. A lot of people take that very literally and don’t believe you can find spirituality through Buddhism or Islam or whatever…
Stevens: Yeah, I mean who can know the mind of God and who can be his counselor? It’s not man’s decision, you know. If God is infinite and he’s in all of us and he created the world then I feel there is truth in every corner. There’s a kind of imprint of his life and his breath and his word and everything. You know, I’m no religious expert, and I don’t make any claims about the faith. All I can account for is myself and my own belief and that’s a pretty tall order just to take account of myself. I can’t make any claims about other religions. There’s no condemnation in Christ, that’s one of the fundamentals of Christianity.
Do you mind if I make a few observations? Continue reading Sufjan Stevens and the Popularity of God's Mystery
American Views on God
Nine out of ten Americans claim to believe in God, but who that person is varies a good bit. This report in USA Today spells it out. What we believe about God determines how we stand on social and political issues.
Asked about the Baylor findings, Philip Yancey, author of What Good Is God?, says he moved from the Authoritative God of his youth — “a scowling, super-policeman in the sky, waiting to smash someone having a good time” — to a “God like a doctor who has my best interest at heart, even if sometimes I don’t like his diagnosis or prescriptions.”
Drowning Isaiah
Today someone came by my office in the library and informed me that he’d seen some of our books floating in a drainage pond behind the boys’ dorm.
I sent my assistant out to retrieve them, and he brought back about five soggy, ruined volumes from our Isaiah shelf. Someone, apparently, had swept the books off in a bunch, carried them out without checking them out, and deposited them in the water. There’s no way to tell how long ago this happened.
So our innocence quotient goes down a couple points.
We’re a family sort of operation. We have do-it-yourself checkout, and essentially no security, because our students have always been the sort of young people whose worst infractions are born of absent-mindedness or high-spiritedess, not malice.
I don’t suppose we’ll upgrade security over this one incident.
But the day is coming, no doubt. Security will cost money, and everybody will have to chip in to pay for it.
That’s the way of the world, even at a Bible school.
Today’s Virtual Book Tour stop is here, at The American Chronicle. Oddly, the article isn’t on their home page. I can make a guess as to why, but I’ll say nothing. Probably wrong anyway.
Alas, a political post
I’ve been trying to keep away from political posts, but I’ll just do a short one tonight. Then never again, because I can quit anytime I want.
Am I the only one who thinks you’ve got to be really, really desperate if you’re doing ads warning the American public of dangerous foreign influences in The U.S. Chamber of Commerce?
I can see the senatorial hearing now. The chairman leans over his table and asks, “Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce?”
Those capitalists. They’re under people’s beds.
For my second topic, I’d like to offer a brief explanation of one aspect of Minnesota politics, for people who live in more rational parts of the country. For the record, I don’t expect great Republican advances here this year. The rules are different in this state.
Here’s a couple of the rules:
1) If the polls indicate a neck-and-neck race in Minnesota, the Republican is probably actually ahead, because all the polls are run by Democrats.
2) However, that doesn’t mean the Republican will win. Because, in general, the Democrats also get to count the votes.