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Can’t Buy ‘Deep Thoughts’ in a Jar No More

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Larrey Anderson remarks on a dearth of thinkers in America and recommends Paul Johnson’s book, Intellectuals. “Our present situation is not good for the Republic,” he writes. “By selling feel good snake oil intellectualism, we have polarized America into unwavering ideological camps, each camp filled with phony sophisticates. How we got ourselves into this pickle is an interesting story.”

Anderson says we’ve been teaching relative values in our society for at least fifty years, but I believe I read Mortimer Adler say in an essay he wrote in 1940s that we’ve been teaching relative values since the late 1800s.

Fiction

“Obnoxious, Supercilious Snob”

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Sherry reviews Sinclair Lewis’ Main Street. “Published in 1920, Main Street is proto-feminist, liberal in its politics (to contrast with the no doubt conservative politics of 1920’s small town businessmen), and agnostic in its religious views. Our protagonista, Carol Kennicott . . . mostly stays just this side of being an obnoxious, supercilious snob.”

Fiction, Reviews

Frankenstein: Dead and Alive, by Dean Koontz

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If I were actually the kind of industry insider I pretend to be as an author/blogger, I would have been aware that Dean Koontz’ long-awaited final volume in his Frankenstein trilogy was coming out at last. (He delayed it, he has reported, because New Orleans, the setting of the books, had suffered enough after Hurricane Katrina, and deserved a break. I’d been very worried the story would go forever unfinished.)

Koontz dedicates Frankenstein: Dead and Alive to “the late Mr. Lewis, who long ago realized that science was being politicized….” It would appear that C. S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength was an inspiration for this book and for the whole trilogy. That gives me particular satisfaction, as I did an homage of my own in Wolf Time.

Although it’s not necessary to read the first two books before reading Dead and Alive, I would recommend it. It’s a pity there was such a long lag between books, because, in my opinion, this book works best as the capstone to the trilogy experience. Continue reading Frankenstein: Dead and Alive, by Dean Koontz →

Writing

Like a Dog on a June Bug

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Picking up on Lars’ post on idioms a few days ago, Dr. Goodword is all over idioms and slang this week like white on rice.

One of the greatest tricks of the comedian is to find situations where an idiom may, in fact, be analyzed, leaving the listener in a quandary—does he or she mean the idiom or the literal meaning? In an episode of the TV series Mash, hearing that a soldier has been dishonrably discharged, Hawk-eye asked, “Why? Was he rotten to the corps?” Now, when you hear this, it sounds identical to the idiom “rotten to the core”, which means simply to be extermely bad. Which did Hawk-eye mean, corps or core?

And no, I don’t know that the good doctor was inspired by Lars’ post. Possible–probable–but I can’t say.

Coffee, Tea, Drinks

All About the Food

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Jeffrey Overstreet talks about food in film in light of the recent movie, Julie & Julia.

In Mostly Martha, the main character runs her restaurant kitchen as if she were a general at war, with no room for mistakes. But when she ends up caring for her orphaned niece, and makes room in her life for a chef with unconventional ideas, their days — and meals — together help her discover a richer way to live. (Watch the original. Avoid the cheap American imitation — No Reservations.)

. . .

For this moviegoer, there is no cinematic meal more beautiful and profound than Gabriel Axel’s movie Babette’s Feast. . . . Babette is quietly fighting the Gnostic lie that the spiritual life is separate from physical experience. She is revealing the glory of God to them through food. She shows them that food, like all of God’s great gifts, is meant to be celebrated and shared with vigor, reverence, and gratitude. It might even have the power to make friends out of enemies.

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It’s Immoral to Spend Other People’s Money

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I hear Margaret Thatcher said, “The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” This is why health care reform, if it is a method for reducing some people’s medical bills by giving them the taxes taken from others, is only another problem, not a solution. Why do anti-trust laws not apply to insurance companies? Why are those companies bound by state lines? Is that not a tax-free way to increase competition, if that is the goal for health care reform?

But about socialism, here’s another good critique from the former prime minister:

Book Reviews, Creative Culture