Archive | April 2008

NPM: Poetry from the Desk Drawer

Apr8

Back in January, Becky at Farm School posted on Poetry Friday about a special poetry anthology, compiled by Alice Roosevelt Longworth and her brother Theodore (”Ted Jr.”) Roosevelt (1887-1944) and published in 1937. She made it sound so special that I had to see if I could find a copy at the library. My library system actually didn’t have The Desk Drawer Anthology, but they ordered it for me from afar (North Harris County College Learning Resource Center).

These are mostly the kinds of poems that one member of my family in particular despises: some sentimental stories and proverbial sentiments, classic poets such as Dickinson, Holmes, Longfellow, and Whitman. The emphasis is on American poems and poets. A radio host back in 1937 announced the anthology on his program and invited people to send in their favorites; they sent in so many favorites that Mr. Roosevelt and his sister had to cull it from 40,000 entries down to a few hundred published poems. Here are a couple that I particularly liked:

City Rain by Lola Mallatt

Behind this mist of whispering soft lace,
This silver silk, so silently let fall,
I think the city wears a dreaming face,
And wishes not to stir or wake at all.

There is no earth tonight–no heavens–nothing
But thin blown rain, and rows of lamps, gold-furred,
And quiet people going up and down
In shining coats, with faces sweetly blurred.

Men by Dorothy E. Reid

I like men.
They stride about,
They reach in their pockets
And pull things out;

They look important,
They rock on their toes,
They lose all their buttons
Off of their clothes;

They throw away pipes,
They find them again.
Men are queer creatures;
I like men.

Poet of the day: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. (Go here for a Celebration of Longfellow.)
Poetry activity for today: Find a poem that someone in your family clipped from a magazine or a newspaper and kept. D your grandparents have a favorite poem? Do you have a favorite poem in your wallet or purse or taped to your wall or mirror? If not, you should.

NPM: Poetry or Novels

Apr7

We should be more surprised by the dominance of the novel in modern literature than we are. Even if we can say that something like novels existed in the ancient world or in the east, the dominant forms of literature were poetic rather than prose. The shift from epic poetry to the novel is one of the key marks of the shift from ancient and medieval to modern literature. Shakespeare, though not writing epic, is still writing poetry, as are many of the major English writers until the 18th century. It seems to me that it reveals something quite profound about the character of the modern age. What it reveals is pretty hard to determine, but it is remarkable to realize that the novel as we know it began to rise in the seventeenth century, and has since drive every other genre from the field. Nothing today rivals the novel in its popularity or number of publications or visibility. No poet today has anything close to the popularity of a John Grisham, nor even of a more serious novelist like John Updike. There is a lot of poetry written today, perhaps more than ever before, but it does not have the same cultural position that poetry had in the past.”
–Peter Leithart, Bunyan Defoe and the Novel

Poetry or novels? Why?

And doesn’t Leithart discount the influence of popular lyrical poetry that forms the basis for most pop music? Sufjan Stevens may not write classic poetry and may not be your cup of tea, but his lyrics are popular poetry, and he has just as many fans as, if not more than, John Updike.

Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois by Sufjan Stevens

When the revenant came down
We couldn’t imagine what it was
In the spirit of three stars
The alien thing that took its form
Then to Lebanon
Oh, God
The flashing at night, the sirens grow and grow
Oh, history involved itself
Mysterious shade that took its form
Or what it was, incarnation
Three stars
Delivering signs and dusting from their eyes.

I’m not totally sure what it means, but if that ain’t popular poetry . . .

Poet of the day:
Poetry activity for today: Play Exquisite Corpse. The resulting poem might make a great rock ballad if you add in a few repeats and a bridge between verses.

Gloom, Despair, and Agony On Me

Apr7

Christianity for Modern Pagans, Wretchedness, Ch. 3

“Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Deep dark depression, excessive misery;
If it weren’t for bad luck,
I’d have no luck at all:
Gloom, despair and agony on me.” —Song lyrics from the TV comedy Hee-Haw.

Buddha’s First Noble Truth: “To live is to suffer; life is suffering.” The word “suffering” (dukkha) in this saying actually means “out-of joint-ness”, according to the book. It reminds me of Hamlet’s “The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,/ That ever I was born to set it right!” Can it be set right by human effort, or are we humans doomed to perpetual out-of-joint-ness?

Pascal: “We desire truth and find in ourselves nothing but uncertainty. We seek happiness and find only wretchedness and death.”

And again, Pascal: “Man is vile enough to bow down to beasts and even worship them.”

I watched a video tribute the other day when I was looking for resources for our twentieth century history class. It was a tribute to Bonnie and Clyde, thieves and murderers. We are certainly vile enough, or perverse enough, to admire the most deplorable people and events.

Pascal, once more: “The alternative to theism is not atheism but idolatry.”

My brother in law quotes someone (maybe Chesterton?) to the effect that if a man doesn’t believe in God he’ll fall for anything. Everyone worships someone or something. Man is a worshipping animal.

So, the Christian apologist or counselor must first discover (uncover) what is is that the so-called atheist actually worships. To whom or what does he ascribe worth? His relationships? Wife? Family? His own towering intellect? Nature? Pleasure? If it could be demonstrated that all of these are empty and meaningless in and of themselves, then what? Or if all of these are taken away from a man, what then?

Then, wretchedness, uncertainty, and despair.

Also in this series of posts on Peter Kreeft’s Christianity for Modern Pagans:

I’m Back. (arguing against neutrality/agnosticism)
Sinners Need Silence, and Ultimately, a Saviour

The Declaration by Gemma Malley

Apr6

If the chance to live forever came with a price, would you opt in or out?

It depends on the price, of course. In this book, the price is “no children.” The world’s resources are stretched to the limit in providing for all of the people who “opt in” to take Longevity, a drug that prolongs life indefinitely. There’s no room and there are no resources for children. Children who are born illegally to parents who have signed The Declaration, agreeing not to reproduce, are called Surpluses, and they have no rights, not even a right to life.

Anna is a Surplus. She doesn’t even have a surname, just Surplus Anna. Her purpose in life, if Surpluses can even have a purpose, is to learn to serve Legals, to become a Valuable Asset doing housework, yardwork, and and any other services that Legals disdain but need to have performed. She must serve in order to pay back society and Mother Nature for the unfortunate accident of her birth, for the drain she is on the Earth and its legal inhabitants.

The story reminded me of both P.D. James’s Children of Men (Semicolon review here) and of Margaret Peterson Haddix’s series that begins with Among the Hidden (Semicolon review here). I think these books constitute a fascinating sub-genre of dystopian novels with the theme of a world without children, or a world where certain children are illegal and unwanted. The fascination, for me, lies partly in the fact that these novels are deeply pro-life. In The Declaration, the “good guys” say things like “every life is valuable” and “there is no such thing as a Surplus.” In Children of Men, a world without any children is a dying world full of desperate people looking for meaning and finding none. In Among the Hidden the Shadow Children are, again, shown to be worthy people with a right to live and with gifts that the world needs. I think it’s encouraging to see a pro-life message like this embedded in popular, well-written fiction.

Do you know of other novels that would fit into this list?

Dystopian Novels With Pro-Life Themes

1. Children of Men by P.D. James

2. Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix

3. The Declaration by Gemma Malley

4. Unwind by Neal Shusterman. (I found this one with a google search and added it to my TBR list. The description is intriguing.)

There’s a sequel to The Declaration, called The Resistance, coming out in September, 2008.

Oh, I found this list while googling, too: Gemma Malley’s top10 Dystopian Novels for Teenagers

NPM: Reading Poetry

Apr5

I am persuaded that many excellent persons, if they were confronted with the alternatives of reading “Paradise Lost” and going round Trafalgar Square at noonday on their knees in sack-cloth, would choose the ordeal of public ridicule. Still, I will never cease advising my friends and enemies to read poetry before anything.”
Arnold Bennett, How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day (1908)

So, the question is: have you read “Paradise Lost”? If not, what would it take to get you to read this epic poem?

True confession: I’ve only read excerpts of Milton’s famous poetic opus.

“What in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the height of this great argument
I may assert eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.”
Lines 22-26 of Book 1 of Paradise Lost

Poet of the Day: John Milton
Poetry activity for today: Read Paradise Lost? Read part of Paradise Lost. Read out loud.
Alternatively, you could crawl on your knees in sackcloth through the nearest public space. The mall, perhaps?

Biblically Literate Book Club

Apr4

I’m excited about a new venture, and you’re invited to join in.

I’ve wanted to start a book club for quite a while, and since I’m not getting any younger, I decided to just do it. I had a good idea over Lent as I thought about possibilities. I decided to take a Biblical passage and a book (or a play) for each month and really study them together. I plan to read the Bible passage each day, sometimes in a different translation, sometimes slowly and carefully sometimes sweeping through to get the big picture, and see how the Lord speaks through His word and how I can apply the Biblical truths of the passage to my life. I hope the books will mesh in some way with the Bible readings to illuminate one another, especially the Bible illuminating the works of human authors. We’ll see how that works.

So, I’ve started a blog just for the book club. The blog is a work-in-progress since Computer Guru Son plans to spruce it up a bit, but you’re welcome to visit and comment and join in on the reading. Please, if you plan to read with us, leave a comment.

Winter Haven by Athol Dickson

Apr4

I’m sorry to say that I didn’t think this book, the third novel I’ve read and enjoyed by Mr. Dickson, was as good as either River Rising (Semicolon review here) or The Cure (Semicolon review here). Of course, I put River Rising on my list of the Best Novels of All Time, and I’ve raved about it over and over. So, the pressure to live up to its predecessors was intense. The dialogue in this latest novel felt forced and stilted, and the plot reminded me of a Gothic romance: a dashing older man with a dilapidated mansion and secrets to keep, dark and eerie events and characters, hints of violence and horror in the past, the question of whether Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome can be trusted. Add in an insecure and frightened heroine and a madwoman, and it’s all been done before, better, in Jane Eyre or Rebecca. Your mileage may vary, but if you haven’t read River Rising, by all means, drop everything and hie thee to the nearest bookstore or library and grab a copy.

Still, I did like the setting of Winter Haven on an isolated island off the coast of Maine. What are the advantages of setting a novel (or play) on an island, particularly an island with limited or no access to the outside world. It’s like LOST. (Winter Haven has time issues and a polar bear, too—like LOST. No, I am not obsessed with LOST.)

In an island setting, you, the author, can limit your cast of characters, and you can make The Island a metaphor for the Earth itself or for a community. Or you can further isolate your protagonist by making him a castaway on a deserted island as in Robinson Crusoe or the Tom Hanks movie Castaway. What does solitude and the lack of relationship and human companionship do to a man, or a woman? How does he survive alone? Or you can have a group of castaways forced to associate and build a new society, for better or for worse: The Swiss Famiy Robinson (utopian) or Lord of the Flies (very dystopian).

Let’s build a list of island stories:

Books:

The Odyssey by Homer. (Odysseus travels from one island to another and gets trapped on Calypso’s island home.)
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift.
The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss.
The Tempest by William Shakespeare.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
Hawaii by James Michener.
Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie.
A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie.
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhyss.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. (island-hopping)
The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells.
Mysterious Island by Jules Verne.
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell.
The Cay by Theodore Taylor.
Island by Aldous Huxley.
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Pitcairn’s Island by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. ( A sequel to Mutiny on the Bounty)

Film
Gilligan’s Island (TV series from my misspent youth)
Fantasy Island (ditto)
Key Largo
South Pacific
Cast Away
LOST (TV series from my misspent middle age)

Romesh Geneskera’s Top Ten Island Books

Anyone have additional suggestions in the category of Good Stories with Island Settings?

The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

Apr3

Organizer Daughter and a friend and I watched the movie version of this book by Jane Yolen this afternoon in conjunction with the urchins’ study of World War II. I read the book a long time ago and didn’t remember much about it. Hence, the ending quite shocked me, as I vaguely remember it shocking me when I read it.

If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s a tale of sixteen year old “typical teenager” Hanna Stern who, when she is forced to attend the annual family Seder, tries to avoid hearing the interminably long stories that her elderly relatives tell about their WW II experiences. However, during the Seder, a mystery intervenes (or is it a dream?), and Hanna is somehow transported back to Poland in the year 1940. She attends a Jewish wedding with some of her relatives who think she is a cousin who has been ill with a fever, and at the wedding, tragedy strikes. The Nazis come to take the Jews to “work camps”, and because Hanna has ben completely inattentive to her family’s history and heritage, she has very little idea of what will happen next to her and to her Polish, Jewish family.

I wouldn’t recommend the movie for any children younger than 13 or 14. Even my high schoolers were, I think, shocked by some of the scenes of brutality and horror that took place in the concentration camp. And that’s despite the fact that I think the movie sort of understates and even misrepresents the reality in some ways. The inmates of the camp are a lot more free to interact and a lot more warmly dressed than I would think was the true state of affairs. Anyway, this movie is for mature teen and adults, and I think it did my teens some good to see enacted some historical facts that they had only read about until now.

The movie stars Kirsten Dunst as Hanna and Brittany Murphy as her friend Rifka.

NPM: It Is What It Is

Apr3

You cannot translate a poem into an explanation, any more than you can translate a poem into a painting or a painting into a piece of music or a piece of music into a walking stick. A work of art says what it says in the only way it can be said. Beauty, for example, cannot be interpreted. It is not an empirically verifiable fact; it is not a quantity.
Wendell Berry, Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition (2000), p. 117

So here’s a poem by one of my favorite poets, no explanation:

Home Thoughts, From Abroad by Robert Browning

Oh, to be in England
Now that April’s there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England—now!

And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray’s edge—
That’s the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children’s dower
—Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

Poet of the Day: Robert Browning
Poetry activity for today: Write a list poem.