Archive | September 2008

Sunday Salon: I John, Dragons, Controversy and Short Stories

Sep7

I’ve been reading and meditating on the book of I John in the Bible this week, and the dominant thought that keeps running through my mind is that Jesus commands us to do such a simple thing: to love each other. And we find that simple command so hard to obey. I want to be told to climb mountains, paint great works of art, end world hunger, create technological miracles. Do hard things. And yet the hardest thing of all, the thing I cannot do very well, is love my brothers and sisters, my children, my friends, my enemies. Why not, and what would it look like if we did? What would it look like for Republicans to show love for Democrats and vice-versa? What would it look like in my home for me to truly love my children and my husband “with actions and in truth”? I need to get practical and think of at least one action that I will take this week to love the people that God has placed in my life. Maybe with a lot of practice and by God’s grace I can work up to two acts of selfless love per week in few years.

I also started reading The Search for the Red Dragon by James Owen this week. It’s the sequel to Here, There Be Dragons. (Semicolon review here.) So far, so good, and I’m looking forward to getting back to it after writing this post.

I posted my review of Looking for Alaska by John Green, and the author himself found my review and had some comments. I’m thankful for the frank, but civil and courteous, discussion about young adult literature that my review and questions and Mr. Green’s comments instigated. Take a look if you’re interested in issues of censorship, discernment, and decency in young adult literature.

Semicolon review of Looking for Alaska with related questions.

John Green’s response and comments by readers.

I’m looking forward this week to finishing Mr. Owens’ book and to starting A Bell for Adano, the September selection for Biblically Literate Book Club. I also have the schedule or Semicolon Author Celebrations for the rest of the year posted in the sidebar. I’ll copy the schedule here, too:

September 11: O. Henry, b.1862, d.1910.
September 18: Samuel Johnson, b.1709, d.1784.
October 9: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, b.1547, d.1616.
October 30: John Adams, b.1735, d. 1826.
November 13: Robert Louis Stevenson, b.1850, d.1894.
November 27: Kevin Henkes, b.1960.
December 11: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, b.1918, d.2008.
December 18: Charles Wesley, b.1707, d.1788.

For those who don’t know about my new Author Celebrations, I’m providing a place (linky) on the Thursday birthdays of certain authors where you can come by and read about the author here at Semicolon and also leave a link to your post celebrating that author’s birthday. This Thursday, the 11th of September, we’ll be celebrating the birthday of the famous short story writer, William Sydney Porter, better known as O. Henry. Everybody’s heard of The Gift of the Magi, but here’s a website where you can taste others of O. Henry’s short stories. Anyone have a suggestion for me and the urchins to read aloud one night this week?

Semicolon’s September: Celebrations, Links and Birthdays

The Week in Quotation Marks

Sep7

We are blessed in the 21st century with crystal-clear photographs and action films of the living realities within their pregnant mothers. No one with the slightest measure of integrity or honor could fail to know what these marvelous beings manifestly, clearly, and obviously are, as they smile and wave into the world outside the womb. In simplest terms, they are human beings with an inalienable right to live, a right that the Speaker of the House of Representatives is bound to defend at all costs for the most basic of ethical reasons. They are not parts of their mothers, and what they are depends not at all upon the opinions of theologians of any faith. Anyone who dares to defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human being “chooses” to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name.
Edward Cardinal Egan
Archbishop of New York
August 26, 2008

“Let me be a clear as possible: I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people’s families are off limits,and people’s children are especially off limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics…it has no relevance to Gov. Palin’s performance as governor, or her potential performance as a vice president.
And so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know my mother had me when she was 18, and how a family deals with issues and, you know, teenage children, that shouldn’t be the topic of our politics and I hope that anybody who is supporting me understands that’s off limits.” ~Barack Obama, September 1, 2008

“We need a president who doesn’t think that the protection of the unborn or a newly born baby is above his pay grade.”. ~Fred Thompson, RNC, 9/2/2008

“But here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion — I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country. Americans expect us to go to Washington for the right reasons, and not just to mingle with the right people.” ~Sarah Palin, RNC, 9/3/2008

“I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.” ~John McCain, RNC, 9/4/2008

Semicolon’s September: Celebrations, Links and Birthdays

Friday Night at the Cinema: All About Eve

Sep5

We watched All About Eve, a 1950 movie with Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, and Hugh Marlowe. Brown Bear Daughter said it was “the creepiest movie ever, except for Signs and The Village.” Anne Baxter plays what we nowadays would call a stalker; she idolizes actress Margo Channing (Bette Davis). Ms. Channing is a great actress, but has her own insecurities and character flaws, to say the least. Eve (Anne Baxter) plays off those insecurities masterfully and acts as diabolically as any backroom politician or criminal mastermind.

If you’re in the mood for wickedly entertaining, I’d recommend All About Eve. As a study in idolatry, it’s superb.

According to Internet Movie Database:

In real life, Bette Davis had just turned 42 as she undertook the role of Margo Channing, and Anne Baxter, still an up-and-comer, not only wowed audiences with her performance, but successfully pressured the powers that be to get her nominated for an Oscar in the Best Actress category rather than Best Supporting Actress. This is thought to have split the vote between herself and Davis. The winner for the 1950 Best Actress was Judy Holliday for her noticeable turn in Born Yesterday (1950), so Baxter’s actions in effect blocked Davis’ chances for the win.

The dialog in the movie is remarkable, like a play since it’s from a different era and it takes place in the world of the New York theatre. Here are some quotes. And here’s my favorite scene:

Semicolon’s September: Celebrations, Links and Birthdays

Friday’s Center of the Blogosphere

Sep5

Church:
Julie Neidlinger on Why I Walked Out of Church, and George Grant on Why We’re Losing the Julies of this World.

What she longs for, she says, is her “home town church” filled with “ordinary, uncool people” who actually “know each other.” In other words, she longs for “parish life.”

Sherry here: How do we get back to that “old-time religion” where people related to people instead of to programs?

Community:

Trey Garrison in the Dallas Morning News on Why I Don’t Want Diversity in My Neighborhood. I got the link for this article from Amy’s Humble Musings, and it’s a good argument for homeschoolers who get hit with the “diversity” complaint, too. Mr. Garrison says:

Seriously, if the only exposure to other people your kid gets is when she’s sitting in a place where you move about like cattle at the sound of a bell and have to ask permission to go to the bathroom (i.e. school), what kind of sheltered life are you giving your kid?

Family:

Dorothy at Urban Servant (got this link from Amy, too) says: “Nine kids, 12 years and 30,000 diapers later and all I am sure of is how much I don’t know about parenting.”

Oh, how true, and oh, how I needed to hear this message both to keep me from advice-giving and to remind me that Engineer Husband and I are the only ones who are truly experts on our eight children, and we don’t know much.

Sallie on Why Sarah Palin Makes Sense to Me: “It is easy for me to accept this situation and believe she could do a good job as both a mom and veep/president because of my marriage.
If I were handed an extraordinary opportunity, David would be right there supporting me. I have no doubt that if God called me to do something, David would adjust his life accordingly so as to make it possible. (I also know because I asked him yesterday.) It wouldn’t even have to be something as extraordinary as running for Vice President. But if it were something that would require sacrifice and his taking over more of the home, he would do it in a heartbeat.”

I, too, have such a husband, and I am oh so thankful for him.

The Media
Mark Steyn: “I would like to thank the US media for doing such a grand job this last week of lowering expectations by portraying Governor Palin – whoops, I mean Hick-Burg Mayor Palin – as a hillbilly know-nothing permapregnant ditz, half of whose 27 kids are the spawn of a stump-toothed uncle who hasn’t worked since he was an extra in Deliverance.

How’s that narrative holding up, geniuses?”

Barbara Nicolosi really, really didn’t like what the filmmakers have done with the new movie version of Brideshead Revisited.

Imagine if someone did a new adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird and it ended up savagely racist? That’s what they’ve done here. A profoundly Catholic novel, in this “adaptation”, Brideshead Revisited is viciously anti-Catholic. They turned a movie about God and the soul, into a lurid love triangle between a homosexual, his sister and a hapless hunk. It’s lame. It’s bad.

I’m watching the 1981 mini-series version, and I think it’s quite good. This admittedly slow-moving film version of Evelyn Waugh’s novel has helped me to understand things about the characters in particular that I just didn’t get when I read the book. Here are my thoughts on the novel from about two years ago.

Semicolon’s September: Celebrations, Links and Birthdays

Book Blogger Awards

Sep5

I’ve been nominated for a Book Blogger Appreciation Week Award at the blog My Friend Amy who’s sponsoring these awards. Voting starts today, Friday the 5th, and I’m in such good company that I’d suggest you just go over a “appreciate” whomever you want. We all win.

Best Community Builder
5 Minutes for Books
The Hidden Side of a Leaf
J.Kaye’s Book Blog
My Friend Amy
Semicolon

I’m hoping to find time to go by and visit all the nominees, in all the categories, and invite them to contribute a review or two to the Saturday Review of Books this Saturday. If I don’t make it, please consider yourself invited, all nominees and all book bloggers in general.

Go Sarah!

Sep3

From Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah’s speech tonight at the Republican National Convention:

“To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters. I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House.”
Yes! I dare say that this advocacy position may be a part of the reason that God has raised Sarah Palin up for such a time as this.

“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.”
The Democrats had better quit discussing “experience” or the lack thereof; they lose on that comparison.

“Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America’s energy problems – as if we all didn’t know that already. But the fact that drilling won’t solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all.”
Duh! I can already hear “drill, baby, drill” being repeated at water fountains and in offices all over the country tomorrow.

“The difference between a hockey mom and a bulldog? Lipstick.”

She added that little joke to her prepared speech. I believe Sarah Palin’s going to be a bulldog with lipstick who helps the Republicans win this election —and I hope she helps John McCain govern this country.

Released text of tonight’s speech by Sarah Palin.

Extra: A Democrat teacher tells why she will vote for Sarah Palin and John McCain.

Of Semicolons

Sep3

Terry Teachout at Arts Journal writes about his shock and amazement over George Orwell’s treacherous use of the semicolon.

Paul Collins at Slate asks: Has Modern Life Killed the Semicolon?

Jon Henley compares French and British allegiance to the semicolon in The Guardian. The French call it the “point-virgule”

Jan Freeman: Sex and the Semicolon. And More Sex and the Semicolon. (Don’t get too excited. The title is only related to whether the punctuation mark in question is masculine enough for manly writers or only for girls.)

Who knew that the semicolon was such a hot topic? If you’re hard up for a subject for your next blog post/column/rumination, write about semicolons; they’re all the rage.

Semicolon’s September: Celebrations, Links and Birthdays

Sarah Palin Again

Sep3

I’m more and more pleased by Senator McCain’s pick for vice-president. I thought I’d share a few links with those of you who are interested.

Mildy Humorous: Time magazine has this piece, Mayor Palin: A Rough Record, in which the author tries to straddle the fence and make Mayor Palin sound like a “scary Chirstian conservative” to those who are scared of Christian conservatives, and then turn around and make her sound like a traditional, unprincipled politician to those who are inclined to support her. It makes for a rather schizophrenic point of view.

Allen Thornburgh at The Point: Team Palin Just Keeps Soldiering On. He thinks it odd, as do I, that the left seems to think that the fact that Sarah Palin actually has a daughter who is sinful like the rest of us —and who’s taking responsibility for the consequences of her actions— is going to surprise evangelical and Catholic Christians. News flash: we mostly believe in original sin. It’s perfection that would surprise us, and a lack of repentance (on the part of the actual candidate for any mistakes she may have made) that would be a deal-breaker.

In a post that indirectly relates to and mentions Ms. Palin, Bookworm writes about Examining the unborn. I thought the part about the Jewish law in relation to abortion was especially interesting.

Douglas Wilson, a man that some of of you who run in reformed Christian circles will know, is reconsidering his decision not to vote for McCain this fall. He’s not on board with McCain/Palin yet, but he does have some good talking points, both pro and con.

Time Magazine again says McCain has raised over seven million dollars since the Palin nomination announcement. I think I’ll send in my token donation today.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Sep2

Ambivalence. I was just going to list this book on my “books read in August” list with a note saying “NOT recommended” next to the title. However, in some ways, it’s a great book.

Mr. Green writes about The Issues of Adolescence —life, death, and sexuality–with verve and humor. The characters in the novel are unique and yet representative of typical teenagers. The situations and jokes and the midnight conversations are funny, and sometimes even profound. I could picture The Colonel, and Pudge (Miles), and Takumi and Lara and Alaska, and I felt as I read that I got to know them as a group of rebellious teens and as individuals. In fact, I wanted to slap them up the side of the face for the stupid decisions they made, and applaud their search for meaning in an essentially absurd universe.

However, and it’s a big however, I was more than uncomfortable with the language and the graphic descriptions of adolescent sexual explorations that pervaded the novel. I know that some teenagers (not all) try out sex in all its manifestations, and I know that some teens (not all) use language that would make a sailor blush. But I don’t really want to read about it. And I don’t feel very good about my teenagers reading about it.

So, I’d say that Looking for Alaska is a well-written, insightful, funny, blasphemous profane, and sexually explicit look at adolescence on the wild side. The actions and reactions of the characters are believable and sometimes deplorable. Oh, and Mr. Green won the Prinz Award for YA literature for this debut novel in 2006. Enter at your own risk.

I’m curious. Are there any subjects or is there any kind of language that is out of bounds anymore for a young adult novel? I’m asking because I really don’t know. Would it be acceptable for me to describe, in detail, child sexual abuse or necrophilia in my young adult novel if I were an author of YA fiction? Not that Looking for Alaska deals with those particular subjects, because it doesn’t, but I’m asking out of curiosity because I really don’t know. Are there any uncrossable lines anymore? Are there ten, seven, or even five words, you can’t use in YA fiction?

And what do you think the “lines” should be, if any? Should the standards be different from those in adult fiction? (Not that I can tell that there are any in adult fiction.)

Mr. Green responds and readers discuss.

Semicolon review of An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.

Semicolon’s September: Celebrations, Links and Birthdays

Book Links

Sep1

Library Hospital and Reading to Know are co-sponsoring a book swap for the month of September. I’ve signed up, and I suggest you do, too. Who wouldn’t want an opportunity to share your favorite book with a willing audience?

Beth at Bookworm Journal says that Madeleine L’Engle’s Austin family books are being re-issued by Square Fish, an imprint of Macmillan. Nice cover.

You can read the article I wrote for the current issue of Horn Book Magazine here. It’s called Don’t Tell the Children: Homeschoolers’ Best-Kept Secret, and it’s about homeschoolers and reading. You can also buy a copy of Horn Book’s September Back-to-School issue at your local newsstand. I’m tickled to have been asked to write the article and pleased at how it turned out.