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To This Great Stage of Fools: Born January 3rd

Jan3

I got busy today and almost forgot to recognize Tolkien’s birthday! We’ve been enjoying the products of Tolkien’s inventive mind around here for many years, and lately has been no exception. Dancer Daughter is in the midst of her yearly re-reading of The Lord of the Rings. We watched Peter Jackson’s interpretation of The Fellowship of the Ring a few nights ago. Yesterday I read Eldest Daughter’s essay on Samwise Gamgee as a Kierkegaardian White Knight of Faith, an essay she wrote for one of her classes at Baylor. And Engineer Husband is reading Fellowship of the Ring out loud at night to some of the younger urchins who haven’t read it yet.

So Tolkien is daily indulgence here, and it’s easy to forget his birthday since we celebrate him and his works every day.

Happy BIrthday, Professor Tolkien!
Thoughts on The Silmarillion
Yesterday Was Tolkien’s Birthday
On Seeing the Movie Version of Return of the King

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born January 2nd

Jan2

Philip Freneau, b. 1752. Known as the Poet of the American Revolution, he was a close friend of Madison and of Jefferson. His poetry leaned toward propaganda, first anti-British and then anti- Federalist and supporting the party of his friends Madison and Jefferson. Here’s a few lines from a more personal poetic ode:

If I should quit your arms to-night
And chance to die before ‘t was light,
I would advise you — and you might —
Love again to-morrow. From Song of Thyrsis

William Lyon Phelps, b. 1865, American educator, critic, author and preacher, professor of literature at Yale. “Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good plays, good company, good conversation – what are they? They are the happiest people in the world.”
“You can learn more about human nature by reading the Bible than by living in New York.”

Robert Nathan, American novelist and author of The Bishop’s Wife and Portrait of Jenny, both of which were made into movies in the late 1940’s.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born January 1st

Jan1

Maria Edgeworth, b. 1767, Irish novelist and children’s author. She met and corresponded with Sir Walter Scott. She also met Byron, and George III read one of her novels and said that he now had a better knowledge of his Irish subjects. Her father, who had four successive wives and twenty-two children (Maria was his second oldest child), insisted on editing and approving many of her books before he would allow them to be published.

Arthur Hugh Clough, b.1819, poet and friend of poet Matthew Arnold. Clough died at the age of thirty-one of malaria, and Arnold wrote the elegy Thyrsis in remembrance of his friend.

Yes, thou art gone! and round me too the night
In ever-nearing circle weaves her shade.
I see her veil draw soft across the day,
I feel her slowly chilling breath invade
The cheek grown thin, the brown hair sprent with grey;
I feel her finger light
Laid pausefully upon life’s headlong train; —
The foot less prompt to meet the morning dew,
The heart less bounding at emotion new,
And hope, once crush’d, less quick to spring again.

Sir James George Frazer, b. 1854. Scottish student of mythology and comparative religion, author of The Golden Bough. He saw the history of religion in Darwinian terms as “three rising stages of human progress — magic giving rise to religion, then culminating in science.” So now you know one source for that bit of nonsense.

E.M. Forster, b. 1879, English novelist and essayist. His most famous novels are Howard’s End, A Room With A View, and A Passage to India. I started reading A Passage to India but didn’t get very far into before giving up. I don’t remember what I disliked about it, but I did dislike it. Can anyone give me a good reason to try again?

J.D. Salinger, b. 1919, American author best known for his book The Catcher in the Rye. No, I’ve never read it.

Connecting the Dots

Jan1

Author Gail Gauthier wrote a couple of weeks ago on her blog: “I like connections. I like finding connections between and among unrelated things. Some people say that I see them where they don’t exist, which isn’t true. They just can’t see them.” She’s been finding connections between the books she’s been reading for the Fantasy Fiction Cybil Award.

Not to be a copycat, but I’ve been finding connections, too. I’ve read about twenty of the books nominated for the Cybil Middle Grade Fiction Award, and I’ve found some odd, dare I say eerie, similarities between several of the books.

Four of the nominees have the word “moon” in the title: Alabama Moon, Georgie’s Moon, Half-Moon Investigations, and That Girl Lucy Moon. In two of those books Moon is the last name of the main character. And in Alabama Moon the boy’s first name is Moon.

Popularity and the transition to junior high/middle school are big preoccupations of the characters in Shug and in That Girl Lucy Moon.

I reviewed Shug by Jenny Han and Rules by Cynthia Lord together in the same post because I found them similar in many ways.

I also reviewed Blue by Joyce Hostetter and Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata together in the same post because both books take place during WW II, both feature a female protagonist who must survive some sort of imprisonment, and other similarities abound.

In both Out of Patience by Brian Meehl and in Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce, the male protagonist is a resident of a (very) small town/community and must deal with the fact that the town is dying and people are moving out.

Both Penny (Penny From Heaven) and Blue (Blue) have an extended hospital stay. And both girls have families who are terrified of the polio epidemic that is sweeping the country during and after WW 2.

Two of the books I read, Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck and Framed are set in and around a garage/filling station in a small community, and the family in the story is trying to make the garage pay —and failing. Also, both garage families use the word “forecourt” for the gasoline/petrol station part in the front of the garage. But one book takes place in Indiana in 1914, and the other takes place in Wales. So why do both use a word I’ve never heard used to refer to the front of the garage?

Two of the books involve competition in the inner city: Heat is about Little League baseball in NYC, and All of the Above is about building tetrahedrons in ?City.

Heat by Mike Lupica and Alabama Moon both feature a boy who tries to tries to survive on his own after the untimely death of his father. Julia in Julia’s Kitchen tries to make sense of the tragic death of her mother, and Penny in Penny from Heaven tries to figure the secrets surrounding the death of her father. Absent parents and parents who desert their offspring on purpose or by accident abound in other books: All of the Above, Framed, Here Lies the Librarian, That Girl Lucy Moon, Bully-Be-Gone, Desperate Journey, Shug.

Wacky inventors of sci-fi contraptions are major characters in The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen and in Bully-Be-Gone.

And finally, in the most unsettling connection of all, two of the books I read spend a great deal of time and prose describing the nasal excretions of one of the characters in excruciating detail: The Clue of Linoleum Lederhosen and Half-Moon Investigations by Erin Colfer are both full of snot.

Connections or trends? Keep a eye out for more as you read children’s and YA fiction this year.

The finalists for the Cybil awards are now posted at the Cybil blog. Check them out; you might find all kinds of connections and trends.

The Books I Didn’t Finish in 2006

Dec31

Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Grace—Norris I don’t know why I didn’t finish this one; I’d like to try it again. I think there were just too many interruptions.

Bark of the Bog Owl—Rogers I just couldn’t get interested in this children’s fantasy.

Child from the Sea—Goudge Again, I couldn’t get interested.

Christianity for Modern Pagans—Kreeft I dipped into this one here and there in a rather desultory manner. I’ll make a better attempt this next year.

Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius—Eggers And I probably won’t ever read it. Too crude, rude and socially unacceptable.

Lonesome Dove—McMurtry Same song, second verse. I thought it might get better, but it just got worse.

Moby Dick–Melville A I’ll get back to Melville again someday.

Ragtime—Doctorow Crude and not my cuppa tea.

Silence—Shukasu Endo I had to return it to the library. I’ll get it again and finish it.

Story—McKee I skimmed through parts of this how-to-write book.

Either my attention span is getting shorter (hope not) or I’m a lot more willing to give up on a book, maybe come back to it later, than I used to be. I think I’ve decided that at my age I’m never going to be able to read all the books that interest me anyway. So why waste time and energy on one that doesn’t capture my imagination? Unless I’ve been told by people I trust that there’s something there worth working at, I don’t read books anymore that I don’t like within a chapter or two.

So many books, so little time.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born December 30th

Dec30


Rudyard Kipling, b. 1865, d. January 18, 1936.

Kipling was wildly popular in his time; he’s now condemned as a moralist, a racist, and and imperialist. Nevertheless, his poetry and his stories are a delight, even if it’s sometimes necessary to suspend one’s cultural assumptions and attitudes. Eldest Daughter took a Victorian fantasty class last semester, and the class read Puck of Pook’s Hill, a tale of Puck, the Last of the Little People, who takes two children, Dan and Una, on a journey through a fantastical version of ancint British history. They hear stories from Puck and see the adventures of Picts and Danes, knights and Romans, and other more fairy-like folk.

THe following poem is from the book Puck of Pook’s Hill by Rudyard Kipling:

Of all the trees that grow so fair,
Old England to adorn,
Greater are none beneath the Sun,
Than Oak, and Ash, and Thorn.
Sing Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, good sirs,
(All of a Midsummer morn!)
Surely we sing no little thing,
In Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Oak of the Clay lived many a day,
Or ever AEneas began.
Ash of the Loam was a lady at home,
When Brut was an outlaw man.
Thorn of the Down saw New Troy Town
(From which was London born);
Witness hereby the ancientry
Of Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Yew that is old in churchyard-mould,
He breedeth a mighty bow.
Alder for shoes do wise men choose,
And beech for cups also.
But when ye have killed, and your bowl is spilled,
And your shoes are clean outworn,
Back ye must speed for all that ye need,
To Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Ellum she hateth mankind, and waiteth
Till every gust be laid,
To drop a limb on the head of him
That anyway trusts her shade:
But whether a lad be sober or sad,
Or mellow with ale from the horn,
He will take no wrong when he lieth along
‘Neath Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight,
Or he would call it a sin;
But–we have been out in the woods all night,
A-conjuring Summer in!
And we bring you news by word of mouth-
Good news for cattle and corn–
Now is the Sun come up from the South,
With Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Sing Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, good sirs
(All of a Midsummer morn):
England shall bide till Judgment Tide,
By Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

In the story Puck swears “by Oak, and Ash, and Thorn.” If I were going to swear an oath by anything, I would enjoy that one. I do like the Victorians and Edwardians. There’s something solid and comforting and indestructible about even the most doubting and wavering of the Victorians, not that Kipling falls into the latter category. I’m sure that Tolkien and Lewis read their Kipling and were influenced by him. Doesn’t the tree poem remind you of Tolkien’s love of trees?

If you can get your hands on a copy, I would recommend a romp through Puck of Pook’s Hill. In the same class on Victorian fantasy, Eldest Daughter also enjoyed Thackeray’s The Ring and the Rose, also worth searching out.

Complete Collection of Poems by Rudyard Kipling.

Kipling’s Birthday, December 2004: “When Earth’s Picture Is Painted.”

Poetry Friday: You by Edgar Guest

Dec29

You are the fellow that has to decide
Whether you’ll do it or toss it aside.
You are the fellow who makes up your mind
Whether you’ll lead or will linger behind
Whether you’ll try for the goal that’s afar
Or just be contented to stay where you are.
Take it or leave it. Here’s something to do!
Just think it over — It’s all up to you!

What do you wish? To be known as a shirk,
Known as a good man who’s willing to work,
Scorned for a loafer or praised by your chief,
Rich man or poor man or beggar or thief?
Eager or earnest or dull through the day,
Honest or crooked? It’s you who must say!
You must decide in the face of the test
Whether you’ll shirk it or give it your best.

Nobody here will compel you to rise;
No one will force you to open your eyes;
No one will answer for you yes or no,
Whether to stay there or whether to go.
Life is a game, but it’s you who must say,
Whether as cheat or as sportsman you’ll play.
Fate may betray you, but you settle first
Whether to live to your best or your worst.

So, whatever it is you are wanting to be,
Remember, to fashion the choice you are free.
Kindly or selfish, or gentle or strong,
Keeping the right way or taking the wrong,
Careless of honor or guarding your pride,
All these are questions which you must decide.
Yours the selection, whichever you do;
The thing men call character’s all up to you!

The poetry of Edgar Guest is out of fashion in our sophisticated age; it’s unambiguous, unsubtle, too moralizing, not enough vivid images and fine-drawn metaphors and understated suggestions. Guest’s too preachy for lots of people, but sometimes I find that I need, even enjoy, the bracing, cold slap of a challenge put into plain terms that can’t be misinterpreted or evaded.

No, I don’t actually believe that it’s all up to me. But I do believe that it’s a good idea to act as if it were. “Life is a game, but it’s you who must say whether as cheat or as sportsman you’ll play.”

Take it or leave it.

Friday’s Center of the Blogosphere: Be It Therefore Resolved

Dec29

Cindy has some great advice for addled moms. I like her idea about New Year’s resolutions and winter cleaning and organizing. Throw it all out!

Mental Multivitamin also has some resolutions to avoid, those involving a Nordic track or counting calories, and some to enjoy, the read, think, learn kind.

On a more serious note, I copied this list from Ian’s Messy Desk into a document so that we can use the resolutions of Jonathan Edwards for writing practice and for discussion. I may or may not agree with all his resolutions, but I think they might instigate some fruitful discussions with the urchins.

Heat by Mike Lupica and Alabama Moon by Watt Key

Dec28

Michael Arroyo, age twelve, and Moon Blake, age ten, both have the same problem. Each of their fathers has died and left them without a parent to take care of them. And neither of them wants to go into foster care. Mike’s brother, Carlos, calls government people “Official Persons” and distrusts and avoids them. He and Mike manage, with the help of a friend, to hide their father’s death from NYC Officialdom and live on their own, sort of successfully. Moon Blake, down in the backwoods of Alabama, also distrusts the government and tries to hide the death of his father.

Heat by Mike Lupica and Alabama Moon by Watt Key do share a similar plot device: a young boy who has reasons to distrust the representatives of the state must figure out how to continue life on his own terms while navigating the adult world and avoiding both the well-meaning and the badly-intentioned interference of grown-ups. Finally, both boys must decide whom to trust and how much trust they can afford and how much help they need.

But there are some differences in the two books. Heat is set in New York City, and Michael’s father was a good man who died of a heart attack, unexpectedly leaving his boys fatherless. Michael does have his brother, Carlos, to take care of him, but Carlos is a minor, too, almost eighteen. The two boys are from Cuba, hence their lack of turst in the government, and they try to live in New York’s inner city on their own. But the adult world won’t leave them alone, and Michael finds out that even Little League baseball is played by rules that adults make and that kids need help to play the game. Michael know how to play baseball, but he doesn’t know how to take care of himself in New York City and neither does Carlos, really.

Moon of Alabama Moon, on the other hand, is much more prepared to take care of himself in some ways. His father is a survivalist, a believer in government conspiracies and in coming world war, and he’s taught Moon how to take care of himself in the woods. Moon knows how to hunt and fish, and build a shelter, and survive in the wilderness. He’s doesn’t determined to live free, just as he and his father did, but he doesn’t know what to do about all the people who won’t allow him to be on his own. And he doesn’t know how to cope with his own loneliness and isolation. Moon makes some friends after his father’s death, but having friends means living by society’s rules. Moon’s not so good at following rules made by other people.

Heat would be great book to recommend to baseball fans or kids who are interested in immigration issues or kids who read sports fiction in general. There’s lots of baseball description, but I found it fascinating rather than dry and technical. Michael’s difficult life and his father’s death are handled with sympathy, but nothing’s too dark or gruesome. Michael has friends and an interest in life (baseball) to keep him going. Even when Michael’s brother, Carlos, flirts with a life of crime in order to support himself and Michael, nothing too grim or dangerous happens. Carlos gets off with a warning, and the boys end up surrounded by love and support from friends.

Moon, the character, ends up OK, but the book Alabama Moon is much darker and more frightening than Heat. I liked Alabama Moon very much, but I wouldn’t recommend it for middle grade (3rd-6th) readers. It does feature a ten year old protagonist, but the subject matter and tone of the novel would be more appropriate for young adult and even adult readers. Moon’s father is mentally disturbed, and Moon must come to terms with the rest of the world after living his first ten years in isolation with only his eccentric father to teach him. The book also has a villain, a redneck Alabama constable who is just as mentally unbalanced as Moon’s father was. Alabama Moon is a dark and violent story in spite of its happy ending, and it raises questions that would be difficult to answer at the level of ten, eleven, or even twelve year old child. I know that Karate Kid (age 9) and even Brown Bear Daughter (age 12 today) would have trouble understanding why the father in the story was so distrustful and even mean to his own son and why the constable is so violently determined to capture Moon.

So, here are two great books with similar themes, one appropriate for boys (and girls) up to age twelve or thirteen, and the other for mature young adults who are beginning to understand that parents aren’t perfect and that some have serious problems. I was quite impressed with both books, and I’ll be looking for more from each of these talented authors. Both of these books were nominated for the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction.

New Year’s Blogging Resolutions

Dec27

In no particular order:

1. Participate in Poetry Friday. I’ve been reading other people’s poetry posts, but I’d like to share more of my favorites.

2. Participate more often in carnivals, especially The Carnival of Homeschooling and the Christian Carnival. That means I must write posts that fit into those carnivals.

3. Don’t be a Lazy Linker; do be a Frequent Friend. (Shades of Romper Room!) I like pointing out the good stuff I read on the web, and I enjoy giving credit where credt is due. But sometime I get lazy.

4. Publicize the Saturday Review of Books even more because I really do enjoy reading other people’s book reviews.

5. Continue writing about books and authors, but write more about my own thoughts on whatever I think about. Write more essay-type posts.

6. Use more pictures. I could use my own photos or appropriate pictures from allposters.com.

7. Get Computer-Guru Son to re-design the blog template. It’s time to redecorate.

8. Comment more on other people’s blogs. This one is related to #3. I would like to be an encourager and a stimulator-of-great-thoughts.

9. Encourage others I know in “real life” to start a blog. I know some profound thinkers and writers who could blog great things.

10. Just keep blogging. I’ve found my niche, for now anyway.