To This Great Stage of Fools: Born May 29th

May28

G.K. Chesterton, b. 1874.

Chesterton to his friend George Bernard Shaw: “To look at you, anyone would think there was a famine in England.”
Shaw: “To look at you, anyone would think you caused it.”

Chesterton on Oscar Wilde: “Oscar Wilde said that sunsets were not valued because we could not pay for sunsets. But Oscar Wilde was wrong; we can pay for sunsets. We can pay for them by not being Oscar Wilde.”

Chesterton’s biography of Charles Dickens was largely responsible for creating a popular revival for Dickens’s work as well as a serious reconsideration of Dickens by scholars. It was considered by T. S. Eliot, Peter Ackroyd, and others, to be the best book on Dickens ever written.

G.K. Chesterton’s example and writings have influenced many other authors including C.S. Lewis, Neil Gaiman, John Dickson Carr, Dorothy Sayers, Evelyn Waugh, T.S. Eliot, and Graham Greene.

When The Times solicited essays on the theme “What’s Wrong with the World?” Chesterton’s contribution took the form of a letter:
Dear Sirs,
I am.
Sincerely yours,
G. K. Chesterton

More quotations:

“Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.”

“The Declaration of Independence dogmatically bases all rights on the fact that God created all men equal; and it is right; for if they were not created equal, they were certainly evolved unequal. There is no basis for democracy except in a dogma about the divine origin of man.” – Chapter 19, What I Saw In America, 1922

“Marriage is a duel to the death which no man of honour should decline.” – Manalive.

“The truth is, of course, that the curtness of the Ten Commandments is an evidence, not of the gloom and narrowness of a religion, but, on the contrary, of its liberality and humanity. It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted: precisely because most things are permitted, and only a few things are forbidden.”

“Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.”

“Atheism is indeed the most daring of all dogmas . . . for it is the assertion of a universal negative.”

“It is perfectly obvious that in any decent occupation (such as bricklaying or writing books) there are only two ways (in any special sense) of succeeding. One is by doing very good work, the other is by cheating.”

“I might inform those humanitarians who have a nightmare of new and needless babies (for some humanitarians have that sort of horror of humanity) that if the recent decline in the birth-rate were continued for a certain time, it might end in there being no babies at all; which would console them very much.”

Classic Iconic Movie Festival

May28

Way back in March, over spring break, Eldest Daughter and I held our own movie festival. She had some recommendations from friends who were fans of old movies, and we watched several of the movies on her list. For some of the movies the other young adults in the house joined us. Here are my impressions:

Some Like It Hot: I’ve never seen Marilyn Monroe’s finest(?) hour, and I didn’t get to watch it with the young adults. I think, however, they were shocked by all the cross-dressing. Young people these days are so easily shocked —just not by the same things that give me pause. The movie sounded rather Shakespearean to me: all those boys posing as girls and vice-versa?

Rebel Without a Cause: I hadn’t seen this one either, but I now agree that James Dean is the essence of 50’s cool and that Rebel is an iconic movie. Teen rebellion, teen angst, parental helplessness and hypocrisy, romantic love as saviour —Rebel Without a Cause has all the themes and concern of the sixties in a harbinger of things to come. Two things are mildly bothersome: the supposed high school kids looked like college kids at least, and Natalie Wood simpered and pouted too much.

Young Frankenstein: I did see this movie back in the day, and I remember thinking it rather dull and un-funny back then. It didn’t improve with age, and Mel Brooks still isn’t very funny.

The Philadelphia Story: I thought I had seen this movie starring Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, and Katherine Hepburn. But now I’m not so sure. I certainly don’t remember all the brilliant dialogue and the underlying tensions that make the movie more than just a romp. Excellent.

Annie Hall: I don’t like Woody Allen any more than I do Mel Brooks; however, Woody is a bit funnier. Still, all the sexual obsession and Freudian angst and casual drug taking and political posturing both make and ruin the movie’s humor. If it’s funny to laugh at self-centered idiots whose analysts are so confused that they have their own analysts . . . I guess the point is that we’re all to some extent self-centered idiots, and that pseudo-intellectual New Yorkers take self-centered idiocy to new heights.

A Streetcar Named Desire: I prefer The Glass Menagerie for my dose of Tennessee Williams. Streetcar was too sad. I felt really sorry for Vivian Leigh’s Blanche du Bois, and Marlon Brando’s character was an ape and a brute.

On the Waterfront: I really liked this movie; I almost began to see the appeal of Brando. In On the Waterfront he still plays a tough guy, but he’s a bum with a heart. I can see why this movie won eight Academy Awards, including best picture and best actor. I often hear Christians talk about “taking back Hollywood” and making Christian-themed movies. They need to take a look at this 1954 sermon on film about courage and repentance and redemption and standing against evil. The Christianity in the film is overt and obvious, yet not offensive or sanctimonious.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: I have seen this Robert Redford/PaulNewman flick more than once, and I’d say that even though it’s very 60’s/70’s in some ways, it wears well. I still laughed and so did Eldest Daughter. Newman and Redford, frozen in time by the miracle of film, are still just as good-looking and charming as ever.

Eldest Daughter said her favorites were Some Like It Hot, On the Waterfront, and Annie Hall. She thought Rebel Without a Cause was “creepy”. I guess she has a point about Rebel, but I thought it definitely fit the “iconic” tag.

See my list of 105 Best Movies Ever —to which I need to add On the Waterfront, Marty and Rebel Without a Cause to make 108.

LOST Rehash: Through the Looking Glass, or When Are We?

May25

Salt Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands

C.G. Son is smarter than the average bear, er, LOST writer or fan. He says that at the beginning of the finale episode after Jack’s first flash forward, he said, “Let me guess. Five years earlier on the island.” Of course, I didn’t hear him say it, but he’s the genius nevertheless. He knew from the start that Bearded Suicidal Jack was after the island, not before.

SO we tried to work out a timeline, but it keeps getting more and more complicated and confused. (I know there are timelines in other places on the internet, but we like to work out our own thoughts.)

1970 The Dharma Initiative starts, sends people to the island to do utopian experiments.

late 1960’s Ben is born prematurely, killing his mom.

late 1970’s Uncle Rico Workman and Ben come to the island to work for Dharma. Ben makes contact with the Hostiles following the ghost (?) of his mother.

late 1980’s Ben grows up, goes to work for Dharma, and joins The Hostiles to kill the Dharma people and take over their town —and their identities?

about 1988 Danielle Rousseau and her team are led to the island by the numbers transmission. Danielle changes the numbers transmission to a distress call three days before Alex is born. Danielle’s team dies or she kills them; then the Hostile Others kidnap Alex and tell her that Ben is her father.

1991 The Gulf War. Sayid, and the guy who was in the hatch with Desmond are both in the Gulf War along with Kate’s father.

1991 or 1992 Soon after the Gulf War, Guy-in-the-hatch finds a job with Dharma and starts pushing buttons. (So Ben knew he was in there. Did Ben ever communicate with the guys in the hatch?)

1994-2000 Sometime in here Mr. Eko is running drugs in Africa, gets his brother killed, and becomes a fake priest. His brother’s drug plane crashes on the island.

2000 Around this time stuff is happening to the other Losties. Kate’s on the run, Jack’s having daddy issues, Sawyer is looking for Sawyer, and Locke is giving his daddy a kidney. In return Locke gets thrown out a window and becomes paralyzed.

2001 Desmond gets a boat given to him by Libby, enters a race around the world, and shipwrecks on the island. He becomes Guy-in the Hatch’s partner in pushing the button.

2001 Juliet arrives on the island.

2003 Hurley wins the lottery. Locke decides to go on walkabout.

September 22, 2004. Oceanic Flight 815 crashes on an island somewhere in the Pacific. Desmond kills Kelvin but misses the button pushing time. Ben sends spies to get names of all who were on the plane.

late 2004- beginning of 2005 Season 3 Finale—Through the Looking Glass. The Losties get rescued but can’t forget the island.

2007 Bearded Druggie Jack tries to commit suicide and becomes a hero for the second time when he rescues a kid and his mother from a burning car. Someone (Ben or John Locke?) dies, and Jack is the only one at the funeral. Tortured by his memories, Jack realizes that the Losties who were rescued must return to the island to finish what they started.

Here’s what we think the next three seasons will feature:

Season 4: Jack Shephard “herds” the LOST survivors together and convinces them that they must return to the island. The season 3 finale was the Losties “exodus” but they weren’t supposed to leave the island. They are now wandering in the desert, so to speak, but Jack/Moses will gather them and lead them back to Promised Island. We are treated flashbacks that explain what has happened to each of the Losties during the time they’ve been off-island and that show us something about what unfinished business they have on the island.

Season 5: The Lost Team finds the island again, encounters the enemy, and begins the fight for control and the quest to find the meaning of the island itself. Locke, who stayed on the island, is the leader of those who escaped deportation, and Jack and his people must confront Locke’s guys and the “bad guys” who have taken over the island.

Season 6: All questions are answered. All loose ends are gathered. All viewers are satisfied. But at the very end the writers leave us with a twist that makes everyone keep talking and buying the past seasons’ DVDs to see if there is something they missed.

It’s a theory, anyway. I like it, but I hope the LOST writers throw me a few surprises and conundrums along the way. I don’t really like the “alternate future” theory —too complicated and unworkable really.

Questions to be answered in future posts or future episodes:

What will happen to the rest of the Losties post-rescue?

Will Sun and her baby be OK since the baby was conceived on the island?

Is Kate pregnant?

Are Walt and Michael still alive? If so, where?

Did anyone stay on the island, and if so, who? Rousseau said she wouldn’t leave, and Locke didn’t want to leave and indeed ran away. Does Alex stay with her mother? What about Karl? Ben’s Others were going to the Temple, so I doubt Naomi’s boat people found them. Ben didn’t want to go, but may have been compelled by Jack. Does Desmond go on the boat or the helicopters, or is he too suspicious because of Charlie’s dying message?

Speaking of Karl, where did he come from? He’s about Alex’s age. If the Others can’t have children, and Alex is only there because she was conceived off-island, where did Karl get conceived and born?

Did Charlie really die? I think he did, but it seems that he thought he had to do so since there were several ways he could have tried to save himself.

Is Jack’s dad, Christian, alive? How? Where?

Who was in the coffin?

Is a Locke a Christ-figure or a cult leader?

Did Ben ever tell the truth? When he said they would all die if they called the boat, he was either mistaken or lying unless he meant that they would be subject to death back in the world. (Like outside the Garden of Eden.) Does the Island confer immortality on some of its inhabitants? Mikhail? Jack? Richard? Not Ben.

Who was it who would be wondering where Kate was when she met with Jack? Sawyer? Someone else?

Why is Kate free and not in prison?

What do the numbers have to do with the meaning of the island?

Who is Jacob? Is he in God-like control or is he a captive?

Who are the “bad guys” that Ben is so afraid of? What is Ben’s bottom line motivation for all he’s done?

Where is the island? How do you get there? How do you get away? What is so special about this island?

What happened to the plane Naomi said was found with all their bodies in it? Was it a fake? Who faked it? Why? Or was Naomi lying? Why?

Will all the Losties “get a second chance” or be redeemed in some way? What about those who died?

If you’ve written about LOST on your blog and would like to leave a link to the post, please do. If you’d rather leave a comment, you’re welcome to do that, too. How will we wait until 2008?

 

Anatomy of a Marriage

May23

Gap Creek: The Story of a Marriage by Robert Morgan.

A Garden to Keep by Jamie Langston Turner.

When seventeen year old Julie Harmon marries her handsome young gentleman caller Hank Richards, neither of them has any idea of what it takes to make a marriage work or of what it’s going to take for them to make it economically as a family. They find out the hard way. Some of their troubles are their own fault, and some are the result of fire and flood and sickness and death and hard times. All of their own character flaws and the difficulties that come from outside combine to test their marriage and their commitment to each other. Gap Creek takes place in turn-of-the-century Appalachia, so the troubles are magnified and the consolations are few and far between. And Hank and Julie are so young, hard-working and persevering, but so very young and ignorant of the world. Julie has mother-in-law problems, and Hank can’t control his temper. But they both learn. Gap Creek is an excellent “anatomy of a marriage” book.

“I could never write a book that held together. My mind doesn’t stay still in one place long enough to follow through with a line of thought. It charges over the countryside, catapults through the air, and lands in a neighboring county, crosses state lines, leaps oceans, travels abroad.”

The couple in A Garden To Keep are older, around my age. Elizabeth Landis, the wife and the narrator in the book, is about fifty years old and dealing with a severe case of empty nest syndrome. Her son, Travis, has gone away to college for his freshman year, and her husband Ken is absent a lot, too, travelling for work or playing golf or just absent in spirit while bodily present. Elizabeth has a conversion experience at the beginning of the book, probably the least developed and believable part of the story, and then she finds out that her faith and her marriage are to be tested to the limit. The book jumps back and forth between past and present, profound and mundane, in a very satisfying way, just as real people think and weave thoughts about the realities of living with thoughts about the meaning of it all.

“One of us might venture on rare occasions to say something from deep inside, or it might slop out by accident, but there was never any real follow-up discussion of it. It would just hang there in the air for a while like a vapor. Our home was full of these vapors that had wafted up into the corners and coated the walls and ceiling over the years.”

Ken and Elizabeth have communication problems, and again Elizabeth has mother-in-law problems, mostly of her own making. Elizabeth and Ken must learn to talk to each other and to listen before it’s too late to save their marriage, a thing infinitely worth saving in spite of the deep hurts and infidelities that have brought it to the breaking point.

“But remember, marriage isn’t a little three-line Japanese haiku. It’s an epic poem handed down through many generations. If you give yourself to translating poetry, you will end up with a broader knowledge of language, so if I give myself to translating my marriage, maybe I’ll end up with a deeper understanding of love.”

Of the two books, Ms. Turner’s A Garden To Keep is the better story, more thought-provoking and meaningful. However, the two books together are a course in marriage; perhaps they should be assigned reading for couples who are preparing for marriage. I think some people, anyway, might learn more from a work of fiction like one of these books than from a multitude of how-to books on marriage.

Some other “anatomy of a marriage” books:

The Love Letters by Madeleine L’Engle. The importance of vows, the meaning of perseverance and forgiveness in marriage.

Kristin Lavransdattir by Sigrid Undset. Marriage between imperfect people, vicissitudes of of a difficult marriage between two stubborn, proud people.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

Other suggestions?

(Sidenote in large parentheses: My mom and I watched Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash movie, while I was in West Texas, which was sort of a marriage movie, but more of a beginning of the marriage, romance movie. I looked through my list of 107 Best Movies Ever and couldn’t find a single one that fit the “anatomy of a marriage” theme. Most of them end with the beginning of the marriage —which is to some extent when it just starts to get interesting. Camelot and Fiddler on the Roof deal somewhat with the theme of marriage and what makes or remakes a marriage, but that’s not the central theme of either movie. Can you think of any good movies that are about marriage, rather than about romance and weddings? Days of Wine and Roses? It’s really about alcoholism and its effect on a marriage. I can’t think of any. )

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born May 22nd

May22

Today is the birthday of Arnold Lobel (b.1933), author and illustrator of many, many children’s books including, Frog and Toad Are Friends and Owl at Home. In fact, one biographer noted that Mr. Lobel died in 1987 leaving a legacy of over 100 books that he either wrote or illustrated. What a legacy!

The Frog and Toad Collection Box Set (I Can Read Book 2)
It’s an especially fine legacy since many of Lobel’s stories are memorable and thought provoking for adults as well as children. A long time ago a friend read me the story Cookies from the book Frog and Toad Together. In this tale, Toad makes some cookies, and then Frog and Toad try, unsuccessfully, to keep themselves from eating all the cookies. In the midst of their fight against temptation, Frog says that they need will power which he defines as “trying hard not to do something that you really want to do.” At the end of the story, Toad is sad because the cookies are all gone. Frog says, “Yes, but we have lots and lots of will power.” Toad is not consoled. Neither am I when left with useless will power but no cookies. And isn’t it true that when I need will power to resist temptation it’s never enough, and I only have plenty of will power in the abstract when there’s no real place to exercise it.
Other unforgetable stories include:
A List in which Toad loses his list of things to do and is paralyzed and unable to do anything
A Lost Button in which Toad loses his button and shouts this immortal rant, “The whole world is covered with buttons and not one them is mine!”
A Swim in which Toad looks funny in his bathing suit.
Tear-Water Tea from the book Owl at Home in which Owl thinks of sad things to make himself cry so that he can make tea from his tears.
Mouse Soup in which a mouse tells stories a la Sheherazade in order to keep from beng cooked into a weasel’s soup.

Lobel was a great story-teller himself, and I am indebted to him for many smiles and pleasant read-aloud times.

Some of Arnold Lobel’s books:

  • Small Pig (1969)
  • The Great Blueness (1970)
  • Frog and Toad Are Friends (1970) (A Caldecott Honor book)
  • Frog and Toad Together (1972) (A Newbery Honor book)
  • Owl at Home (1975)
  • Frog and Toad all Year (1976)
  • Mouse Soup (1977)
  • Grasshopper on the Road (1978)
  • Days with Frog and Toad (1979)
  • Fables (1980) (A Caldecott Medal winner)
  • Uncle Elephant (1981)
  • Ming Lo Moves the Mountain (1982)
  • The Book of Pigericks: Pig Limericks (1983)
  • The Rose in My Garden (1984)

Arnold Lobel Teacher Resources.

Book-Spotting #25

May21

A compendium of book links for Monday:

I found this publishing imprint, called Persephone Books, via Danielle Torres, A Work in Progress. Persephone claims to reprint “forgotten classics by twentieth-century (mostly women) writers. Each one in our collection of seventy -two books is intelligent, thought-provoking and beautifully written, and most are ideal presents or a good choice for reading groups.” Persephone sees itself as a “feminist press,” but “our titles are different from those of other feminist publishers in that they are more accessible, more domestic, the feminism is ‘softer’.”
The books look to be, therefore, more accessible to traditional homemaking moms such as myself who want something to make us think , but not something designed to indoctrinate us in the dogma of the feminist cause. Just in a quick perusal, I found a novel called The Home-maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, an adult novel by Noel Streatfield about the family stress cause by the dislocations of World II (Saplings), and Good Things in England, a compendium of historical and literary recipes for traditional Britsh dishes such as frumenty and beef broth.

A list of LaShawn Barber’s favorite books.

Mother Reader gives us Twenty-one Ways to Give a Book. You know, you can give books anytime . . .

David Mills comments on Children of Men by P.D. James, both the book and the movie. Or there’s this scathing review of the movie by a fan of the book, Anthony Sacramone at First Things. The movie version is available on DVD now. I think it’s worth the time if you can tolerate the violence.

Marshall Zeringue muses on twice-told tales, novels based on other authors’ novels or plays. Eldest Daughter gave me a copy of Gertrude and Claudius by John Updike. I’m sure it will show up here on the blog after I’ve read it —unless I hate it. I’m trying to think of books that I like that are take-offs from other people’s books. I did enjoy the Nero Wolfe books that were written by Robert Goldsborough and the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries by Jill Paton Walsh. Both of those authors made a special effort to take the beloved characters of the original authors and remain true to the original while involving them in further adventures. If you’re going to put a new twist on an old story, either in a book or in a movie, you must know that you’ve taken on a huge task. I think movie makers are not as good about giving credit and even homage to the original work while changing and extending it to fit their own vision. West Side Story was a great version of Romeo and Juliet, but it may be the exception rather than the rule. What books based on other books or movies based on books have you enjoyed? (I’m making a distinction here between faithful, or not-so-faithful, adaptations, such as LOTR (good) and Children of Men (maybe not so good), and completely new works that are based on older works, such as Joyce’s Ulysses or the movie O, Brother, Where Art Thou?, another version of the Odysseus story.)

In Newbery news, Nattie Writes has a Newbery Challenge —to read six Newbery Award books by the end of the year. Also, children’s literature fans need to check out The Newbery Project for more reviews of Newbery Award winning books.

The Carnival of Children’s Literature is up for May at Chicken Spaghetti. Don’t miss the fiesta!

Scroll down or click here for the Saturday Review of Books, May 19th. We’ve got reviews of all sorts of books, children’s literature and adult reading, fiction and non, classics and hot-off-the-presses.

Evangelism?

May20

A scary film about motivating the evangelizers.

A much more thoughtful post on evangelism: the when, the where, and the how by Dr. Mark DeVine.

My very favorite evangelistic blog post (I wish I had written it!): “. . . what I want to invite you to explore is what Christianity really is, which is, actually, to experience what it means to be really human, really alive, pain and grief and all that as it really is. The difference, and of course you can’t know this until you’ve been on both sides, is that following Jesus actually gives substance to grief and pain and all those other hurts.”

May your Sunday be filled with Good News that gives substance and meaning to whatever you are experiencing in your life today.

Friday’s Center of the Blogosphere

May17

Brenda on Frugal Luxuries: “Starbucks coffee, Harney & Son teas, silver serving pieces purchased in thrift shops, good chocolate, Mrs. Meyers cleaning supplies, a class to learn cake decorating or gourmet cooking, great olive oil, Einstein’s bagels and coffee, a new book by my favorite author, Tresor, Lang Calendars, Half & Half, real butter, flowers, leather bound Bibles, broadband Internet…”

Brenda (Coffee Tea Books and Me) again on Jerry Falwell: “Contrary to much that has been written, Falwell wasn’t trying to take over the country and make it “Christian”. He was trying to take back what we had lost, those morals that were based on the Bible.”
Homemaking Through the Church Year on babywearing: “I’ve found more and more often that the answer to many homemaking dilemmas can be found when you answer your question with another question. That other question being: ‘How did women accomplish it in the eighteenth century?’ Or, as an missionary kid, I more often ask, ‘How do women do it in third-world countries?'”

Cindy at Dominion Family on book-reading in public: “Then there is the iPod option. You could listen to A Distant Mirror or The Warden via audiobook and that would be so respectable but then you would look so terribly modern and it would go against your agrarian ideals which whisper in your ear that you are probably going to lose your hearing because you have sold your soul to an iPod.”

The Christy Awards 2007 nominees are listed at Faith in Fiction. The Christy Awards are given in several categories to fiction books published by Christian publishers. I’ve read one of the nominees, Winter Birds by Jamie Langston Turner (Semicolon review here), and I must say I thought it was quite good. My seventy something mother read it, too, and liked it.

Finally, Ariel at Bittersweet Life has links to the Christopher Hitchens/Doug Wilson debate at Christianity Today. Good stuff.

Lloyd Alexander

May17

Camille says that Lloyd Alexander died this morning.

 The obituary she linked to says he died “two weeks after the death of his wife of sixty-one years.” How poignant. He was in the US Army in WW II, stationed in Wales and working in intelligence and counter-intelligence. Now I know where he got a lot of the material for his fantasies.

 My favorite books by Mr. Alexander are Taran Wanderer and The Kestrel. Both of those books have strong, but vulnerable, male protagonists who bring out the mother-instinct in me. What are your favorite Alexander books?