Thmazing's Thutopia

Two brands of disappointment.

2012-02-13T10:46:00.001-08:00

013) Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell, finished February 12

It's been, golly, almost ten years since I read (and loved) The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Sarah Vowell's collection of America! essays. I've owned Assassination Vacation (and now The Wordy Shipmates) for years now, but somehow have never read it, despite its thematic similarity to my beloved Patriot. Why not? Because, despite all the praise it received generally, Lady Steed did not much care for this one. And now I understand why.

Lady Steed complained that AV spent too much time preaching current politics. And it does spend A LOT of time preaching current politics. (Or what was current in 2005---amazing how much the book has already aged.) I actually don't mind this in theory; connecting the past to the present is a worthy pursuit. What I mind is her attitude. Basically, that if you don't share my politics you are a fool. And while I mostly do share her opinions (mostly), I still take umbrage at being prevented the capacity to think for myself whilst reading her book. C'mon, Sarah.

Another thing I had issue with in reading AV (and this might be petty) is that I could not hear Vowell's voice. Her voice is so striking---when I read Patriot I heard her intonation all the way through. Now, in one way, not hearing her is good: I can read a lot faster than she talks on the radio. But still. Who doesn't want to hear Violet Parr talk about the McKinley assassination?

So that was a bummer too.

But don't get me wrong. The book is a decent read and full of great facts. But the conceit of her garnering these facts while touristing is sometimes so far in the background as to be meaningless and sometimes so far in the foreground that the book becomes 90% vacation and 8% trivia and only 2% assassinations. Frankly, I would have preferred ditching the alleged "vacation" angle entirely. Instead structured the book more like a Mary Roach book. The attempt to make her research congeal into one "vacation" just never worked. Alas.

Also, as long as I'm complaining, some tangents seemed to be utterly out of her control.

But, for all that, I still will absolutely pick up and read The Wordy Shipmates someday. And probably the new Hawai'i book too.

I'll bet she's figured out booklength essays by now.

about a week

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012) Black Hole by Charles Burns, finished February 11

I first read this book in 2006 while visiting friends in Utah. Because I read their copy between Doing Things, I've always thought that maybe I didn't give it a fair shake and maybe it is better than I thought at the time. After all, isn't it constantly getting listed on best-comics-evah lists?

Yes. Yes it is.

Somehow, even though it's filled with normafied drug use and sex and violence, Black Hole ended up in my high school's library, so I checked it out and brought it home and suffered through another read. Because, a second read confirms, it's just not very good.

First, let me rush to say I love Burns's stark graphic style. What you see here is his self portrait that appears on the book's backflap and at the Fantagraphics author page. His portraits are an integral part of The Believer and whenever they appear, I'm glad to see them. I love the way he wields black and white.

He does not, however, have the breadth necessary to tell a story like Black Hole (inasmuch as Black Hole has a story). His faces don't have enough variety or consistency.

Like X'ed Out, Black Hole is a collection of weirdness for weird's sake. Not much under the surface here. Take all the vaginas, for instance. Here are the first three pages of the book:

At this point, please feel free to accuse me of just seeing vaginas everywhere because gee whiz but it takes a bit of imagination to see a vagina here.

Fair enough.

But read this book and if you can still tell me that the constant barrage of vaginal imagery is accidental, fine. But it ain't. I won't care what you say. (Here's some NSFW proof.) The literal and symbolic use of female sex organs pervades the books.

And that makes for a good example of my next complaint with the book.

Vagina? Useful symbol, sure. So are teenagers. So is sex. So are drugs. So is the woods. So is disfigurement. So are STDs. So is the ocean. So are long car rides. So is a pistol. All these things are terrific symbol and Burns has made sure to pack every bleeding page with them. Sometimes he interrupts the "story" to have a dream sequence in order to pile them all up in heaping mounds in case you managed to miss the more "subtle" examples.

My opinion? Big heaping piles of symbols do not great art make. You need a point. And while maybe there's some love and nihilism or something going on, who can tell and who can care?

This book has lovely art, but it's crappy storytelling.

Back to Burns's faces, though the black-and-white is lovely, emotion is important if you, you know, want to tell a stories about humans. And more than one emotion per person, preferably. (One mopey character is genuinely mopey. All the time.)

Check out this character. In the Xth panel, she is suddenly yelling angrily.

Could you tell which panel? Could you even tell which character? If not, feel free to click it now to read the words

These people are hollow automatons. And they might as well be. This world is built for them.

So to sum up?

This book is filled with sex and violence and other great things (I'm not joking: I give a lecture every semester on how all great literature is sex and violence), but to no purpose. It's like taking sugar and cinnamon and cream of tartar, shaking them up together, and calling them snickerdoodles.

Black Hole is not snickerdoodles.

about a week

Previously in 2012 . . . . :

Read the reviews of 6-11.
011) The Complete Peanuts: 1979-1980 by Charles M. Schulz, finished February 4
010) Blankets by Craig Thompson, finished February 4
009) Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, finished February 2
008) The Millstone Necklace (forthcoming) by S.P. Bailey, finished January 31
007) American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, finished January 27
006) Across a Harvested Field by Robert Goble, finished January 23

Read the reviews of 1-5.
005) Hark! a Vagrant! by Kate Beaton, finished January 21
004) The Death of a Disco Dancer by David Clark, finished January 12
003) Bucketfoot Al: The Baseball Life of Al Simmons by Clifton Blue Parker, finished January 9
002) Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestly, finished January 9
001) What of the Night? by Stephen Carter, finished January 5

the Because-I-know-Orson-Scott-Card-totally-doesn't-care-about-being-plagiarized-I-stole-this-lovely-story-from-a-1977-Ensign svithe

2012-02-12T12:06:00.000-08:00

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This is the sort of Saint I long to be. Though I must admit I like having a couple hundred Mormons around . . . .

Neighborliness: Daines Style

Robert Henry Daines bent over his microscope, looking for fungi. He was a student of ecology at Rutgers University in the early 1930s, long before ecology became a household word. He was also the only Latter-day Saint student in the school.

As he and his fellow class members worked in silence, an older graduate student opened the door and stuck his head in.

“Mr. Daines,” he asked, “which is it—Mormon or moron?”

Robert Daines looked up and cheerfully answered, “Either one is correct.”

He went on: “I’m a Mormon. Which are you?” The graduate student closed the door. Chances are he did not ask that question of another Latter-day Saint.

When Robert Henry Daines and his wife, Anna, first came to New Jersey when Robert was studying for a doctorate, they had every intention of moving back to Utah as soon as possible. As Anna says, “We planned that if Henry graduated at noon on any given day, by 1:00 on the same day we’d be on the road west.” After being brought up in predominantly Latter-day Saint communities, they did not relish the thought of raising their children in an area where, at that time, the Church was only a tiny minority.

But when Robert received his Ph.D. in 1934, the Depression was in full swing and jobs for plant pathologists were hard to find. Out of thirty-six graduates in his class, only Robert and one other man found jobs in their field. But what a job! His achievements had been so noteworthy as a student that Rutgers University asked him to join the faculty. It was too good an offer to refuse.

So instead of packing up and moving back to Utah, the Daineses stayed in New Jersey. That was almost forty-three years ago, and they still live there.

Do they regret it? Not at all. In those four decades they have had a tremendous influence for good. They have worked to keep the standards of the community of Metuchen, where they live, as high as possible. And they have worked to help countless other people see the Church in a favorable light.

“Since we couldn’t go ‘back to Zion,’” they say, “we decided we would make a sort of Zion where we were.”

They looked for a home. A real estate agent showed them a house in Metuchen, New Jersey, but they felt at that time that it was not what they were looking for. They continued renting—and looking—but finally they came back to the agent. “Show us that house in Metuchen again,” they said. “It hasn’t been sold, has it?”

The realtor answered, “Oh, I haven’t even shown that house to anyone else. I knew it was for you.”

But before they moved in, a Latter-day Saint family that had joined the Church while living nearby warned them that after their baptism they had had so much opposition they finally moved away. A series of anti-Mormon speeches in the area had prejudiced many people against Latter-day Saints. “Please don’t try to live there,” the family said. “You could never live in that area and raise your family. They’re so anti-Mormon.”

But they had already signed a contract, and they moved into the house. At first everything seemed fine—the neighbors were very nice, and the children seemed to be accepted in school. After a while, however, they noticed that even though other children came to the Daineses’ house to play, the Daines children didn’t get invited to other houses.

And then there was the local YMCA. For a short time the Metuchen Branch met in the Daineses’ home. As branch president, Brother Daines checked with the YMCA about the possibility of renting a room for church meetings. The executive secretary responded warmly, “Of course. That’s what the Y is for, to help the churches.” He did not call back for several weeks. When Brother Daines contacted him to find out what was happening, the executive secretary explained that he hadn’t called because he was ashamed to tell them that the local board of directors had turned them down. “I’m very sorry,” he said. “But they said they could not have the facilities used by Mormons.”

Robert and Anna Daines discussed the problem for quite a while. They could move, of course, though in those housing-short depression years it wouldn’t be easy.

But they decided not to run away from the situation: they would try to change the community’s attitude toward them and the Church.

They divided their efforts: Robert worked on the school system and Anna worked on the YMCA. They began immediately, for they had no time to lose. Their children needed to grow up in an atmosphere that was not tainted by prejudice. And perhaps if the Daineses could become an influence in the community, they could help maintain the high standards of the local schools.

The YMCA in Metuchen was popular with the young people, the focal point of many of their activities. So they enrolled their oldest son—and Sister Daines joined the Mother’s Auxiliary.

As with any other volunteer organization, there was a lot of work to be done, work that very few people were willing to do. Anna did it. She became indispensable in fund-raising projects, and by the end of the first year she was asked to be president of the auxiliary. When her two-year term ended, she was asked to run for one of the three women’s positions on the YMCA board of directors. She won without opposition, and so joined the very council that only a few years before had refused to let the Saints meet in their building!

But her work wasn’t over yet. She kept on helping in every way she could: many nights either Brother or Sister Daines was at the YMCA chaperoning a dance or cleaning up after a party.

When their oldest son was about to graduate from high school, they ran into a problem. It was the custom in their town that after graduation the seniors would have all-night parties in various homes and then at dawn drive to the beach, some twenty miles away. “We didn’t want our son in the drinking-party atmosphere. We didn’t want him making that dangerous drive after a night without sleep. But we also didn’t want him in the embarrassing position of having the other kids say, ‘Oh, the Daines kid can’t go.’”

So they got the parents together and changed the tradition! They planned an all-night party right at the YMCA. They opened the pool and had a chaperoned swimming party and a dance. At 4:00 A.M. they served breakfast and the seniors went home to sleep before they went to the beach. Many of them didn’t go to the seacoast at all. It was a safer, better quality celebration, and it became a new tradition for graduation parties for many years.

At the end of her first three-year term on the YMCA board, Anna Daines was reelected. Two terms are the most any board member can serve, and a man who had served that amount of time was leaving. They had a farewell dinner for him. After the dinner, this man took Sister Daines aside and said, “I must tell you before I leave that I was the one who spearheaded the campaign not to let the Mormons use this hall. I didn’t know anything good about the Mormons; I had never known a Mormon. But from the things I’d heard about them, I didn’t want to know any.

“I feel that I owe you an apology,” he said. “After seeing what fine people you are, I’m embarrassed to think that I did that.”

While Anna was working in the YMCA, Robert Henry Daines was working in the schools. The approach was the same: service. They joined the Parent-Teacher Association in their local elementary school and worked hard. Soon they became copresidents of that small group.

A great opportunity came when a citywide PTA meeting was held to decide whether the PTA should recommend uniting the Metuchen school system with other school districts in the area or staying separate and going it alone. They realized that they just didn’t have enough evidence to make a recommendation. So the combined PTAs asked Robert Daines to choose a committee and study the question.

After two years of study, Brother Daines’ committee made their report. The recommendation? The Metuchen schools shouldn’t consolidate with others. The studies showed that by maintaining local control, they’d have a better chance of keeping up the high community standards.

Shortly after this quite a few people urged Brother Daines to run for the board of education. Friends got together the sponsoring signatures to put his name on the ballot. But once again prejudice surfaced—there was quite a bit of talk against the idea of a Mormon running the schools.

In spite of the whispers, Robert Daines won. And though to a lesser degree the talk continued, Brother Daines was reelected twice—the last time by the largest majority in the Metuchen board of education history. Whispered rumors could not counteract people’s good experiences with this gifted and dedicated couple.

While Brother Daines was on the board of education, he made a point of becoming friends with the clergy of the various churches. Almost all of them responded well. In fact, only one pastor resisted, and even he signed letters supporting Daines for the board of education.

But sometimes there was friction. For years the leading Protestant church had held the high school baccalaureate services in their meetinghouse. This was years before the “ecumenical movement,” and at that time the local Catholic leaders refused to let their young people enter another church. The result was that a significant minority of the students were completely unable to attend their own high school baccalaureate for religious reasons.

Brother Daines decided that something needed to be done—the situation really wasn’t fair. So he urged the board that the schools should not keep on with a practice that kept half the seniors away from their own baccalaureate. “I think,” he said, “that we have to hold services in the school. We don’t have an assembly room large enough, but we do have a gymnasium. Let’s bring chairs in and have the baccalaureate there.” The board agreed.

The Catholics were pleased, as were several other minority groups, like the Jews and a Black congregation. But many Protestants were upset that the baccalaureate would not be held in a church.

So Brother Daines, as a member of the board, called a meeting of all the town’s ministers. At the start he announced that because it was a school meeting, he would preside. The minister of the leading church didn’t like that much—he didn’t think it was right for a layman to preside over the clergy. But Brother Daines insisted—and he called on himself to open with prayer!

He prayed that everyone there would put the interests of the community first, “that we would be big enough to do the things that were best for all the youth.”

And there was a spirit of harmony—not a dissenting voice in the whole meeting.

At the baccalaureate service in the school gym, all the churches were represented. As a Latter-day Saint, Brother Daines gave the opening prayer. The monsignor of the Catholic Church gave the address. The minister of the Black congregation had a part, as did the Jewish rabbi and the various Protestant ministers. And despite the deep feelings that the change caused at first, this has been the pattern ever since.

Robert and Anna Daines saw the achievement of most of the goals they had set when they were first confronted with anti-Mormon feelings. Not only had they helped eliminate prejudice against the Latter-day Saints, but also they had made a definite contribution to the community.

And there was another way in which Brother Daines brought the Church into favorable light—not only in their community but also throughout the eastern seaboard.

As a plant pathologist, Brother Daines had headed the Rutgers University team that helped develop and apply Standard Oil Company’s product called Captan: It could be used as a broad-range fungicide. After the method of application was perfected by Dr. Daines’s team, Captan became a valuable tool for apple and peach growers throughout the eastern United States. Apple trees that farmers had always thought were biennial began producing a crop every year, and rough, fungus-ridden apples became as smooth as the red delicious apples of the Northwest. Captan also saved the grape crop of France one year, and today it is still widely used throughout the world.

Naturally Brother Daines became prominent in his field. He began to study the effects of air pollution on the crops of New Jersey farmers. Because of his work he was made secretary to a New Jersey legislative committee on pollution. The result was the New Jersey antipollution law, based on his recommendations—the first such comprehensive statewide law in the United States. It became the basis for much of the U.S. Clean Air Act, and Brother Daines was called before a U.S. Senate committee to testify on the effects of air pollution on agriculture. He had been so instrumental in the passage of the act that President Lyndon B. Johnson invited him to the signing of the bill.

Brother Daines was asked to speak about pollution before many groups along the eastern seaboard, and he was seen on television newscasts. He took every opportunity to let it be known that he was a Mormon, which often led to his having a chance to talk privately about the Church.

The Daineses had accomplished much, and they were very happy when, after many years in New Jersey, they were at last offered a chance to return to Utah. The job Brother Daines was offered was a prestigious one, and Sister Daines was overjoyed at the prospect of her children actually attending MIA and Primary, with the full Church program that was not yet available in their area.

But when they visited Utah to be interviewed for the position, President David O. McKay took a few moments to talk with them. “Brother and Sister Daines,” he said, “go back to New Jersey, and be happy there. Raise your children in the Church in New Jersey.” President McKay looked Robert Daines in the eye and said, “Brother Daines, you have a mission to perform in New Jersey.”

Anna couldn’t help being disappointed. She didn’t say anything, but President McKay “was reading my soul,” as she later said, when he took her hand and said, “Sister Daines, you can raise your family to be good Mormons in the East.”

After several incidents which seemed to them to confirm President McKay’s words, Robert and Anna Daines ended their visit to Utah and went back to New Jersey, content to know that the Lord wanted them there.

And President McKay’s promise was fulfilled. When the last of their children to marry went through the temple, all the others were worthy to attend the ceremony. All their sons and sons-in-law served missions. All their children married in the Church. They have served in bishoprics, stake presidencies, and quorum presidencies. And they discovered that even where the Church is weak in numbers, it is strong in the Spirit.

“I had prayed for so long for the Lord to let us go back to Utah where we could raise our family among Mormons,” said Anna Daines. Once she said to a priesthood leader, “The Lord just hasn’t answered my prayer.” But her leader said, “Yes he has. The answer was no.”

The answer was no, they should not go back to Utah. But it was yes, her children could be raised as righteous Latter-day Saints—and would be.

The Church grew in New Jersey. Stakes came. Robert Henry Daines was called to serve as counselor in a new stake presidency and later as president of the New Jersey Central Stake. Just months ago he was released as president of the East Brunswick New Jersey Stake, presiding over the full Church program that they had always dreamed of having in those early years.

Of course, the Daineses were not alone. The goodwill the Church now has in that area comes from the righteous lives of many Latter-day Saints. What matters is that they were never content to insulate themselves from their community, to shelter their children from everyone around them. Instead they reached out into the community and helped other good people make it a wholesome place for all.

Not all their neighbors and friends have joined the Church. But they have felt the impact of the Church in their lives, and the effect has been good.

It is clear to President and Sister Daines now what President McKay meant when he told them they had a mission to perform in New Jersey. It is the same mission the Savior gave to all the Saints:

“Ye are the light of the world. …

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works.” (Matt. 5:14, 16.

previous svithe

I'm closer to reading all of Vonnegut's novels than I'd thought

2012-02-09T08:53:00.000-08:00

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Player Piano (1952)
The Sirens of Titan (1959) ✓
Mother Night (1961)
Cat's Cradle (1963) ✓
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965)
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) ✓
Breakfast of Champions (1973) ✓
Slapstick (1976)
Jailbird (1979) ✓
Deadeye Dick (1982)
Galápagos (1985) ✓
Bluebeard (1987) ✓
Hocus Pocus (1990)
Timequake (1997) ✓

Books for friends

2012-02-07T07:25:00.000-08:00

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011) The Complete Peanuts: 1979-1980 by Charles M. Schulz, finished February 4

I started to keep track of particular moments I wanted to share, then someone pulled out my bookmark. Sigh.

Still. You are buying and reading these, right? They are . . . wonderful . . . .

about a month

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010) Blankets by Craig Thompson, finished February 4

The astonishing thing is that this book is even better than I remembered it. And I've been talking it up pretty much since it came out. I've been telling people to read it and that it's one of the great comics and

it's even better than I remembered it.

!

Of course, there's also nudity which I'd forgotten, so sorry nonnudity people who've followed my advice.

Thompson's book is painfully beautiful. It's a coming-of-age story so poignant and true that it gets someone like me---who treats the coming-of-age label as a reason to stay away---to utterly get sucked into a first love and a crisis of faith and . . . a coming of age . . . and to live it so completely that a burning photograph can register as actual, literal, physical pain, somewhere in the depths of my chest.

This book makes me so happy and so melancholy.

I finished this reading and had to put it down and sit quietly for half and hour, just living that much longer in the world he created.

Wow but does this man know how to draw, how to write, how to tell a bleeding story.

It's too excellent not to read. Please do.

two days

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009) Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, finished February 2

I am now teaching this book for the first time. All I really remember about reading this book when I was taught it in high school (c. 1992) is the following:

1. Mrs. Teague, when she first read it in college, hated the book so much she threw it across the room against a wall and let it sit there for days.

2. I loved it.

3. I started reading Vonnegut --- perhaps the final author in my reading life that I fixated on.

I reread the book shortly after Lady Steed and I were married (2000) and was disappointed not to be blown away again. But I was looking for my old experience, not what the book still had to offer.

This reading I've gotten myself put back together---and I frankly loved Cat's Cradle this time round. It truly is a brilliant book---probably Vonnegut's best---and if you haven't reread it in ten years or so, it may be time.

about a week

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008) The Millstone Necklace (forthcoming) by S.P. Bailey, finished January 31

As this book is still unreleased, I won't say much yet (this parenthetical will someday link to my AMV review), but know that this is a fun and thrilling little adventure to keep a lookout for.

two days

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007) American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, finished January 27

As per my original (bitty) review, this book is terrific. It holds up. Even knowing the end from the beginning does not get in the way (which says a lot in this case, as Yang has built a complicated Rube Goldberg contraption of plot and symbols here). If you haven't read it yet, you should.

Or if you have yet, like me, have not read any of Yang's other books, let us ask ourselves Why?

one day

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006) Across a Harvested Field by Robert Goble, finished January 23

Make sure you get the pretty good cover and not the pretty bad cover. My full review's over on AMV.

more than one week less than two

Previously in 2012 . . . . :

Read the reviews of 1-5.

005) Hark! a Vagrant! by Kate Beaton, finished January 21
004) The Death of a Disco Dancer by David Clark, finished January 12
003) Bucketfoot Al: The Baseball Life of Al Simmons by Clifton Blue Parker, finished January 9
002) Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestly, finished January 9
001) What of the Night? by Stephen Carter, finished January 5

The Mediator / Super Bowl Svithe

2012-02-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

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I remember watching this video as a teenager and being very moved by it:

I still think it's pretty good.

And I'm using President Packer's story in my Sunday School lesson tomorrow ("inspired by" this).

We'll start with reading John 3:16 in honor of the Super Bowl, and take turns saying the third Article of Faith. The, the assigning of parts. Then,

Narrator: Let me tell you a story—a parable. There once was a man who wanted something very much. It seemed more important than anything else in his life. In order for him to have his desire, he incurred a great debt. He had been warned about going into that much debt, and particularly about his creditor. But it seemed so important for him to do what he wanted to do and to have what he wanted right now. He was sure he could pay for it later. So he signed a contract. He would pay it off some time along the way. He didn’t worry too much about it, for the due date seemed such a long time away. He had what he wanted now, and that was what seemed important. The creditor was always somewhere in the back of his mind, and he made token payments now and again, thinking somehow that the day of reckoning really would never come.

Listener: But?

Narrator: But. As it always does, the day came, and the contract fell due. The debt had not been fully paid. His creditor appeared and demanded payment in full. Only then did he realize that his creditor not only had the power to repossess all that he owned, but the power to cast him into prison as well.

Debtor: I cannot pay you, for I have not the power to do so.

Creditor: We will exercise the contract, take your possessions, and you shall go to prison. You agreed to that. It was your choice. You signed the contract, and now it must be enforced.

Debtor: Can you not extend the time or forgive the debt? Arrange some way for me to keep what I have and not go to prison. Surely you believe in mercy? Will you not show mercy?

Creditor: Mercy is always so one-sided. It would serve only you. If I show mercy to you, it will leave me unpaid. It is justice I demand. Do you believe in justice?

Debtor: I believed in justice when I signed the contract. It was on my side then, for I thought it would protect me. I did not need mercy then, nor think I should need it ever. Justice, I thought, would serve both of us equally as well.

Creditor: It is justice that demands that you pay the contract or suffer the penalty. That is the law. You have agreed to it and that is the way it must be. Mercy cannot rob justice.

Narrator: There they were. One meting out justice, the other pleading for mercy. Neither could prevail except at the expense of the other.

Debtor: If you do not forgive the debt there will be no mercy.

Creditor: If I do, there will be no justice.

Listener: So both laws can’t be served?

Narrator: They are two eternal ideals that appear to contradict one another.

Listener: Is there no way for justice to be fully served, and mercy also?

Narrator: There is a way! The law of justice can be fully satisfied and mercy can be fully extended—but it takes someone else.

Listener: And?

Narrator: And so it happened this time. The debtor had a friend. He came to help. He knew the debtor well. He knew him to be shortsighted. He thought him foolish to have gotten himself into such a predicament. Nevertheless, he wanted to help because he loved him. He stepped between them, faced the creditor, and made this offer.

Mediator: I will pay the debt if you will free the debtor from his contract so that he may keep his possessions and not go to prison.

Creditor: Hmmm.

Mediator: You demanded justice. Though he cannot pay you, I will do so. You will have been justly dealt with and can ask no more. It would not be just.

Creditor: Very well.

Listener: And what did he say to the debtor?

Narrator: He said—

Mediator: If I pay your debt, will you accept me as your creditor?

Debtor: Oh yes, yes! You’ve just saved me from prison! Shown mercy to me!

Mediator: Then, you will pay the debt to me and I will set the terms. It will not be easy, but it will be possible. I will provide a way. You need not go to prison.

Narrator: And so it was that the creditor was paid in full. He had been justly dealt with. No contract had been broken. The debtor, in turn, had been extended mercy. Both laws stood fulfilled. Because there was a mediator, justice had claimed its full share, and mercy was fully satisfied.

Having reached this point, I will point out that President Packer himself has said that any metaphor will break down if you take it too literally, and there is one way in which I think this story is particularly weak.

At which point we will read and discuss the following:

2 Nephi 9:7–9, 21–22

Doctrine and Covenants 19:16–19

2 Nephi 2:4

2 Nephi 10:24

And, for the record, a Boston team and a New York team? I could not possibly care less who wins.

previous svithe

The Science of Double Dipping

2012-02-04T11:54:00.001-08:00

Because I love you.

And, hey, don't forget to wash your hands.

Sunstone Issue 164: Fiction and comics.

2012-01-26T07:49:00.000-08:00

Just one of each this time. Let's start with the comics, shall we?

The Book of Mormon by Noah Van Sciver

This is a continuation of Noah's Joseph Smith biography (I think---I didn't ask him . . . maybe I should have) that started in the previous issue. Like that one, Noah's take on familiar Mormon stories are fresh and push me out of my regular understanding. It's tempting to pin this on his own tumultuous history with the Church (splitting, as it did, his family in two, with mom and kids going one way, dad and kids going another), but it might simply be true that he has a talent for finding fresh angles to tell stories that, while important, are often tired.

With this three-page telling of the Book of Mormon, he's in top form. But pause for a second and consider: how would you sum it up in three pages of comics?

Here's how Noah did it:

1½ pages of First Nephi
¼ page of Second Nephi
⅜ page of Third Nephi
⅛ page of Fourth Nephi (v20)
⅜ page of wiping the Nephites out

Interesting, huh?

Good stuff.

In related news, directly behind this month's table of contents is a poem by Paul Swenson (featured in Fire in the Pasture, natch) in response to the first installment of Van Sciver's Joseph Smith series (reviewed here).

It's pretty good. And, perhaps, the first time a significant Mormon poet has responded to Mormon comics. So there's that.

Return of the Native by Levi S. Peterson

To start, I've not the Hardy novel. I can't make connections for you.

So instead let me start by quoting Peterson's first paragraph.

The Phoenix-bound plane was airborne before I allowed myself to consider the negatives of what I was doing. I told my stepdaughter who lives in Seattle and outright lie about my destination, saying I was flying to Corvallis to visit an old buddy from my Navy days. I knew I would have to expand on that lie when my wife, on a cruise with her sisters, got around to calling me. Even worse, I would have to expand on the lie I had been telling myself for a long time, that there was no resemblance between who I'd become and the fifteen-year-old kid who forced himself on his first cousin in a barn back in 1951.

Now that's an opening paragraph.

I'm ashamed to admit how little of Peterson's fiction I've read. If my memory's accurate, this is only the second story of his I've read (the first was "Brothers" in Dispensation), but both have been terrific. This particular story has a very steady pace and is always heading to a certain collision, but whether the collision will happen or what it will mean remain unclear until the closing moments. And that moment has an earned beauty I recommend to all.

Comparing Feinstein with Feinstein

2012-01-25T10:20:00.000-08:00

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So I was wrong. I did not get an identical form letter this time. Instead, after the blackout, Feinstein's song has changed in some rather significant ways. Check them out, side by side. Original letter is on your left.

A good start to 2012 (which, as we all know, will have a bad end)

2012-01-25T08:41:00.000-08:00

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005) Hark! a Vagrant! by Kate Beaton, finished January 21

If you have not been following Hark! a Vagrant! online, why the heck not?

The book has a good selection of the best strips (though, naturally, not just what *I* would have chosen) as well as some new ones which match her high standards. Here are a couple early strips before she found her feet that aren't in the book (but which I like; language warning on second):

perhaps five days

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004) The Death of a Disco Dancer by David Clark, finished January 12

Prepare to hear me gush about this novel all year long. It's terrific. Read my full review on AMV.

two days

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003) Bucketfoot Al: The Baseball Life of Al Simmons by Clifton Blue Parker, finished January 9

The Big O's friend gave him Dingers!: A Short History of the Long Ball for his birthday in 2010. As I looked at the book I realized that many of the great heroes of the game have been forgotten by the most of us. One that struck me was Jimmie Foxx who a) has a memorable name and b) came darn near to breaking Babe's single-season homer record more than once.

Al Simmons played with Foxx on perhaps the greatest team of all time and, even here in the A's new home, is essentially forgotten. It's a shame.

Nicknamed Bucketfoot because of his bizarre batting stance, Al still had an incredible career as a batter. He was a great fielder. And Parker let's us meet him as a person as well.

The book is almost painfully well researched. Which I do appreciate --- a historian who can show that the contemporaneous accounts don't always agree is my kind of historian --- but sometimes it did get a little much. I think I would have preferred some rollicking end/footnotes.

The book did have some minor editing errors but nothing that would make you doubt the accuracy of the facts.

In the end, if you like baseball history, are an A's fan, are curious about historical sabremetrics, enjoy a bit of tragedy with your sports Olympia, or Poles from Wisconsin, then this is the book for you.

a month or so

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002) Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestly, finished January 9

What a book! This is meant for, like, ten-year-olds---yet it's a pretty successful work of horror for adult standards as well. In essence, a kid from a timeless (half Victorian/Edwardian, half now) era visits an aged uncle who tells him awful stories which, weirdly, seems to be somehow true. Priestly has nailed the diction and syntax, and the stories themselves are genuinely chilling. Even the ones I thought would fall into old ruts did not. Each provided surprises along the relentless plodding to disaster.

I think it's good for scary kids' books to be scary (an amen).

This one is.

Here are a couple others worth considering: The Graveyard Book. If You Want to Scare Yourself.

Uncle Montague has spawned a couple sequels which also consist of strange adults telling a child or children strange stories. I may well pick one up some time. And I'm sure you can read them in any order.

David Roberts's illustrations are decidedly Goreyesque (and appropriately so, I think, as Gorey has built the visual vocabulary for this brand of out-of-time horror. The primary difference is that Roberts's kids have bigger (and thus cuter) eyes. Here's an example:

about a week

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001) What of the Night? by Stephen Carter, finished January 5

Read my review here.

maybe a month max

An open letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein on this issue of SOPA/PIPA

2012-01-19T14:55:00.001-08:00

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I know you're just sending form letter replies and thus your letter had NOTHING to do with mine, but I said nothing about copyright etc etc. But since you brought it up, now I will.

Copyright as currently constituted is a far stretch from the Constitutional phrasing. Allow me to quote:

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

A LIMITED TIME

Congress has been lengthening and lengthening copyright. Part of copyright is to protect creators. Part of copyright is to insure that works enter the public domain and become part of the Great Corpus of Human Thought.

You, as my representative (as well as Hollywood's), need to work on this.

As someone who makes a living through copyrighted work myself, I'm not suggesting we screw the artist. I'm suggesting we don't screw the future.

Looking forward to getting the same form letter a third time,

I am,

-------------th-

The Big O's baptism (svithe)

2012-01-15T20:55:00.000-08:00

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The Big O was baptized yesterday. He took it very seriously. And I am left humbled before the holiness of God.

I don't know how to be eloquent on this subject.

I will just say this is right and this is good.

previous svithe

Because everybody else is doing it and because you so totally care about my opinions here's a rerundown on the Mormon books I read in 2011

2012-01-09T08:40:00.000-08:00

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(Click the titles to read my full reviews.)

Comics and about comics

Jake Parker
The Missile Mouse books have become Thteed family favorites, rereading Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher (book one) and Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3 (book two) are brilliant and fun and the best way to introduce kids to science fiction.

Mike Allred
This is a big year for Brother Allred, it being the twentieth anniversary of Madman and everything. I wasn't a huge fan of the Madman New Giant Size Super Ginchy Special, however. But next year's much delayed (and physically huge) Monster looks cool even if it doesn't have much stuff by Mike himself. It's what I'm spending my Christmas gift certificate on.

More fun for me in 2011 were the iZombie books, which Mike drew but did not write. Check them out: iZombie: Dead to the World (volume one) and iZombie: uVampire (volume two).

Red Rocket 7 is the most Allredian thing I've ever read. That may be good or bad, of course.

Finally, I also read Modern Masters Volume Sixteen: Mike Allred (as interviewed by by Eric Nolen-Weathington) which is terribly useful if you're planning on writing a dissertation on him any time soon.

Floyd Gottfredson
I'm still sad how disappointed I was in Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: Race to Death Valley. Watch for a full review in a coming-soon issue of Dialogue.

Fiction

FICTION OF THE YEAR

Moriah Jovan
Magdalene is the best and most explicitly Mormon novel I've read in some time. Even if Moriah doesn't like me trying to sell it to Mormons (it has some sex, you see). Check it out.

CLOSE SECOND

Jack Harrell
A Sense of Order and Other Stories. Embarrassingly, I still haven't written my Motley Vision review of this book. I need to get around to it. Suffice it to say that this is as good a single-author collection as Todd Robert Petersen's. Maybe better. It's a close call.

It was a great year for YA book as well, charge led by the Wells brothers.

Robison Wells
Variant was the more propulsive read, but I don't feel like I can pass final judgment on a cliffhanger like this till I read the sequel. However, I have been called to repentance and now tell you to buy and read it without waiting for book two. You won't regret it.

Dan Wells
Mr Monster (book number two) and I Don't Want to Kill You (book three) finished up the best threesome of books I've read in recent memory. Way better, to name just one example, than The Hunger Games.

Also in fiction:

Orson Scott Card
Ender in Exile: I just read an analysis by Wm Morris yesterday that pretty much sums up everything that's wrong with this book compared to Card's earlier work:

[Card] has adjusted his writing style and focus. His fiction of the past 15 years or so is markedly less literary and more transparently ideologically motivated than it was previously. His disdain for psychology and for intellectuals, for example, comes through more strongly in his later work. In addition, he has seriously toned down the “deviance” in his work.

Exactly.

For completists only.

NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

Grant Hardy
Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide. Buy it today. You really really need to. If you're Mormon and care about about literature, you need to read this literary analysis of where it all began.

Screenplay

Kohl Glass
Redcoat: I read this in MS form, so I won't say much except I hope this moves onto screens while it still has major zeitgeist potential.

What a great year! These were all good to great! of course, I was pretty selective and didn't finish the one Mormon book I was hating, but hey! 2011!

Even better, perhaps, this year saw the release of two freaking astonishing book from sǝɓɐԀPeculiar, Fire in the Pasture and Monsters & Mormons.

APPENDIX: A book with significant Mormon content not by a Mormon

James Rollins
The Devil Colony: I pretty much hated it. With a couple notable moments as exceptions.

Is Pujols worth the money?

2012-01-04T09:10:00.000-08:00

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I'm reading a biography of Al Simmons right now (gift from the publisher) and it's got me to thinking about Albert Pujols and his recent run to Anaheim for lots and lots of money. Now, no question Pujols is a terrific athlete and one of the greatest baseball players of all time, but he's getting old. He failed to tie Al's MLB record of starting a career with 100+ RBIs 11 seasons in a row. Now sure, 99 is nothing to sniff at, but Pujols is slowing down. Simmons's 12th season was far off his previous marks. Injuries start to accumulate (Pujols missed 13 games last season), power gets softer and less consistent----

Now, I'm not questioning Pujols's importance to the Cardinals last season, and on the right team he can still be an important force. But he's like Simmons---one of the best batters of his generation (some said Simmons was better than the Babe) and aging rapidly. He'll still hit some amazing balls, and maybe DHing will keep him in more games, but he's not going to last forever.

I'm not saying anything new here, but reading about Simmons----

Well. Maybe the Angels didn't get such a sure thing.

Could this be the final list of 2011 books?

2011-12-31T14:46:00.000-08:00

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I was hoping I would get to 100 books this week, but, clearly, I have fallen short yet again. Maybe my shiny new Nook will get me back to that mark next year. Time shall tell.

Also, if I stopped picking up old issues of The New Yorker. That might help the book count.

As if the book count even matters.

Sigh.

Anyway, here are the the final few books of 2011. Unless I surprise myself in the next nine hours.

094) Flora Segunda by Ysabeau Wilce, finished December 26/27 (midnightish)

I have terribly ambivalent feelings about this book. Luisa recommended it to me (reason enough to get it from the library) in part because of the Bay Area connections.

These connections were fun, although I had a hard time reconciling the geography --- I think the Bay Area of the fantastical Califa is somewhat smaller than the Bay Area of the realistical California. But no matter.

What bugged me most about the book was how overly (and cutely) plotted the book was. Constant minicliffhangers, many of which were cheap and unnecessary. (Example: we hear of a character who is Very Dangerous, then it ends up he's probably dead, then he's really strong, then he's really friendly, then he's going to eat our hero, then he's really nice again . . . and so on --- the book's full of little switchbacks like this.)

Which is not to say I did not like it. In fact, I'm going to strongly recommend it to Lady Steed, whose taste, I think, will better appreciate the book.

But I was not enamored of it. I could set it doing in the middle of an Exciting Part and not even think about the characters until I picked it up again. I was never really vested in the characters. Until about the last fifty pages.

That said, what I am enamored of is Wilce's world-building. Clearly, this world is built and built well. I would probably get more enjoyment of a history book of Califa than I did of this novel. I'm as curious about the for-adults short stories set in this world as I am in the further YA adventures of Flora Nemain Fyrdraaca ov Fyrdraaca. I would love to read detailed synopses of these books, but I found them too frustrating to read to want to read all the subsequent volumes.

Other things I liked: The use of eths in the language. The use of a nonce writing system to spell magical words (brilliant, really, when you think about it --- JK Rowling should have thought of this). I loved the apparent etymology of nonce words. I loved the richness of allusion.

In other words, I like the nuts and bolts of the words, but not the plot and characters. A weird thing, when I think of it.

The way the book ended, I do suspect further volumes may get better. I suspect, however, that I will completely forget about book one before I decide whether or not to read book two.

nearly three weeks

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093) The Trouble with Igor by Christopher P. Reilly and Gus Fink, finished December 23

A bit like Frank in its surreality but without providing the pleasure Frank gives me. I think because I didn't so much care for the art, which was jerky and sloppy which made characters hard to distinguish from one another.

Not to say I didn't find things to like. The hand-puppet reaper was a fun idea, for instance. But, ultimately, I didn't find much enough to like here.

Anyone want my copy?

two or three days

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092) Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide by Grant Hardy, finished December 20

An utterly brilliant book. Buy a copy.

(my motley-vision review)

I also highly recommend his Reader's Edition.

some months

Previously in 2011 . . . . :

91

091) Fountain City wrecked by Michael Chabon, finished December 20

86-90

090) Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher by Jake Parker, finished c. December 13
089) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré, finished December 10
088) Uzumaki, Spiral into Horror by Junji Ito, finished December 9
087) How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, finished December 9
086) Umney's Last Case by Stephen King, finished December 6

83-85

085) Room by Emma Donoghue, finished November 30
084) The Armed Garden and other stories by David B. (translated by Kim Thompson), finished November 27
083) The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told, finished---was it November 26?

78-82

082) Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov, finished November 13
081) Variant by Robison Wells, finished November 12
080) Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain, finished November 10
079) The Devil Colony by James Rollins, finished November 9
078) Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol, finished November 7

75-77

077) The Best American Comics 2011 edited by Alison Bechdel, finished November 5
076) The Complete Peanuts 1977-1978 by Charles Schulz, finished November 3
075) Ghost Story by Peter Straub, finished October 27

71-74

074) Duncan the Wonder Dog by Adam Hines, finished October 23
073) Poem Strip by Dino Buzzati, finished October 15
072) No Arm in Left Field by Matt Christopher, finished October 18
071) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished October 18

70

070) The Canterbury Tales adapted by Seymour Chwast, finished October 12

65-69

069) A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born by Harry Harrison, finished October 4
068) Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett, finished September 27
067) Modern Masters Volume Sixteen: Mike Allred by Eric Nolen-Weathington, finished September 19
066) iZombie: uVampire by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, finished September 15
065) Knight and Squire by Paul Cornell and Jimmy Broxton, finished September 12

64
064) Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment by Bryan Talbot, finished September 21

59-63
063) Blacksad written by Juan Díaz Canales and drawn by Juanjo Guarnido, finished September 5
062) 21 by Wilfred Santiago, finished September 4
061) Bone by Jeff Smith, finished August 29
060) Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: Race to Death Valley by Flody Gottfredson, finished on a date that's a little hard to identify exactly
059) Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby, finished August 18

58
058) Take Time for Paradise by A. Bartlett Giamatti, finished August 11

53-57
057) The Shining by Stephen King, finished August 9
056) I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells, finished August 6
055) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, finished August 2
054) Moneyball by Michael Lewis, finished July 12
053) Madman New Giant Size Super Ginchy Special by Mike Allred et al, finished approximately July 9

51-52
052) The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld, finished July 8
051) Wilson by Daniel Clowes, finished July 6

46-50
050) Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut, finished July 1
049) Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby, finished June 25
048) The Light Princess by George Macdonald, finished June 22
047) Half a Life by Darin Strauss, finished June 17
046) Babymouse: Cupcake Tycoon by Jennifer L. Holm and Matt Holm (siblings), finished June 16

42-45
045) Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card, finished June 10
044) Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976 by E.B. White (edited by Rebecca M. Dale), finished June 7
043) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, finished May 31
042) Unnamed book by unnamed client (MS POLICY),
finished May 27

33-41
041) Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
040) Scott Pilgrim Versus The Unverse by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
039) Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 13
037) The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse, finished May 11
036) Scott Pilgrim Versus The World by Bryan Lee O'Malley
035) Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley
034) The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 by Charles M. Schulz, finished May 1
033) Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli finished approximately April 27

32
032) Golden Gate by Seth Vikram, finished April 20

27-31
031) Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope, finished April 18
030) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, finished April 9
029) iZombie: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred, finished April 2
028) A Sense of Order and Other Stories by Jack Harrell, finished April 1
027) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, finished March 30

26
026) The Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, finished March 21

23-25
025) Stitches by David Small, finished March 20
024) Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Kieth, finished January 19 or 20
023) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished March 18

21-22
022) Red Rocket 7 by Mike Allred, finished March 10
021) Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3 by Jake Parker, finished March 10

20
020) The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill, finished February 28

18-19
019) Wonderland by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew, finished February 21
018) Redcoat by Kohl Glass (MS POLICY), finished February 18

14-17
017) Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman, finished February 12
016) Little Bee by Chris Cleave, finished February 10
015) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, finished February 2
014) Cursed Pirate Girl: The Collected Edition Vol. I by Jeremy Bastian, finished January 31

13-9
013) Sweet Tooth: In Captivity by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
012) Sweet Tooth: Out of the Woods by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
011) Essex County: The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
010) Essex County: Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29
009) Essex County: Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29

8
008) Magdalene by Morah Jovan, finished January 27

7-6
007) Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules the Night by a slew of DC folk, finished January 23
006) Bayou by Jeremy Love, finished January 17

5-1
005) Mr. Monster by Dan Wells, finished January 10
004) The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, finished January 6
003) The Mystery of the Dinosaur Graveyard by Mary Adrian, finished January 5
002) Batman - Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham by John Wagner and Alan Grant and Simon Bisley, with lettering by the famous Todd Klein; finished January 4
001) Batman: Venom by Dennis O'Neil et al, finished January 2

This unsettling dream I had last night

2011-12-27T22:14:00.000-08:00

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[WARNING: I REALLY AM ABOUT TO BLOG ABOUT LAST NIGHT'S DREAM]
[EDIT: This post was written on Dec. 23, though not posted until later.]

.

I don't know how I ended up at this farmhouse (or something) out in the country far from my family. I don't know who all those people were or why I was with them. It doesn't matter. What matters is that I met a woman. Nothing remarkable about her appearance though she was blonde and I don't think of myself as a blonde-preferer. Anyway, we hit it off---I had never known anyone quite like her before and we fell into a deep friendship, took to hanging out all the time, that sort of thing. Then the dream took a turn for the literary and behaved more like a novel than a movie. One of the snippets announced during this phase of the dream is that we, er, consummated the relationship (though this was merely mentioned and not ever shown), and later I gave her a ring, making her an honest woman and me a polygamist (which, weirdly, felt totally appropriate).

Twenty years of wedded bliss pass and I happen to see Lady Steed at a bus stop. My first reaction is to avoid her, even though I have missed her terribly and still love her and am anxious to know how she and our kids are doing. So we talk. And she is pleased to see me, holds no bitterness, we have a nice chat . . . .

And then the dream changed channels and became about something else entirely.

Here's what's unsettling about this dream:

I would imagine, were we to do an extensive survey, that "normal" adultery dreams involve sex and function primarily out of a pent up bodily need. You know what I mean. This dream was nothing like that. The sex was wholly incidental. Just an obvious fact of a close and loving relationship, and merely implied anyway. This dream was not about physical infidelity. It was about emotional infidelity. And, for those few minutes of REM, I was genuinely in love with two women. Upon waking, this filled me with unease.

What is the lesson here for me?

The best albums of 2011 (sort of) via Spotify

2011-12-22T08:36:00.000-08:00

PLAY WHILE YOU READ;
I MADE YOU A MIXTAPE

.

I have fallen in love with Spotify these past few months. Partly because I finally have an affordable way to stay up with new music. To that end, I have a list I keep called "2011 Albums I Like"; some albums have been added later to be kicked off, some are albums I like enough I owned them before I got Spotify, some of the albums on this list are still in danger of getting kicked off, some albums may get added to the 2011 list in years to come. Below is the list of albums, sometimes with comments. Albums that have not yet earned their place on this list and that may yet be kicked off are signified with an *.

They Might Be Giants
---->Join Us (Spotify) (Amazon)
---->Album Raises New and Troubling Questions (Spotify) (Amazon)

Any new TMBG album is reason to pay attention, but a new album and a new "album" (like untoish Severe Tire Damage)? A very good year indeed. With lots of great, classic TMBG material on both

The Dø
---->Both Ways Open Jaws (Spotify) (Amazon)

Some new Europop with a new sensibility to match.

Low
---->C'mon (Spotify) (Amazon)

I really just discovered Low this year (though I've known of them for some time). You can read about initial impressions here, but I have really come to love this album.

Florence + The Machine
---->Ceremonials (Spotify) (Amazon)

Tegan And Sara
---->Get Along (Spotify) (Amazon)

Barnaby Bright
---->Gravity* (Spotify) (Amazon)

Jeff Bridges
---->Jeff Bridges (Spotify) (Amazon)

Unquestionably my favorite new country music of the year. Who would have guessed?

The Decemberists
---->The King Is Dead (Spotify) (Amazon)

Anyone arguing that this is the best album of the year I'm willing to listen to.

PJ Harvey
---->Let England Shake (Spotify) (Amazon)

I still haven't gotten over the weirdness of this album.

Julianna Barwick
---->The Magic Place (Spotify) (Amazon)

Feist
---->Metals (Spotify) (Amazon)

Dad Rocks!
---->Mount Modern* (Spotify) (Amazon)

I really can't decide if I like his hyperironic rock music for parents or not.....

(various)
---->Muppets: The Green Album (Spotify) (Amazon)
---->Rave on Buddy Holly* (Spotify) (Amazon)

Not all the tracks are equally great, but listen to The Green Album. Honestly, the OK Go version of the "Muppet Show"'s theme song is now the one I play in my internal jukebox.

Tori Amos
----Night of Hunters (Spotify) (Amazon)

Both the regular and instru mental versions.

Dan Mangan
---->Oh Fortune* (Spotify) (Amazon)

I'm a big fan of an EP of his, but I haven't really listened to this album yet.

Dia Frampton
---->Red* (Spotify) (Amazon)

Meg & Dia
---->Cocoon* (Spotify) (Amazon)

Apparently Dia did well on one of those tv singing-contest shows. I can't decide if I like either her album or the one with her sister yet. They're nice, but kind of poppy and packaged. Time will tell.

Beirut
---->The Rip Tide* (Spotify) (Amazon)

Considering how long I've been listening to this ablum, I'm not sure what to make of the fact that I'm still *ing it.

Amy LaVere
---->Stranger Me (Spotify) (Amazon)

My choice for best album of 2011. Terrific stuff.

Arcade Fire
---->The Suburbs (Spotify) (Amazon)

Took me a while to warm up to it, but really, it is as good as critics say.

tUnE-yArDs
---->W H O K I L L (Spotify) (Amazon)

Weirdest good album of the year.

The Civil Wars
---->Barton Hollow (Spotify) (Amazon)

Haven't actually listened to this yet---I only thought to add it to the list today---but I have heard several tracks which were good if over mellow. I'm excited to give it some turns, though.

Pistol Annies
---->Hell on Heels* (Spotify) (Amazon)

Just added (I'm giving it a first listen now, as I type). Not sure what I think yet. (This is not the only album on this list thanks to NPR.)

=======================

Something you may notice is that this list is, really, rather short. So yes: I am open to your suggestions. Please dish.

A [presumably] Mormon Writer for the Winter Solstice

2011-12-21T21:09:00.000-08:00

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I was just at a friend's house for a solstice meal and was thumbing through her new issue of Dialogue and saw a short story from a writer I am not familiar with. The bio suggested she is English (gasp! a Mormon writer who isn't an American! take a cutting! maybe we can grow more!) and I came straight home to read the story only learn that my online subscription has lapsed. Curses.

Instead I ran down her blog and found the list of her publications and read a few of them. Curiously, my favorite begins with the line, "It was Winter Solstice in the North Country and a day as dark as the inside of an eyelid had imperceptibly stretched into night."

Winter Solstice!

It's a good story.

I wasn't as taken with all the stories I read, but so it goes. "The Ice Baby" is good though. Read it for the solstice. (Be warned, however, that the site's formatting is rather annoying.) Then come back and tell me what you think about the ending.

Free Bonus: hear her voice here.

Fountain City, a novel, wrecked by Michael Chabon

2011-12-20T21:49:00.000-08:00

.

Although technically too short to qualify for five-books-at-a-time, I'm including it anyway. It's worth talking about and I'm getting pretty close to a hundred books on the year.....

091) Fountain City wrecked by Michael Chabon, finished December 20

If you haven't read about Fountain City, let me give you the basics.

After the success of his first book, Chabon tried and tried and tried to fail this second attempt. He eventually scrapped it (after thousands of pages and dozens of rewrites) and wrote Wonder Boys instead. (Which I have not read.)

This slim volume is the first four chapters of FC, as well as a large number of notes, an intro, a couple appendices. Essentially, it is an autopsy.

In theory, it is an autopsy. In fact, it's just as much a memoir. Which is not a bad thing. Art and life are inextricable, I suppose, and although, yes, occasionally this feels a bit self-indulgent, generally, it's rather heartening?

Why heartening? Because Chabon is one of the contemporary writers I most respect and seeing him spend a hella long time on a pile of crap makes me feel better about my own false starts. Sometimes, I wished he would talk about passages that I thought were particularly bad, but no matter. I enjoyed the trip with him and found it useful.

May I learn from other's mistakes.

Not that anyone ever did.

a couple weeks perhaps

===========================================================

Classic Svithe: The Jalapeno-v-Grape Svithe

2011-12-18T10:12:00.000-08:00

.

(originally ran may 2010)

.

Today I heard a simile from Carlos which, he alleges, originates from Richard G. Scott. But I am too lazy just now to confirm.

Here it is:

The Holy Spirit is like a grape, a soft and sweet taste.

In our plugged-in world, with all our zangwow, we are trying to taste the grape while simultaneously eating a jalapeno.

Not easy.

previous svithe

책s

2011-12-16T11:28:00.000-08:00

090) Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher by Jake Parker, finished c. December 13

Large S has suddenly become a huuuge Missile Mouse fan. I think we may be reading these books on repeat. So I'm not going to keep adding them, but I will direct you back to why you should buy them for your own kids:

Space Opera 101: Jake Parker's Missile Mouse

a couple nonsequential days

===========================================================

089) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré, finished December 10

I did not know until halfway through the read that a) this book is one of a connected series of books or b) one of them has been adapted to a film set for release this month (starring Gary Oldman, no less, which triples its worth-watching factor).

For those who don't know, Le Carré writes spy novels. Literary spy novels. Spy novels you can tell your lit professor friends you read. Waaaay better written than James Bond books, for instance. And not just flash and fun either --- these books have something to say.

As this one did.

Evidence that this book is not just out for fun is that the book's major twist you know from page one. And the actual twist is merely a reflection of the twist you the reader knew all along. So it's gets to be thriller-clever without making you feel like you're supposed to be solving a puzzle all along.

Coming in from the cold is a metaphor for retiring. Leaving the spy game. Which our hero does in order to get the plot rolling.

For me, the most valuable part of reading this book was learning more about Cold War mentality. The Berlin Wall fell just before I entered high school, so although I remember reading about it (and, later, following the breaking off of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with great interest), I wasn't old enough to have ever really felt the creeping terror of the-world-could-end-tomorrow. It's easy now to be critical of American attitudes like Domino Theory, but I wasn't there.

This book put me there, if only for a moment.

If you like James Bond but wish it were a little meatier, Le Carré is the writer for you.

six calendar days but only five periods of wakefulness

===========================================================

088) Uzumaki, Spiral into Horror by Junji Ito, finished December 9

I haven't read any manga in a while, in part because one book's never enough and getting them all's too big of a hassle. But I picked this one up because it appeared to be a one-shot. Alas, it ended with a to-be-continued. Figures.

But within the books, it's really just a series of short stories. A town is infested with spirals, which causes horror in a variety of unpleasant ways. All of which are ludicrous and absurd and make zero sense, but somehow, all the same, in their nightmare way, become truly horror-ible all the same. In a way I don't think a movie ever could. (See the adaptation's trailer and tell me if you don't agree.)

Here are some images from the book, culled from the internet. Naturally, the web provides moments of climax, so if you don't want to have anything spoiled, just skip down to the next book.

two days

===========================================================

087) How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, finished December 9

I picked this up in the textbook room with the idea of perhaps assigning it to my students. In short? The answer is yes. I'll certainly be using this book in the future. It's basically the layman's guide to all the stuff English majors are supposed to know by the end of 201 as shared by an affable guide. It's a fun read even if you already know most this stuff, and I expect it will be mindblowing to the uninitiated. So. It's a keeper.

some weeks

===========================================================

086) Umney's Last Case by Stephen King, finished December 6

Really, this is just a short story, but I loved that Penguin was publishing 75c books for their 60th anniversary. How cool is that? It fits perfectly into any pocket

a few week though not many minutes

PRVSLY:

The Greatest Books Post Ever Posted (at least in this room)

2011-11-30T10:11:00.000-08:00

085) Room by Emma Donoghue, finished November 30

Holy crap, people. All the praise I'd heard about this book failed to make one important point:

It contains the most exciting scene in all of literature.

This is not mere hyperbole. I cannot ever remember being so stressed out by a book that my brain was unable to process the words as quickly as my eyes were scrambling over them, desperate to see what would happen next.

And that was about a third into the book! Further emotional climaxes to follow! Including a surprisingly just-right ending.

I don't want to say too much --- I'm glad I had forgotten most of what I read before I began --- but I would like to say that you should not let the idea of a five-year-old narrator make you cringe and you should not let the zeitgeisty buzz put you off and you shouldn't let the awful founding conceit push you away. This book is for all taste levels; it's for fans of thrillers and fine-lit alike. No matter your final opinion (mine is still percolating, though certainly positive overall), you won't regret reading it.

Ma is a heroic, educated young ma. Jack is a complicated child who is a child. And you are the one now clicking my Amazon link or logging onto your library's website to meet them.

This is one time the masses are right. Enjoy it.

three days

===========================================================

084) The Armed Garden and other stories by David B. (translated by Kim Thompson), finished November 27

David B. is an indie French cartoonist I've heard of but never read. Why oh why did I take so long?

This book contains three stores, "The Veiled Prophet", "The Armored Garden", and "The Drum Who Fell in Love". The last two share a character and the Czech countryside. The first takes place in Baghdad (and environs). All take place a long long time ago. Say, six hundred years.

And the stories feel very much of their time. Not only in their confusing and violent and ambiguous natures (which feel, yes, very medieval), but also in the images. Their flatness and details and the layouts of certain set-piece moments all feel like art of the time. Yes, sure, it's clearly a modern cartoonist, but clearly this cartoonist did his research.

Highly recommended. (Note the sex and violence though.)

two days

===========================================================

083) The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told, finished---was it November 26?

Ugh. No wonder comics had a bad reputation if, twenty years ago, after over a half-century of Superman, these were the best stories every told. I've been working on reading this book to the kids for over three years and they have been as underwhelmed as me.

Sorry Supes fans.

over three years

Previously in 2011 . . . . :

78-82

082) Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov, finished November 13
081) Variant by Robison Wells, finished November 12
080) Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain, finished November 10
079) The Devil Colony by James Rollins, finished November 9
078) Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol, finished November 7

75-77

077) The Best American Comics 2011 edited by Alison Bechdel, finished November 5
076) The Complete Peanuts 1977-1978 by Charles Schulz, finished November 3
075) Ghost Story by Peter Straub, finished October 27

71-74

074) Duncan the Wonder Dog by Adam Hines, finished October 23
073) Poem Strip by Dino Buzzati, finished October 15
072) No Arm in Left Field by Matt Christopher, finished October 18
071) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished October 18

70

070) The Canterbury Tales adapted by Seymour Chwast, finished October 12

65-69

069) A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born by Harry Harrison, finished October 4
068) Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett, finished September 27
067) Modern Masters Volume Sixteen: Mike Allred by Eric Nolen-Weathington, finished September 19
066) iZombie: uVampire by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, finished September 15
065) Knight and Squire by Paul Cornell and Jimmy Broxton, finished September 12

64
064) Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment by Bryan Talbot, finished September 21

59-63
063) Blacksad written by Juan Díaz Canales and drawn by Juanjo Guarnido, finished September 5
062) 21 by Wilfred Santiago, finished September 4
061) Bone by Jeff Smith, finished August 29
060) Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: Race to Death Valley by Flody Gottfredson, finished on a date that's a little hard to identify exactly
059) Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby, finished August 18

58
058) Take Time for Paradise by A. Bartlett Giamatti, finished August 11

53-57
057) The Shining by Stephen King, finished August 9
056) I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells, finished August 6
055) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, finished August 2
054) Moneyball by Michael Lewis, finished July 12
053) Madman New Giant Size Super Ginchy Special by Mike Allred et al, finished approximately July 9

51-52
052) The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld, finished July 8
051) Wilson by Daniel Clowes, finished July 6

46-50
050) Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut, finished July 1
049) Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby, finished June 25
048) The Light Princess by George Macdonald, finished June 22
047) Half a Life by Darin Strauss, finished June 17
046) Babymouse: Cupcake Tycoon by Jennifer L. Holm and Matt Holm (siblings), finished June 16

42-45
045) Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card, finished June 10
044) Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976 by E.B. White (edited by Rebecca M. Dale), finished June 7
043) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, finished May 31
042) Unnamed book by unnamed client (MS POLICY),
finished May 27

33-41
041) Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
040) Scott Pilgrim Versus The Unverse by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
039) Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 13
037) The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse, finished May 11
036) Scott Pilgrim Versus The World by Bryan Lee O'Malley
035) Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley
034) The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 by Charles M. Schulz, finished May 1
033) Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli finished approximately April 27

32
032) Golden Gate by Seth Vikram, finished April 20

27-31
031) Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope, finished April 18
030) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, finished April 9
029) iZombie: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred, finished April 2
028) A Sense of Order and Other Stories by Jack Harrell, finished April 1
027) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, finished March 30

26
026) The Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, finished March 21

23-25
025) Stitches by David Small, finished March 20
024) Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Kieth, finished January 19 or 20
023) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished March 18

21-22
022) Red Rocket 7 by Mike Allred, finished March 10
021) Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3 by Jake Parker, finished March 10

20
020) The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill, finished February 28

18-19
019) Wonderland by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew, finished February 21
018) Redcoat by Kohl Glass (MS POLICY), finished February 18

14-17
017) Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman, finished February 12
016) Little Bee by Chris Cleave, finished February 10
015) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, finished February 2
014) Cursed Pirate Girl: The Collected Edition Vol. I by Jeremy Bastian, finished January 31

13-9
013) Sweet Tooth: In Captivity by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
012) Sweet Tooth: Out of the Woods by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
011) Essex County: The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
010) Essex County: Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29
009) Essex County: Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29

8
008) Magdalene by Morah Jovan, finished January 27

7-6
007) Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules the Night by a slew of DC folk, finished January 23
006) Bayou by Jeremy Love, finished January 17

5-1
005) Mr. Monster by Dan Wells, finished January 10
004) The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, finished January 6
003) The Mystery of the Dinosaur Graveyard by Mary Adrian, finished January 5
002) Batman - Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham by John Wagner and Alan Grant and Simon Bisley, with lettering by the famous Todd Klein; finished January 4
001) Batman: Venom by Dennis O'Neil et al, finished January 2

It’s nice to get thoughtful replies from my elected representatives when I write them about, for example, SOPA

2011-11-28T15:59:00.000-08:00

Dear Mr. Thteed:

Thank you for taking the time to write and share your views with me. Your comments will help me continue to represent you and other Californians to the best of my ability. Be assured that I will keep your views in mind as the Senate considers legislation on this or similar issues.

If you would like additional information about my work in the U.S. Senate, I invite you to visit my website, http://boxer.senate.gov. From this site, you can access my statements and press releases about current events and pending legislation, request copies of legislation and government reports, and receive detailed information about the many services that I am privileged to provide for my constituents. You may also wish to visit http://thomas.loc.gov to track current and past federal legislation.

Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. I appreciate hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Barbara Boxer
United States Senator

Please do not respond to this message. If you would like to comment on legislation, please visit my website and use the correspondence form at https://www.boxer.senate.gov/en/contact/policycomments.cfm.

Thrifecta (a svithe)

2011-11-27T14:40:00.000-08:00

.

Today I spoke in sacrament meeting, taught Sunday School, then taught elders quorum. Busy day!

In sacrament meeting, I was speaking in my role as newly called Sunday School president of the ward. For those of you not LDS, let me tell you that notwithstanding the word "president" in the title, generally this responsibility is looked at as a nonresponsibility. The purpose of the job is not terribly well defined and often redundant with other people's responsibilities. So I was speaking, in part, as an attempt to define my job.

Ironically, a year or so ago I went to a training for Sunday School leadership. I wasn't really needing to be there so I didn't take as good of notes as I could have, and those notes I've lost. In my attempt to get similar notes from someone (anyone!), I ended up throwing a hail-mary to an email address I found on line, viz. the guy who gave that training, the Church's General Sunday School President. By the time I sent that email (late last night) it was too late to be of any good. However, if I had checked my email before leaving for church this morning, I would have found his reply.

Unfortunately, the Church asks him not to share his training resources, but he did give me some other useful stuff, including this line from Elder Bednar: "Teaching is not talking and telling. Teaching is observing, listening, and then discerning so that we [as teachers] know what to say."

I don't know what the ultimate provenance of this quote is, but I feel my source is pretty reliable.

Also, it says pretty much what I was struggling to say in my talk: Teaching in the Church is not infodumping. It's not test-preparation. It is, instead, observing listening discerning.

Yes. Exactly.

Thank you, Brother Osguthrorpe. That was very helpful. You are a gentleman and a brother.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to prepare a lesson for tonight's home teaching.

previous svithe

Write like a Mormon

2011-11-19T14:41:00.000-08:00

One of the curious things about Mormon culture is that so many of us are convinced that our culture is something to be embarrassed of. Why? It's crazy, is what it is. Mormons have a rich tradition of astonishing art, even though many of us live years before discovering it. Here in our own stake for instance, we have a killer painter in Bryan Taylor (see) and a killer fictionist right on our own back row --- Karen Rosenbaum (re ad).

But you know what I know? Bryan and Karen ain't everybody.

And though I could make you a list of great novels or plays that are decidedly Mormon and decisively worth your time (ask me), today I'm more interested in the future. And in getting all our hidden artists to be part of it.

Read the below, then follow on Twitter or like on Facebook and then create something beautiful that can be part of our long and growing growing tradition.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mormon Lit Blitz <mormonlitblitz@gmail.com>
Subject: [aml-news] Call for Mormon Works under 1,000 words

CALL FOR CONTEST SUBMISSIONS

Now announcing the first ever Mormon Lit Blitz Writing Contest, designed to promote Mormon letters by making quality work available in easy-to-recommend short, online forms. Send up to three submissions by 15 January 2012 tomormonlitblitz@gmail.com for a chance to win a Kindle and more.

What we want:
Short work for Mormons to be published and read online.

The details:
“Short” means under 1,000 words.

“Work” means creative writing in any genre, from literary realism to far future science fiction, and in any form: fiction, essay, poetry, even play or screenplay if you can keep it under 1,000 words. Give us a tiny, polished gem we can show off to people who love Mormonism and love great writing but “know not where to find” a place where the two meet.

“For Mormons” means for committed Latter-day Saints. Yes, that’s an extremely diverse audience (see the “I’m a Mormon” campaign---and your ward members), but it’s also an audience with distinctive shared values and history that don’t often get attention in creative work. We want you to write something that will appeal to us as people who believe in the sacred, who have ridiculous numbers of brothers and sisters we see every week, who worry about being good and faithful servants no matter what our day jobs are and wonder what it will be like to meet our grandparents’ grandparents in heaven. We don’t need your pieces to preach to us. We do need them to combine your creativity and religious commitment in a way that excites us and gives us something cool to talk about with our Mormon friends.

“To be published and read online” means we’re going to post six to twelve finalists’ pieces on Mormon Artistmagazine’s blog (www.mormonartist.net) and then ask readers to vote on their favorites.

One catch: since even 1,000 words can be intimidating on a screen, your piece needs a strong hook of no more than 120 words (or eight lines for poetry) to be visible on the main blog page. Mark the end of your hook with [MORE]. Even our editors will only read further if you’ve piqued their interest.

Submission Guidelines:
Submissions must have fewer than 1,000 words with a hook no longer than 120 words (or eight lines for poetry). Submissions must be engaging to Latter-day Saints and engage with their Mormon identity in some way.

Authors may submit up to three works. Each submission must be attached to an email as a .doc or .pdf file. The selection process is blind, so the author’s name should not appear on the document.

Email any questions and your submissions to mormonlitblitz@gmail.com. Submission emails should contain the author’s name, the titles of each submission, and contact information (telephone number or email address).

By submitting, authors give us the one-time rights to publish their work electronically. Previously published work is OK if you still have the rights to the piece and if it meets the above contest requirements (don’t forget to add a [MORE] tag to the end of your hook).

The prize:
The contest editors will select six to twelve finalists. All finalists will have their short works published online starting in mid-February 2012 and actively promoted across the LDS blogosphere by the Mormon Lit Blitz team.

After all pieces have been published, readers will vote on a single Grand Prize Winner, who will receive a Kindle pre-loaded with LDS literary works, including Parley P. Pratt’s classic short “A Dialogue Between Joseph Smith and the Devil,” Peculiar Pages’ recent Monsters & Mormons anthology, Zarahemla Books’ Dispensation: Latter-day Fiction, the poetry anthology Fire in the Pasture, and recent issues of Mormon Artist magazine.

Phil Tippett

2011-11-18T09:32:00.000-08:00

.

Last night I went with a friend who works at Tippett Studio to see his boss talk and to watch Starship Troopers.

Phil Tippett, in case you don't know, is a big deal. He worked on all three Star Wars movies, invented go-motion, oversaw the transition from go-motion to pure CGI in Jurassic Park (but not before coming down with pneumonia, when he began to believe that CGI had ended his career and everything he had been working for was moot), and now makes a living doing effects for movies, many of which are crap, but hey --- Smurfs and Immortals pay the bills.

I'm not going to say everything he said now, but as I remember things, I will add them to the comments. Check back.

Starship Troopers was just as ridiculous as you've heard. The acting is terrible (allegedly on purpose) and the humans' strategies are so stupid you kind of want them to get wiped out. But the movie did have one fun surprise: a Mormon scene. You can read about it by clicking the image.

Book me.

2011-11-15T17:13:00.000-08:00

.

082) Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov, finished November 13

My parents bought this book for me last Coast Guard Day (it had been on my wishlist on the recommendation of Nick Hornby). And although I was excited to read it, I was also prepared to be disappointed.

And I remained prepared all the way through. And that anticipation grew as the book progressed and I could see more and more ways for the book to ultimately disappoint me. And then I finished it. And holy crap. I wasn't disappointed. Not in the least. In fact, I want to read Penguin Lost. I even want to read other unrelated Kurkov books like A Matter of Death and Life.

Seriously. I cannot tell you how many times this book took turns that looked guaranteed to ultimately suck, and then did not suck. I'm not sure I'm explaining well how amazing this was. And I'm even more sure that I'm not selling you this book.

Part of the problem? Telling you about the book will set you up to expect a book that is disappointing and sucky. Even though it won't be. As Hornby said, why not just write on its cover DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. Seriously.

But it doesn't suck.

Trust me on this.

a few months

(the first cover is mine; click any to read someone else's review)

===========================================================

081) Variant by Robison Wells, finished November 12

First, yes, this book is as much fun to read as everyone's been saying. I allowed myself to be propelled through it as quickly as any book of late. And sure, it's YA so the page count doesn't reflect the small pages and larger type and wider margins, but still: I don't read 384-page books this quickly anymore. So there's that.

Second, what a brilliant setup! And just when you think he's discovered a new and better way to instill paranoia, he ups the paranoia by a factor substantially larger than five.

So. Nonstop excitement (and not of the gratuitous variety where it's just in stuffed willynilly). Well drawn characters (though those characterizations are totally undercut by new information --- bold move). Well integrated twists.

My only complaint is that I hate books that end on cliffhangers (no matter how excellent the cliffhanger). If I'd known, I might have waited for the other books to come out first.

But I have no regrets!

two days and thirty-six minutes into the next

===========================================================

080) Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain, finished November 10

This is the first of the post-Huck Finn Tom Sawyer books. Tom Sawyer was a great kids' book. Huck Finn is the leading candidate for Great American Novel. Tom Sawyer Abroad is . . . . Let's call it a step backwards.

It's another kids' book ala Tom Sawyer. Tom and Huck and Jim accidentally stow away on a balloon that's four parts Jules Verne and fly to the Sahara, losing their grumpy undeveloped inventor/captain into the ocean en route. Which is the first of many moments that comes and goes and leaves the reader thinking what?

The story is short and ends absurdly abruptly. Takes some Dr. Doolittle-esque turns, doesn't seem to take reality as seriously as the previous books, and so on. Much of the book is spent with Tom playing the straightman to Huck and Jim's comedy act. While funny (make no mistake: I lolled frequently), it's a good thing this book was supershort.

two days

===========================================================

079) The Devil Colony by James Rollins, finished November 9

Read my take here.

a couple weeks

===========================================================

078) Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol, finished November 7

Starts off as one thing and becomes another so swiftly and perfectly that it's dizzying and an utter joy. I do think the final resolution came to easily --- definitely needed one last turn before closing --- but aside from that pacing issue, this book is brilliant.

If ghosts are going to be like this, let those who say ghosts are the new vampire/zombie be right.

(two not-quite-sequential pages)

today

Previously in 2011 . . . . :

75-77

077) The Best American Comics 2011 edited by Alison Bechdel, finished November 5
076) The Complete Peanuts 1977-1978 by Charles Schulz, finished November 3
075) Ghost Story by Peter Straub, finished October 27

71-74

074) Duncan the Wonder Dog by Adam Hines, finished October 23
073) Poem Strip by Dino Buzzati, finished October 15
072) No Arm in Left Field by Matt Christopher, finished October 18
071) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished October 18

70

070) The Canterbury Tales adapted by Seymour Chwast, finished October 12

65-69

069) A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born by Harry Harrison, finished October 4
068) Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett, finished September 27
067) Modern Masters Volume Sixteen: Mike Allred by Eric Nolen-Weathington, finished September 19
066) iZombie: uVampire by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, finished September 15
065) Knight and Squire by Paul Cornell and Jimmy Broxton, finished September 12

64
064) Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment by Bryan Talbot, finished September 21

59-63
063) Blacksad written by Juan Díaz Canales and drawn by Juanjo Guarnido, finished September 5
062) 21 by Wilfred Santiago, finished September 4
061) Bone by Jeff Smith, finished August 29
060) Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: Race to Death Valley by Flody Gottfredson, finished on a date that's a little hard to identify exactly
059) Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby, finished August 18

58
058) Take Time for Paradise by A. Bartlett Giamatti, finished August 11

53-57
057) The Shining by Stephen King, finished August 9
056) I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells, finished August 6
055) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, finished August 2
054) Moneyball by Michael Lewis, finished July 12
053) Madman New Giant Size Super Ginchy Special by Mike Allred et al, finished approximately July 9

51-52
052) The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld, finished July 8
051) Wilson by Daniel Clowes, finished July 6

46-50
050) Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut, finished July 1
049) Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby, finished June 25
048) The Light Princess by George Macdonald, finished June 22
047) Half a Life by Darin Strauss, finished June 17
046) Babymouse: Cupcake Tycoon by Jennifer L. Holm and Matt Holm (siblings), finished June 16

42-45
045) Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card, finished June 10
044) Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976 by E.B. White (edited by Rebecca M. Dale), finished June 7
043) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, finished May 31
042) Unnamed book by unnamed client (MS POLICY),
finished May 27

33-41
041) Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
040) Scott Pilgrim Versus The Unverse by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
039) Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 13
037) The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse, finished May 11
036) Scott Pilgrim Versus The World by Bryan Lee O'Malley
035) Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley
034) The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 by Charles M. Schulz, finished May 1
033) Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli finished approximately April 27

32
032) Golden Gate by Seth Vikram, finished April 20

27-31
031) Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope, finished April 18
030) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, finished April 9
029) iZombie: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred, finished April 2
028) A Sense of Order and Other Stories by Jack Harrell, finished April 1
027) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, finished March 30

26
026) The Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, finished March 21

23-25
025) Stitches by David Small, finished March 20
024) Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Kieth, finished January 19 or 20
023) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished March 18

21-22
022) Red Rocket 7 by Mike Allred, finished March 10
021) Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3 by Jake Parker, finished March 10

20
020) The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill, finished February 28

18-19
019) Wonderland by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew, finished February 21
018) Redcoat by Kohl Glass (MS POLICY), finished February 18

14-17
017) Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman, finished February 12
016) Little Bee by Chris Cleave, finished February 10
015) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, finished February 2
014) Cursed Pirate Girl: The Collected Edition Vol. I by Jeremy Bastian, finished January 31

13-9
013) Sweet Tooth: In Captivity by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
012) Sweet Tooth: Out of the Woods by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
011) Essex County: The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
010) Essex County: Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29
009) Essex County: Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29

8
008) Magdalene by Morah Jovan, finished January 27

7-6
007) Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules the Night by a slew of DC folk, finished January 23
006) Bayou by Jeremy Love, finished January 17

5-1
005) Mr. Monster by Dan Wells, finished January 10
004) The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, finished January 6
003) The Mystery of the Dinosaur Graveyard by Mary Adrian, finished January 5
002) Batman - Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham by John Wagner and Alan Grant and Simon Bisley, with lettering by the famous Todd Klein; finished January 4
001) Batman: Venom by Dennis O'Neil et al, finished January 2

Svithing alone

2011-11-12T22:11:00.000-08:00

.

John 16:32
Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

Job 7:16
I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.

Lamentations 3:28
He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

1 Thessalonians 3:1
Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone;

Ecclesiastes 4:11
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?

Numbers 11:14
I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.

Alma 33:15
For it is not written that Zenos alone spake of these things, but Zenock also spake of these things—

Deuteronomy 1:12
How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?

Galatians 6:4
But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.

Psalms 102:7
I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

Matthew 14:23
And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.

Isaiah 14:31
Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.

Leviticus 13:46
All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.

Jeremiah 49:31
Arise, get you up unto the wealthy nation, that dwelleth without care, saith the Lord, which have neither gates nor bars, which dwell alone.

John 6:15
When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.

John 8:9
And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

John 8:29
And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

John 12:24
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Alma 17:17
Therefore they separated themselves one from another, and went forth among them, every man alone, according to the word and power of God which was given unto him.

Moses 3:18
And I, the Lord God, said unto mine Only Begotten, that it was not good that the man should be alone; wherefore, I will make an help meet for him.

Helaman 10:1
And it came to pass that there arose a division among the people, insomuch that they divided hither and thither and went their ways, leaving Nephi alone, as he was standing in the midst of them.

Ecclesiastes 4:10
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.

Genesis 2:18
And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

Alma 29:14
But I do not joy in my own success alone, but my joy is more full because of the success of my brethren, who have been up to the land of Nephi.

Isaiah 5:8
Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!

Hebrews 9:7
But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:

Jeremiah 15:17
I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.

Luke 10:40
But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.

1 Samuel 21:1
Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?

Daniel 10:7-8
And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.

Job 1:15
And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

Job 1:19
And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

Exodus 18:14, 18
And when Moses’ father in law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even? Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.

Genesis 44:20
And we said unto my lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him.

Isaiah 49:21
Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?

Ecclesiastes 4:8
There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.

Numbers 11:17
And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone.

Mormon 8:3
And my father also was killed by them, and I even remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people. But behold, they are gone, and I fulfil the commandment of my father. And whether they will slay me, I know not.

Genesis 42:38
And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.

Mormon 8:5
Behold, my father hath made this record, and he hath written the intent thereof. And behold, I would write it also if I had room upon the plates, but I have not; and ore I have none, for I am alone. My father hath been slain in battle, and all my kinsfolk, and I have not friends nor whither to go; and how long the Lord will suffer that I may live I know not.

Joseph Smith—History 1:15
After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

Abraham 5:14
And the Gods said: Let us make an help meet for the man, for it is not good that the man should be alone, therefore we will form an help meet for him.

previous svithe

That's me. In the top right corner.

2011-11-12T21:41:00.000-08:00

Variant bookbomb

2011-11-10T09:28:00.000-08:00

Rob Wells is a guy I respect. And he has a new book out. And, because he just lost his job and might not get reemployed for a while, we're bookbombing him today. Which means everyone buys his book today (from Amazon) to boost his sales numbers and maybe get him some attention. I haven't read the book yet (it's in my bag though), but everyone agrees it's awesome. So take a chance. Why not?

There's a party going on tonight tomorrow night and you're invited (I am an idiot)

2011-11-10T09:22:00.000-08:00

.

I'll be here(s).

more new books made old

2011-11-07T08:59:00.000-08:00

.

077) The Best American Comics 2011 edited by Alison Bechdel, finished November 5

As always, I enjoyed this book a great deal. It included a few of my favorite artists (notably newcomers to the series Kate Beaton and my pal Noah Van Sciver whose new comic in Sunstone I'll write a post about soon). Nothing really floored me this year, but I am left feeling good about the state of American comics. I suppose that's an adequate response.

let's call it a month

===========================================================

076) The Complete Peanuts 1977-1978 by Charles Schulz, finished November 3

Like the first volume in this set, these strips remain an utter joy to read. I bet Thoreau would have taken them to Walden.

lil' under six months

===========================================================

075) Ghost Story by Peter Straub, finished October 27

I bought this book circa 2004 at a library sale on Stephen King's recommendation. I read the first few pages several Octobers ago (before reading the first few pages of another book I need to finish, also starting with the abduction of a young, blonde girl). Long enough ago that I started again at the beginning.

The book reminds me in good ways of Dan Wells's John Cleaver books, though those elements don't appear until the end. It's a slowburn novel. Constant promises of more-to-come --- promises never reneged on.

The book was made into a movie in the early 80s starring Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and John Houseman as the old guys. I guess it must not be that great because best I can tell it's been utterly forgotten. But the idea of great actors in their twilight (Fred Astaire lived six more years, Fairbanks never made another movie, Douglas died before the movie was released, and Housman wouldn't last the decade) has been thrilling me as I read, imagining this book as an HBO series.

But I don't know if I can recommend it. The book is a joy of horror, written horror. Sure you could turn it into a scary movie, but much of what happens would become hokey.

One other thing I liked about the book is it's taste of late 70s America. A world I was present for but can't remember. A time lost, yet so close.

Like a ghost.

(Though, for the record, I think much of it's aging has not been )

TIME

PReViouSLy

71-74

074) Duncan the Wonder Dog by Adam Hines, finished October 23
073) Poem Strip by Dino Buzzati, finished October 15
072) No Arm in Left Field by Matt Christopher, finished October 18
071) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished October 18

70

070) The Canterbury Tales adapted by Seymour Chwast, finished October 12

65-69

069) A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born by Harry Harrison, finished October 4
068) Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett, finished September 27
067) Modern Masters Volume Sixteen: Mike Allred by Eric Nolen-Weathington, finished September 19
066) iZombie: uVampire by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, finished September 15
065) Knight and Squire by Paul Cornell and Jimmy Broxton, finished September 12

64
064) Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment by Bryan Talbot, finished September 21

59-63
063) Blacksad written by Juan Díaz Canales and drawn by Juanjo Guarnido, finished September 5
062) 21 by Wilfred Santiago, finished September 4
061) Bone by Jeff Smith, finished August 29
060) Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: Race to Death Valley by Flody Gottfredson, finished on a date that's a little hard to identify exactly
059) Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby, finished August 18

58
058) Take Time for Paradise by A. Bartlett Giamatti, finished August 11

53-57
057) The Shining by Stephen King, finished August 9
056) I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells, finished August 6
055) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, finished August 2
054) Moneyball by Michael Lewis, finished July 12
053) Madman New Giant Size Super Ginchy Special by Mike Allred et al, finished approximately July 9

51-52
052) The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld, finished July 8
051) Wilson by Daniel Clowes, finished July 6

46-50
050) Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut, finished July 1
049) Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby, finished June 25
048) The Light Princess by George Macdonald, finished June 22
047) Half a Life by Darin Strauss, finished June 17
046) Babymouse: Cupcake Tycoon by Jennifer L. Holm and Matt Holm (siblings), finished June 16

42-45
045) Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card, finished June 10
044) Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976 by E.B. White (edited by Rebecca M. Dale), finished June 7
043) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, finished May 31
042) Unnamed book by unnamed client (MS POLICY),
finished May 27

33-41
041) Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
040) Scott Pilgrim Versus The Unverse by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
039) Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 13
037) The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse, finished May 11
036) Scott Pilgrim Versus The World by Bryan Lee O'Malley
035) Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley
034) The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 by Charles M. Schulz, finished May 1
033) Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli finished approximately April 27

32
032) Golden Gate by Seth Vikram, finished April 20

27-31
031) Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope, finished April 18
030) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, finished April 9
029) iZombie: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred, finished April 2
028) A Sense of Order and Other Stories by Jack Harrell, finished April 1
027) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, finished March 30

26
026) The Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, finished March 21

23-25
025) Stitches by David Small, finished March 20
024) Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Kieth, finished January 19 or 20
023) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished March 18

21-22
022) Red Rocket 7 by Mike Allred, finished March 10
021) Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3 by Jake Parker, finished March 10

20
020) The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill, finished February 28

18-19
019) Wonderland by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew, finished February 21
018) Redcoat by Kohl Glass (MS POLICY), finished February 18

14-17
017) Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman, finished February 12
016) Little Bee by Chris Cleave, finished February 10
015) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, finished February 2
014) Cursed Pirate Girl: The Collected Edition Vol. I by Jeremy Bastian, finished January 31

13-9
013) Sweet Tooth: In Captivity by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
012) Sweet Tooth: Out of the Woods by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
011) Essex County: The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
010) Essex County: Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29
009) Essex County: Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29

8
008) Magdalene by Morah Jovan, finished January 27

7-6
007) Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules the Night by a slew of DC folk, finished January 23
006) Bayou by Jeremy Love, finished January 17

5-1
005) Mr. Monster by Dan Wells, finished January 10
004) The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, finished January 6
003) The Mystery of the Dinosaur Graveyard by Mary Adrian, finished January 5
002) Batman - Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham by John Wagner and Alan Grant and Simon Bisley, with lettering by the famous Todd Klein; finished January 4
001) Batman: Venom by Dennis O'Neil et al, finished January 2

Peculiar Pages

2011-11-02T08:27:00.000-07:00

.

I haven't talked in this space for some time about my ittybitty publishing company, but that's not because we've been active --- it's because we've been so active I haven't had a chance. Dozens of blogposts elsewhere on the internet have I sculpted while Thutopia waited patiently.

Let's talk first about the book released on Halloween, Monsters & Mormons. Proposed to me by William Morris, we've been working on it for over a year and a half now.

It will be difficult for me to overstate how much fun you'll have reading this book. It may, I grant, be more fun for Mormons, but I guarantee that monsters of all stripes will find joy herein.

(Also: although copies of the cover are available elsewhere online, this is the first and so-far-only place where the finalized version of the cover exists. Thanks to Anneke Majors who did the bulk of the work, and Denise Gasser [who added paint] and Lady Steed [for, among other tasks, the awesome Peculiar Pages skull-logo].)

Reclaiming the pulp tradition, redeeming my people from over a century of stockvillainy, has been great fun. And not just fun --- some of the stories are also moving, thoughtful, shocking, dangerous, provocative, etc. Don't dismiss this as mere pulp fun. And, at the same time, don't dismiss the pleasures of pulp fun.

The first book that finally dropped this month has been the enormously complex enterprise Fire in the Pasture. Thankfully, Tyler Chadwick did most of the work on this one. All I had to do was come up with the idea and get out of his way.

(This cover, by the way, art by the inimitable Casey Jex Smith, design by Lady Steed.)

This is the first serious collection of Mormon poetry in over twenty years, and in that time a goodly number of serious Mormon poets have landed on the national scene. It's hard for me to overstate how I've enjoyed reading this book, myself. And I'm not, as you may know, a superhuge poetry reader. But excellence speaks for itself.

So. That's what's up with Peculiar Pages.

Go forth and purchase.

On friends (a svithe inspired by what I heard at church today)

2011-10-30T18:16:00.000-07:00

.

In the Doctrine & Covenants, Jesus expounds on a note be barely played in the New Testament, viz. he is our friend.

I'm not interested in getting into who is a friend of Jesus and who is not or other such silly argument --- all I'm interested in is that Jesus, god, is not above calling people like us his friends.

There's a lesson in there, somewhere.

previous svithe

(books)

2011-10-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

.

074) Duncan the Wonder Dog by Adam Hines, finished October 23

I know I overuse words like beautiful and great and brilliant. One word I do not overuse is genius. And I'm not about to apply it to this book, but I am going to trot it out cautiously all the same.

You see, Duncan the Wonder Dog might be a work of genius. I don't know yet. I won't know until further books come out. But it might be. It very well might be.

Comics are growing up when an out-of-nowhere debut can be as complex and lovely as Chris Ware's best work.

(Read this pdf sample of the first many pages of this huge book.)

It would be impossible to ruin this book no matter how much I gave away, so don't feel leery about reading any of the notes below.

Here's the conceit. Our world, but animals talk. Not in a mickey-mouse way or a cinderella way or a dr-dolittle way. Just a simple, literal, animals that talk.

This leads to startling moments, as we see wild animals interacting with each other, circus animals, pets and humans, passing birds landing on a balcony.

And the necessary complications of life when you have to kill something that talks before you can have a hamburger.

The resultant politics can be read as commentary on race in America or on the environment. But that does not have to get in the way of your enjoyment, no matter your take on those issues.

And, related to that, the terrorist ape Pompeii may be the most terrorizing villain to come out of comics since the Joker. I kid you not. What makes the Joker terrifying? His alien mind.

What can be more alien than another species?

Be afraid.

Read this book. As soon as you can.

Seriously: read this book.

It's the first volume of a planned nine, and so we'll decide later whether or not this is a comics masterpiece, a work of genius. But I wouldn't bet against Adam Hines. Not today, not ever again.

Duncan the Wonder Dog. Let the show begin.

over a week

073) Poem Strip by Dino Buzzati, finished October 15

This icksexy Italian 1960s counterculture take on Orpheus and Eurydice is pretty dang wonderful. The way it references everything that was happening then and the recently past art (eg Surrealism) and contemporaneous European lit and meshes it all into a wonderful series of poems and comics is terribly enjoyable to read. Props to the translator because the poetry really has to work for the book to work.

two days

072) No Arm in Left Field by Matt Christopher, finished October 18

Matt Christopher's middle-reader sports books are the Big O's new love, so I picked this one up (he'd brought it home from the school library) and read it. I can see why he likes them. Every chapter has a thrilling baseball game and the story story is built in the gaps between games. This particular one is about a black kid moving into a white town and making friends even, eventually, with the mildly racist kid (through team play, of course).

They're a fun read. Got sporty kids? Send 'em this way. Matt C does about every sport you can imagine.

off and on over a week

071) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished October 18

I am so sick of Hamlet.

about a week

PRVSLY

70

070) The Canterbury Tales adapted by Seymour Chwast, finished October 12

65-69

069) A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born by Harry Harrison, finished October 4
068) Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett, finished September 27
067) Modern Masters Volume Sixteen: Mike Allred by Eric Nolen-Weathington, finished September 19
066) iZombie: uVampire by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, finished September 15
065) Knight and Squire by Paul Cornell and Jimmy Broxton, finished September 12

64
064) Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment by Bryan Talbot, finished September 21

59-63
063) Blacksad written by Juan Díaz Canales and drawn by Juanjo Guarnido, finished September 5
062) 21 by Wilfred Santiago, finished September 4
061) Bone by Jeff Smith, finished August 29
060) Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: Race to Death Valley by Flody Gottfredson, finished on a date that's a little hard to identify exactly
059) Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby, finished August 18

58
058) Take Time for Paradise by A. Bartlett Giamatti, finished August 11

53-57
057) The Shining by Stephen King, finished August 9
056) I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells, finished August 6
055) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, finished August 2
054) Moneyball by Michael Lewis, finished July 12
053) Madman New Giant Size Super Ginchy Special by Mike Allred et al, finished approximately July 9

51-52
052) The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld, finished July 8
051) Wilson by Daniel Clowes, finished July 6

46-50
050) Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut, finished July 1
049) Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby, finished June 25
048) The Light Princess by George Macdonald, finished June 22
047) Half a Life by Darin Strauss, finished June 17
046) Babymouse: Cupcake Tycoon by Jennifer L. Holm and Matt Holm (siblings), finished June 16

42-45
045) Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card, finished June 10
044) Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976 by E.B. White (edited by Rebecca M. Dale), finished June 7
043) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, finished May 31
042) Unnamed book by unnamed client (MS POLICY),
finished May 27

33-41
041) Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
040) Scott Pilgrim Versus The Unverse by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
039) Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 13
037) The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse, finished May 11
036) Scott Pilgrim Versus The World by Bryan Lee O'Malley
035) Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley
034) The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 by Charles M. Schulz, finished May 1
033) Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli finished approximately April 27

32
032) Golden Gate by Seth Vikram, finished April 20

27-31
031) Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope, finished April 18
030) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, finished April 9
029) iZombie: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred, finished April 2
028) A Sense of Order and Other Stories by Jack Harrell, finished April 1
027) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, finished March 30

26
026) The Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, finished March 21

23-25
025) Stitches by David Small, finished March 20
024) Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Kieth, finished January 19 or 20
023) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished March 18

21-22
022) Red Rocket 7 by Mike Allred, finished March 10
021) Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3 by Jake Parker, finished March 10

20
020) The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill, finished February 28

18-19
019) Wonderland by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew, finished February 21
018) Redcoat by Kohl Glass (MS POLICY), finished February 18

14-17
017) Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman, finished February 12
016) Little Bee by Chris Cleave, finished February 10
015) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, finished February 2
014) Cursed Pirate Girl: The Collected Edition Vol. I by Jeremy Bastian, finished January 31

13-9
013) Sweet Tooth: In Captivity by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
012) Sweet Tooth: Out of the Woods by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
011) Essex County: The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
010) Essex County: Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29
009) Essex County: Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29

8
008) Magdalene by Morah Jovan, finished January 27

7-6
007) Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules the Night by a slew of DC folk, finished January 23
006) Bayou by Jeremy Love, finished January 17

5-1
005) Mr. Monster by Dan Wells, finished January 10
004) The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, finished January 6
003) The Mystery of the Dinosaur Graveyard by Mary Adrian, finished January 5
002) Batman - Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham by John Wagner and Alan Grant and Simon Bisley, with lettering by the famous Todd Klein; finished January 4
001) Batman: Venom by Dennis O'Neil et al, finished January 2

Being-a-little-child (a minisvithe)

2011-10-23T20:34:00.000-07:00

.

I taught a lesson about this today, but it's an idea I heard from another lesson that has my attention:

Part of what we should emulate children is how they cry when they need something.

Lesson: pray.

Naturally would I ignore a part of kids I don't like as emulation-worthy when it is, in fact, the part I am most in need of emulating.

previous svithe

"To Augustus" by B. Zim in Time volume 5, issue 129 (1887)

2011-10-18T17:41:00.000-07:00

.

"STICKTOITIVENESS." "Is there such a word?"

With a very large capital Y, unlettered youth, we answer that there is. The dictionary makers simply do not display it all under one tent; they dismember it and scatter it to the four winds of their definitive pages; it is found intact only in the valuable vocabularies of certain wise men. It should be found in all vocabularies.

Perhaps you haven't such a thing as a vocabulary, Augustus? Well, well then, never mind; that Sticktoitiveness is a word---dictionaries to the contrary, notwithstanding--you may rest assured, and a word to which you should swear at once, and with bitter earnestness, unswerving and indissoluble allegiance. It is a WORD, Gus, and it ought to be graven upon every page of your copy-book. Lay your hand, therefore, in the palpitating region of your lower left-hand, vest-pocket and swear---hold! Just one minute, Gus. Have you contracted the baneful habit of inviting to the theatre young ladies who wear bonnets like that? Miserable youth You cannot answer! Enough! Do not swear! Do not swear---for-swear .

[see her hat here]

1500 Posts (a svithe)

2011-10-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

.

Including the 29 drafts awaiting completion, I am currently writing my 1501st thmusing. This is quite a large number. It's been over two years since post 1000, so somehow, even though I feel my pace has dropped tremendously, I've written roughly 500 posts in roughly the same time the first 500s were completed. Which amazes me since most of my silly little things now go to Thwitter or Thumblr. Both of those sites also see a lot more traffic than this one as well.

I haven't done a survey, but I suspect that this blog has become, in large part, a series of book reviews with svithes for leaven. Not sure how, mm, commercial that is.

Just before I started blogging, I hated blogs. I hated how they were cluttering up search results, for instance. Then NPR convinced me to start one of my own. And I grew to love it. No social media will ever, I think, consume me as blogging did once I finally dove in.

But the blog heyday has passed and new things take our time and clutter our search results. Blogs, in many respects, seem dead. Instead of posting five or so times every week for the rest of my life as I once imagined, I use it to track a thing here and a thing there. Ideas too long for Twitter or too controversial for Facebook. But if I have something Important to say, I'll throw it up in A Motley Vision or maybe ask another big blog if I can guest (By Common Consent is now a friend).

Of course, before I dismiss the blog's reach, I should note I still average a few dozen unique visitors a day (it is still true, however, that a significant portion of my hits every day for years now has been people wanting to look at this image of a cat liver), plus it's followed by an unknown number of readers and compilers etc. Who knows. Maybe I'm very popular. And all the discussion is happening off site. Or not at all.

Really, what does it matter.

Yet, so much of my soul is here (1501!) that I too remain here. It's practically a horcrux (shoutout to young people!).

Which is where we finally get to the svithey portion of this post.

Where we deposit our time, there we deposit our soul.

So the thoughtprovoking question (your answer to which I may never well hear) is how do we determine where to spend our bits of soul.

Where?

Where.

Where . . . .

pervious svithe

Canturbury Tales: More boring than ever

2011-10-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

.

070) The Canterbury Tales adapted by Seymour Chwast, finished October 12

I have two main memories of The Canterbury Tales. reading Chanticleer in a kiddie collection. Feeling the most stage fright I have ever felt when I had to recite the first twenty lines of the General Prologue to my high school English class.

We read several stories from CT in that class and as I read this book they all came back.

Here's the thing about Chauser. Or the things, rather. One: he wrote a looong time ago. The words are no longer transparent. So you either have to be an expert, struggle mightily, or read a translation. Two: he's not all that. He's a big deal because he was first, not because he was particularly brilliant.

The legendary Chwast, coming off the critical success of his Divine Comedy adaptation, has placed the pilgrims on motorbikes as they tell their stories to each other. He does a good job capturing the banter, but the stories themselves fall flat. Take Chanticleer, for instance. The story is so compressed and lifeless I could barely follow it. And I know this story!

Other thoroughly enjoyable stories that lie dead in these pages include The Pardoner's Tale and The Wife of Bath's Tale.

The sex in these stories is not sexy, the jokes are not funny. They're awful, frankly. About the only things that come through intact are the awfulness of something like The Clerk's Tale.

So this book isn't worth your time, unless, I suppose, you're a huge fan of Chwast's work.

But Chwast, like Chauser, is important in his field without being terribly good at what he does.

two evenings

===========================================================
==============

Previously in 2011 . . . . :

65-69

069) A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born by Harry Harrison, finished October 4
068) Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett, finished September 27
067) Modern Masters Volume Sixteen: Mike Allred by Eric Nolen-Weathington, finished September 19
066) iZombie: uVampire by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, finished September 15
065) Knight and Squire by Paul Cornell and Jimmy Broxton, finished September 12

64
064) Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment by Bryan Talbot, finished September 21

59-63
063) Blacksad written by Juan Díaz Canales and drawn by Juanjo Guarnido, finished September 5
062) 21 by Wilfred Santiago, finished September 4
061) Bone by Jeff Smith, finished August 29
060) Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: Race to Death Valley by Flody Gottfredson, finished on a date that's a little hard to identify exactly
059) Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby, finished August 18

58
058) Take Time for Paradise by A. Bartlett Giamatti, finished August 11

53-57
057) The Shining by Stephen King, finished August 9
056) I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells, finished August 6
055) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, finished August 2
054) Moneyball by Michael Lewis, finished July 12
053) Madman New Giant Size Super Ginchy Special by Mike Allred et al, finished approximately July 9

51-52
052) The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld, finished July 8
051) Wilson by Daniel Clowes, finished July 6

46-50
050) Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut, finished July 1
049) Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby, finished June 25
048) The Light Princess by George Macdonald, finished June 22
047) Half a Life by Darin Strauss, finished June 17
046) Babymouse: Cupcake Tycoon by Jennifer L. Holm and Matt Holm (siblings), finished June 16

42-45
045) Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card, finished June 10
044) Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976 by E.B. White (edited by Rebecca M. Dale), finished June 7
043) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, finished May 31
042) Unnamed book by unnamed client (MS POLICY),
finished May 27

33-41
041) Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
040) Scott Pilgrim Versus The Unverse by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
039) Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 13
037) The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse, finished May 11
036) Scott Pilgrim Versus The World by Bryan Lee O'Malley
035) Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley
034) The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 by Charles M. Schulz, finished May 1
033) Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli finished approximately April 27

32
032) Golden Gate by Seth Vikram, finished April 20

27-31
031) Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope, finished April 18
030) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, finished April 9
029) iZombie: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred, finished April 2
028) A Sense of Order and Other Stories by Jack Harrell, finished April 1
027) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, finished March 30

26
026) The Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, finished March 21

23-25
025) Stitches by David Small, finished March 20
024) Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Kieth, finished January 19 or 20
023) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished March 18

21-22
022) Red Rocket 7 by Mike Allred, finished March 10
021) Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3 by Jake Parker, finished March 10

20
020) The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill, finished February 28

18-19
019) Wonderland by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew, finished February 21
018) Redcoat by Kohl Glass (MS POLICY), finished February 18

14-17
017) Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman, finished February 12
016) Little Bee by Chris Cleave, finished February 10
015) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, finished February 2
014) Cursed Pirate Girl: The Collected Edition Vol. I by Jeremy Bastian, finished January 31

13-9
013) Sweet Tooth: In Captivity by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
012) Sweet Tooth: Out of the Woods by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
011) Essex County: The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
010) Essex County: Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29
009) Essex County: Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29

8
008) Magdalene by Morah Jovan, finished January 27

7-6
007) Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules the Night by a slew of DC folk, finished January 23
006) Bayou by Jeremy Love, finished January 17

5-1
005) Mr. Monster by Dan Wells, finished January 10
004) The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, finished January 6
003) The Mystery of the Dinosaur Graveyard by Mary Adrian, finished January 5
002) Batman - Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham by John Wagner and Alan Grant and Simon Bisley, with lettering by the famous Todd Klein; finished January 4
001) Batman: Venom by Dennis O'Neil et al, finished January 2

Svithing the Chinese Jesus

2011-10-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

.

Therefore, verily, thus saith the Lord, let Zion rejoice, for this is Zion—the pure in heart; therefore, let Zion rejoice. They shall be gathered home to the lands of their inheritance, and shall be established in all their lands of promise, gathered in from the east and from the west, and from the south and from the north; and they shall be brought to the knowledge of the Lord their God, who hath redeemed them.

last week's svithe

Harry Harrison! Terry Pratchett! Mike Allred! The British Batman!

2011-10-07T09:30:00.000-07:00

069) A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born by Harry Harrison, finished October 4

I've had my eye out for this book for some years now. I can't remember how I first heard of it, but it sounded like something I would be interested in so I added to my Amazon wish list etc etc. Then I came across this volume, apparently the first (from what I gleamed from the cover and inside ads) and its immediate sequel at Thrift Town at a dime each and so I snapped them up and started reading the first.

Thankfully, I didn't learn till the evening after I finished volume one that, in fact, this book is a prequel. You know, it kind of tasted like one?

The book is mildly amusing but not Adams or Pratchett funny. It also hasn't aged too well. The idea that all the human nations tens of thousands of years from now will be speaking Esperanto is charming at best.

Jim diGritz is a budding Danny Ocean and the book's best pleasures are watching him pull of heists. But a certain monotony and repetition sets in and the book gets harder to push through. I may read the other book I bought, I may not. Time will tell.

But if you've got a quarter, I'm willing to talk.

just over one month

===========================================================

068) Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett, finished September 27

Look at me, rereading books! Surely the apocalypse is upon us. Though, this being Pratchett, I certainly still enjoyed myself.

I reread it because I had the school buy a class set of these for my AP Lit course. We'll be reading it between Hamlet and Nineteen Eighty-four. And debating its literary merit.

Can a comedy of recent vintage even have a chance in this race?

I'll keep you posted.

a week or slightly more

===========================================================

067) Modern Masters Volume Sixteen: Mike Allred by Eric Nolen-Weathington, finished September 19

A booklength interview with Mike Allred about his career, from precomics through 2008. Interesting fact, nice tidbits . . . .

You know what I really liked about this book, though? I liked seeing Mike's mind at work as he remembered how it has worked. I love his work (not all of it equally of course, and I do think he has a couple weaknesses) and recommend it to all and every, but my favorite thing about Mike Allred is how inspiring he is. He unquenchable passion, his constant reaching for new horizons, his willingness to take absurd chances. I also admire how he is able to make connections with people --- connections that are real and meaningful and that last.

Whether I would want to model my career after his is the wrong question. What I would like to do is model how I pursue my career after his. With courage and passion and optimism and a little bit of crazy.

a few weeks

===========================================================

066) iZombie: uVampire by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, finished September 15

I'm afraid it's not terribly often that I regret not having reread the previous volume when picking up the lastest trade collection of comics I read. But this time I do have that regret. Roberson has created a truly innovative take on classic monsters and I missed remembering all the details. I'm going to have to pull volume one off my shelf and read them both again.

Something else: This really may be the best example to date of how Mike Allred's drawings and Laura Allred's colors engage in this amazing symbiosis that engages the eye like few other comics can. It's a miraculous and compelling thing, their art.

Note also that at the end of this volume is a one-shot written by Gilbert Hernandez (but still colored by Laura Allred). Here's the original cover to that issue:

two or three days

===========================================================

065) Knight and Squire by Paul Cornell and Jimmy Broxton, finished September 12

I had my library bring this baby in because Ben not only wrote praisingly about the British Batman and Robin, but sent me an email telling me I had to pick it up. So I did.

(By the way, if you're not following Ben's new comics blog, you are missing out. Click over now.)

In short, I liked it. I didn't like it as much as Ben did nor as much as he thought I would, but I certainly liked it. I love that it's written by a Brit and I love the instant creation of a whole nation of superheroes/villains and I enjoyed reading it. But I couldn't help feeling it hasn't reached its perfect form. Maybe if it became a continuing series they characters could really grow into what they appear to be. I also couldn't help wishing that BBC had the tv rights and could really go to town with it --- like a Sherlock-slash-Tick. Wouldn't that be awesome?

So I hope DC keeps these Brits making this mag and I hope it grows into what it could apparently become. I would like that very much.

(Incidentally, favorite character? Jarvis Poker. Very well drawn fellow.)

TIME

Previously in 2011 . . . . :

=====================

Previously in 2011 . . . . :

64
064) Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment by Bryan Talbot, finished September 21

59-63
063) Blacksad written by Juan Díaz Canales and drawn by Juanjo Guarnido, finished September 5
062) 21 by Wilfred Santiago, finished September 4
061) Bone by Jeff Smith, finished August 29
060) Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: Race to Death Valley by Flody Gottfredson, finished on a date that's a little hard to identify exactly
059) Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby, finished August 18

58
058) Take Time for Paradise by A. Bartlett Giamatti, finished August 11

53-57
057) The Shining by Stephen King, finished August 9
056) I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells, finished August 6
055) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, finished August 2
054) Moneyball by Michael Lewis, finished July 12
053) Madman New Giant Size Super Ginchy Special by Mike Allred et al, finished approximately July 9

51-52
052) The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld, finished July 8
051) Wilson by Daniel Clowes, finished July 6

46-50
050) Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut, finished July 1
049) Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby, finished June 25
048) The Light Princess by George Macdonald, finished June 22
047) Half a Life by Darin Strauss, finished June 17
046) Babymouse: Cupcake Tycoon by Jennifer L. Holm and Matt Holm (siblings), finished June 16

42-45
045) Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card, finished June 10
044) Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976 by E.B. White (edited by Rebecca M. Dale), finished June 7
043) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, finished May 31
042) Unnamed book by unnamed client (MS POLICY),
finished May 27

33-41
041) Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
040) Scott Pilgrim Versus The Unverse by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
039) Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 13
037) The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse, finished May 11
036) Scott Pilgrim Versus The World by Bryan Lee O'Malley
035) Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley
034) The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 by Charles M. Schulz, finished May 1
033) Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli finished approximately April 27

32
032) Golden Gate by Seth Vikram, finished April 20

27-31
031) Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope, finished April 18
030) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, finished April 9
029) iZombie: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred, finished April 2
028) A Sense of Order and Other Stories by Jack Harrell, finished April 1
027) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, finished March 30

26
026) The Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, finished March 21

23-25
025) Stitches by David Small, finished March 20
024) Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Kieth, finished January 19 or 20
023) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished March 18

21-22
022) Red Rocket 7 by Mike Allred, finished March 10
021) Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3 by Jake Parker, finished March 10

20
020) The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill, finished February 28

18-19
019) Wonderland by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew, finished February 21
018) Redcoat by Kohl Glass (MS POLICY), finished February 18

14-17
017) Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman, finished February 12
016) Little Bee by Chris Cleave, finished February 10
015) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, finished February 2
014) Cursed Pirate Girl: The Collected Edition Vol. I by Jeremy Bastian, finished January 31

13-9
013) Sweet Tooth: In Captivity by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
012) Sweet Tooth: Out of the Woods by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
011) Essex County: The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
010) Essex County: Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29
009) Essex County: Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29

8
008) Magdalene by Morah Jovan, finished January 27

7-6
007) Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules the Night by a slew of DC folk, finished January 23
006) Bayou by Jeremy Love, finished January 17

5-1
005) Mr. Monster by Dan Wells, finished January 10
004) The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, finished January 6
003) The Mystery of the Dinosaur Graveyard by Mary Adrian, finished January 5
002) Batman - Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham by John Wagner and Alan Grant and Simon Bisley, with lettering by the famous Todd Klein; finished January 4
001) Batman: Venom by Dennis O'Neil et al, finished January 2

Scattered Svithetacular 181.5

2011-10-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

.

So today I will not be doing a good job of note-taking. Of course, with the advent of new social media, I'm not convinced the Svithetacular fills much of a need anymore, but whether it does or not, I'll still be leaving to go bring some people in from the plains. So I figure I've got a good excuse.

I may not, however, have a good excuse for sleeping in.

Special thanks to Lady Steed who is taking some notes while I'm gone.

==========================

SUNDAY MORNING

Elder Richard D Scott (12)

Spoke

Sister Barbara Thompson (RS2)

She used to be in college.

Sound practical advice re personal revelation: what it is, how to get it, how to recognize it.

"I didn't keep a testimony during those times --- a testimony kept me."

Elder L. Whitney Clayton (70)

exciting things in Chile, Babylon

(Theric has left to give service to a sister in our ward, so I , Lady Steed, will try to take some notes, but will be often interrupted by Baby A)

President Monson

Is making the audience laugh. He is announcing new temples. 2 temples in Provo! Audible gasps from the audience. Wow! The Provo temple is the busiest in the church, so another is needed to accommodate all the members there that want to attend the temple. Many other temples, Star Valley Wyoming (he's going to dedicate that one, good fishing up there) and Paris, France! Very exciting.

Boyd K Packer
Young crows, Old Crows. You young people are being raised in enemy territory. Loosening of morals in our society. Satan is abroad in the land. Despite his temptations, you need not fail or fear. Packer was in High School when WWII started. Today there are wars and rumors of wars and the whole earth is in commotion. I want to counsel and teach you and give you a warning of what to do and what not to do: The Family is the center of the Lord's plan. In the pre-mortal existence all were created in HIS image, gender is essential and was established in pre-mortal existence. Procreation ONLY in marriage. Many of the temptations you face have to do with your bodies. All beings that have bodies have powers over those who do not--all with body have power over the adversary.
By the time Packer graduated high school, many had gone off to the war never to return. Packer joined Air Force. Testimony was not strong. But I knew my seminary teachers had strong one, I will lean on theirs until I gain my own. Patriarchal Blessing: he got one from a patriarch he had never seen before and received great instruction. Studied the BoM. Single greatest thing learned: the voice of the Spirit comes as a feeling and not as a sound. The gift of the Holy Ghost will guide and protect you and even correct your actions. A spiritual voice that will come into your mind and your heart as a feeling. A major mistake will be preceded by a prompting by the Holy Ghost to not make that mistake.

Ucthdorf

Encourage the you people to please heed the counsel from Pres Packer.

We are blessed to live in a time when there are prophets and apostles to lead, guide and instruct us.

Let me reference to another great prophet: Moses. One of the greatest the world has ever known. Moses spoke to God face to face. God showed Moses the' workmanship of His hands' then Moses fell to the earth for many hours. And the he realized "Man is nothing" something which had never occurred to him while living in pharaoh's court.

Awe at flying in the night and seeing the stars. The greatness of GOD and our own nothingness. But the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. But what is man in comparison to the glory of creation. But God has said that HE created this universe for us, for man. All of it was built for the benefit for ordinary mortals, that we might reach our potential as HIS sons and daughters. We are everything to GOD. We have the promise of exaltation , worlds without end in our grasp. and it is Gods desire for us to gain that promise.

Satan tells men things to make them think that they are set apart from all other men. To make them prideful.

Disciples of Christ know that your true value has little to do with what the world esteems.

Satan deceives through discouragement. He tells us that we are too small, that we are forgotten, especially by God.

Man may be nothing in comparison to the universe, but remember you matter to HIM. God loves the humble and meek, they are greatest in Heaven. The Lord trusted His gospel to be proclaimed by the weak of the world. No matter where you live or how humble your circumstances or limited your abilities or how little your calling my appear to you, you are not invisible to your Heavenly Father, He loves you and knows your heart and your acts of kindness. Please understand that what you see now is not, nor forever will be, you will not feel sorrow, loneliness, discouragement forever. Incline their hearts to Him. If you but hold on and believe in Him and remain faithful, one day you will experience the promise revealed to prophet Paul. The most powerful being in universe is the father of your spirit. He loves you,Hhe knows you. He sees you as his child. He sees you as the being you are designed and capable to become. He wants you to know that you matter to him. May we align our lives so that we may understand our potential.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

Elder Bednar (12)

Shoutout to Malachi. (I sense a talk on . . . temple work?)

(ugh --- sorry, I seem to be having stomach issues.....)

Hey! Texting and tweeting for not just fun but proselyting? What?

Invite the young to experiment and learn for themselves. Not just good advice. Necessary advice.

I like his optimism, trying to get them kids doing family history.

I like any story that gets kids doing actual work. Give youth meaningful work/callings. Give them a chance.

Of course, any kid that says "muster" you have to wonder about.

Elder Anderson (12)

Pretty sure that was a Don Williams quote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0AfwJhIkRg.

Lady Steed wants to know if he's asking us to have more kids.

In telling story about meeting spontaneously with Elder Kimball, Elder Anderson reminds you he won't be quote so easy to meet with.

Ian Arden (7)

We must be sure that being busy also equates to being productive.

Our greatest happiness comes as we tune into the Lord.

Carl Cook (70)

Is a litterer.

LeGrand R. Curtis, Jr.

Has quite the name.

Lady Steed says I am not following counsel, what with paying more attention to the #TwitterStake than #ldsconf. She may have a point.

Price having been paid by the redeemer is good news for all of us.

Want to get baptized to be cleansed from that terrible sin I've been doing, yo.

D Todd Christoffersen (12)

(stomach)

the choice to repent is a choice to burn bridges in every direction (except for the one, I guess)

(baby diaper time)

Elder Perry (12)

Another shoutout for the ole Internet.

truth distortion does exist as a minority, but most are fairminded people who are curious

John: There is no fear in love, but love casteth out fear.

Do not hesitate do add your voice to these conversations.

PRHD SESSION

SUNDAY MORNING

Elder Eyring (FP)

Forgive me if I'm a bit hazy today. I'm now ill.

I think the main thrust is about the exemplars from the Book of Mormon

A story about speaking at a university that warned him not to talk about Jesus

Finding a clever work around

Then: thinking of Abinidi

The Book of Mormon provides plenty of ways to bring truth into practical practice

Elder Hales (12)

clearly not healthy

life is a series of tests and trials and such that lead to growth and development and betterment

all these things shall be for our experience and good

oh god where are though

yes, when a spouse dies a companion may wonder (plus other examples of unpleasantness)

he seems to be speaking from a place of person suffering

let us be kind to each other and even kinder to ourselves

in my Gethsemene and yours we are not alone --- he who watches over us does not sleep

Tad R Callister (70)

the Book of Mormon allows no middle ground

the Book of Mormon makes the Bible clear

Sister Dalton (YW)

how do you raise a child? with your example

practice virtue and holiness with eliminating everything that ain't

then shall your confidence wax strong in the presence of God

i love the challenge of trying to follow his every footstep

Russell Ballard (12)

discourse on the name of the church

each word is clarifying and indefensible

Pr Monson (FP)

His main theme, both in speaking himself and when being quoted, is how far our morality has slipped.

WSJ article cited h/t @bycommonconsent

it is essential that we reject anything that does not perform to our standards

whatsoever you shall ask of me in Jesus's name that is right, believing that ye shall receive, ye'll get it, yo

$5 & Prayer

(two days in a row I've heard a Monson story I hadn't before)

Here's come another new story! Incredible!

A story about surprising inspiration.

And a speeder.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Elder Nelson (12)

Back to the USSR!

Covenants (legal)

Abrahamic covenant not to be fully fulfilled until the latter days

...if we seek out the Lord and obey his commandments

eternal marriage is the covenant of exaltation

greatest compliment is You Are a Covenant-Keeper

Elder Oaks (1@)

What think ye of Christ?

we should start by considering what Jesus said of himself

eg, the only begotten son

through him we will all live again

not everyone who says lord lord will get into heaven

those things which do not sustain eternal life

"Jesus Christ is the only begotten and beloved son of God"

Matthew Richardson (SS)

REAL missionaries

REREAD re:teaching

REAL hikers

teachers teach PEOPLE not lessons

real teaching is much more than just talking and telling

they pause to listen, observe, and to learn what to do next

plus, natch, the HOLY GHOST, yall

Elder Yamashita (70)

conversion story

the type of face we carry and display

a blessing

now, to talk to future missionaries

Randall Bennett (70)

you can't make eternal decisions without eternal consequences (good or ill)

are we CHOOSING eternal life?

(every choice is a choice for accompanying consequences)

his granddaughter is going to be a very successful attorney

we must be self-disciplined enough to make early course corrections

J. Devin Cornish (7)

A nickle?!?!

Hitting up God for a quarter.

what about tithing on this quarter?

things that are important to us are important to God (like any good father)

it is contrary to the economy of heaven for god to do for us what we can do for ourselves

Elder Q Cook

tragedy

"the evil exercise of agency"

(feed problems)

bear one another's burdens

great blessings come to those who are faithful

the wicked will be held accountable

i need to pay better attention

not enough lightbulbs (part of why the Titanic sunk)

dying with your music still inside you

Pr Monson (FTW)

we are all important in furthering the work of the lord

as they pray for us, let us pray for them

May God give us the strength and the ability and the determination to play our part well.

last week's svithe

General Conference Svithetaculars at Thutopia
176.0 * 176.5 * 177.0 * 177.5 * 178.0 * 178.5 * 179.0 * 179.5 * 180.0 * 180.5 * "181.0" * 181.5

Goodbye, baseball

2011-09-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

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The season's not over yet, not till tomorrow. It won't be till tomorrow that we know who won the wild cards (possibly not even tomorrow in either league, given all the ties), but it's over for my team and my sons' team. Sure, A's fans can hold their collective breath and see if Coco Crisp gets his fiftieth steal, or if Josh Willingham gets thirty home runs or a hundred RBIs, but, for the teams, the season is over. And the Pirates, you may have heard, not only failed to make the playoffs (more than I was willing to ask for), but racked up another losing season, breaking their own record. Again.

Sigh.

Although Giamatti has convinced me that sport is as worthy of my attention as art, still, at this point, I have to wonder: what was the point?

I mean --- I'm feeling happy for the Brewers and I'm always available to root against the Yankees --- yet all this ritual &c, I don't know.

I do like baseball, but maybe I'm not convinced it's as good as art.

Well. Let me retract. It's better than Transformers. Not as good as The Royal Tenenbaums.

Svithe: a vote against rationalization (one specific instance thereof)

2011-09-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

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At church the other week, Femtoman (so named because he makes lasers measured in femtoseconds --- did you know there are more femtoseconds in a second than years between us and T.Rex? in fact, there're about as more femtoseconds in a second than seconds in 30 million years) made an interesting point as regards these two scriptures:

John 3:5

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

D&C 137:5

I saw Father Adam and Abraham [in heaven, natch]; and my father and my mother; my brother Alvin, that has long since slept

And suggested that because Joseph Smith took the first verse literally, he didn't assume it was wrong or it wasn't to be taken at face value --- nothing like that. Instead he marveled and this led to a revelation that led to work for the dead.

I found this a moving thought. Rather than relying too much on our own understanding, we should assume there is yet much for us to know and we should ask and wait and expect.

That seems right to me.

previous svithe

Brilliant new bit of spam that I just love. Every detail is so right.

2011-09-23T14:09:00.000-07:00

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William Brown william-brown89@msn.com
reply-to williambrown_3811@hotmail.com
date Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 1:12 PM
subject ATTENTION:

Hello Dear,

I am Sir William , a United States Citizen working here in England, my proposition to you is both business and humanitarian based, humanitarian in that we shall be securing the future of a teenage girl, 13 yrs of age,and business in that you and i will be getting a financial reward of 6Million Pounds just by helping the teenage girl secure a quality education and investment abroad . I believe we can handle it together, once we have a common understanding and mutual cooperation in the execution of the modalities. I work with a financial institution here and will provide you more information when i hear from you.

Should you be interested,I await your earliest response.

Yours Sincerely,
Sir William Brown.

The fiction of Irreantum 13.1(in brief)

2011-09-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

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Karen Rosenbaum "Aunt Charlotte's Secrets"

A dying woman, her husband, her beloved niece --- three lapsed Mormons --- in a concise story, constrained by one apartment, one afternoon.

I love how small everything is in this story about a topic so large as what is life, what is death, what is meaning.

Josh Allen "Conceiving God"

As James Goldberg pointed out, the only Mormon "character" in this story is the Boise Temple. Which I admit rather threw me. But the story is beautiful and surprising and ends with an act of sex that has religious symbolism, almost as if Allen wrote the story hoping I would write about it.

Courtney Miller Santo "Flight"

I agree so completely with Wm on this story, that I'm just going to quote him:
I love that it’s an old couple and how their oldness and their coupleness plays out and how real, yet unique, yet fictional it seems. I enjoyed the background presence of the mommy blogger daughter (although it’s maybe a little too hammered home in the end). The imagery with the hummingbirds somehow feels like it’s adding to the whole mix without screaming allegory.

Email Svithe: The Way of the Disciple

2011-09-18T11:53:00.000-07:00

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[This is part of a continuing series in which I take old emails I once sent out preclass as part of a calling I once held. This particular email was sent 10/20/09. Certain identifying details have been redacted or changed.]

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Teachings for our times this week, brethren --- "The Way of the Disciple" from President Uchtdorf ( http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1032-23,00.html ).

Given some of the people I've been spending a great deal of time with lately, this part of Pr U's talk stuck out to me:

A friend of mine recently wrote to me, confiding that he was having a difficult time keeping his testimony strong and vibrant. He asked for counsel.
I wrote back to him and lovingly suggested a few specific things he could do that would align his life more closely with the teachings of the restored gospel. To my surprise, I heard back from him only a week later. The essence of his letter was this: “I tried what you suggested. It didn’t work. What else have you got?”
Brothers and sisters, we have to stay with it. We don’t acquire eternal life in a sprint—this is a race of endurance. We have to apply and reapply the divine gospel principles. Day after day we need to make them part of our normal life.

I'm reminded of the old chestnut President Lee originated: "Testimony isn't something you have today, and you are going to have always. A testimony is fragile. It is as hard to hold as a moonbeam. It is something you have to recapture every day of your life."

I think of Peter who knew as much as any mortal could reasonably hope to know, and how he blew it, falling into sleep then violence then denial that last night.

I think of the Brother of Jared who forgot to pray.

I think of Moses who, in his impatience, forgot to give glory and honor to Jehovah.

How can any of us, struggling to hold onto the iron rod, hope to attain great faith without a lifetime of uninterrupted effort?

Life is a struggle. Faith sustains us, but God doesn't hand it out like credit cards to college freshmen. Faith also requires work.

Discipleship is hard.

How can be be worthy of the challenge?

previous svithe

Bewildering history

2011-09-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

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064) Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment by Bryan Talbot, finished September 21

It's not often a history book will ask you to doubt the reality of its very subject. And while I could have 2011ed it and just asked Wikipedia, I chose not to, but instead let the book lead me along, wondering if all I was told was true or if it was an elaborate fiction masquerading as fact. It was dizzying. And tempting.

In a world where lying books are shocking, why not just tell a lie. Write an out-and-out verifiable lie yet claim its reality and demand readers accept an obvious fantasy --- not as fiction, but as fact. Why not? Why not lie with the intent to deceive even when deception is utterly impossible? I'm not talking about these faux memoirs about personal lives. I'm talking about grand histories based on utter nonsense which anyone can uncover for themselves. Why not?

What else is there left to lie about save public truth? Not like politicians do it, not like business does it, but like history won't do it.

Tell a lie but tell it slant.

Why not?

perhaps two weeks

Two better reviews (in that they are more reviewy and have pictures): Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk? by Karen Green / Review: Alice in Sunderland by Steve Flanagan

=====================

Previously in 2011 . . . . :

63-59
063) Blacksad written by Juan Díaz Canales and drawn by Juanjo Guarnido, finished September 5
062) 21 by Wilfred Santiago, finished September 4
061) Bone by Jeff Smith, finished August 29
060) Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: Race to Death Valley by Flody Gottfredson, finished on a date that's a little hard to identify exactly
059) Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby, finished August 18

58
058) Take Time for Paradise by A. Bartlett Giamatti, finished August 11

53-57
057) The Shining by Stephen King, finished August 9
056) I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells, finished August 6
055) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, finished August 2
054) Moneyball by Michael Lewis, finished July 12
053) Madman New Giant Size Super Ginchy Special by Mike Allred et al, finished approximately July 9

51-52
052) The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld, finished July 8
051) Wilson by Daniel Clowes, finished July 6

46-50
050) Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut, finished July 1
049) Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby, finished June 25
048) The Light Princess by George Macdonald, finished June 22
047) Half a Life by Darin Strauss, finished June 17
046) Babymouse: Cupcake Tycoon by Jennifer L. Holm and Matt Holm (siblings), finished June 16

42-45
045) Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card, finished June 10
044) Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976 by E.B. White (edited by Rebecca M. Dale), finished June 7
043) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, finished May 31
042) Unnamed book by unnamed client (MS POLICY),
finished May 27

33-41
041) Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
040) Scott Pilgrim Versus The Unverse by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
039) Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 13
037) The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse, finished May 11
036) Scott Pilgrim Versus The World by Bryan Lee O'Malley
035) Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley
034) The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 by Charles M. Schulz, finished May 1
033) Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli finished approximately April 27

32
032) Golden Gate by Seth Vikram, finished April 20

27-31
031) Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope, finished April 18
030) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, finished April 9
029) iZombie: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred, finished April 2
028) A Sense of Order and Other Stories by Jack Harrell, finished April 1
027) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, finished March 30

26
026) The Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, finished March 21

23-25
025) Stitches by David Small, finished March 20
024) Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Kieth, finished January 19 or 20
023) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished March 18

21-22
022) Red Rocket 7 by Mike Allred, finished March 10
021) Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3 by Jake Parker, finished March 10

20
020) The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill, finished February 28

18-19
019) Wonderland by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew, finished February 21
018) Redcoat by Kohl Glass (MS POLICY), finished February 18

14-17
017) Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman, finished February 12
016) Little Bee by Chris Cleave, finished February 10
015) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, finished February 2
014) Cursed Pirate Girl: The Collected Edition Vol. I by Jeremy Bastian, finished January 31

13-9
013) Sweet Tooth: In Captivity by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
012) Sweet Tooth: Out of the Woods by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
011) Essex County: The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
010) Essex County: Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29
009) Essex County: Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29

8
008) Magdalene by Morah Jovan, finished January 27

7-6
007) Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules the Night by a slew of DC folk, finished January 23
006) Bayou by Jeremy Love, finished January 17

5-1
005) Mr. Monster by Dan Wells, finished January 10
004) The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, finished January 6
003) The Mystery of the Dinosaur Graveyard by Mary Adrian, finished January 5
002) Batman - Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham by John Wagner and Alan Grant and Simon Bisley, with lettering by the famous Todd Klein; finished January 4
001) Batman: Venom by Dennis O'Neil et al, finished January 2

Svithe (one on simplicity)

2011-09-11T10:46:00.000-07:00

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[This is part of a continuing series in which I take old emails I once sent out preclass as part of a calling I once held. This particular email was sent 5/21/09. Certain identifying details have been redacted or changed.]

.

Mr X will be leading both the elders and the old guys in discussion this Sunday around "Let Him Do It With Simplicity" by L. Tom Perry (http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-947-2,00.html). I'm fairly certain Elder Perry doesn't mean simple in the stupid sense, but in the Thoreavian sense.

It's common knowledge (or would be if you were all stalking me) that I think Thoreau is mostly simple in the stupid sense, but he's better known for saying things like "Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!" and "Simpligy, simplify." (cf) which sort of prove my point, come to think of it.....

Anyway! Elder Perry!

I actually quite enjoyed Elder Perry's talk overall.

From his experiences at Walden Pond, Thoreau determined that there were only four things that a man really needed: food, clothing, shelter, and fuel. I would like to expand on each of these four basic needs of life, as well as the spiritual benefits of a simplified lifestyle.

He then takes these four basic needs and metaphorizes them all over the place. Or, more accurately, applies the first four to Church standards and policies and metaphorizes the final one. The talk is rather short and pithy and easy to get through.

One of his points related to discussion we've had a few times in the last couple months relates to tight times. But let me broaden the question and ask you this: What principles of simplicity should we master now that will benefit us in the years to come?

previous svithe

By Common Consent

2011-09-09T08:02:00.000-07:00

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I have four guest posts that will be appearing on By Common Consent in the next little while. (This is the first.) So I plan on using that as an excuse to remain more or less static here on Thutopia (though I'm sticking with my goal to keep svithing!).

In other news, the boys and I are going to make some Pucker Doodles this afternoon. So that'll be delicious.

Head aching nose running mind stalling

2011-09-05T16:03:00.001-07:00

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Not the best time to start writing a new blog post.