Light So Shine (part two)an elders quorum lesson (svithe)

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[last week I shared what my eq lesson would be about; this week I'm sharing the death-of-discussion-prevention quotes I handed out (not that that's ever a problem) (because it's not)]


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ROBERT D HALES on Being a Lighthouse

Growing up on Long Island, in New York, I understood how vital light was to those traveling in the darkness on the open sea. How dangerous is a fallen lighthouse! How devastating is a lighthouse whose light has failed!

We who have the gift of the Holy Ghost must be true to its promptings so we can be a light to others.

“Let your light so shine before men,” said the Lord, “that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

We never know who may be depending on us. And, as the Savior said, we “know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them.”  

RUSSELL M NELSON on Using Our Laserbeam Eyes for Good

Each member can be an example of the believers. Brethren, as followers of Jesus Christ, each of you can live in accord with His teachings. You can have “a pure heart and clean hands”; you can have “the image of God engraven upon your [countenance].” Your good works will be evident to others. The light of the Lord can beam from your eyes. With that radiance, you had better prepare for questions. The Apostle Peter so counseled, “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you.” 

Let your response be warm and joyful. And let your response be relevant to that individual. Remember, he or she is also a child of God, that very God who dearly wants that person to qualify for eternal life and return to Him one day. You may be the very one to open the door to his or her salvation and understanding of the doctrine of Christ.

After your initial response, be ready to take the next step.

ELAINE S DALTON on Why the All the Boys Like Mormon Girls

I can see a day when the world will look to you and say: “Who are you? Who are these young women who radiate this light? Why are you so happy? Why do you know your direction in such a confusing world?” And you will arise and stand on your feet and say with conviction: “We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him. We will ‘stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places.’ ”

GORDON B HINCKLEY on How Cool Is the Priesthood?

God has bestowed upon us a gift [the priesthood] most precious and wonderful. It carries with it the authority to govern the Church, to administer in its affairs, to speak with authority in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to act as His dedicated servants, to bless the sick, to bless our families and many others. It serves as a guide by which to live our lives. In its fulness, its authority reaches beyond the veil of death into the eternities God has bestowed upon us a gift most precious and wonderful. It carries with it the authority to govern the Church, to administer in its affairs, to speak with authority in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to act as His dedicated servants, to bless the sick, to bless our families and many others. It serves as a guide by which to live our lives. In its fulness, its authority reaches beyond the veil of death into the eternities that lie ahead.

There is nothing else to compare with it in all this world. Safeguard it, cherish it, love it, live worthy of it.There is nothing else to compare with it in all this world. Safeguard it, cherish it, love it, live worthy of it.

QUENTIN L COOK on Everything’s Great, So Be Very Afraid!

Our day has been described as “a time of plenty and an age of doubt.” [Roger B. Porter] Basic belief in the power and authority of God is not only questioned but also denigrated. How under these circumstances can we promote values in a way that will resonate with the nonbelievers and the apathetic and help abate the spiraling descent into violence and evil?

This question is of monumental importance. . . .

My personal experience of living and interacting with people all over the world has caused me to be optimistic. I believe that light and truth will be preserved in our time. . . . As Church leaders, we have met with leaders of other faiths and have found that there is a common moral foundation that transcends theological differences and unites us in our aspirations for a better society.

We also find the majority of people are still respectful of basic moral values. But make no mistake: there are also people who are determined to both destroy faith and reject any religious influence in society. Other evil people exploit, manipulate, and tear down society with drugs, pornography, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, robbery, and dishonest business practices. The power and influence of these people is very large even if they are relatively small in number.

D&C 88:11-13 on How Our Eyeballs Engender Photosynthesis

And the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings; which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space—the light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things.

GORDON B HINCKLEY on All the Money We Spend Printing Pamphlets

“The most effective tract we will carry will be the goodness of our own lives.

THE HANDBOOK on Why We Have Callings Anyway

Leaders can best teach others how to be “true followers” by their personal example. This pattern—being a faithful disciple in order to help others become faithful disciples—is the purpose behind every calling in the Church.

THE HANDBOOK on What We Ought to Be Like—at Least, According to Jesus

Because Church leaders have been called by the Lord through His appointed servants, they represent Him and His Church. As representatives of the Savior, leaders look to Him as their example. He said: “What manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am” (3 Nephi 27:27).

THE HANDBOOK on the Proper Manners of Ministration

The purpose of ministering is to help others become true followers of Jesus Christ. Ministering to others includes:

◼ Remembering their names and becoming acquainted with them (see Moroni 6:4).

◼ Loving them without judging them (see John 13:34–35).

◼ Watching over them and strengthening their faith “one by one,” as the Savior did (3 Nephi 11:15; 17:21).

◼ Establishing sincere friendship with them and visiting them in their homes and elsewhere (see D&C 20:47).

THE HANDBOOK on How One Person Can Work Up a Riot of Reverence

Leaders can help cultivate a reverent atmosphere at Church gatherings. In sacrament meetings, stake conferences, and similar meetings, leaders set an example of reverence as they sit on the stand. Leaders also encourage reverence by arranging for worshipful music and inspiring talks. Teachers can encourage reverence in classrooms by preparing inspiring lessons, arranging the rooms in advance, using appropriate pictures and music, and greeting class members in a peaceful, loving way. Worship services and Church classes are enhanced when the entire ward makes an effort to be reverent.

THE HANDBOOK on How Much Exactly the Church Wants You Online

Members are encouraged to be examples of their faith at all times and in all places, including on the Internet. If they use blogs, social networks, and other Internet technologies, they are encouraged to strengthen others and help them become aware of that which is useful, good, and praiseworthy. When appropriate, members are encouraged to mention the Church and to link to and share approved Church materials.

When members use the Internet for purposes other than Church callings, they should understand that the message they give is personal. They should not give the impression that they represent or are sponsored by the Church.

THE HANDBOOK on How Your Job Affects Your Temple Worthiness

Members’ Occupations, Professions, and Affiliations

Baptism into the Church, priesthood ordinations, and the issuing of temple recommends are based on the personal worthiness of each individual as established by a careful interview by that person’s local priesthood leaders. Members of the Church should endeavor to be involved in activities and employment upon which they can in good conscience ask the blessings of the Lord and which are consistent with the principles of the gospel and the teachings of the Savior.\

THE HANDBOOK on How We’ll Hang Out with the Amish

Much that is inspiring, noble, and worthy of the highest respect is found in many other faiths. Missionaries and other members must be sensitive and respectful toward the beliefs of others and avoid giving offense. Stake and mission presidents who have questions about relationships with non-Christian faiths should contact a member of the Presidency of the Seventy or the Area Presidency. Other local leaders who have such questions should contact the stake or mission president.

THE HANDBOOK on Taking Over the Government

As citizens, Church members are encouraged to participate in political and governmental affairs, including involvement in the political party of their choice. Members are also urged to be actively engaged in worthy causes to improve their communities and make them wholesome places in which to live and rear families.

In accordance with the laws of their respective governments, members are encouraged to register to vote, to study issues and candidates carefully, and to vote for individuals whom they believe will act with integrity and sound judgment. Latter-day Saints have a special obligation to seek out, vote for, and uphold leaders who are honest, good, and wise (see D&C 98:10).

While affirming the right of expression on political and social issues, the Church is neutral regarding political parties, political platforms, and candidates for political office. The Church does not endorse any political party or candidate. Nor does it advise members how to vote. However, in some exceptional instances the Church will take a position on specific legislation, particularly when it concludes that moral issues are involved. Only the First Presidency can speak for the Church or commit the Church to support or oppose specific legislation or to seek to intervene in judicial matters. Otherwise, stake presidents and other local leaders should not organize members to participate in political matters or attempt to influence how they participate.

Church members are encouraged to consider serving in elected or appointed public offices in local and national government. Candidates for public office should not imply that their candidacy is endorsed by the Church or its leaders. Church leaders and members should also avoid statements or conduct that might be interpreted as Church endorsement of any political party, platform, policy, or candidate.

Members are encouraged to support measures that strengthen the moral fabric of society, particularly those designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.

THE HANDBOOK on “Don’t Call Me Shirley”

As the Church grows across boundaries, cultures, and languages, the use of its revealed name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (see D&C 115:4), is increasingly important in the responsibility of the Church and its members to proclaim the name of the Savior throughout all the world. Accordingly, references to the Church should include its full name whenever possible. Following an initial reference to the full name of the Church, the contractions “the Church” or “the Church of Jesus Christ” are acceptable.

THE HANDBOOK on the Asking of Questions

The only authorized research agency of the Church is the Research Information Division of the Correlation Department. Representatives of this department use questionnaires and interviews to obtain information on issues of concern to General Authorities. When Church-authorized researchers contact members, they provide the Church’s toll-free number and a contact name at headquarters. In addition, they always allow the respondent the option of not answering any or all of the questions on a survey.

BRIGHAM YOUNG on How Much We Need to Worry about Learning Things from Gentiles

Our religion will not clash with or contradict the facts of science in any particular. You may take geology, for instance, and it is true science; not that I would say for a moment that all the conclusions and deductions of its professors are true, but its leading principles are; they are facts—they are eternal; and to assert that the Lord made this earth out of nothing is preposterous and impossible [see Abraham 3:24; D&C 131:7]. God never made something out of nothing; it is not in the economy or law by which the worlds were, are, or will exist. There is an eternity before us, and it is full of matter; and if we but understand enough of the Lord and his ways we would say that he took of this matter and organized this earth from it. How long it has been organized it is not for me to say, and I do not care anything about it. … If we understood the process of creation there would be no mystery about it, it would be all reasonable and plain, for there is no mystery except to the ignorant. This we know by what we have learned naturally since we have had a being on the earth.

WILLARD RICHARDS on Pending World Healing

I attended by request, the Female Relief Society, whose object is the relief of the poor, the destitute, the widow and the orphan, and for the exercise of all benevolent purposes. … There was a very numerous attendance at the organization of the society, and also at the subsequent meetings, of some of our most intelligent, humane, philanthropic and respectable ladies; and we are well assured from a knowledge of those pure principles of benevolence that flow spontaneously from their humane and philanthropic bosoms, that with the resources they will have at command, they will fly to the relief of the stranger; they will pour in oil and wine to the wounded heart of the distressed; they will dry up the tears of the orphan and make the widow’s heart to rejoice.

Our women have always been signalized for their acts of benevolence and kindness; … in the midst of their persecution, when the bread has been torn from their helpless offspring by their cruel oppressors, they have always been ready to open their doors to the weary traveler, to divide their scant pittance with the hungry, and from their robbed and impoverished wardrobes, to divide with the more needy and destitute; and now that they are living upon a more genial soil, and among a less barbarous people, and possess facilities that they have not heretofore enjoyed, we feel convinced that with their concentrated efforts, the condition of the suffering poor, of the stranger and the fatherless will be ameliorated.

last week's svithe

Books with picture of aliens (21-22)

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022) Red Rocket 7 by Mike Allred, finished March 10


Red Rocket 7 manages to be both more and less ambitious than Allred's better known Madman books. More ambitious because it involved starting a band and recording an album, filming a movie (which I own but have never watched) (of course, that's also true of The Godfather).

Here's what the band sounds like (more), if you don't mind looking at a pretty girl at the same time:



RR7 is also more ambitious in that it tries to marry Allred's popart sensibilities with his love for pop music. Essentially, our title character takes us on tour of rock history.

But it's less ambitious in idea. It takes the depth of Madman's games with religion and faith and reason and hope and despair and just sums them up.

XXXXXXXXXX

Red Rocket 7, alien clone and our eponymous hero, is only present briefly at the beginning and end of this book. The bulk of the pages are spent on a reconstruction of his past through letters and a fellow clone's testimony of his rockandroll Zelig life. RR7 knew Little Richard and Elvis and the Beatles and Bowie and a slew of others, usually before they went big. The book is clearly a love letter from Allred to rockandroll legend. And the dozens of real people have forced him to expand his normally narrow range of faces which I appreciate as a reader.

So plot one is RR7 bouncing from rock story to rock story while his fellow clones are, say, moving from science story to science story. And important difference is that while the other clones are subtly introducing the new understandings which made the Twentieth Century the Twentieth Century, RR7 is just a fanboy along for the ride. So when he finally starts to make his own music, perhaps it's inevitable he'll have to save the world.

Which is plot two. In the universe, the alien species have split into two camps: those who have eaten from the tree of life and will live forever in their sins, and those who embrace mortality and have faith in a life after death. The clones are a liminal camp of six souls. Sloned from a person of faith and possessing his memories and feelings, they embrace life as a limited time. But they were created through deathless technology and have thus had immortality thrust upon them.

Which is tied closely to one of the book's great paradoxes. The mortals prophet-like figure insists everyone has "free agency", but then again, he has a book which has successfully predicted every historic moment for, like, forever. Including what I suppose is Armageddon and the Second Coming. (Which occurs in what must be under half and hour real time.)

The story ends with evidence that yes there is an afterlife and therein our relationships (especially our romantic relationships) are eternal. Plus there's a special home for our rockandroll martyrs. Which thoughts are, I suspect, the bedrock of Mike Allred's faith.

So whether you come down on the More Ambitious or Less Ambitious manner of interpreting Red Rocket 7, I think you'll have to agree with me and admit that Allred's creative ambition is impressive and expansive and maybe even godly.

probably three weeks if including the time I spent getting through the stuff in the back



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021) Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3 by Jake Parker, finished March 10


You'll recall I read this in pencils. It's even better than I remembered. I'll be reviewing on Motley Vision, so keep an eye out.

What I want to say now is that my kids are gaga over Missile Mouse and yours will be too. I stand by my statement that Missile Mouse is pretty much the best introduction to space opera available.

two days



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Previously in 2011 . . . . :

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

REPRINT Space Opera 101: Jake Parker's Missile Mouse

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[Note: Fantasy Magazine has taken down all their reviews from their website. And so I am going to reprint the two reviews I once had up there. The first is this of Jake Parker's first Missile Mouse book. It's going up because I just read the second and I want to be able to link this review in my new review and, well, it ain't nowhere anymore.]


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Space Opera 101: Jake Parker's Missile Mouse

Depending on when you were born, you were introduced to the glories of space opera in different ways. I was born in 1976 and one of my first vivid movie-theater memories is watching Return of the Jedi with my cousin Billy and wishing he would just let me read the subtitles myself. I was an Ewok that Halloween and thus Star Wars became part of my soul.

Generations before me may have been introduced to space opera by a Heinlein novel or a Flash Gordon serial. Kids born since 2000 are, I hear, back on Star Wars, though in the form of a cable cartoon.

What I'm reviewing today, however, might be the single best introduction to space opera for any 2010 kid on the market today: Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher.

Missile Mouse is a one-man show. Blue Sky Studios artist Jake Parker has written, drawn and colored the poppiest (and most sardonic) cartoon mouse in at least a decade. Parker invented Missile Mouse when he was a kid and the character made his debut in the Flight Explorer anthology Random House published in 2008. Now he has a two-book contract with Scholastic; the first volume is out now and it's a textbook for space opera.

I use the word "textbook" advisedly --- a cynic could say that The Star Crusher is just a string of tired clichés strung together with duct tape (another cliché and a mixed metaphor to boot --- these cynics and their lousy grasp of poetry), but that is not only missing the point, it is utterly wrong.

Let's go back to Star Wars for a second (the first/fourth one) and its Joseph Campbell / Hero's Journey / 30s serials / blah blah blah. How these movies purposefully tapped into our amygdalae is old news, but these truths didn't make 1977 the Year of the Cliché. No, Star Wars was brilliant for mining the culture and our minds and refining it into something beautiful (or at least awesome). That's more or less what Missile Mouse is doing as well.

Consider some of these bits of MM ripped without context from the book (spoiler alert!), and try to match them to Star Wars, James Bond, Indiana Jones, superhero origin stories, Mel Gibson (etc etc etc):

♦ The rogue veteran agent forced to team up with a near rookie who plays things by the book.

♦ A doomsday weapon capable of destroying an entire solar system.

♦ The gruff-demeanor-with-a-soft-interior head of a spy agency.

♦ The hero who, deep down inside, is doing it for daddy.

♦ The genius scientist without street smarts.

♦ The bad guy in a long dark coat.

♦ The Luddite hero ("I don't like computers doing the flying.").

I'll stop there.

The funny thing is, the first time I read the book, I noticed not twenty tired old tropes --- just two that were well integrated into the story. It wasn't until a second read that I started to see how Parker had combed through every proxy adventure of his childhood and remixed it into something so fresh that someone as (let's face it) jaded by genre as myself could be carried away.

Here's part of the secret: I read it with my six-year-old son.

Everything in this book was new to him. It wasn't just rainbow art jumping off the page, it wasn't just Parker's snappy dialogue, it wasn't even just the story itself.

It was also the rogue veteran agent forced to team up with a near rookie who plays things by the book and the genius scientist without street smarts. These ideas were completely new to him.

And I can't really think there was a better way to introduce him to them than by reading Missile Mouse.

And what's good for the gosling is good for the gander. Because make no mistake: I, the father, liked this book too. It pops brighter than anything Andy Warhol ever printed (although, I should note, since this was a publisher-supplied advance proof, only the first signature was in color and I'm extrapolating a bit here), and it balances cute and menacing with panache (just as I thought the book would always be safe, some octopus dudes were fried down to their skeletons). It had a twist I genuinely did not see coming and when it decided to demand more of my suspension of disbelief, it had earned the right to do so and I went right along.

No, I don't think I'll be reading this book forty-five times, but let me make two observations here: One, I don't read anybook forty-five times anymore --- not since I became a teenager. And two, I'm not the target audience. Once my son learns to read, I fully expect this book to be on heavy rotation --- and books that are on heavy rotation in early childhood influence everything as well we know. If childhood has textbooks, the heavy-rotation books are they.

So I'm giving my kids the smartest, funnest, colorfullest textbook I can.

Welcome to Space Opera 101, class. If you'll open your books to page one, we'll join Missile Mouse and his guides on a purple desert planet as three moons float in the background, and an ancient toothy skeleton lies half-buried in the sand.

Let's begin.

To date....

Light So Shine (part one)an elders quorum lesson

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[This is the email I sent out to the folks I would be teaching before the lesson. Next week I'll share the thoughts I sliced and handed out.]


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As you know if you ever turn your AM dial to http://www.familyradio.com, the Rapture will be held May 21, 2011. I don't know if I qualify for the Rapture, what with being Mormon and everything, so I don't know if I should count on being taking into Heaven or just left behind. And, if left behind, I don't know what will be left with me. Will everything be normal less a few evangelicals? Will we have electricity? Zombies? So I figure I better just count on the world ending in May and planning this week's lesson accordingly.

Coincidentally (or not?) I've had a prophecy of Spencer W. Kimball's on my mind of late:

Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world . . . will be drawn to the Church in large numbers. This will happen to the degree that the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives and to the degree that the women of the Church are seen as distinct and different—in happy ways—from the women of the world. . . . Thus it will be that female exemplars of the Church will be a significant force in both the numerical and the spiritual growth of the Church in the last days.

I don't know where you spend your time online, but, arguably, this prophecy may be right now. This is what put the idea in my head and the evidence to be marshaled is pretty impressive. Some of the web's biggest blogs are run by Mormon women, and they've been showing up in the so-called mainstream media as well --- Oprah's couch and so forth. Folk of all stripes are spying on the Mormon ladies online.

One thing the infamous Salon article claimed was that all the Mormon mommy blogs reveal "shiny, happy domestic lives". Yet, of the blogs cited, two were started by women working through infertility. One is written by a woman with scars over 80% of her body and a lifetime of surgery to look forward to. Others openly struggle with depression, body image. One chronicled her divorce online.

Shiny and happy indeed.

Yet that's the impression left. And I think it's fair to say that for all the disaster we collect in our lives, living from a position of faith does make the net shiny and happy.

With the end up the world only a couple months away, I think we should discuss what it means to accentuate the positive in a messy world. When we should when we shouldn't and, most of all, what our accentuation can mean to the rest of the world.

(Note to self: no more doomsaying.)

last week's svithe

Sad Space Story

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Aliens returned Voyager 1 to Earth last week with a note:

Please. Please just leave us alone.

They left without further comment.

20. The Hotel Cat

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


Reading this book may be the best clue to my second-grade psyche I will ever get.

Second grade. Mrs. Keech's class at A. J. Winter's Elementary School. I really liked Mrs. Keech but from what my parents say she didn't like me. I would do things like finish tests early and get all the answers right which really annoyed her (or so I hear and the details I remember myself back this up).

In her classroom was a shelf from which we could take books to read. I had two favorites that I read over and over again. The first, a paperback picture book about dinosaurs. The second, Hotel Cat. I loved these books. And when, at the end of the year, Mrs. Keech announced her retirement and that she was going to give us, her last class of students, her books, I was sure I would get one or both of these books that surely she knew I loved. How often had I read them!

She didn't give me anything. Some people got more than one some got none and some of the books stayed on the shelf. If I remember correctly, one of my faves was given away and one was left behind, but I don't remember which was which.

But why was The Hotel Cat such a big deal to me?

Here's the story: A cat is taken in by a hotel caretaker. To prove his worth, he moves beyond killing mice and rats and starts patrolling the halls. At first he threatens visiting cats should they leave their room, but slowly he learns to be welcoming and finally even gets friends and finally is even inducted, to his surprise and gratification, into the exclusive Cat Club.

Finishing the book tonight I teared up a bit at that final meeting where Tom finally has friends and finally belongs.

Was I lonely in second grade? I don't think so. Was I just feeling a normal desire to belong? Was it a desire to be elite? A desire for a fancy club with fancy friends? Was it the poet cat? The authoritarian President? The connection to a book I had at home?

I don't know. But I was amazed how into it my boys were. It ended up taking us a while to finish as trips and suchlike got in the way, but they dug it. The loved getting out The Fire Cat and comparing the pictures. They loved Tom's authority and his making friends.

Lady Steed on the other hand is utterly mystified. She doesn't get the appeal at all.

Tangentially, the New York Review Children's Collection copy is very nice and they're adding more good books all the time. I do find them a tad overpriced though.

for another of my childhood favorites, see this from earlier this year

almost two months


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Previously in 2011 . . . . :

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

Exciting reads, yall (18-19)

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019) Wonderland by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew, finished February 21


When attempting a Wonderland story of any type, the greatest challenge is making it sufficiently nonsensical without alienating the audience. Carroll did this by having a nonnative to Wonderland tell the story. Burton avoided the question by changing the name of the place to Underland and making everyone down to the Mad Hatter sensible. Kovac and Liew, to their credit, don't avoid the question like last year's blanken film did, but neither do they introduce a character from the Real World. This is a tricky line to walk, but they attempt it by making their Wonderlandian protagonist obsessively sensible. She's still crazy like any good Wonderlandian, but she finds her craziness in her sensibility. Rather brilliant solution, really.

This protag is Mary Ann, the White Rabbit's never-seen maid that Alice was mistaken for in the original book. She cleans everything and that helps keep the story on a proper Wonderland tilt.

Most of the time.

Occasionally, the book forgets how to be wacky and crazy and nonsensical and curious, and, at the end, Mary Ann even loses her obsessiveness. Which I did not like. I don't like that character development was deemed to require that Mary Ann give up, in large measure, the very traits that made her a citizen of her native land.

So this was a good book --- one of the best Alice spinoffs I've read --- but imperfect.

The art's fun the writing's fine; if you're a fan, pick it up. I suppose.

three days or so



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018) Redcoat by Kohl Glass (MS POLICY), finished February 18


I hope this screenplay gets filmed for a lot of reasons, but let's just say this has the potential to go seriously zeitgeist.

a little less time than it will take to watch it



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Previously in 2011 . . . . :

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

16 of 24, for a total of 233 points

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(guesses)

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24. Best Animated Feature: “Toy Story 3”
23. Actor in a Leading Role Colin Firth, “The King’s Speech”
22. Actor in a Supporting Role, Christian Bale, “The Fighter”
21. Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Aaron Sorkin, “The Social Network”
20. Visual Effects: “Inception”
19. Writing (Original Screenplay): David Seidler, “The King’s Speech”
18. Music (Original Song): Randy Newman, “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3”
*17. Best Picture: “The King’s Speech”

15. Actress in a Leading Role: Natalie Portman, “Black Swan”
14. Sound Mixing: “Inception”


11. Directing: Tom Hooper, “The King’s Speech”
10. Actress in a Supporting Role: Melissa Leo, “The Fighter”
09. Music (Original Score): “The Social Network”

07. Makeup: “The Wolfman”




02. Short Film (Animated): “The Lost Thing”
01. Documentary (Short Subject): “Strangers No More”

Svithe: Joy + Misery = Joy (?)

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About the time this goes live, I will be reading this live. Hope there's exactly eight minutes and thirty-nine seconds left when I stand up. Otherwise I may have to walk to the front of the room reeeelly slowly.

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Lehi taught his children that Adam fell so we might be and we are that we might have joy. Long before Lehi, Enoch taught that, “Because . . . Adam fell, we are; and by his fall came death; and we are made partakers of misery and woe.” On the surface, these teachings sound rather opposite. On the one hand, because of the Fall we might have joy. On the other hand, because of the Fall we are made partakers of misery and woe. Is Lehi trying to cheer us up? Is Enoch just a big downer? How can both these teachings be true?

Happily, both Enoch and Lehi explain this seeming contradiction.

Lehi said fourteen verses before we-might-have-joy that “it must needs be . . . there is an opposition in all things.” But why? Why do we need opposition? Because without it, “righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. . . . all things must needs be a compound in one” including, he goes on to point out, “happiness [and] misery”.

Enoch meanwhile gives us the same explanation God gave Adam: “. . . when [thy children] begin to grow up,” said God, “sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good.”

See how that works? Until sin has sullied us, we cannot know the joy of being clean!

As my friend Redoubt once wrote, “[We] can’t just say that we’re here to have joy. That’s only half the equation. . . . Unhappiness is real, it breathes in our cities, it permeates our lives, and ignoring it doesn’t make it go away, [we] can’t pretend it’s not there just because [we] don’t want it.”

I think it’s telling though that both of these scriptures that tell us what we’re supposed to do in our life, joy or misery, reference the Fall of Adam and Eve. They had it pretty chill there in Eden with fruit on the trees and comfy moss to nap in. But they couldn’t stay. They had to leave. As Eve realized, “Were it not for [their] transgression [they] . . . never should have known good and evil, and the joy of [their] redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.”

Staying in paradise-slash-innocence—or even desiring a simple return to paradise-slash-innocence —is antithetical to our divine instructions.
Consider Joseph Smith languishing in a jail so small he can’t stand up. What comfort is he given? “if the very jaws of hell . . . gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.”

Terrific.

From Redoubt again: “You might be born blind, not because you sinned, not because your parents sinned, but for no reason at all. It’s mortality. It’s not fair. It’s not roses and moonlight and happy songs and sweet wine. It’s life, and it sucks.”

Which is my roundabout way of saying Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy.

Keep in mind what God told Moses, that his “work and [his] glory [is] to bring to pass [our] . . . immortality and eternal life”. That endgoal thinking is part of the joy equation. Mormon says when we arrive at eternal life we will “dwell in the presence of God in his kingdom . . . in a state of happiness which hath no end.”

So now let’s return to Enoch who, remember, is the one who told us we’re to spend our days in misery and woe. At the end of his life, he was living in the city of Zion where he “and all his people walked with God . . . [who] dwelt in [their] midst . . . and . . . God received [them] up into his own bosom”.

Which is the goal, yes? To return to God? “To dwell in the presence of God . . . in a state of happiness which hath no end”? We are that we might have joy and, if I’m understanding all this correctly, when that day of pure uninterrupted joy finally commences, it will be when we walk with God. When we walk with God. Plural. Like Zion did.

President Eyring talked about this notion of saintly plurality a couple years ago in General Conference:

The miracle of unity is being granted to us as we pray and work for it in the Lord’s way. . . . God has promised that blessing [of unity] to His faithful Saints whatever their differences in background and whatever conflict rages around them. He was praying for us . . . when He asked His Father that we might be one [as he and his Father art one].

The reason that we pray and ask for that blessing is the same reason the Father is granting it. We know from experience that joy comes when we are blessed with unity. We yearn, as spirit children of our Heavenly Father, for that joy which we once had with Him in the life before this one. . . .

[But] He cannot grant it to us as individuals. The joy of unity He wants so much to give us is not solitary. We must seek it and qualify for it with others. . . . God urges us to gather so that He can bless us. He wants us to gather into families. He has established classes, wards, and branches and commanded us to meet together often. In those gatherings, which God has designed for us, lies our great opportunity. We can pray and work for the unity that will bring us joy and multiply our power to serve. . . .

The Lord has given us guides to know what to do to receive the blessing and joy of ever-increasing unity. The Book of Mormon recounts a time of success . . . in the days of Alma. . . .

Everything Alma and his people were inspired to do was pointed at helping [them] choose to have their hearts changed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. That is the only way God can grant the blessing of being of one heart.

In Mosiah we read:

“And they were called the church of God, or the church of Christ, from that time forward. And it came to pass that whosoever was baptized by the power and authority of God was added to his church. . . .

“And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another.

“. . . . And thus they became the children of God.”

The children of God.

Until we recognize both our identity as children of God and our potential as children of God, our quest for joy will be hindered. As it will be should we fail to recognize that every person sitting right here right now—and every person not ever here—is also a child of God with all the potential that implies. We were sent here to support each other, to share and spread the joys and miseries of life.

King Benjamin says that we “should consider . . . the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For . . . they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness.” And King Benjamin is right. But we can’t misunderstand him and suppose that that state of never-ending happiness will arrive before we are faithful to the end and received into heaven to dwell with God. First things first, and this life is first. Remember, these words come from the same King Benjamin who said we start out as “[enemies] to God . . . and will be, forever and ever, unless [we yield] to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and . . . [become saints] through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and [become as children], . . . willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon” us. And I don’t know about you, but “inflict” doesn’t sound like it’s hinting at an inherently joyful process, end result notwithstanding.

But now we’re getting to useful stuff. Like how do help each other in this process? How does one child of God help another child of God make it through our miserable messed-up lives that we might have joy?

Maybe the first step is to remember that we’re not competing against each other. Nephi asks “Hath [the Lord] commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? . . . Nay; but he hath given it free for all men. . . . [Hath] the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? . . . Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden.”

Elder Holland writes that God “loves each of us—insecurities, anxieties, self-image, and all. He doesn’t measure our talents or our looks; He doesn’t measure our professions or our possessions. He cheers on every runner, calling out that the race is against sin, not against each other.”
And so can we. We too can cheer on each other, support each other, love each other, find joy in each other’s joys just as we mourn with those who mourn. Life isn’t always pretty. It’s complicated and convoluted and confusing and much of the time it’s a big mess.

We are, as Enoch said, made partakers of misery and woe. But we are also, as Lehi said, that we might have joy.

All of us will suffer. Therefore all of us will have joy. And I, with Nephi, “pray the Father in the name of Christ that [we] may be saved in his kingdom at that great and last day”, “in a state of happiness which hath no end.”

In the name of etc amen.

previous svithe

Oscar picks

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I've been thinking about playing the Oscar-picks game but I couldn't get excited about it until JUST NOW when Katya emailed me a link to a new sort of Oscar picks game. Which I love. It's just my kind of needlessly complex game.

Movie bloggers Eric and Jeff are doing it as a contest betwixt themselves, but I really think they're missing out by not having posted earlier and making the game public. But I'm making a list anyway just to see how I do against the pros. Here are the rules as borrowed from Eric:

Here’s how it works: First you make your predictions for each of the 24 categories. Then you arrange them in order of how confident you are that you’re right. The one you’re most certain of will be worth 24 points if it actually wins; the one you were totally taking a wild guess on gets 1 point if it happens to prove correct. Whoever has the most points at the end of the show is the winner.

And here's my list:

24. Best Animated Feature: “Toy Story 3”
23. Actor in a Leading Role Colin Firth, “The King’s Speech”
22. Actor in a Supporting Role, Christian Bale, “The Fighter”
21. Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Aaron Sorkin, “The Social Network”
20. Visual Effects: “Inception”
19. Writing (Original Screenplay): David Seidler, “The King’s Speech”
18. Music (Original Song): Randy Newman, “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3”
17. Best Picture: “The King’s Speech”
16. Cinematography: “True Grit”
15. Actress in a Leading Role: Natalie Portman, “Black Swan”
14. Sound Mixing: “Inception”
13. Sound Editing: “Toy Story 3”
12. Documentary (Feature): “Exit through the Gift Shop”
11. Directing: Tom Hooper, “The King’s Speech”
10. Actress in a Supporting Role: Melissa Leo, “The Fighter”
09. Music (Original Score): “The Social Network”
08. Art Direction; “The King’s Speech”
07. Makeup: “The Wolfman”
06. Foreign Language Film: “Biutiful”
05. Film Editing: “Black Swan”
04. Costume Design: “True Grit”
03. Short Film (Live Action): “Na Wewe”
02. Short Film (Animated): “The Lost Thing”
01. Documentary (Short Subject): “Strangers No More”