Aliens returned Voyager 1 to Earth last week with a note:
- Please. Please just leave us alone.
.png)
2011-03-03
Sad Space Story
.
Aliens returned Voyager 1 to Earth last week with a note:
Aliens returned Voyager 1 to Earth last week with a note:
2011-03-01
20. The Hotel Cat
.
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
==================================
===========================================================
Previously in 2011 . . . . :
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
==================================
===========================================================
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
2011-02-28
Exciting reads, yall
(18-19)
.
===========================================================
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
===========================================================
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
===========================================================
Previously in 2011 . . . . :
===========================================================
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
===========================================================
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
===========================================================
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
2011-02-27
16 of 24, for a total of 233 points
.
(guesses)
.
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”
(guesses)
.
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 (?)
.
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.
============================================
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.
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.
============================================
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.
2011-02-26
Oscar picks
.
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:
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”
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”
2011-02-22
Rejected Books: The American Pimpernel
.
I've been "reading" this book for about eight years now, maybe more maybe less, but I haven't read a word for probably six of those years. It's been sitting on my nightstand all those years, but I haven't even cracked it. I'm on page 128 of 352 and will be forever. I'm officially leaving this book closed. I'll be selling it to a used-book store in about 45 minutes.
The idea behind the book is thrilling. American guy sneaks into Hitler's Europe and through his intellectual swashbucklery rescues artists and academics targeted by the Nazi regime. Exciting!, right?
Yeah, I guess. I don't really remember if it was exciting or not.
The only sticking impression is of the author Andy Marino's attitude toward this adventure. Marino is chilling and he presents the "hero" Fry in his own image. Which is to say, in the laws of life presented by this book, as true as gravity-pulls-down or Nazism-is-bad, you as reader as expected to accept the fact that an artist's life is worth more than tens of thousands of other people's lives.
This is what I found so chilling, so unsettling, so wrong.
I can find noble reasons to save André Breton and Max Ernst, but to suggest they deserve to be saved because their lives are inherently more valuable than a peasant woman's are where I will have to disagree. As an artists who associates with artists, I will readily admit that we have high opinions of ourselves, but the second we start thinking our actual lives matter more than other lives is the second our megalomania becomes dangerous.
Art is for everyone who lives and all those lives are equally valuable and it is not for the artist or the connosier to decide who is worthy to live and who might as well die. Yet that's what this book suggests. Varian Fry was rich and appreciated good art and writing and so he could decide who should live and who should die. Perhaps he was a more complicated character than that, but to Marino, that's enough. He is incapable of questioning his premise that artists' lives are worth more and that's what makes it impossible for me to finish this book.
The American Pimpernel
The Story of Varian Fry
The man who saved the artist's on Hitler's death list
I've been "reading" this book for about eight years now, maybe more maybe less, but I haven't read a word for probably six of those years. It's been sitting on my nightstand all those years, but I haven't even cracked it. I'm on page 128 of 352 and will be forever. I'm officially leaving this book closed. I'll be selling it to a used-book store in about 45 minutes.The idea behind the book is thrilling. American guy sneaks into Hitler's Europe and through his intellectual swashbucklery rescues artists and academics targeted by the Nazi regime. Exciting!, right?
Yeah, I guess. I don't really remember if it was exciting or not.
The only sticking impression is of the author Andy Marino's attitude toward this adventure. Marino is chilling and he presents the "hero" Fry in his own image. Which is to say, in the laws of life presented by this book, as true as gravity-pulls-down or Nazism-is-bad, you as reader as expected to accept the fact that an artist's life is worth more than tens of thousands of other people's lives.
This is what I found so chilling, so unsettling, so wrong.
I can find noble reasons to save André Breton and Max Ernst, but to suggest they deserve to be saved because their lives are inherently more valuable than a peasant woman's are where I will have to disagree. As an artists who associates with artists, I will readily admit that we have high opinions of ourselves, but the second we start thinking our actual lives matter more than other lives is the second our megalomania becomes dangerous.
Art is for everyone who lives and all those lives are equally valuable and it is not for the artist or the connosier to decide who is worthy to live and who might as well die. Yet that's what this book suggests. Varian Fry was rich and appreciated good art and writing and so he could decide who should live and who should die. Perhaps he was a more complicated character than that, but to Marino, that's enough. He is incapable of questioning his premise that artists' lives are worth more and that's what makes it impossible for me to finish this book.
2011-02-21
Ambitiously Prediction 2012 (already!)
I'll provide two, you provide the rest.
.
Republican Presidential Ticket: Mitt Romney and Herman Cain
Best Animated Feature Oscar Winner: The Adventures of Tintin - Secret of the Unicorn
Republican Presidential Ticket: Mitt Romney and Herman Cain
Best Animated Feature Oscar Winner: The Adventures of Tintin - Secret of the Unicorn
2011-02-19
What Google Translate said a bit of Lorem Ipsum in a recent job means:
.
Pretty blush of modesty to the orator vocificat preparations for war;
ACCESSIBLE ROOM FOR THE REST Unhappily, though trembling with age cast a vote for the orator. ROOM FOR THE REST imputes to saburre, now a perspicuous their
quickly circumgrediet of confidence, no matter how the memoranda of
freely leavened the chairs of the best trembling with age.
Saburre cast a vote for the Waters of Sulis, though a glutton: yet the dogs
clearly, leavened ossifrage, his preparations for war is always clearly
GROW IN ADDITION TO kindly as his, no matter how economy, cuts it off: yet the dogs preparations for war. ROOM FOR THE REST profit is it hard to spinous
to get a booth. Octavius, a courteous incredibly BRISTLY saburre was growing feebler. Chairs praemuniet
ROOM FOR THE REST, always trembling with his preparations for war to mix the spinous POLITE of matrimony, and to jest enough to ossifrage Caribbean.
Pretty blush of modesty to the orator vocificat preparations for war;
ACCESSIBLE ROOM FOR THE REST Unhappily, though trembling with age cast a vote for the orator. ROOM FOR THE REST imputes to saburre, now a perspicuous their
quickly circumgrediet of confidence, no matter how the memoranda of
freely leavened the chairs of the best trembling with age.
Saburre cast a vote for the Waters of Sulis, though a glutton: yet the dogs
clearly, leavened ossifrage, his preparations for war is always clearly
GROW IN ADDITION TO kindly as his, no matter how economy, cuts it off: yet the dogs preparations for war. ROOM FOR THE REST profit is it hard to spinous
to get a booth. Octavius, a courteous incredibly BRISTLY saburre was growing feebler. Chairs praemuniet
ROOM FOR THE REST, always trembling with his preparations for war to mix the spinous POLITE of matrimony, and to jest enough to ossifrage Caribbean.
The night with no internet
.
We spent last night with the Brass Clan who have no wifi and whose neighbors wifi is now password protected. (Remember when the wifi default was nonsecured and you could pull over in any residential neighborhood and check your email or hack the FBI? Ah, the good old days.) So I had no internet last night. Which meant I couldn't work on my prioritized projects. I was stuck with the projects on my laptop. So I read a great screenplay I'd had sitting around for about six months and rewrote a novella that had been waiting in purgatory for over two years. I'm pretty stoked. Sure, the "urgent" things didn't get done, but how awesome to get done what I did. I'm feeling good.
We spent last night with the Brass Clan who have no wifi and whose neighbors wifi is now password protected. (Remember when the wifi default was nonsecured and you could pull over in any residential neighborhood and check your email or hack the FBI? Ah, the good old days.) So I had no internet last night. Which meant I couldn't work on my prioritized projects. I was stuck with the projects on my laptop. So I read a great screenplay I'd had sitting around for about six months and rewrote a novella that had been waiting in purgatory for over two years. I'm pretty stoked. Sure, the "urgent" things didn't get done, but how awesome to get done what I did. I'm feeling good.
2011-02-16
The Sartorial Big O
.
Since we got him real tieable ties, the Big O has worn a tie to school every single day (Feb 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15). Today he's switching back to his A's jersey, but he tells me he'll be wearing ties every Monday-Tuesday-Thursday from now on.
Since we got him real tieable ties, the Big O has worn a tie to school every single day (Feb 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15). Today he's switching back to his A's jersey, but he tells me he'll be wearing ties every Monday-Tuesday-Thursday from now on.
2011-02-15
(14-17)
.
Now I'm remembering why I originally went with FIVE books at a time. All these broken-up book posts are overwhelming Thutopia. Last year I finished so few I forgot how overwhelming book writeups can get. This year I'm already on track to over double last year's numbers! Hhhhh.
017) Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman, finished February 12
Another great year for comics. Neil Gaiman did a great job --- only one entry in this volume that I didn't like. Although I was upset that the excerpt from Genesis was the one I had already read.....
over one month, under two
===========================================================
016) Little Bee by Chris Cleave, finished February 10
I don't know how I feel about this book. At times I was audibly groaning and rolling my eyes and muttering under my breath at the annoying games it was playing. Then it would gain my respect by not screwing me as badly as I expected. It over-relied on the character's dialectical quicks and only about 80% of the gimmicks it employed worked. It plays some Upton Sinclair games, but it's never so obvious that you end up feeling preached to.
Simply, this is a good book in most respects, with plenty more very good elements than irritating elements. A book I would expect most readers to love and towards which specific complaints are difficult to articulate. A book that lets me say both this is a writer to watch and a writer I wouldn't go out of my way to read again. (Though if you disagree, there's his first book and his columns.)
Here's the story: a Nigerian refugee and a British woman, due to a shared horror, come together and bounce around for a couple hundred pages.
It was the book chosen for the high school's parent/student/teacher book club which is how I came to read it. Maybe I'll say more after tonight. Maybe not. I now understand why the cover said nothing.
(Note: Club meeting was canceled.)
i think eight days
===========================================================
015) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, finished February 2
I've been saying I'm done with Steinbeck. That someday I would read Travels with Charley and, since Lady Steed loves it so much, perhaps East of Eden, but unless I loved them, I was done. I was sick of his cheap violent endings and unless those two books --- which I figured had good odds of not matching what I had read before --- broke the trend, I was writing Steinbeck off forever.
Well I'm pleased to announce that Travels with Charley has been a terrific read.
Travels is the nonfiction yarn of an aging Steinbeck taking his dog and a truck with a camper on the back and hitting the roads c. 1960. He wants to reintroduce himself to America, to gain a fresh sense of this land he writes about. He starts by heading north into Maine, then back down and over over over till he arrives in the Pacific Northwest. Down to his hometown, then down through the Mojave, Texasward, to New Orleans than back north and home. Along the way, he draws a fascinating and tactile vision of America fifty years ago.
The most powerful section is at the end. He heads to the South because, at this moment in time, this is where History is happening. And the emotional impact contained in the few pages he spends on the South's turmoil is devastating and hopeful all at the same time. Marvelous stuff. I'ld like to share it with my classes.
Another even briefer scene that I hope has been anthologized in books of animal tales, is the run-in with a bear in Yellowstone. Classic stuff.
But all in all, it's just this look at a lost America that I love the most. I see things I recognize from my Idaho childhood, but things now lost forever --- bits of the American experience and the American character my kids will never know.
I'm grateful Steinbeck captured it for us.
(I began underlining passages to share early in my reading [page 38], but in the end, there are just too many to type up. I'm afraid you'll just have to read it yourself.)
perhaps six months
===========================================================
014) Cursed Pirate Girl: The Collected Edition Vol. I by Jeremy Bastian, finished January 31
I helped out early on this book's Kickstarter, fully expecting that it, like all other Kickstarter projects I've backed, would fail to meet its goal. Boy was I wrong. In the end, $36,017 were pledged towards its $2,500 goal. So my $27.27 disappeared and just before the new year, I got a beautiful book in the mail.
And I do mean beautiful. Given Bastian's intricate style, a single page requires hours of attention to puzzle out its details. Chris Ware says it takes a thousand times longer to make comics compared to reading them. With Bastian it could very well be ten thousand times.
But given my attention to line, I am not, at the end of my first reading, really very sure if the story is any good. Claims are noised about that this is the new Alice in Wonderland (a claim that gets thrown out every few years --- remember when they were saying it about Coraline?) and I get the comparison (more than I did for Coraline, actually), but besides being able to admit this is a fantastic absurd adventure, I can't comment on its overall quality. But I'm pretty sure it was good.
The art, at least, is worth the price of entry..
I was thinking about super-hi-rez-scanning a page in then giving you zoomins deeper and deeper, but it ends up I'm too lazy. So instead here's a picture from Cursed Pirate Girl I found online (click for source, a review of part of what I read pre-collected version):
almost exactly a month
Previously in 2011 . . . . :
Now I'm remembering why I originally went with FIVE books at a time. All these broken-up book posts are overwhelming Thutopia. Last year I finished so few I forgot how overwhelming book writeups can get. This year I'm already on track to over double last year's numbers! Hhhhh.
017) Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman, finished February 12
Another great year for comics. Neil Gaiman did a great job --- only one entry in this volume that I didn't like. Although I was upset that the excerpt from Genesis was the one I had already read.....
over one month, under two
===========================================================
016) Little Bee by Chris Cleave, finished February 10
I don't know how I feel about this book. At times I was audibly groaning and rolling my eyes and muttering under my breath at the annoying games it was playing. Then it would gain my respect by not screwing me as badly as I expected. It over-relied on the character's dialectical quicks and only about 80% of the gimmicks it employed worked. It plays some Upton Sinclair games, but it's never so obvious that you end up feeling preached to.
Simply, this is a good book in most respects, with plenty more very good elements than irritating elements. A book I would expect most readers to love and towards which specific complaints are difficult to articulate. A book that lets me say both this is a writer to watch and a writer I wouldn't go out of my way to read again. (Though if you disagree, there's his first book and his columns.)
Here's the story: a Nigerian refugee and a British woman, due to a shared horror, come together and bounce around for a couple hundred pages.
It was the book chosen for the high school's parent/student/teacher book club which is how I came to read it. Maybe I'll say more after tonight. Maybe not. I now understand why the cover said nothing.
(Note: Club meeting was canceled.)
i think eight days
===========================================================
015) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, finished February 2
I've been saying I'm done with Steinbeck. That someday I would read Travels with Charley and, since Lady Steed loves it so much, perhaps East of Eden, but unless I loved them, I was done. I was sick of his cheap violent endings and unless those two books --- which I figured had good odds of not matching what I had read before --- broke the trend, I was writing Steinbeck off forever.
Well I'm pleased to announce that Travels with Charley has been a terrific read.
Travels is the nonfiction yarn of an aging Steinbeck taking his dog and a truck with a camper on the back and hitting the roads c. 1960. He wants to reintroduce himself to America, to gain a fresh sense of this land he writes about. He starts by heading north into Maine, then back down and over over over till he arrives in the Pacific Northwest. Down to his hometown, then down through the Mojave, Texasward, to New Orleans than back north and home. Along the way, he draws a fascinating and tactile vision of America fifty years ago.
The most powerful section is at the end. He heads to the South because, at this moment in time, this is where History is happening. And the emotional impact contained in the few pages he spends on the South's turmoil is devastating and hopeful all at the same time. Marvelous stuff. I'ld like to share it with my classes.
Another even briefer scene that I hope has been anthologized in books of animal tales, is the run-in with a bear in Yellowstone. Classic stuff.
But all in all, it's just this look at a lost America that I love the most. I see things I recognize from my Idaho childhood, but things now lost forever --- bits of the American experience and the American character my kids will never know.
I'm grateful Steinbeck captured it for us.
(I began underlining passages to share early in my reading [page 38], but in the end, there are just too many to type up. I'm afraid you'll just have to read it yourself.)
perhaps six months
===========================================================
014) Cursed Pirate Girl: The Collected Edition Vol. I by Jeremy Bastian, finished January 31
I helped out early on this book's Kickstarter, fully expecting that it, like all other Kickstarter projects I've backed, would fail to meet its goal. Boy was I wrong. In the end, $36,017 were pledged towards its $2,500 goal. So my $27.27 disappeared and just before the new year, I got a beautiful book in the mail.
And I do mean beautiful. Given Bastian's intricate style, a single page requires hours of attention to puzzle out its details. Chris Ware says it takes a thousand times longer to make comics compared to reading them. With Bastian it could very well be ten thousand times.
But given my attention to line, I am not, at the end of my first reading, really very sure if the story is any good. Claims are noised about that this is the new Alice in Wonderland (a claim that gets thrown out every few years --- remember when they were saying it about Coraline?) and I get the comparison (more than I did for Coraline, actually), but besides being able to admit this is a fantastic absurd adventure, I can't comment on its overall quality. But I'm pretty sure it was good.
The art, at least, is worth the price of entry..
I was thinking about super-hi-rez-scanning a page in then giving you zoomins deeper and deeper, but it ends up I'm too lazy. So instead here's a picture from Cursed Pirate Girl I found online (click for source, a review of part of what I read pre-collected version):
almost exactly a month
Previously in 2011 . . . . :
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
2011-02-14
Massacre Time
.
It's Valentine's Day, and you know what that means! Time for a massacre! It's 2011 so I think we should use something cool like lasers or something to do the killing, but I'm not really picky. We just need to find some unarmed annoying people and we'll be set. How's 5 sound to you. Great? Great! See you then!
It's Valentine's Day, and you know what that means! Time for a massacre! It's 2011 so I think we should use something cool like lasers or something to do the killing, but I'm not really picky. We just need to find some unarmed annoying people and we'll be set. How's 5 sound to you. Great? Great! See you then!
2011-02-08
A short blast to the future
.
Hey! Hey, future! What the heck, future? Is this your idea of a joke? Well no one thinks it's funny, future. Nobody. Not a soul. Not anybody, not even your mother. So what's next, future? More of the same old crap or are you gonna try and step it up for once? Maybe do something worth our time and all the bother we're sinking into you?
Seriously, future. Get with it.
Hey! Hey, future! What the heck, future? Is this your idea of a joke? Well no one thinks it's funny, future. Nobody. Not a soul. Not anybody, not even your mother. So what's next, future? More of the same old crap or are you gonna try and step it up for once? Maybe do something worth our time and all the bother we're sinking into you?
Seriously, future. Get with it.
2011-02-04
Headed to my hometown this weekend
.
I wandered lonely as a sasquatch
Staggering through rainy vales and hills,
Simply in quest for a game of hopscotch
Simply in search of innocent thrills
Simply in search of the simple pastimes
Pastimes left lost in life's younger climes.
I wandered lonely as a sasquatch
Staggering through rainy vales and hills,
Simply in quest for a game of hopscotch
Simply in search of innocent thrills
Simply in search of the simple pastimes
Pastimes left lost in life's younger climes.
2011-02-02
Reading from the garage
.
I've had a source for free books and for a while there I was picking up chapter books I thought might interest the kids when they get older. I stopped though when I realized I was a) getting too many and b) we might move before they're able to read them.
But the Big O has had some serious breakthroughs in reading the last few weeks and now he's found this shelf and he's been taking books off it and piling them up. He's still too slow to speed through them, but he loves that they're there and that he found them and I think that's awesome.
I've had a source for free books and for a while there I was picking up chapter books I thought might interest the kids when they get older. I stopped though when I realized I was a) getting too many and b) we might move before they're able to read them.
But the Big O has had some serious breakthroughs in reading the last few weeks and now he's found this shelf and he's been taking books off it and piling them up. He's still too slow to speed through them, but he loves that they're there and that he found them and I think that's awesome.
2011-01-31
2011 Few-Books-at-a-Time episode titled "Is Jeff Lemire a Genius?" in which we look at some of his books --- five actually, just like we used to do in the old days.
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
- two days or about twenty-four hours
First, let me the 45thousandth person to proclaim Essex County a masterwork. I just sat down and reread volume one then followed it immediately with volumes two and three. And I don't know if it's possible for me to overstate how excellent this work is. It's on par with the very best comics I know --- Jimmy Corrigan, Maus, Blankets --- it's high literature as Lemire's fellow Canadians have recognized.
What I don't know is whether or not Lemire is a bonafide genius. It's just too soon to say. Chris "Jimmy Corrigan" Ware is. Craig "Blankets" Thompson? Let's wait for the next book before we decide.
(Incidentally, speaking of Thompson, as his drawings in Blankets are what I wish I could draw, the style I wish I had, Essex's drawings are what I would actually draw. If, you know, I had a decent sense of perspective and the human figure.)
But whether he is a genius who can consistently hit the heights represented by Essex County or not doesn't affect at all the inherent worth of Essex County itself.
I admit I have a couple biases that help my opinion of him, viz:
1. Half my childhood was spent in the Idaho version or southern Ontario and I feel the honesty in his portrayal. It's clear he respects his past.
2. The drawing thing. But seriously. That ink....
See that crow? I have a thing for crows (add bias #3), but in the end, that crow is not just a crow. It is a symbol that helps tie all three books together into a single novel. I don't know whether Lemire planned it that way or not, but I've seen enough crappy pulltogether symboljobs to recognize the difference between a hack bit of lookatme and a genuine, brilliant metaphor.
For those waiting for some plot summary, Essex County is three stories about a pair of Essex County families. That good enough for you?
After my last post I want to mention briefly that all three stories contain or grow out of a single, pivotal, life-shaping sexual encounter. Nothing base or sexy here, just a simple fact: the power to create life does just that --- and not only directly, through conception.
I could wax rhapsodic about all three volumes, but I have another couple Lemire books to get to, and so just one more thing, about the first volume, Tales from the Farm. As I said in my introductory essay here, serious comics are in a transitional state --- they often require a bit of meta --- and Farm is no exception. The main character, a boy named Lester, wears a cape and mask, draws his own superhero comics. This is all done to terrific effect, but once again, it's a serious artist acknowledging comics' hackneyed past. (Not that I have anything against superheros, but they're just one small corner of all possible stories.)
I don't suppose it's possible to arrive at adulthood making comics without a relationship with superheros though. Love them, hate them, love/hate them, you know them.
And so, although I was surprised to learn that Lemire is writing Superboy and Atom, I wasn't shocked.
It's one of a zillion postapocalyptic stories out now, but a good one. I've read the first two collections and I'm hoping to read more. It's too soon to know whether or not it is evidence of Lemire's possible genius, but not to soon to know that it's good. It gets compared to Y: The Last Man and The Walking Dead and those comparisons seem apt. In this case we have a disease that's killed nearly everyone, weird mutated children, evidence of genetic science being the cause, a big man with guns who kills people, desperation, prostitutes, children in peril --- all that stuff. But its well written and drawn in a gussied up version of his Essex tales and certainly has the potential to be something special. I hope so. I'm expecting great things from this Lemire guy. Time to pick up some more books.
Previously in 2011 . . . . :
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
2011-01-28
Book 8 of 2011
Magdalene by Moriah Jovan
(reviewed in connection with the LDS Eros project)
.
The LDS Eros series has been neglected for a while, but a new book by Moriah Jovan is all that's needed to jump right back in. In case you missed my lengthy comments on her first book or short blurb on her second, her books tend to involve that sex stuff. But more on that after some official-because-they-are-in-italics notices.
(NOTE: Although this book qualifies for protection under my MS POLICY, I will not be treating it in that way for a number of reasons. Most notably, the book is nearly finished, is being released in under three months and, for a third reason, see the following disclaimer.)
(DISCLAIMER: I am Moriah's editor. We have a business relationship. I have mercenary reasons for wanting this book to do well. Keep that in mind.)
008) Magdalene by Morah Jovan, finished January 27
Well. Where to start?
Let me start with some accolades.
Starting with Moriah's first book, I knew she was a writer to watch. With this book, I think she has arrived. She is now a significant voice.
But a statement like that can only have meaning within a certain context, and so let me clarify my meaning thereof.
Moriah is a romance writer, but I am not ensconced in the romance scene so I can't really comment on her significance within the world of romance. Moriah is a noted expert in ebooks, but "ebooks" is not really a literary scene so much as a technological and marketing scene so the question of vocal significance doesn't seem relevant. Moriah is also a Mormon writer and it here is where my personal knowledge can start to have relevance. Because, in my opinion, Magdalene is, now, three months before its release, already the Mormon book to beat in 2011. Now, I don't know if its sex will be hard for the Whitney Academy, but I really truly hope they do for reasons that are coming right up. I do think AML will give it a fair shake if they get it thrust into their faces by enough eager members, but we'll see. I hope so.
The provocative ad copy for this book is A MORMON BISHOP!!!!! AN EX-PROSTITUTE!!!!! A MAN WITH A VENDETTA!!!!! LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!!!!!!! ( !!!!!s not present in original but added by me for extra duper excitement) and that's as good a place to start as any. Because, and this is important, although this book does share characters with her other two books it is not a sequel and you do not need to read them first.
The MORMON BISHOP!!!!! is that most interesting creature that seems to exist more frequently in fiction than in real life, the widower bishop. He's also one of the richest men in America (he's in steel, if you're wondering).
The EX-PROSTITUTE!!!!! (very high end [not a crack whore], if that makes a difference to you) has since gotten her MBA and become a one-woman restructuring machine, moving into floundering companies and gutting them and saving the money from dissipating.
Our two protagonists meet through business and recognize something in each other they've never found before. But, that said and as you might imagine, they have rather different viewpoints on a number of important issues (eg, SEX!!!!!).
Now, it's no spoiler to say that this book has hawt and hevvy sex in it. What may be a spoiler though is that, in my opinion, this sex should not disturb a faithful Mormon audience. Clever people will be able to figure out why.
(If you're new to my LDS Eros posts, let me refer you to Part I which I will be referencing the next few paragraphs. Note though that the definitions I'm using today have different meanings in different posts. Today's definition of "pornography" for instance assumes it's a bad thing. But elsewhere I posit the possibility of a moral pornography. Keep that in mind if you start cross-referencing.)
D.H. Lawrence says that pornography is "the attempt to insult sex, to do dirt on it." Or (to obnoxiously quote myself), porn is "artless and ugly and serves just one purpose: to give your brain an unnatural (and unholy) injection of the sex drug."
This is bad.
Erotica on the other hand we'll describe in this way: while it "may titillate and arouse . . . that is not its sole purpose --- it also desires to be beautiful."
Which is in keeping with a Mormon viewpoint of sexuality, I think. Sex is one of life's beauties and may be celebrated as such.
So the question that will matter to Mormon readers is whether this sex is P or E.
First let's note again that this book has sex, actual sex, not just the-door-closed-and-suddenly-it-was-morning sex, but sex sex.
Second let's add the shocking should-be-a-spoiler-but-everyone-familiar-with-the-book-already-knows-it fact that this book's plot is modeled after the Gospels.
And now let's drop onto this pile of observations that for all the sex and religious allegory and big business deals and the sociopathic badguy and the other bells and whistles that make Magdalene a blast to read --- notwithstanding all of that --- ultimately this is the story of two people who fall in love. It's a character story. And how these characters change is The Whole Story. Really. When you come down to it, everything else is merely trappings to help the author tell her story of two characters and how they change to become one with another.
Forgive me if I state the obvious and say that sex should be part of this story.
Because here's the thing --- no matter how explicit the sex may be, no matter how much of it there may be, this novel does not contain one single sex scene that fails to develop the characters in serious and important ways. Every sex scene --- each and every one of them! --- provides us, as readers, access to the sex-doers' souls. We understand them in a way that can only be accomplished through their physical joining. We learn things about them we would never understand if the camera had cut away.
This sex is about people, not sex. And so no matter how explicit it may be, it is never gratuitous. Which is remarkable, really, that this much sex never drops into justfortheheckofit. Amazing for such explicity to be utterly unexploitative.
!!!!!
Besides the fact that the book is well written, besides the fact that it provides a compelling and accurate look at Mormonism for people unfamiliar with Mormonism, besides the fact that it goes places few Mormon books have gone before --- besides all these things, Magdalene is a significant Mormon book because it deals with subjects we consider sacred (sex is just for starters), places them in a broader world context, and forces readers both outside and inside the faith to consider their significance through an original lens.
This is not a trivial accomplishment. Mormons are always complaining that books appealing to "nonmembers" always present the Church badly or lightly or inaccurately. I for one have always rejected that view and here is a book that proves the point.
Whatever you do, don't let the sex keep you from this landmark (also, don't let the Mormons keep you from this landmark). And, sorry, if you just skip the sex (or the religion) you will not understand the characters. It's just not possible.
For the average national reader, this is a book that will demonstrate that Mormons should be taken seriously. For the average Mormon reader, this is a book that will demonstrate sexuality should be taken seriously.
Magdalene demands our attention and discussion. So don't let my puffery go unanswered. Read it for yourself and let's parse the difference between good and evil.
We'll never know until we eat the fruit.
(The book's not available until April 24, but if you would like a reminder, let me know in the comments. In the meantime, admitting that you don't have much to go on other than what I say, what do you think?)
Previously in 2011 . . . . :
EDIT: ADDED THIS IMAGE FOR LINKAGE REASONS:
The LDS Eros series has been neglected for a while, but a new book by Moriah Jovan is all that's needed to jump right back in. In case you missed my lengthy comments on her first book or short blurb on her second, her books tend to involve that sex stuff. But more on that after some official-because-they-are-in-italics notices.
(NOTE: Although this book qualifies for protection under my MS POLICY, I will not be treating it in that way for a number of reasons. Most notably, the book is nearly finished, is being released in under three months and, for a third reason, see the following disclaimer.)
(DISCLAIMER: I am Moriah's editor. We have a business relationship. I have mercenary reasons for wanting this book to do well. Keep that in mind.)
008) Magdalene by Morah Jovan, finished January 27
- one month
Well. Where to start?
Let me start with some accolades.
Starting with Moriah's first book, I knew she was a writer to watch. With this book, I think she has arrived. She is now a significant voice.
But a statement like that can only have meaning within a certain context, and so let me clarify my meaning thereof.
Moriah is a romance writer, but I am not ensconced in the romance scene so I can't really comment on her significance within the world of romance. Moriah is a noted expert in ebooks, but "ebooks" is not really a literary scene so much as a technological and marketing scene so the question of vocal significance doesn't seem relevant. Moriah is also a Mormon writer and it here is where my personal knowledge can start to have relevance. Because, in my opinion, Magdalene is, now, three months before its release, already the Mormon book to beat in 2011. Now, I don't know if its sex will be hard for the Whitney Academy, but I really truly hope they do for reasons that are coming right up. I do think AML will give it a fair shake if they get it thrust into their faces by enough eager members, but we'll see. I hope so.
The provocative ad copy for this book is A MORMON BISHOP!!!!! AN EX-PROSTITUTE!!!!! A MAN WITH A VENDETTA!!!!! LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!!!!!!! ( !!!!!s not present in original but added by me for extra duper excitement) and that's as good a place to start as any. Because, and this is important, although this book does share characters with her other two books it is not a sequel and you do not need to read them first.
The MORMON BISHOP!!!!! is that most interesting creature that seems to exist more frequently in fiction than in real life, the widower bishop. He's also one of the richest men in America (he's in steel, if you're wondering).
The EX-PROSTITUTE!!!!! (very high end [not a crack whore], if that makes a difference to you) has since gotten her MBA and become a one-woman restructuring machine, moving into floundering companies and gutting them and saving the money from dissipating.
Our two protagonists meet through business and recognize something in each other they've never found before. But, that said and as you might imagine, they have rather different viewpoints on a number of important issues (eg, SEX!!!!!).
Now, it's no spoiler to say that this book has hawt and hevvy sex in it. What may be a spoiler though is that, in my opinion, this sex should not disturb a faithful Mormon audience. Clever people will be able to figure out why.
(If you're new to my LDS Eros posts, let me refer you to Part I which I will be referencing the next few paragraphs. Note though that the definitions I'm using today have different meanings in different posts. Today's definition of "pornography" for instance assumes it's a bad thing. But elsewhere I posit the possibility of a moral pornography. Keep that in mind if you start cross-referencing.)
D.H. Lawrence says that pornography is "the attempt to insult sex, to do dirt on it." Or (to obnoxiously quote myself), porn is "artless and ugly and serves just one purpose: to give your brain an unnatural (and unholy) injection of the sex drug."
This is bad.
Erotica on the other hand we'll describe in this way: while it "may titillate and arouse . . . that is not its sole purpose --- it also desires to be beautiful."
Which is in keeping with a Mormon viewpoint of sexuality, I think. Sex is one of life's beauties and may be celebrated as such.
So the question that will matter to Mormon readers is whether this sex is P or E.
First let's note again that this book has sex, actual sex, not just the-door-closed-and-suddenly-it-was-morning sex, but sex sex.
Second let's add the shocking should-be-a-spoiler-but-everyone-familiar-with-the-book-already-knows-it fact that this book's plot is modeled after the Gospels.
And now let's drop onto this pile of observations that for all the sex and religious allegory and big business deals and the sociopathic badguy and the other bells and whistles that make Magdalene a blast to read --- notwithstanding all of that --- ultimately this is the story of two people who fall in love. It's a character story. And how these characters change is The Whole Story. Really. When you come down to it, everything else is merely trappings to help the author tell her story of two characters and how they change to become one with another.
Forgive me if I state the obvious and say that sex should be part of this story.
Because here's the thing --- no matter how explicit the sex may be, no matter how much of it there may be, this novel does not contain one single sex scene that fails to develop the characters in serious and important ways. Every sex scene --- each and every one of them! --- provides us, as readers, access to the sex-doers' souls. We understand them in a way that can only be accomplished through their physical joining. We learn things about them we would never understand if the camera had cut away.
This sex is about people, not sex. And so no matter how explicit it may be, it is never gratuitous. Which is remarkable, really, that this much sex never drops into justfortheheckofit. Amazing for such explicity to be utterly unexploitative.
!!!!!
Besides the fact that the book is well written, besides the fact that it provides a compelling and accurate look at Mormonism for people unfamiliar with Mormonism, besides the fact that it goes places few Mormon books have gone before --- besides all these things, Magdalene is a significant Mormon book because it deals with subjects we consider sacred (sex is just for starters), places them in a broader world context, and forces readers both outside and inside the faith to consider their significance through an original lens.
This is not a trivial accomplishment. Mormons are always complaining that books appealing to "nonmembers" always present the Church badly or lightly or inaccurately. I for one have always rejected that view and here is a book that proves the point.
Whatever you do, don't let the sex keep you from this landmark (also, don't let the Mormons keep you from this landmark). And, sorry, if you just skip the sex (or the religion) you will not understand the characters. It's just not possible.
For the average national reader, this is a book that will demonstrate that Mormons should be taken seriously. For the average Mormon reader, this is a book that will demonstrate sexuality should be taken seriously.
Magdalene demands our attention and discussion. So don't let my puffery go unanswered. Read it for yourself and let's parse the difference between good and evil.
We'll never know until we eat the fruit.
(The book's not available until April 24, but if you would like a reminder, let me know in the comments. In the meantime, admitting that you don't have much to go on other than what I say, what do you think?)
Previously in 2011 . . . . :
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
EDIT: ADDED THIS IMAGE FOR LINKAGE REASONS:
2011-01-27
Introducing NEW Books-read Policy
&
A few Books at a Time in 2011 (6-7)
.
EXPLANATION OF NEW POLICY:
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
007) Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules the Night by a slew of DC folk, finished January 23
Uneven. At times rather thrilling, other times fully dull. Nice use of the Scarecrow though. Didn't really live up to its promise. So while I guess it was ultimately good, I was also ultimately disappointed. Maybe I should have found volume one? Maybe I should now read volume three? I dunno. I'm not thrilled enough to follow up.
a week or two
===========================================================
006) Bayou by Jeremy Love, finished January 17
Read my review here.
several days
Previously in 2011 . . . . :
EXPLANATION OF NEW POLICY:
- I've been aware for a while that the five-books-at-a-time policy has its flaws, but this really came to a head in the first five-books post of 2011.
- That post was really four posts. One on a couple Batman books I read. One post on a significant book from my childhood. One post on my literary relationship with Stephen Crane. One post on a host new YA book. And combining those posts into a single too-long monstrosity meant that this blog's constant desire --- to engender conversation --- was diluted and lost.
- Ergo.
- From now on, I will be posting books not in sets of five, but at natural breaks.
- The essential rules remain unchanged.
- Today, a couple of comic books:
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
007) Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules the Night by a slew of DC folk, finished January 23
Uneven. At times rather thrilling, other times fully dull. Nice use of the Scarecrow though. Didn't really live up to its promise. So while I guess it was ultimately good, I was also ultimately disappointed. Maybe I should have found volume one? Maybe I should now read volume three? I dunno. I'm not thrilled enough to follow up.
a week or two
===========================================================
006) Bayou by Jeremy Love, finished January 17
Read my review here.
several days
Previously in 2011 . . . . :
1-5
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
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