Thoughts on Anna Karenina

A couple of weeks ago I went to see the completely crappy Gerrard Butler flick in lieu of Anna Karenina, the trailer, because I was afraid I'd be disappointed by Keira Knightly.  Big mistake.

Today I went to see Anna Karenina with my uncle for his birthday. He's a Tolstoy fanatic (and I mean that as a true compliment).  My mom, my aunt, and my cousin, an accomplished actor, came along too.

Anna

This movie was brilliant!  I want to see it again.  and again.  It's an interesting interpretation of the book.  I felt it remained true to the story without strictly following the plot.  Bravo, Tom Stoppard.  For instance, the dance scene where Vronsky transfers his 'love' from Kitty to Anna.  That's not how it happens in the book, but the viewer ends up with the same feeling as she does reading the book's scenes-- gut wrenched.  I also found the expected sophomoric humor true to Tolstoy too: dog poot and nose blowing.  Tolstoy paid a lot of attention to the material world and to details that would never be filed under "high art". It's true to life that funny things happen at the most inopportune times.

I felt the movie took advantage of the visual cues: color, the theater, some of the shots are amazing... even if it occasionally was over the top.

Karenin

My biggest disappointment: Karenin.  Jude Law turned the detestable character into an almost likable bloke.  I take issue with this.  In the book, he's the epitome of frigid obligation.  He's narrow and rigid. He makes the reader's skin crawl without a single misstep.  He has no clue how to be human.  He has no friends.  He turns love into a formula.  He turns the gospel into a formula.  His forgiveness serves as a death sentence to Anna because of his incapability to love or receive or give grace.  Jude Law's Karenin is warm-blooded, which makes Anna out to be more of a tart than in actuality.  Tolstoy's Karenin would leech the life and spirit out of any passionate woman-- any woman.

I enjoyed how stylized the picture was.  I especially liked the completely choreographed bureaucracy  scene-- as were the society scenes.  Tolstoy felt the same way about bureaucracy and society; he was no fan.  I liked Levin, although I always imagined him older and bald.  Trust me, the movie's version was far easier on the eyes than my mind's eye's version.

The quotation: "There are as many loves as their are hearts" has gotten a lot of attention.  I believe Stoppard used it as the organizing point of his movie adaptation. I think Tolstoy makes a strong case that is limited to the character of the person who offers it: Karenin, Oblonsky, Vronsky, and Levin are capable of very different types of love-- some more true and real.  However, I don't think Tolstoy was a postmodernist.  He had more in mind that character flaws are limitations on one's ability to love.

Oblonsky

For example, the affable character Oblonsky; he's a chummy cad that one cannot help but like whose early dalliance caused the meeting between Anna and Vronsky.  (Is that a comment on how connected we are to one another and how are personal sin affects others?)  But, his inability to remain true to his wife Dolly is linked throughout the story to his debt.  He sells Dolly's land/dowry in order to cover his debts.  He lacks discipline and self control, which punishes his family.  He loves Dolly, but his love is limited to his refusal to restrain himself.  He is ruled by his appetites.   Whereas, Levin is almost the opposite: his honor almost prevents him asking Kitty to marry him again.  Then, there is Karenin who is incapable of love.  Does Vronsky love Anna?  That's the question my mom asked at the end of the film, and it's a good one.  I answered to the degree he was able.

 It's a thought-provoking film well worth seeing.

Watch for the Light

I can't wait for Advent!*  December 2nd: the count-down is on.  I taught a class on Advent last year, which served as a great excuse to sprinkle my blog with advent poems and such.  No doubt there will be some of that this year. 

For a lot of history, the church has treated Advent in the same manner they treated Lent; there was more longing and penitence and less  shopping and decorating.  We miss so much skipping over Advent: a punch line needs a joke.  We don't do waiting in our culture-- we're far too important and busy.

I've been on a quest for a good Advent devotional book, a guide: Watch for the Light.  In this context, "good" means intelligent not sentimental, insightful not cliche, what I need to hear not what I want to hear.

I think I may have found it... after reading November 24th's reading, Blumhardt's "Action in Waiting":

".... We live in a mass of wrongs and untruths, and they surround us as a dark, dark night. Not even in the most flagrant things do we manage to break through....

"Anyone whose attention is fixed on the coming reign of God and who wants to see a change brought about in God's house will become more and more aware that there exists a universal wrongness that is pulled over us like a choking, suffocating blanket." (5-6)

"We must speak in practical terms.  Either Christ's coming has meaning for us now, or else it means nothing at all." (10)

"The all-important thing is to keep your eyes on what comes from God and to make way for it to come into being here on earth. If you always try to be heavenly and spiritually minded, you won't understand the everyday work God has for you to do...." (12)

Humble thyself.  "Because a transformation of this scale can never be achieved by human means, but only by divine intervention, Advent (to quote Bonhoeffer again) might be compared to a prison cell 'in which one waits and hope and does various unessential things... but is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside.' It is a fitting metaphor. But dependency does not release us from responsibility. If the essence of Advent is expectancy, it is also readiness for action: watchfulness for every opening, and willingness to risk everything for freedom and a new beginning." (xvi)

I like how the writers lean into the tension of watching and willingness.  In fact, I need it.

I'll close with the poem the book opens:

Lo, in the silent night

A child to God is born

And all is brought again

That ere was lost or lorn.

Could but thy soul, O man,

Become a silent night!

God would be born in thee

And set all things aright!

                              15th Century

*Haha, a little Advent humor.

Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption by Clay Johnson

Excellent, clever book.  Quick read with a simple, important concept:  We need to apply the same logic and consciousness (if not more) to the information we come contact with as we do with the food we eat.  He's a proponent of Info Veganism: as little processed information as possible.  Go for pure information and do the interpretation yourself.  He likens MSNBC and FOX News and the thought affirmation they provide to sugar: it tastes so good, but is really bad for us.  "Without constant attention to perspective diversity, we assure ourselves of mutual intellectual sycophanticide" (113).  It's easy to stick to perspectives we agree, but we need thought ruffage in the same manner as we need lettuce and spinach.  Chapter 9 is "A Healthy Sense of Humor."  I'm telling you: it's good.

The book is written in a conversational voice with excellent anecdotes and relevant data.  I came away convicted and liking the author.  The preface lays out the book.  The first part describes the problem and its implications.  The second part prescribes a solution-- hence the information diet.

If you're interested, you can look it up on YouTube for a one minute and a one hour discussion.

Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges

"Sin" is such an old-fashioned word in our society.  We now have issues, difficult childhoods, and natural proclivities.  It's hard to say that any behavior is deviant in our culture.  Murder and pedophilia are still universally accepted as wrong, but the list is getting shorter and terms qualified.

Then, within the church, sins are the things Christians would never dream of doing: abortion and homosexuality come to mind.  Now, those are sins!  We believe in the doctrine of niceness: we need to seem nice, good and happy. And, good church-goers don't tolerate those bad sins on which we focus.  However, we leave a lot of room for petty, acceptable sins in our lives.

In his book, Respectable Sins, Jerry Bridges minds the gap between the idea of no sin and blatant sin.  He argues that sin robs Christians of joy and contentment.  He doesn't broach any "major" sins like pornography, lying, stealing, which based on statistics, Christians do on a regular basis.  He delves into subtle, acceptable sins that we take for granted in our lives as personality traits and intrinsic foibles.

Bridges argues that these petty sins we tolerate are an affront to God's holiness. The first third of the book sets the stage for individual sins.  He winsomely portrays holiness and the malignancy of sin in our lives and witness.  Much like George MacDonald, Bridges makes goodness look good.

The list of sins/chapters:
Ungodliness (or what I've heard called practical atheism)
Anxiety and Frustration
Discontentment
Unthankfulness
Pride
Selfishness
Lack of Self Control
Impatience and Irritability
Anger
Weeds of Anger
Judgmentalism
Envy, Jealousy and Related Sins
Sins of the Tongue (gossip, slander, lying, harsh words, sarcasm, insults, ridicule)
Worldliness

I don't know about you, but this list made me cringe. This book is hard to read (not intellectually but spiritually).  It's humbling and worthwhile.  It reminds me of the quotation: "Grace is fundamentally odious" and the freedom the doctrine of sin allows.  We can be cured/freed/released of all these petty things that suck the joy out of life.  "Remember that our progressive sanctification-- that is, our putting off sin and putting on Christlikeness-- rests on two foundation stones: the righteousness of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit" (181).  We're not on our own, and the author is constantly reminding us.

I also found Bridge's phrase dependent responsibility really helpful. "... We are responsible before God to obey His Word, to put to death the sins in our lives.... At the same time, we do not have the ability within ourselves to carry out this responsibility.  We are in fact totally dependent upon the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.  In this sense, we are both responsible and dependent" (41).

He describes the sins and then gives Scripture to help combat the sin (I know it sounds kind of hokey). This is the summary from the chapter: "Directions for Dealing with Sins"
Apply the gospel.
Depend on the Holy Spirit.
Recognize your responsibility.
Identify specific respectable sins.
Memorize and apply appropriate Scriptures.
Involve one or a few other believers with you. (51).

I found the most difficult part of the book to grapple with is God, specifically his sovereignty and goodness.  Intellectually, I think I grasp it.  Psychologically, spiritually and practically, I know I don't.  To believe in a sovereign and good God seems almost laughable when you look around at all the pain and suffering, but that is why we were given the Bible.  And, Bridges returns to Scripture again and again to get a clear vision of God and reality.  To believe in the goodness and power of God alters reality to the point that you live differently: eternity becomes real.

"To be sane in a mad time
is bad for the brain, worse
for the heart. The world
is a holy vision, had we clarity
to see it...." -Wendell Berry

We gain that clarity through Scripture, prayer, and each other.  Bible verses are amply sprinkled throughout the text.  Imagine believing Romans 8:28 with every fiber of your being. Or, "Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in your book were written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them" (Psalm 139:16).  This  differs profoundly from the "you can be anything you want to be" slogan I grew up with.  Ultimately, it's not about me or up to me, God's love and purpose are the foundations of life.

As you have noticed, I'm still grappling with it.  It's a deep book with practical applications.

Not alone

"We read to know we are not alone," wrote CS Lewis.  This is one of my favorite quotations.  I had a professor who said some of his best friends were books.  A book can offer amazing companionship.  The Catcher in the Rye and Holden Caulfield were my good friends in tenth grade.  I loved the ducks in Central Park question, the baseball glove, discussion of pimples, and the"phonies".  Holden got it.

Tenth grade was also the year I gave up reading horoscopes.  I was reading some teenage-ish magazine's horoscope, and MY horoscope stated that I would meet a cute boy near my locker and that we'd fall in love.  I got really peeved because a) I didn't have a locker and b) there were no boys at my school.  So, I was not going to fall madly in love that month.  Not only that, but it was wrong from its conception: it was using the law of averages (lockers and boys are pretty safe bets for most high schools), and my situation didn't fit.  For some reason, this resonated deeply in my teenage philosophical sensibilities.

So, I've transferred my disdain of horoscopes to daily devotionals.  Seriously, how on target can they be?  And, I can't do daily devotionals for women.  I find them insulting (clearly, I have some deep-seated issues.)

But, the human condition is universal.  JD Salinger nailed teenage angst and ennui.  The horoscopist nailed my desire to fall in love with a cute boy... just didn't realize how high the odds were stacked against me.  And, I think the universality is especially true on a spiritual level.  St. Augustine's description of "the God-shaped hole" in our hearts is the crux of so much pain.

Anyway, that was a really long introduction to the fact that I've been reading two daily devotionals recently.  One is "Streams in the Desert Volume 1" that I bought for $2.00 and smells like it's older than I am but in a bookish way.  And the other one is cheesy, but I'm enjoying it: Jesus Calling by Sarah Young.  It's written in Jesus's voice-- it's as if he's talking to you.  It's super cheesy and a great reminder of his realness.  And, it's really short.

Streams in the Desert was first copyrighted in 1925, so it can be a little stilted at times.  (But, if you read this blog, you'll do just fine with it.)  But, July 31st entry was perfect for my July 31, 2012:

"He guided them by the skillfulness of his hands." (Psa. 78:72)

When you are doubtful as to your course, submit your judgment absolutely to the Spirit of God, and ask Him to shut against you every door but the right one... Meanwhile keep on as you are and consider the absence of indication to be the indication of God's will that you are on His track... As you go down the long corridor, you will find that He has preceded you, and locked many doors which you would fain have entered; but beyond these there is one which He has left unlocked. Open it and enter, and you will find yourself face to face with a bend of the river of opportunity, broader and deeper than anything you had dared to imagine in your sunniest dreams.  Launch forth upon it; it conducts to the open sea.

God guides us, often by circumstances.  At one moment the way may seem utterly blocked; and then shortly afterward some trivial incident occurs, which might not seem much to others, but which to the keen eye of faith speaks volumes. Sometimes these are repeated in various ways, in answer to prayer. They are not haphazard results of chance, but the opening up of circumstances in the direction we would walk. And they begin to multiply as we advance toward our goal, just as the lights do as we near a populous town, when darting through the land by night express. -F.B. Meyer 

I really needed these words and the pictures they paint yesterday (and today) and don't think it was haphazard results of chance that I came across them.  Right now, it does feel like I'm walking down a long corridor with a lot of locked doors.  But, it helps to think of God as a parent locking doors/ putting up safety walls to prevent my doing something really stupid.

And, although it feels futile to keep applying to jobs, and writing letters trying to figure out licensure.  I'm always finding the balance between faith and action.  It's as my grandpa used to say, "The harder I work, the luckier I get."  I need to keep going down the corridor trying doors, knowing that I'm not alone.

WAR and Peace: Update #1

I was a bit circumspect about the greatness of the novel when I started.  A lot of the plot seems petty.  Teenagers being love, political power struggles, jilted lovers, blah, blah, blah.  But, then, two things.

1. War scenes.  Powerful stuff.  Maybe it's just me, but I love military history.  Thucydides' Peloponnesian Wars has to be one of my favorite books ever.  It's brilliant and insightful.  Any history, rendered well, has the power to dissect and display the devices and desires of the heart.  I think military history is brilliant at depicting pride and greed writ large.  So many tactical mistakes are made because of these two sins.  Also, military history is brilliant at illustrating how powerless we are to author our own stories.  It's uncanny how often inclement weather and terrain play into the success of a battle-- things the Generals have no control over-- not that officers won't take credit for it.  Also, the value of loyalty and faith plays a large role in military history.

2.  Tolstoy's asides are magic.  My initial complaint about the book is its pettiness, but most of life is petty. Precise yet brilliant. Universal.  He nails people so aptly.  You know his characters.  His remarks make Oscar Wilde seem kind of catty.  Let's just say, I'm glad I'm not a character in his book; I'd be embarrassed on how he'd sum me up.  Although I don't think his comment would make me angry, I think I'd feel more naked and sad.

War and Peace

Same old, same old to report... except I'm reading Tolstoy's War and Peace.  It's my uncle's favorite Russian novel.  Whenever I finish a Russian novel, he takes me out to dinner to discuss it.  We always have a good time.

I'm on page 136 of 1358.  10%

I read some reviews of the novel yesterday.  This one reviewer said it's the only book you need to read because it covers everything.  The same review talked about how Tolstoy was part of the aristocracy so he wasn't cramped for time and money.  He also had a very modern view of history.  We'll see how I feel as I get deeper into it.

Brave, Esposito, and The Meaning of Marriage

This week's reviews.  Two movies and a book.  Get psyched.

Can I tell you how psyched I was to see Brave?  Who doesn't love a kick-ass princess?  I heard several friends talk about how great it was! Then, I saw it. Disappointment galore.

Merida is no kick-ass princess; she's a selfish, spoiled brat.  She's no Katniss; They only share archery.  Merida harms her family instead of helps them.  They're both feisty but go about it in very different ways.  I think the two characters give two completely different view of the role of freedom: Katniss= freedom as being at liberty to perform one's duty, and Merida= freedom as being at liberty to follow one's whims.  Here's a link to my two reviews regarding Katniss and The Hunger Games.

I thought Brave made light of the role of education and peace-making, and glossed over the necessity of decorum and culture for the most part.  It used hyperbole as if it were theI think it attempted to meld the traditional princess story with a coming of age story, but failed each genre miserably.  And, I think the whole concept of fate gets muddled with the double story.  I can't recommend it.  And, I have to say it further bothered me that such a befuddled, pointless story was set in Scotland.

Fans of the movie would argue that the transference of the "Legend as lesson" from mother to daughter is the point-- that one can learn from other's mistakes if one is wise.  But, I'm not sold on that.  I find it far more problematic that the protagonist would have killed her mother.  She asked that the witch change her mother in lieu of wishing to be changed.  (I'm guessing that I feel such animosity towards Merida, the cartoon character, because I'm dealing with the selfish, spoiled brat aspects of myself and wishing that my situation be changed instead of myself.  I identify with her much to my chagrin-- and it's quite enlightening for my evaluation of my situation when added to a conversation I had on Friday about differentiating between "personal preference" and philosophy/world view/character.)

PS.  I know I'm the dissenting opinion on Brave. Please feel free to disagree with me.

On the other hand, Esposito was awesome.  (Not only should we support local food, but we should support local arts.) It exceeded expectations. It's a love story set in a self-storage place in North Carolina.  Orange shirts and golf carts are involved!  It was obviously the first feature film for most of the ensemble (we're talking actors, writer, director), and that may have added to its charm.  But, it had a good idea and wrestled with questions of honesty, friendship, and character.  Esposito is along the lines of Junebug in terms of Southern flavor, but a little less polished.

It was really funny!  The writer and protagonist is a key player in an improv group.  There's definitely some improv going on in the movie.  The friend I went with wasn't overly thrilled with that aspect of the film, but I liked it.  I found it highly entertaining throughout.  The bit characters were quite fun; they made me think of this quote Designer Women quotation: "In the South we don't institutionalize the crazy, we celebrate them."  I think this idea would be an amazing sitcom.  It'd being distributed in October.  You should check it out.

Now for the book: The Meaning of Marriage by Tim and Kathy Keller.  I read it because my mother bought it for my cousin who's getting married later this month.  My mom asked me to read it in order to guarantee that it be read.  You see, books as gifts are a running joke between my mom and this cousin.  My mom is a former English teacher and my cousin hated/s reading.  You can see where this is headed.  Anyway, my mom would always give M a book with an IOU tucked in the book near the end.  After M read it, Mom would quiz her, and if she knew the answers would give her the money.  I think this time, she's just going to put a check into the book.  M will most likely rifle through the pages.

Anyway, I'm glad I read it.  Keller is a fantastic writer.  Here's my gist of the book.  Marriage isn't about personal happiness or fulfillment.  It's about commitment and covenant.  One's spouse is his or her partner in sanctification-- or as I said in my head, "sanctification buddy".  Marriage, by its essence, changes the individuals.  Marriage should be done in community.  Marriage is good... and hard.  Yet, marriage is no one's salvation.

Singleness is also good; I think he means it since he's a pastor of about 3,000 singles.  Singles need to make sure that they neither glorify or fear marriage.  And, one should consider compatibility of character and friendship as the number one factors in potential partners.  A single should be looking at the person's potential not where they are now (talking about character).  He warned women not to get hung up about money and men about looks.

So, it's slightly more complex than that, and that is why you should read it!

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This is the first book in a great YA dystopian trilogy. The movie opens Friday! I taught this book to 7th graders last year who loved it. The author wrote for TV, so she has a knack for suspenseful endings to chapters. I know adults who've stayed up until 3am or fallen asleep on the sofa on "school nights" because of the suspense of this book.

Why I like this book:

Universal Themes
Good v. evil. Do good and evil exist-- or are they just cultural concepts?
Big v. little. Was Nietzsche right?
Friendship. What does friendship entail? Is there more to it than sharing secrets?
Family. A parent dies, and a child has to take charge. Roles shift. What are the givens and necessities in familial bonds?
Courage. What is courage? Where does courage live and thrive? What brings courage out in a person?
Survival. What gives humans the will to fight against seemingly insurmountable odds?
Love. What does love look like, feel like, act like? What does love mean? Who and what's worth loving?
Hope.
Liberty.
Role of government.

Kick-Ass Female Protagonist
Thank you, God, for giving teenager a girl worth emulating! Move over, Bella and Twilight. Bella is such spineless, whiney, soul-less, pointless protagonist. My heart sank every time I saw a 12 or 13 yo girl toting around one of the Twilight books.

Relevance
Reality television? Video games? Politics? Does any of this stuff impact our daily lives? Do we need to question this stuff's role in our lives?

Craftmanship
Poignant use of symbolism. Say, the dandelion. Bread.

Readability
It's a quick, fun read.

Movie tie-ins. It was shot in North Carolina. The Capitol scenes were shot in uptown Charlotte. A lot of the wilderness scenes were shot in Shelby.

I think there are going to be a lot of connections between this movie and Winter's Bone. Watch it and see for yourself.

May the odds ever be in your favor!

Diane Ackerman's An Alchemy of Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain

This book is excellent! I like most books I review, but this one is definitely a starred review. It's the kind of book that takes root in your mind and finagles its way into your daydreams and conversations with unsuspecting friends. I was emailing a friend I hadn't seen in years about something, and somehow a paragraph about mammals' sleep patterns appeared. He was cool and worked some weird facts into his reply.

Diane Ackerman blends science, art and everything into this book in a beautiful and playful manner. She reminds you what a fun adventure thought is. Based on reading this book, I'd recommend anything by this author. She reminds me of my favorite professors-- I didn't care what they were teaching because their teaching was enough. I hated Greek, but Prof. Wooten made Lysius' court cases come alive and seem completely relevant and fascinating. She's a curious teacher-- what's not to like?

The book is well crafted from the macro level of organization to the micro of sentences. It's witty and wise. Even the Table of Contents is delightful:

MIRACLE WATERS
(Evolution)
Chapter 1. The Enchanted Loom
Imagining the brain.
Chapter 2. This Island Earth
Evolution; the world's tiniest reptile; our brain and other animals.
Chapter 3. Why We Ask "Why?"
What happens in the right brain vs. the left brain; why we're driven to tell stories.
Chapter 4. The Fibs of Being
Consciousness; some definitions and theories.
Chapter 5. Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines
The unconscious; how it collaborates with the unconscious mind.

SWEET DREAMS OF REASON (The Physical Brain) Chapters 6-12
PAVILIONS OF DESIRE (Memory)13-19
NEVER A DULL TORMENT (The Self, and Other Fictions) 20-24
THE WORLD IS BREAKING SOMEONE ELSE'S HEART (Emotions) 25-26
THE COLOR OF SAYING (Language) 27-30
THE WILDERNESS WITHIN (The World We Share) 31-34

Aren't those fascinating, enticing titles? My job already finished because you're already dying to read it.

The book is worth owning solely for Chapter 30: Shakespeare on the Brain. The chapter's epigraph: "[He understood]... the quality of the real universe, the divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic reality in which we all live." - C.S. Lewis

There's a plethora of worthwhile quotations: for instance: "... the spirit of inhabitable awe... Edward Hirsch, The Demon and the Angel

The book's epigraph:
my mind is
a big hunk of irrevocable nothing which touch and
taste and smell and hearing and sight keep hitting and
chipping with sharp fatal tools
in an agony of sensual chisels i perform squirms of
chrome and execute strides of cobalt
nevertheless i
feel that i cleverly am being altered that i slightly am
becoming something a little different, in fact
myself
Hereupon helpless i utter lilac shrieks and scarlet
bellowings. e.e. cummings, Portraits, VII

Another Chapter's epigraph:
“We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves. I wish for all this to be marked on by body when I am dead. I believe in such cartography - to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. We are not owned or monogamous in our taste or experience. All I desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps.”
― Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

She even weaves alchemical symbols into the book. This book is engaging, beautiful and fun. It lives up to its title. You will be altered by reading it. What more can you ask from a good book?

The Quiet American by Graham Greene

I have a thing for modern Catholic writers: Walker Percy, Flannery O'Connor, Evelyn Waugh, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and Graham Greene. I'll even put Kathleen Norris in the group-- she's an oblate with a Benedictine order. I find their writing true, characters real, and ideas necessary. It's kind of a serious thing that proves CSL's statement: "We read in order to know we're not alone." I'm never alone when reading these people. They are my clan.

Graham Greene makes the most despicable characters spicable. Well, he makes them tolerable if not endearing. His whiskey priest in the Power and the Glory is genius: my post on the Power and the Glory. He has the uncanny ability to make the reader realize that she has a lot in common with this terrible, easily judged character. He blurs the lines between good and evil by calling into question social norms. His "bad guys" are reminescent of the publican praying outside the synagogue. They have the humility to forgo on pretense.

In The Quiet American, Fowler is a small, desperate, weak man, and Pyle is ambitious, naive, and dangerous. With a lesser author, liking both these characters wouldn't be possible. His characters are very believable and he conquers really big ideas... like proxy war and colonialism, and religion. And, his style is highly readable yet artful.

Here's Fowler on war and politics:
"Thought's a luxury. Do you think the peasant sits and thinks of God and democracy when he gets inside his hut at night?" (119)

"Isms and ocracies. Give me facts. A rubber planter beats his labourer-- all right, I'm against him. He hasn't been instructed to do it by the Minister of the Colonies. In France, I expect he'd beat his wife. I've seen a priest, so poor he hasn't a change of trousers, working fifteen hours a day from hut to hut in a cholera epidemic, eating nothing but rice and salt fish, saying his Mass with an old cup-- a wooden platter. I don't believe in God and yet I'm for that priest. Why don't you call that colonialism?"

".... We haven't a liberal party any more-- liberalism's infected all the other parties. We are all either liberal conservatives or liberal socialists; we all have a good conscience. I'd rather be an exploiter who fights for what he exploits, and dies with it. Look at the history of Burma. (120-1)

Fowler on religion:

" If this cathedral had existed for five centuries instead of two decades, would it have gathered a kind of convincingness with the scratches of feet and the erosion of the weather? Would somebody who was convincible like my wife find here a faith she couldn't find in human beings? And if I had really wanted faith would I have found it in her Norman church? But I had never desired faith. The job of a reporter is to expose and record.... I had no visions or miracles in my repertoire of memory." (110)

"Repertoire of memory": what a brilliant, weighted phrase. The human mind does pick and choose which memories to play.

"It's strange what fear does to a man." (says the priest.)
"It would never do that to me. If I believed in any God at all, I should still hate the idea of confession. Kneeling in one of your boxes. Exposing myself to another man. You must excuse me, Father, but to me it seems morbid-- even unmanly."
"Oh," he said lightly, "I expect you are a good man. I don't suppose you've ever had much to regret." (57)

Oh, the gentle knowing wisdom of the priest.


There's the "love" triangle between Pyle, Fowler, and Fowler's Vietnamese lover, which, of course, mirrors the politics and war. The American's the idealistic ass. Greene is British after all.

This book demonstrates the power of art to raise necessary questions in a fairly inoffensive manner. I think this book is extremely timely considering the American presence in Afghanistan-- are we really helping the Afghanis? Are isms and ocracies a legitimate reason to kill a human being?

This book has made me realize how grateful I am to regain my capacity to read and engage with good books. It was really hard when I didn't have the attention to do it. Three cheers for good books!

The Innocence and Wisdom of Father Brown by GK Chesterton

I discovered Chesterton in seminary, which isn't really a shock. He's such a fantastic thinker and so quick-witted and joyful. I'd put his wit up with Oscar Wilde, but it has a very different flavor. I'd have loved to watch him debate. However, I actually read my first Father Brown mystery, "The Blue Cross", this year in an anthology. I'm a big fan of murder mysteries because they are the most moral fiction we have.

In seminary, I came up with a theory that the chubbier a theologian was the jollier his theology. Take John Newton. He was rotund at the height of his writing on grace. Take the Desert Fathers; they thought laughter was bad for the soul. But, I think my theory explains the difference between Martin Luther and John Calvin... and their followers.

Father Brown's character is a lovable little mole of a man. He's nothing to look at and terribly odd, but he's terribly keen and wise. He understands human nature at a fundamental level. The plots are not always brilliant, but there's always a haunting idea embedded in the story. And, Chesterton's writing is phenomenal.

Father Brown on crime as a work of art:

"A crime," he said slowly, "is like any other work of art. Don't look surprised; crimes are by no mean the only works of art that come from an infernal workshop. But every work of art, divine or diabolic, has one indispensable mark-- I mean, that the center of it is simple, however much the fulfillment may be complicated...." He then goes on to prove his theory with Hamlet; he makes numerous literary allusions which are fun and accurate. (from The Queer Feet, p.57)

On politicians:

"Men may keep a sort of level of good, but no man has ever been able to keep on one level of evil. That road goes down and down. The kind man drinks and turns cruel; the frank man kills and lies about it. Many a man I've known started like to be an honest outlaw, a merry robber of the rich, and ended stamped into slime." (The Flying Stars, p. 73).

On conversation:

"Have you ever noticed this-- that people never answer what you say? They answer what you mean-- or what they think you mean...." (The Invisible Man, p. 89)

On Sleep:

"Sleep!" cried Father Brown. "Sleep. We have come to the end of the ways. Do you know what sleep is? Do you know that every man that sleeps believes in God? It is a sacrament, if only a natural one. Something has fallen on us that falls very seldom on men; perhaps the worst thing that can fall on them."

Craven's parted lips came together to say, "What do you mean?"

The priest had turned his face to the castle as he answered:
"We have found the truth; and the truth makes no sense."
... when they reached the castle again he threw himself upon sleep with the simplicity of a dog." (The Honour of Israel Gow, p. 102)

On miracles and the modern mind:

""The modern mind always mixes up two different ideas: mystery in the sense of what is marvellous, and mystery in the sense of what is complicated. That is half its difficulty about miracles. A miracle is startling; but it is simple. It is simple because it is a miracle. It is power coming directly from God (or the devil) instead of indirectly through nature or human wills...." (The wrong shape, p.121)

On humility:

"....Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak."
....
"I am a man," answered Father Brown gravely; "and therefore have all devils in my heart...." (The Hammer of God, pp. 158-9)

Example of his poetic language (and literary illusion):

The thousand arms of the forest were grey, and its million fingers silver. In a sky dark green-blue-like slate the stars were bleak and brilliant like splintered ice. All that quickly wooded and sparsely tenanted countryside was stiff with a bitter and brittle frost. The black hollows between the trunks of the trees looked like bottomless, black caverns of that Scandinavian hell, a hell of incalculable cold.... (The Sign of the Broken Sword, p.176)


My recommendation: buy this book at a used bookstore to pick up when you want to smile and think for a bit.

Harper's Rules Reviewed

My aunt gave me a copy of Harper's Rules by Danny Cahill about finding love and a job. He connects the two in a novel/self-help hybrid. I appreciate the attempt at a story device even if I don't think Cahill will be nominated for a Pulitzer for his effort. The characters are flat and remain that way. The dialogue is so bad that it made me laugh (that's a compliment, I guess). There's no intrigue-- nothing is left to the reader. Everything is s-p-e-l-l-e-d out. Everything. It must be something to do with the business style of writing-- emphasis on clarity rather than, say, style.

Synopsis:

Harper the brilliant, egotistic head hunter is helping his former client Casey out of a hard spot. Casey's about to lose her job, which Harper finds out through his sheer awesomeness. Casey, a recent divorcee, resigns her job (a no-no) but Harper already has some interviews lined up for her. Voila, Harper writes chapters, texts and chats her through finding her dream job and man. Please note all my cliches, they were inspired by the book.

The cardboard nature of the plot and characters isn't what got me through the 140 page book. There's actually some good advice. I bracketed some sections and put a couple of asterisks in the margins next to some useful pointers.

1. "You haven't committed yet to your career. Down deep you are waiting for a sign, for enough good things to happen to you to justify making a commitment. But, it doesn't work that way. You have to commit first, and then, because you have committed, good things come to you." (p.142)

Cliched, yes. True, yes. Relevant to my professional and personal life, yes.

2. TIme to leave Diagnostic Questions (pp.9-11)

One question: Was it ever what you really wanted?
Another: How many times a day do you laugh during the day?
Another: Do you believe what they tell you at work?
Another: Do you like the work but feel uncomfortable in the culture?

He takes these excellent questions and unpacks them concisely. And, as you can see, they work for a job or a relationship. Brilliant.

3. There's some excellent insight to the interviewing process about the crucial nature of timing and how to express interest.

4. He makes a reference to F. Scott Fitzgerald's concept of the lover and the beloved in a relationship. The power dynamic is in the beloved's favor. And, this reference was believable, satisfying, and sad. Sad because it reminds me of visiting my sister while she was in business school. She and some of her fellow MBAers were just short of brilliant and well-read, but they drank like fish. There's a poetic soul insulated by a cynical, practical shell.

This book isn't by Tolstoy, that's for sure. But I actually read every page, which is more than I can say for most of this kind of book. Most of the time I'd just skim.

Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller Quasi-Reviewed

Counterfeit Gods

I picked this book up in my mom's church's library. I really liked Prodigal God and thought that odds were in this books favor. I was right. This book was good; it was far more powerful than I expected it would be. It's founded in Scripture and profoundly relevant. He talks about surface idols and deep idols and how insidious idolatry is. Reading about it reminded me of kudzu; idolatry is the kudzu of the heart.
kudzu

Idols are rarely bad things: love, family, work. It's just taking a good thing and turning it into an ultimate thing. Keller writes about the distortion and the correction: Jesus Christ. He always brings it back to Jesus. He roots his teaching in the stories of Abraham, Jacob and Jonah woven with modern examples. After reading this book, I needed to pray. I needed to pray while reading it. The book functioned in the same way art does. It brings new light into the familiar, unsettling the seemingly comfortable. It reminds me that as Christians, we are pilgrims in a foreign land. It reminds me of all of Jesus's I AM statements: he is the way, the bread of heaven, life, etc. All else although really, truly amazing and good cannot satisfy. It reminds of Darrell Johnson saying that if you don't offer up your idols to God, he will take them.

This said, it's a gentle, gracious book. I'd recommend it to anyone. It's a provocative, thoughtful book.

on marriage

from Amazon


Tim and Kathy Keller have just released a book on marriage titled The Meaning of Marriage, based on a popular sermon series he did. I love reading about marriage, but I haven't read it yet. My favorite book on marriage is by a Regent grad called The Mystery of Marriage. So, maybe this will rank up there. We will see.

However, I did watch the The Meaning of Marriage live discussion tonight. It was thought provoking.

What I like about these books (presuming the discussion is related to the book) is that they're primarily about your relationship with God and present marriage as a catalyst in becoming holy. God will sanctify his people anyway he pleases. I'm not sure evangelicals have really bought into this. Bethany was a moderator, and she talked about how to apply the ideas to her life as a single. She said it was easy: loving the stranger and confronting your selfishness (plenty of opportunity for that as a single), embracing femininity (or masculinity as the case may be) doesn't require marriage, loving and forgiving someone who's hurt you-- single people have friends and family for that too.

So, oddly, reading about marriage makes me more content about being single. It fights all my urges to settle for a nice guy-- there's a lot on the line. And, last month a friend's husband contacted me to buy me a flight to her birthday party in Austin, TX so I can come for the weekend. If I were to get married, I want a husband who not only remembers my birthday but knows my random friends and contacts them on my behalf (he hasn't even met me in person). Tim Keller kept on talking about your spouse as your best friend and counsellor. That you fall in love with the person God is making him into and vice versa. Books like these raise the bar.

plus side

Free time is a definite benefit to unemployment. It's an exercise to take advantage of it, to use it constructively. I have a tendency to get overwhelmed when I don't know the end point and spaz out, escaping any form of productivity. I remember a rowing workout where my coach explained that we would do anywhere from 3-12 all out 1k sprints. I said all out for three looks different than all out for twelve. Then she said, "No, it doesn't." You could argue both our points, but hers is stronger. I've got to give all my effort in each sprint regardless of how many are to come. I like to plan for the future even I don't have the least clue what it will bring. Take for instance, this time last year, I had no idea that I'd be unemployed, dog-sitting, in a long-distance relationship, training for a marathon.

One time when I was lamenting my lack-luster career and station in life my sister gently chastised me. My sister always warns me that I have no clue what the future holds; so, I need to be neither fearful nor complacent. She's right.

So, I'm trying to look for a job that I'll succeed in, grow in my faith in God, and enjoy the time instead of feeling guilty. So, I'm reading a lot and watching movies and cooking. Yesterday afternoon I watched The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. I would highly recommend it. It's the same guy who did Supersize Me. It provokes thought and awareness. Is advertising bad? Can we live without it? How influenced are we by it? Et cetera.

I've also been muscling through a bio of the Brontes and enjoying a bio of Eudora Welty aptly titled Eudora. I've read Welty's memoir and a lot of her work. I like Flannery O'Connor better but Eudora is great. Here are two quotes from the first page:
1) "As you have seen, I am a writer who came of a sheltered life. A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within." from her own One Writer's Beginnings
2) "'It wasn't that Eudora Welty was plain,' said a woman who had grown up in Jackson and now lives in Boston. 'She was ugly to the point of being grotesque. In the South, that was tantamount to being an old maid....'"

I'm finding it really entertaining and interesting, esp. since The Help takes place in Jackson, Mississippi too.

Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John and the Praying Imagination

I had a hard time reading this book, but I muscled through. I definitely underlined some passages and reveled in some of the chapters' epigraphs, but overall found it difficult. I think this has more to do with my internal landscape than the book, or maybe it was a combination. Peterson always reminds me that the Christian walk is an adventure beyond us (we need the Spirit) rather than a tedious moral TDL. This reminder I need. He reminds me that for all material acts there is a spiritual dimension and vice versa. The church is both a geographic and theological reality. Worship is far more profound than feel-good emotion; it's entering into eternity. Salvation is a meal and a war. Prayer definitely fits in both categories. He lambasts gnosticism and materialism.

Some quotations:
"To live in the past or future is easy. To live in the present is like threading a needle." Walker Percy

Church:
"The life of faith is developed under the image of the Trinity in the context of community." (44)

Worship:
Christians worship with a conviction that they are in the presence of God. Worship is an act of attention to the living God who rules, speaks and reveals, creates and redeems, orders and blesses. Outsiders, observing these acts of worship, see nothing like that.... Revelation 4 and 5 answers the question and gives the last word on worship in five parts: worship centers, gathers, reveals, sings and affirms." (59)

"During the act of worship something has been happening to the worshipers: minds are cleared; perceptions come into focus; spirits are renewed." (66)

Evil:
"But nothing evil has the staying power of good." (77)

Politics:
"Politics reaches into dimensions of behavior and belief.... Dissenters in a society are as dangerous as criminals to the political establishment." (123)

Review: The Elegance of the Hedgehog and Sarah's Key

Key
Elegance

Spoiler Alert: I may ruin the plot twists if you read this; however, I may entice you to enjoy the stories if you read this.

I was sitting back in my chair with my copy of The Elegance of the Hedgehog<, reflecting on the story, when Sarah's Key slammed into my thoughts. There are so many connections and crossovers.

Both follow the lives of a girl and a woman separately until the story lines cross. However, Sarah's Key the the girl is in WWII and the woman in contemporary, and the Hedgehog's two protagonists are contemporary. The stories both center around apartment buildings in Paris. Both stories delve into the power of personal destiny and the power of the individual. All the characters change due to interaction with one another. The stories have to do with the role that self-knowledge and self-perception play in our lives and ability to interact with each other.

The girls in both stories struggle with their power to impact others. Sarah is a fighter; she both saves and harms someone. But, her plan could have worked if her parents would have helped. Paloma at first finds it pointless to fight and then changes her mind. Paloma discovers the key to life is to engage rather than to observe. Sarah cannot escape her engagement. It seems as if the authors use the young characters as a canvas to paint out how determined and shaped a person is by when, where and to whom she is born. I guess the same is true too of the older ones. It reminds me of J. Alfred Prufrock's question "Do I dare disturb the universe?"

The older protagonists are changed as well. Julia is a restless fighter too; she has to discover the truth regardless of the cost. The status quo holds no power over her, yet in the end the status quo wrecks her life. But, she is willing to bear the brunt. Whereas, Renee is bewitched with her understanding of the status quo and what it requires of her.

Both stories preach the power of kindness and selflessness (Ozu and the farming couple) and the necessity of being willing to receive other's generosity (of spirit and stuff). Both are very tight, complete stories, which, luckily, is something that my mom taught me to appreciate. They are not wholesome stories in the Focus on the Family or Disney sense with a safe story line with clear black and white boundaries. They're good stories in that they all strings of idea are tied together and accounted for. They're beautiful in their willingness to explore and redeem seeming ugliness. Is it possible for something good to be born out of something bad? These brilliant stories answer yes.

I remember going to see The Departed with my mom. We met a couple from the church I grew up who was leaving the theater in disgust-- they couldn't get over the violence and language. My mom and I listened to their distressed comments, and then went to the movie. My mom wryly observed afterwards, "I believe we saw very different movies." I'm glad I grew up in a Christian family that wasn't appalled by four-letter words or anger or violence. I wasn't raised to be fearful or ignorant, but to believe in a good and powerful God who enjoys beauty and story and is bigger than any evil.

I think integral to any well-constructed story is hope. There's always the capacity/chance for the character to grow and be changed-- in essence to experience grace. However, the character doesn't have to capitalize on the opportunity. In these stories, all the protagonists are open to grace even though they don't escape evil. There is the beauty.








A wiki overview of the book.

Review of Scarlet Pimpernel

The Scarlet Pimpernel is one of my sister's absolute favorite books. This statement is kind of a big deal because my sister is a voracious reader. So I've always been a little sheepish about not having read it, esp. since I have started it several times. It has one of the slowest openings of all time. You have to get through about two-thirds of it before it gets exciting. It does (eventually) get exciting.

I can see why my sister likes the book: Percy Blakeney is dashing hero. What woman wouldn't fall in love with him? Marguerite is an annoying character; then again, she is French. However, I was most impressed with Chauvelin, the despicable antagonist. He was truly despicable. He was evil to the point he'd lost his humanity.

I found all the author's asides annoying and unnecessary. I realize I grew up in a time that succinctness reigns supreme. The baroness is wordy and belabors her points too much and too often.

I fell head-over-heels for the Scarlet Pimpernel and his dashing escapes. I also really liked how proud Lord and Lady Blakeney are; their pride is too their detriment. There's a poignant scene in which they refuse to be vulnerable. The dramatic irony for the reader is intense!

My favorite line from my first reading of the book: "A woman's heart is such a complex problem-- the owner thereof is often most incompetent to find the solution to this puzzle" (Chapter XVII Farewell).

flat tire

Yesterday was one of my best teaching days yet! I nipped discipline problems in the bud while remaining chipper. The kids wrote page long journals about their life in 20 years. They engaged in conversation about oxymorons and paradoxes. The classes were quick paced. The students and I were amazed at our efficiency.

Today was okay. I'm learning how to relax in the disfunction and chaos. Things are never as they should be. The copier is always jammed or busy with 10 page packets when I'm working with tight margins. My planning-period ward needed much one on one work with prepositional phrases. Today as we were writing down literary terms to play bingo, I could see the kids get excited about how much they learned. They wouldn't stop spouting terms even though it meant more work. They were having fun. But, the natives are restless with the weather gorgeous.

But, the highlight of this teaching week has come during Walk and Talk. My 12 and 13 year olds are enthralled by the catepillars. They pick them up and play with them: they have the critters crawl up sticks. So, there are a couple of boys we had to say, "Don't step on them." But, for the most part they're gentle and curious with them. Seeing my little punks play with catepillars makes me appreciate them more. It reminds me that there's more to them than bravado, whining, body humor and sexual innuendo. I got to see them as precious little kids delighting in fuzzy worms.

This afternoon as I was hurrying to meet the Chief in order to meet my sister for dinner, I realized I had a flat. I could hear and feel it. Thankfully, the custodian was out dealing with trash. He fixed it with only a few comments about how dang hot it was. I gave him the towel I had in my gym bag, which helped a little.

I went to the place I bought the tires with the donut. They replaced the tire; whatever metal I ran over tore up the inside of the tire. Yay, for warranties and good customer service. I need to get Triple A for my car. It's common sense when your car has over 254k miles on it one might think.

I finished Jean Ferris's Bad tonight. I felt a large part of the book was about the power of literature in a reader's life. I got a list of books I'd like to read from it (Road to Oz). The protagonist's teacher assigns her books, which she falls in love with in juvie hall. I enjoyed it, and, more importantly, I think my kids will. I now have to create a Reading Guide. Then, I've started Sebestyen's Word by Heart. It's a powerful story, but I wonder if the setting and diction will mess with my kids.

Slated for tomorrow: long run and sewing. Don't I sound like a hip 60 year old-- not to mention I ordered something from Talbot's this week. And, I'm so ready for bed. Note to self: I hang out with the Chief and her sister altogether too much.