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July 29, 2007
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
No spoilers, I promise, for those who are lagging behind.
Hmmm. Well then, what is one to say? She did manage to wrap it up--something that given the number of lose ends at the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince I had wondered how she was going to manage in a single volume.
After all, Half-Blood Prince was an entire volume devoted to the finding of a single horcrux. Given that only two or three of the seven had been found and destroyed, one wondered how the remaining four would be found and put to rest in a mere 750 pages.
And that apart from resolving Snape good or evil, and any number of other tangles.
But she managed it--and as far as plot goes, I think Rowling is amazing. To plan the intricacy of these seven volumes with the care that she must have done--truly an amazing feat.
It is a shame that Ms. Rowling does not hold up well as a prose stylist. At times when she's trying for rhapsodic and lyrical, we get merely painful and awkward. But then Agatha Christies, who was serviceable at prose, excellent at plot, suffered a bit in the characterization realm. So not all writers are equally adept at all aspects of writing. We take them as they come, and Ms. Rowling has woven one of the more memorable sequences of stories in a long time. Her detractors (exorcists and others included) aside, Ms. Rowling's work has an interest, a durability, and a solid spiritual foundation that should encourage generations of young readers to continue their perusal of her work. Despites its flaws, I do not think that this is a flash-in-the-pan, but destined to sit on the same shelf as Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia--not that it has the profound substance of those two works, but in guided reading and careful analysis, there is much here to educate young people. It may occasionally come in soundbytes: "Will you choose the good or the easy?" but it is there nonetheless.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:27 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Richard Aleas
Richard Aleas is apparently the author of a number of short stories. He has produced his first two novels for Hard Case Crimes, and this diptych, featuring the same detective is exemplary of the most noir of noir.
Hard Case Crime is devoted to producing those noir novels that center mostly around revenge and lose women. About half of the line is reprint, featuring the highlights of past years, and about half in new Noir. Richard Aleas falls in this second category.
His first novel for Hard Case, Little Girl Lost features the usual bag of noir tricks--sleazy surroundings, violent crime, and uncertain identities. There's double and triple crosses, and of course a bevy of femmes fatales.
His second, Songs of Innocence, is a very hard book and is as dark as noir can get. It virtually guarantees that we won't see this detective again. Although anything is possible, I suppose.
The prose of both books is really nicely done, hard-boiled, noir, and yet intelligent in a way few of these kinds of books manage. Indeed, Hard Case has done a nice job of finding some fairly intelligent stories all round. You read these noir and you get a real sense of what it means to transcend the genre.
So, if you like detective novels AND you like noir with difficult subject matter, these books may be of interest to you. If not, you've been warned and you might want to visit the gentler realms of the Golden Age, or perhaps wander through the fields of Angela Thirkell--no mystery at all.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Austin Trip
Will be spending about a week in Austin starting today. Business trip, so there won't be much time for seeing the sites (but I've been often enough that it isn't much of an issue). However, this time I'd like to make a trip out to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Research Center.
I'm not a fan of Johnson and his presidency. I don't much care for Lyndon and his brand of Texas politics, that strike me as being up there with Huey Long and his Louisiana group; however, I've always admired Lady Bird. First, she put up with Lyndon and stood by him for all those years, but second, she was a prominent figure who didn't spend her time being purposely prominent. And what time she was in the public eye, she used to advance the cause of a return to natural beauty before that was the mantra of the mindless pantheist. A return to natural beauty is important for the restoration of balance within us as well. The wildflower research center is one of those endeavors that promotes the good of Earth without pushing it in your face. I know that even the parking lots of the hotels that I stayed in in Texas were filled with Bluebonnets and dozens of other gorgeous wildflowers. And I think it is due in large part to her influence.
As the great lady passed away just a short while ago, I'd like to make this small trip to honor her work and memory and to see some of the marvels of Texas. Hope I'm not disappoint because of the unseasonably heavy rains they've been experiencing.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:56 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 30, 2007
Keeping Perspective
Here's a passage from William Barclay's commentary on (what else) The Letter to the Philippians:
On the day when Christ comes it will be like the coming of a king. On such a day the king's subjects are bound to present him with gifts to makr their loyalty and to show their love. The only gift Jesus Christ desires from us is ourselves. So, then, a man's supreme tak is to make his life fit to offer to Him. Only the grace of God can enable us to do that.
I do not desire the fat of animals--the sacrifice I require is a rended, contrite heart.
Over and over gain we are told that the sacrifice acceptable to God is the sacrifice of a life lived with Him. Like any good parent, God desires not material things that we can "give" Him (because it all belongs to Him anyway), but our love. And our love is best demonstrated in living a life that reflects all that He has taught us of love.
He's not asking the impossible, merely the improbable. We can't do it, but He can, and His grace is both sufficient and efficient.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 31, 2007
An Observation
Let me start, apropos of nothing, with a revised line from my journal this morning because it allows me to think about some beautiful things.
"Life without prayer is Life-in-Death."
Originally, I said, "half-life." But then I thought of Coleridge's poem and the remarkable image of Death and a woman casting dice for the Mariner's fate.
from "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeHer lips were red, her looks were free,
Her locks were yellow as gold:
Her skin was as white as leprosy,
The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold.
Life-in-Death wins the Ancient Mariner. And it's interesting that the first part of the description of Life-in-Death is rather attractive in a seductive sort of way. And even white skin is lovely until we reach "as leprosy."
Life without prayer is succumbing to Life-in-Death--a life of sensuality that misses the point of life at all--not really living, but living in Death.
We have a choice--God or anything else because God has made it clear that He is not a God of half-measures, and He will let us have our choice. Not easily, He'll fight for us, but if we insist, He will not overwhelm us and subdue our wills to his choice.
And so, life without prayer is life without God and not a life at all.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 5:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Return to Philippians
Another quotation from Barclay's powerful and useful study of the Letter to the Philippians.
When people are in sorrow, one of their greatest comforts is the awareness that others are bearing them to the throne of grace. When they have to face some back-breaking effort or some heart-breaking decision, there is new strength in remembering that others are remembering them before God. When they go into new places and are far from home, it is an upholding thing to know that the prayers of those who love them are crossing continents to bring them before the thrones of grace. We cannot call a man our friend unless we pray for him.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 5:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
One Last Point
Barclay's short study is filled with many rich and meaningful observations. It's impossible to choose among them without also saying that you must read the whole thing. Nevertheless, there are some things that all might benefit from. And for those Christians among us whose inclination is to deride or demean or otherwise detract from other Christians, Barclay has this observation:
from Barclay's Commentary on the Letter to the Philippians
There is a lesson for us here. Paul knew nothing of personal jealousy or of personal resentment. So long as Jesus Christ was preached, he did not care who received the credit and the prestige. He did not care what other preachers said about him, or how unfriendly they were to him, or how contemptuous they were of him, or how they tried to steal a march upon him. All that mattered was that Christ was preached. All too often we resent it when someone else gains a prominence or a credit which we do not. All too often we regard a man as an enemy because he has expressed some criticism of us or of our methods. All too often we think a man can do no good because he does not do thing in our way. . . . Paul is the great example. He lifted the matter beyond all personalities; all that mattered was that Christ was preached.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 5:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 1, 2007
For the Poets Among Us
Perhaps you all can advise.
When I write and let the words flow as they naturally flow and follow carefully their internal rhythms and mechanics, I almost always wind up with lines of 9 or 11 syllables.
For example, this line,
and richly has delivered on that promise.
I can change it and make it conform to "standard" prosody, and yet to do so changes the meaning, rhythm, and meter to such an extent that the poem, while it may be technically perfect thuds and limps.
Some poetic voices conform nicely to iambic pentameter, but I'll be honest, I've never thought it the rhythm of English speech, though many will swear that it is the "natural rhythm of English." To me it always sounds a little stilted, a little forced, a little off. Not badly so, but enough so that you can tell you're hearing a line of poetry--and while that isn't bad, it seems rather like letting the audience know how you made the penny vanish.
Any opinions, ideas, suggestions, notions, or . . . I don't know. I'd love to hear any feedback.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 5:28 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Anomalocaris Plush
I need one of these.
You can find it here:.
Could some kind soul first translate the Japanese to tell me how I might get it. And then, would another kind soul volunteer to get it for me?
This is one of those sine qua non of the invertebrate palaeontologist. And no wisecracks about how those words are used together. I haven't been spineless for weeks, or at least days. . .well hours. . . okay, still no wise cracks.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 6:04 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack