The 35 Most Amazing Libraries In The World
We’ve been to #18!
November 18, 2011
June 12, 2011
Art
“I confess that the best way to deter me from watching a movie is to tell me it’s “wholesome.” This is because that word applied to art is a lie on its face, because insofar as art is stripped of the world’s sin and suffering it is not really whole at all.
This seems to be a failing—on the part of artist and consumer alike—in what my Orthodox friends call theosis, or walk, as my evangelical friends say. In short, if Christian novels and movies and blogs and speeches must be stripped of profanity and sensuality and critical questions, all for the sake of sparing us scandal, then we have to wonder what has happened that such a wide swath of Christendom has failed to graduate from milk to meat.”
Why so much Christian art is bad.
I’ve had this ongoing discussion with several friends for years- that there is no grace without a fall, no redemption without something from which to be redeemed. In books, movies, and other types of art, I believe it is important- necessary- to show the to-be-rescued in their full evil and debasement in order for the eventual rescue to mean something. This applies in all art (not just explicitly “Christian Art”, whatever that benighted phrase is supposed to mean).
This, perhaps, is why so much post modern art, with its morally relativistic starting point, carries so little emotional impact for me. Telling me that a piece of art is based on a world with no moral foundation doesn’t make me question the idea that there are absolute morals in the world, it just makes me not relate to the piece of art.
Note that I am *not* saying that all stories need to be tied up in neat packages where the good guys win and the bad guy is either converted or destroyed. Uncertainty is just as much a part of our lives as is the evil that we all see. Denying either is to deny the common experience and trivialize the subject. Christian artists should be the most unflinching when it comes to showing the evil in the world, else where is the value of what we proclaim?
There is a necessary place in art, movies, and books, for the ugly stuff- the profanity, the sensuality, the horrible behavior, the murders, the evil. These imbue the journey of the characters with meaning and make them more relatable to the audience. Without one extreme on the moral spectrum, the other makes no sense. If there is no Great Moral Battle, why would the audience care?
h/t Sean for the link.
April 18, 2011
Surrender
Culling is easy; it implies a huge amount of control and mastery. Surrender, on the other hand, is a little sad. That’s the moment you realize you’re separated from so much. That’s your moment of understanding that you’ll miss most of the music and the dancing and the art and the books and the films that there have ever been and ever will be, and right now, there’s something being performed somewhere in the world that you’re not seeing that you would love.
Just beautiful. Read the whole thing.
December 3, 2010
The Entitlement of the Incurious
Great phrase, that.
Barry sends along this interesting (and somewhat sad) account of a recent Steve Martin interview.
When you encourage audiences to feel entitled to get from a live performance or discussion what they get from a CD or an on-demand episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition — that is to say, an experience they could have outlined for themselves ahead of time — you kill the entire point of having people work, speak, or perform live.
November 22, 2010
November 4, 2010
Electricity, mostly
A review of Kevin Kelly’s What Technology Wants. This looks like a really good book. Kelly is a fascinating writer (listen to his This American Life interview from a few years back) who usually gets my attention.
This book seems like a good companion to Stewart Brand’s The Clock of the Long Now and Danny Hillis’ The Pattern on the Stone. Both excellent reads if you’re the techie type.
October 6, 2010
Lactose Toleration
When the Yogurt Took Over: A Short Story.
And just how can you not read something with that title?
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September 19, 2010
Deep Dark Secrets
“I’m overwhelmed with the urge to share a dark, dirty literary secret: that I not only read science fiction, I love it, I learn from it — and I think you should too.”
July 16, 2010
June 4, 2010
Old School
Bought a $3 Atlas of the World at 1/2 Price Books today (a slightly older version of this one). Saved $70 off the cover price! I can’t believe we don’t have one around here. I’ve always enjoyed opening up Atluses (Atli?) and randomly voyaging around the world. Coffee table book, for sure.
December 7, 2009
Ex Libris
I may have posted this a while back, but it’s worth a re-post. The ultimate Geek Library.
December 1, 2009
Pages
Just finished David Weber’s “By Heresies Distressed” (wonderful, btw). It’s relevant because, as of today, I have surpassed 100,000 pages read since I started keeping track in April of 2001 (100,017, to be exact). According to WolframAlpha, I’m reading an average of 31 pages per day (not including online or magazines… just books). At this rate, I will hit 1,000,000 pages on Monday, December 1, 2087- EXACTLY 78 years from today! Wonder if I’ll still have the blog then? (hi, future me).
November 11, 2009
Off Armageddon Reef
Just finished Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber. 10% advanced science fiction living in a story that is 70% Horatio Hornblower and 30% Swords and Sorcery. I know that adds up to more than 100%, but this book is just that good. Thanks to Scott for the recommendation.
September 1, 2009
Current Reading
Just finished reading, actually. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. A totally unexpected book I picked up only because Erin and I joke about how we know so many women named Katherine (or Catherine) and which turned into quite an outstanding book. It’s about a road trip, and hog hunting, and tampon strings, and 19 Katherines, and one genius. And anagrams. And a car called Satan’s Hearse.
And the misplaced body of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
And just because it’s relevant (though you can’t possibly know why): Thanks to Bill Robbins for, 17 years ago, singing Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire at exactly the right time.
August 27, 2009
Current Reading
Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford. Worth a read. Highly recommended.
June 23, 2009
June 4, 2009
Current Reading
Watchmen. Just finished it tonight. Finally I can watch the trailers for the movie.
January 10, 2009
January 6, 2009
Current Reading
Actually, not current. I just finished Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner. Very interesting. They have some “controversial” aspects to their book that were very over-inflated by the critics. I thought they did a commendable job of following the data without imposing a moral stance. Overall a very interesting book.
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December 31, 2008
2008 Reading Tally
The year comes to an end and I’ve clocked in 47 books. I just finished the last one a few minutes ago.
# of Books: 47
# of Pages Read: 13291
Average pages/book: 283
Shortest Book: 80
Longest Book: 1152
Stats since 4/1/01 (when I started counting):
# of books: 266
# of pages: 89107
Averages pages: 335
Shortest Book: 60
Longest Book: 1152
If you assume that I started reading 30 years ago and have kept the same general pace, somewhere in the past year I read my one-thousandth book. Pretty cool. I wish I had known which one it was. Hopefully something classic like Anthem or Cryptonomicon and not something like Air Tools: How to Maintain Your Tools.
It’s an interesting little habit I have of writing down all my books and pages. Doesn’t take very long, and it reinforces to me how many books are in the average small town library, or even the average Barnes and Noble. It would take dozens of lifetimes to get through a respectable fraction of them, and those collections represent pretty much just the most popular or in demand books of the past decade or so. There have been millions of books published in just the last decade alone. How is one supposed to keep up?
Years ago I read a science fiction story about a device that allowed you to “read” (absorb, really) a book by holding a small square cube that contained the “book” next to your head for a few seconds. You could plow through several books in a day. Unfortunately, reading more than one or two per day (a process that took only seconds) ran the risk of permanent psychosis. Hmm… good thing that little device doesn’t exist now, or I might be tempted. People probably already think I’m a little crazy for keeping track.