CREATION, EVIL, TIME ~ three mysteries, about which it is only possible, in the last analysis, to say that they are somehow interconnected, and that their relationship to the greater mystery of divine Reality is one of limitation.
-- Aldus Huxley
Friday, April 27, 2012
The Principle of Democracy
The principle of democracy is freedom, the principle of war is discipline; each requires the absence of the other.
~ Will Durant
~ Will Durant
Saturday, April 14, 2012
The Function of Poetry
"'What is the use or function of poetry nowadays?' is a question not the less poignant for being defiandy asked by so many stupid people or apologetically answered by so many silly people. The function of poetry is religious invocation of the Muse; its use is the experience of mixed exaltation and horror that her presence excites. But 'nowadays'? Function and use remain the same; only the application has changed. This was once a warning to man that he must keep in harmony with the family of living creatures among which he was born, by obedience to the wishes of the lady of the house; it is now a reminder that he has disregarded the warning, turned the house upside down by capricious experiments in philosophy, science and industry, and brought ruin on himself and his family."
Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Saturday, April 07, 2012
The Ugly Sea
"We are in rhythm with the old ocean: it rises irregularly twice in twenty-four hours, and then repents of rising; and so largely do we." -- R.A. Lafferty, "The Ugly Sea"
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
A Universal Corrosive
"I can think of lots of reasons why The Closing of the American Mind deserves as many readers as it earned in the eighties; Bloom’s sly wit and the torrential energy of his prose are worth the price of admission, in my opinion. But this one carries a special urgency. As well as anyone then or now, he understood that the intellectual fashion of materialism—of explaining all life, human or animal, mental or otherwise, by means of physical processes alone—had led inescapably to a doctrinaire relativism that would prove to be a universal corrosive."
Andrew Ferguson, The Weekly Standard, Apr 9, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 29
Andrew Ferguson, The Weekly Standard, Apr 9, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 29
Sunday, April 01, 2012
The Fall of Rome and the Rise of Islam
A friend shared a link to Tom Holland's recent article in the Guardian, about the Fall of Rome and the rise of Islam.
I thought it very good: Holland is a fine writer. In true Blogger fashion I have some half-digested thoughts to share.
I always understood that among Sci-Fi fans, "the Mule" in the Foundation Trilogy has long been understood as an unflattering portrait of L. Ron Hubbard, whose inauguration of a science fiction religion had roughly the same effect on North American SF fans that Muhammad's revelation had on the post-classical world.
It seems astounding that Holland manages to all but ignore the fact that the Roman Empire was mostly replaced by Christian societies, not Islamic. Those Greek Egyptians who received that invoice for sheep that he mentions, were not exactly members of some pagan cult: Egypt had been Christian for 300 years by that time.
Then he also neglects to mention what may be the most interesting thing about Asimov and Herbert, which is that their books have scant or no Christian content. People had been writing novels about the Fall of Rome for hundreds of years -- you could fill a whole library with such books, though they are all unread today. I used to own one that I picked out of a dollar bin in Texas: a big fat elegant blue-backed thing from the 1890s with gold-edged pages and a pompous kind of title like "Sunlight and Shadow" or some such, execrably written by a dull and no-doubt fat 19th century Evangelical minister, and all about the spiritual awakening of some Roman aristocrat's beautiful daughter with milk-white skin and sexy lips, as she becomes attracted to the persecuted sect in the catacombs, falls under the sway of its compelling bearded bishop, and learns to recognize her True Lord in Christ. "Quo Vadis" is another such book, far more famous. Now why would Tom Holland make no mention of this?
He doesn't say much about Star Wars either, perhaps because its narrative of political rebellion, which could certainly be classical or proto-Christian, doesn't fit the pattern. How true, that what people don't say can reveal as much as what they do. "In other regions ... there are even more haunting silences." Indeed.
Holland's connection of late Roman catastrophe to Tolkien's Middle Earth history, by way of Arthurian romance, is ingenious, perhaps not ironclad but insightful. Tolkien's book does achieve much of its effect by its background reference to sprawling, ancient ruined places, to regions once beautiful and cultivated but now waste, grown up with tangled forest and now the haunt of murderous creatures. Schooled on such works, we want our ruins vast and gloomy. The real ruins scattered about the Holy Land almost always disappoint, in part because they are so small and beaten down, and washed in sun.
What myths will we tell ourselves, who live in a world where nothing can be conceded as true unless it is subject to measurement?
I thought it very good: Holland is a fine writer. In true Blogger fashion I have some half-digested thoughts to share.
I always understood that among Sci-Fi fans, "the Mule" in the Foundation Trilogy has long been understood as an unflattering portrait of L. Ron Hubbard, whose inauguration of a science fiction religion had roughly the same effect on North American SF fans that Muhammad's revelation had on the post-classical world.
It seems astounding that Holland manages to all but ignore the fact that the Roman Empire was mostly replaced by Christian societies, not Islamic. Those Greek Egyptians who received that invoice for sheep that he mentions, were not exactly members of some pagan cult: Egypt had been Christian for 300 years by that time.
Then he also neglects to mention what may be the most interesting thing about Asimov and Herbert, which is that their books have scant or no Christian content. People had been writing novels about the Fall of Rome for hundreds of years -- you could fill a whole library with such books, though they are all unread today. I used to own one that I picked out of a dollar bin in Texas: a big fat elegant blue-backed thing from the 1890s with gold-edged pages and a pompous kind of title like "Sunlight and Shadow" or some such, execrably written by a dull and no-doubt fat 19th century Evangelical minister, and all about the spiritual awakening of some Roman aristocrat's beautiful daughter with milk-white skin and sexy lips, as she becomes attracted to the persecuted sect in the catacombs, falls under the sway of its compelling bearded bishop, and learns to recognize her True Lord in Christ. "Quo Vadis" is another such book, far more famous. Now why would Tom Holland make no mention of this?
He doesn't say much about Star Wars either, perhaps because its narrative of political rebellion, which could certainly be classical or proto-Christian, doesn't fit the pattern. How true, that what people don't say can reveal as much as what they do. "In other regions ... there are even more haunting silences." Indeed.
Holland's connection of late Roman catastrophe to Tolkien's Middle Earth history, by way of Arthurian romance, is ingenious, perhaps not ironclad but insightful. Tolkien's book does achieve much of its effect by its background reference to sprawling, ancient ruined places, to regions once beautiful and cultivated but now waste, grown up with tangled forest and now the haunt of murderous creatures. Schooled on such works, we want our ruins vast and gloomy. The real ruins scattered about the Holy Land almost always disappoint, in part because they are so small and beaten down, and washed in sun.
What myths will we tell ourselves, who live in a world where nothing can be conceded as true unless it is subject to measurement?
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Facts Absorbed Without Context
"Facts absorbed without context merely magnify the intellectual deficiencies of the autodidact."
Joe Queenan, New York Times, 3 October 2004
Joe Queenan, New York Times, 3 October 2004
Friday, March 30, 2012
The People Without Stories
The fact that we tell stories is a symptom of our predicament. Gossip stories, adventure stories. We need them, yet they have a pernicious effect on us. Blessed would be the people without stories, if any such existed.
Dreaming
"Dreaming is a natural process, like eating or working, that we have the opportunity to make more beautiful if we wish to."
N.N. Scott, in conversation 2004
N.N. Scott, in conversation 2004
The Souls in Plato's Cave
"Like the souls in Plato's cave, we ourselves cast the shadows that make us aware of our existence, and at the same time block the light that is the source of our existence."
N.N. Scott, in conversation, 2004
N.N. Scott, in conversation, 2004
Dangerous Stories
"Some stories are extremely dangerous, but not in the way most people believe: not because they refer to socially uncomfortable issues and facts. They are dangerous because they teach us to think in the wrong way about our problems."
N.N. Scott, in conversation, (2004)
N.N. Scott, in conversation, (2004)
Our Weak Points
"At this time, before things get really messy, we should work to clarify our understanding of our weak points, our doubt."
Dr. Peter Khan, in conversation, 2006
Dr. Peter Khan, in conversation, 2006
Your Pilgrimage
"You are now on your pilgrimage well begun, and from tomorrow on you are the guests of Baha'u'llah."
Ali Muhammad Varqa, in conversation, 2006.
Ali Muhammad Varqa, in conversation, 2006.
A Genuine Human Being
"While the world was full of people, all too full, finding a genuine human being was not easy."
Eiji Yoshikawa, Musashi (1935) p.293
Eiji Yoshikawa, Musashi (1935) p.293
