Features
Review of Oliver Twist
The reason I picked Oliver Twist up in the first place
was a quite reasonable one - it was the end of the day and I'd heard
about it and how it was a classic. I was up to the the challenge. After
getting to about halfway through Oliver Twist by reading it in quirky
old-style British accents I was thinking "This is absolute bullocks,
I've lost my mind!" so with the help of my friends, I decided to listen
to it as accompaniment.
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We Meant It For Evil
When intelligent life is discovered in the Alpha Centauri system,
the Jesuits organize the first mission. Painstaking preparation and
a humility informed by centuries of cultural disasters, bring a crew
of priests and scientists to the planet of Rahkat, with Father Emilio
Sandoz at the inspirational helm. Emilio is a linguist, trained in reading
context and comparison. But when he is shown the sta'ka ivy and hears
about the process of hasta'akala where hands are make to look like trailing
branches of ivy, he doesn't understand the violent tension in the aesthetic
relationship between vine and wall. And so he has no other way to interpret
what happens than as betrayal. Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow
is a story is about understanding, how it is lost and how painstakingly
it is gained. It is a story of faith.
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Review of Spiral Staircase
Karen Armstrong was drawn to give her life to God (against the
wishes of her parents) because she desired that union with God in prayer
that she had read about. She found anything but that. It was a time
of misery for her. She was too emotional and kept having seizures. These
seizures were later diagnosed as epilepsy but the superiors severely
chastised her for what they called "childish, emotional fits." She did
experience moments of deep connection during the singing of chants as
part of her training, but she never for a moment thought that was God.
She erroneously thought because music was human, it couldn't have been
from God.
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Little Tim Grows Up
Charles Dickens, Engligh literature's unmatched character creator,
managed to conjure up the most romantic, sweetly sick, maudlin personality
ever to poke his tiny head into our Christmas celebrations. The Cratchit
dinner party with Tiny Tim's banal "What a goose, Mother!" is more than
enough to turn the cranberry sour on us. I imagine a much older Timothy
Cratchit would cringe hearing the tiresome family stories of his infant
self, as we all do when our parents, in a flush of narrative nostalgia,
show our naked-bottom photos to their friends.
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A Response to Songs of the Gorilla Nation
I've just finished a great book called Songs of the Gorilla Nation:
My Journey Through Autism by Dawn Prince-Hughes. It is a moving book
offering excellent insight not only into the world of autism but also
the world of gorillas. Dawn is a woman born in 1964 who was diagnosed
with Asperger's Syndrome when she was 35. This is the same autistic
disorder that the boy in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
had, and while I could see the similarities between the two, it was
also interesting to note the different ways the disorder played out
in her.
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A Review of Timebends: A Life
It is rare for me upon finishing a book to mourn its passing
no matter how good it is; I'm usually raring to plunge into the next
one. After all, the race is on in our home to read as much as humanly
possible, an "Amazing Race" of the mind so to speak. But the night when
I read the last page of Timebends, Arthur Miller's autobiography, I
felt sad. Many people describe books as good friends and I truly feel
I will miss Arthur Miller; his life and thoughts have definitely become
part of my daily life, if only through words on a page. Proof of this
was when I blurted out to Paul, "I think I'm in love with Arthur Miller."
He laughed, I laughed. But the funny thing is, it's kind of true. Not
that I want to leave Paul for someone who is pushing 90 but something
is evoked in the heart when you encounter a person's human vulnerability
without barrier, when ideas are expressed with a humility that only
comes from living a life that is bent on meaningful reflection and honesty...
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