quenarth

The Restorative Power of Fiction

2012-02-23T21:49:00.001-05:00

This was a guest post written a year ago for Aurelia {Lit}. It was brought to my attention recently and I've decided it's good enough for a re-posting. None of the following is my own, it all comes from reading the great books of great people.

There and Back Again: The Restorative Power of Fiction

“I am always irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality.” – Flannery O’Connor

Contemplating Lord Peter

2012-02-19T20:48:00.002-05:00

Source

I think I'm about to write a reason for why I like Lord Peter Wimsey. Why? I have no idea. Perhaps I've gotten tired of so many other people dis-liking him!

When Dorothy Sayers wrote her last detective novel, she commented in an interview that her sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey, was still very much in her head. She was aware what his thoughts and comments would be in any given situation. Indeed, recent scholarship has shown that she spent a great deal of time on her character -- filling in the details of his family history and writing fragments of dialogue...details that never made it into any of her books.

Yes, there is some creepy speculation that Sayers fascination with her heroic detective was truly obsessive. But when I consider Sayers in her other spheres: theologian, playwright, Dante translator, essayist...she was someone who did not do anything "by halves." I think we shy from looking passion in the face and instead want to label it obsession. That is, I think the problem is with us. Not Sayers.

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Friendship: A Reflection

2012-02-03T13:18:00.001-05:00

I have received some of the most wonderful messages from readers about my ruminations on friendship. Thank you all! Evidently, folks want to hear this and I find that very encouraging.

So, I do have two brief (related) thoughts that have been begging to be written. This time, it's more like a reflection than a rumination on friendship...the last post was hardly anything of my own. This one is more personal. I hope it's as helpful, or at least as interesting.

Friendship as Harvest:

Someone at some point said (I have a feeling I last heard it from John Piper) that friendships are like investments. Your harvest depends on what you've planted. A good, solid analogy and one I think we have difficulty liking.

A Coincidence

2012-01-07T15:07:00.000-05:00

I am astonished. I was speaking to a dear friend about this very thing, a topic that has been pressing on me for a while and making me fret -- and then, within twenty-four hours of understanding my issue, here it is. A "coincidence" as we say in Middle-earth (Gandalf).

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Psalm 16:11

The Twelfth Day of Christmas: Epiphany

2012-01-06T14:30:00.003-05:00

Source
Gustav Dore

The Journey of the Magi

T.S. Eliot

A cold coming we had of it,

Just the worst time of the year

For a journey, and such a journey:

The ways deep and the weather sharp,

The very dead of winter.'

And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,

Lying down in the melting snow.

There were times we regretted

The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,

And the silken girls bringing sherbet.

The Eleventh Day of Christmas: Bonhoeffer

2012-01-05T13:43:00.000-05:00

Dietrich Bonhoeffer isn't one to usually "wax poetic" (isn't that from King Alfred? Waexan...) but his little book, The Cost of Discipleship, is full of beautiful moments:

"[Grace] is costly because it costs us our life, and it is grace because it gives us the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all it is costly because it cost God the life of God's Son: 'you were bought at a price,' and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon God's Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God."

The Tenth Day of Christmas: Nicknames

2012-01-04T12:36:00.000-05:00

One of the many things I enjoy about Christmas is listening to my family and friends talk -- the youngest to the oldest, the sisters in constant dialogue, etc. And we all have different names for each other. Not radically so, but yes...we've always been rather taken with nicknames.

My dad calls all the family members "sweetie" -- male or female, child or wife. Practical, yet endearing.

Mum alternates with first names and the ever appropriate "hon" (short for "honey"). My little brother has copied her. (I have to think about it to find it amusing, otherwise it's only too normal to hear my brother call across the house with something like, "Hey, hon! Where's the extra extension cord kept? We need more lights!"... he means for any "hon" to respond).He himself bears the title of "Dude." He finds it manly.
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The Ninth Day of Christmas: Dad Returns to Work

2012-01-03T15:19:00.000-05:00

Advent behind me

Christmas tide soon to end

Epiphany ahead

But today filled with farewells to my father

I said it to the hat on his head

And his boots placed on the lower step

To the scent of shaving cream in the bathroom

And through the rising steam of our coffee cups

Finally I said it into his collar bone

Christmas behind me

Epiphany soon to end

Advent again

The Eighth Day of Christmas: Of Birthdays

2012-01-02T23:20:00.000-05:00

Twenty-four years ago I was to be a Christmas baby. But I decided to arrive fashionably late -- by eight days. Sixteen years ago my little brother, Samuel David, was also supposed to be a Christmas baby but he thought his older sister's idea a good one...and so we share the same day.

We have always been close friends. He was the present on my eighth birthday, my baby brother, and now he's sixteen! He was the baby of the family, and then the little friend, and soon the rambunctious boy who thought he could beat his biggest sister at racing. Ha. But it was just a few years ago, racing down the sidewalk, that he flew right by me (no boy has ever been faster than I!). Now, his face is furry and he towers over me, 6'1"! He is the strong, youthful brother who accompanies his sisters on errands to scare off the twerps -- he rather enjoys this job.

Love you, Sam! Happy birthday! But now I think I need to carry a big stick to beat off all the silly girls!

The glory of young men is their strength...
Proverbs 20:29

The Seventh Day of Christmas: Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T02:10:00.004-05:00

Waes hael to all of you! From Middle English,"Good health" and, yes, the drink. Here we come a wassailing... Who doesn't love mulled cider?

Today is a quiet day for the Robinsons. Most of us are sick, including myself -- I've had bronchitis every year for the past five years or so now. It's getting a little old. So, we spent the day making hot beverages of every kind, watching silly movies and reading silly books (Dorothy Cannell's The Thin Woman). A good day, in spite of the coughing.

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The Sixth Day of Christmas: Reflection

2011-12-31T15:42:00.001-05:00

New Year's Eve. I've never much liked this holiday, but then I've never been one for parties. Instead I want to give a brief reflection on my year of 2011.

I am in awe. The sheer quantity of events is staggering, but the gravity of some of them -- it's troubling to reminisce. Briefly:

The Fifth Day of Christmas: Murder in the Cathedral

2011-12-30T15:42:00.000-05:00

I'm late posting this, but I have good reason. I've been reading.

Yesterday was the Feast Day for Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, who worked against King Henry II's attempts to secure the English church under royal authority. The conflict culminated in Becket's murder in Canterbury Cathedral.

So, I recalled that T. S. Eliot had a play about this, Murder in the Cathedral, and I had never read it. I thought, ah, what better way to spend an afternoon with a bad cold? I'll just curl up with a mug of tea and read for a bit. Or, several hours. That is, I read the play straight through and then flipped back to the beginning and read it again, aloud (yes, with a hoarse voice and stuffy head but it had to be done -- it's that good). I don't even know what to say, it's still fresh and new for me. Vivid. My favorite part, as of this moment, is the four Tempters but that's probably everyone's favorite part...

Meanwhile the substance of our first act
Will be shadows, and the strife with shadows.

The Fourth Day of Christmas: Humble Christian

2011-12-29T21:07:00.000-05:00

For this day I wondered what to write. I'm struggling with a chest cold -- mustering the strength just to think straight is about all I can do. And then my friend, Jamie, who bears the title of Honorary Fourth Brother (I am blessed with brothers!) wrote this little meditation: The Hidden Power of God at Christmas

Go and read it.

The Third Day of Christmas: Of Prayer and Pie

2011-12-28T13:11:00.000-05:00

I am very like my mother, which shouldn't be surprising I suppose. "All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his." -- Oscar Wilde.

Mum is a person who is constantly at prayer, so I am too. I've thought a great deal about this, wondering when and how she taught me, but we both don't know. I can hear her when she goes about the house at night, turning out the lights, or when she's folding laundry she speaks blessings on her children as she folds our clothing. I remember reading once from John Piper, he said he gets up very early and while his family is still sleeping he goes to each bedroom door and prays for his children. Mum is like that.

Today I heard her in the kitchen, putting away leftover pie and wiping down the counters. She puts her arthritic hands in the hot dishwater, washing away, and looking out the window hums hymns and mutters prayers. Sitting in the front room, where I'm writing, a piece of pie waiting by my elbow, I realize that I'm also humming and muttering.

The Second Day of Christmas: Living in New England

2011-12-27T04:09:00.002-05:00

This is my family's first Christmas in New England. We are stressed and sometimes a little worried, mostly about financial difficulties. It is a hard thing to move half way across the country to live in such an expensive place. It is a harder thing for my parents to live separately for several weeks at a time -- my mother living here, my father working so hard in Missouri.

Dad came into the house Christmas Eve, took one look around at the lit candles and truly stunning tree, and said, "Look -- it's Christmas and I'm with my family. A miracle."

The First Day of Christmas: Herein is Love

2011-12-25T21:36:00.000-05:00

The Medieval practice of counting the Twelve Days of Christmas begins at sunset, not sunrise. Christmas Day proper begins the evening of the 25th and so continues until sundown of the 26th. Is this obvious to all you readers? I have no idea. I've only observed this practice in recent years, so it's all still new.

My family woke this Christmas Sunday, donned our finest, and worshiped in church. This has to be the best way to prepare for Christmas.

In this was manifest the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:9-10

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Meditation

2011-12-24T20:53:00.000-05:00

East Coker
Quartet No. 2, III.

I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God. As, in a theatre,
The lights are extinguished, for the scene to be changed
With a hollow rumble of wings, with a movement of darkness on darkness,
And we know that the hills and the trees, the distant panorama
And the bold imposing facade are all being rolled away --

East Coker, St. Michael's Church
Source

...So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning,
The wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry,
The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy
Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony
Of death and birth.

-- T.S. Eliot

"That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you,

that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship

is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things

write we unto you, that your joy may be full."

1 John 1:3-4

Speak Lightly

2011-12-23T00:54:00.000-05:00

Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my savior and my God.

Psalm 42:5 (and 11!)

Favorite Psalm (of many people, I'm sure). But then I have to go and write appalling poetry about it. Why, O why? It's wordy, it's dashed off, it has no set form...just sort of sprawls. But I post it here anyway, for my own peace; my mind won't let it alone!
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She Understood

2011-12-14T12:24:00.000-05:00

“Picture me with my ground teeth stalking joy–fully armed too as it’s a highly dangerous quest.”

–Flannery O’Connor, The Habit of Being

Friendship: A Rumination

2011-12-02T20:19:00.001-05:00

"To the Ancients, Friendship seemed the happiest and most fully human of all loves; the crown of life and the school of virtue.” -- C. S. Lewis

Evening Prayer

2011-11-05T00:21:00.000-04:00

LIGHTEN our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Scottish Book of Common Prayer

Listening in the Dark » Händel

2011-11-03T01:05:00.000-04:00

Handel's beautiful keyboard suites are rarely studied, taught, or performed. As a very young pianist I was fortunate to have a teacher who encouraged my interest in Baroque music, so as I played Scarlatti for fun and Bach for more serious reasons (alright, yes, I have fun with him too) Handel was added "just because." It was some years until I realized what a gift my teacher had given me in that moment's decision.

Tonight I've been listening to Handel's (popular) Sarabande from the fourth suite and I decided to share three different performances.

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Pan Reversed

2011-08-16T20:55:00.002-04:00

Punning off my nickname, the Young Sprite, a friend told me I am "Pan backwards." The ensuing conversation revealed a misunderstanding and, in a moment of mirth, I composed the following blank verse summing up the argument and my response to it.

Source

I. The Friend

He tells me I am Pan reversed:
for passion, reason; for heart, mind --
no warmth of feeling sways my thought,
I the Ice Queen, cold, aloof.
At best I have a heart as wild
as any ancient god in spring,
but so subordinate to sense
its pleas are crushed by logic-ing.
But see! I am so grateful, friend,
that you can speak my heart's desires
and tell me what I truly feel
since I would be the last to know.

II. The Heart

I tell you, I am Pan reversed:
he is old and I am young,
he seeks youth but I, age,
lawless he's enslaved to passion --
but I am like the poet's work;
The meter set, the craft designed,
the laws accepted, bound I'm free,
studying the heart and mind.
Thus feelings in-bridled to wiser thought,
reared in discipline and strength,
my passions know the depths and heights,
run swifter, burn fiercer than any god's.

Monteverdi and Busenello: A Construction of Ironies

2011-06-23T23:21:00.002-04:00

Source

L’Incoronazione di Poppaea

Libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello

Music by Claudio Monteverdi

Italian Baroque opera reached its full development, known as opera seria, by the early 1720’s and dominated Europe for most of the remainder of the century. L’Incoronazion di Poppaea is one of my favorite Baroque operas; for its seemingly superficial plot, its dark depths, its struggles, its ironies.

Ellen Rosand has a wonderful article entitled “Seneca and the Interpretation of L’Inocoronazione di Poppaea” and if you have access to JSTOR you should go read right now.

There are two pivotal points in her essay that I love: her careful observation of the personalities of Busenello the librettist and Monteverdi the composer, and the way she helps the reader see the shift of meaning in the opera when the music interprets the libretto.

This Side of the Pond

2011-06-16T16:53:00.002-04:00

-ward is an interesting suffix I've come to adore. Obsessing over its many, I find rather poetic, constructions...

backward
forward
westward
sternward
starward

...I worked myself into dilemma: -ward vs. -wards. When to add the S?

He walked toward me.
He walked towards me.

Are one of these sentences incorrect? As it turns out, it's a case of American vs. British English. Adding the S is a British practice whereas we fast talking folks tend to drop the ~~aspirant~~ sibilant (whoa, think clearly Anne. Thanks Raymond!). How did this catch my attention? I recently relocated to Boston and, surprise, the citizens are frighteningly consistent about the S.

Steampunk Heroines: A Rant

2011-05-29T16:40:00.000-04:00

There are a hundred other things I could be doing right now but instead I'm jotting down notes about a (first ever) steampunk short that's been nagging me for several months. There are two reasons for this madness.

First: I am nearly always disappointed by the portrayal of women in fantasy. Be it "sword and fantasy" fiction, science fiction, cyberpunk, steampunk...the heroine is too often a spunky feminist or a sex object (or both). If you like that, sure. I don't.

Authors who write heroines of this type into steampunk fiction lose not only my admiration of wow, this person has a published book! but also my suspended belief. Granted, there are many forms of "steampunk," indeed, the genre's definition is highly debated. I'm talking about the Victoriana alternative reality setting -- your girl should not walk and talk as though she's from this reality of 2011. Worse still, she should not think like someone from the twenty-first century and yet possess the mannerisms of Victorian Era England. It's just confusing.
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My Beatnik Friend

2011-05-17T19:23:00.001-04:00

A Triad of Announcements

First -- thank you everyone for all the kind messages while I was sick (twice!), it was encouraging to know that my writing was missed. I certainly missed it!

Second -- sketches are forthcoming, never fear. Watch this space.

Third (and the best) -- my good friend, Amy Zoellers, is working on self publishing her first ever collection of poetry. How cool is this? Very. And it gets better. I am proud to be one of her "backers" on www.kickstarter.com and you can be one too! Go to her project and help get Winter Cocktails published, there are all sorts of awards and prizes for your efforts.

Check it, as they say, out.

Good Friday Meditation

2011-04-22T23:41:00.000-04:00

Source

Am I a stone, and not a sheep,

That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,

To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss,

And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved

Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;

Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;

Not so the thief was moved;

Source

Not so the Sun and Moon

Which hid their faces in a starless sky,

A horror of great darkness at broad noon–

I, only I.

Yet give not o’er,

But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;

Greater than Moses, turn and look once more

And smite a rock.

-- Christina Rossetti

The Narcissism of Illness

2011-04-13T02:26:00.003-04:00

Since my last post I've been fighting a vicious cold and so tonight, feeling the best I've been all week, I've decided to write about being sick and being young.

Illness makes one, or at any rate me, unconscionably self-centered. Physically helpless, I reclined on piles of pillows, eyes too watery from fever to read, head too stuffed to think clearly, acutely aware of every tiny pain my body experienced. Ruminating on these little pains for hours, and at varying levels of lucidity in correlation to my drug dosage, rendered my existence, well, grim...to the point that I found myself chomping my teeth, jaw clenched as though I could will myself better. I don't suffer illness gracefully. In this way, I am very like my father.

At one point, around day three or four, I conceded that "suffering gracelessly" wasn't a good thing. Ironically, the two should go hand in hand. Somewhat ashamed, I attributed this problem to the fact that I'm young. From there it was a simple step to remembering that I'm just over six years from being thirty. And thus the convenient distraction of imaging my thirty year old self, looking back at the span of twenty to thirty.

And so, after two days of medicated contemplation, here are ten things I want to accomplish before I'm thirty years old. (I told you being sick makes me narcissistic).

1. Have my DMA, and maybe a couple of other degrees (an Artist Diploma would be nice).
2. Spend at least a year touring as a soloist. (The program? Undecided. Perhaps Brahms is in need of a revival).

3. Establish a concert series. And perform in it.

4. Learn German and French, and then read the literature of Germany and France.

Isle of Skye

5. Travel to Scotland where I will walk to a grassy, hilly place where not a house can be seen and lie down to look at the sky. Alone.

6. Travel to England where I will walk its streets, arm in arm with a good friend in the rain under an umbrella.

7. Travel to Ireland where I will walk a short part of the Cliffs of Moher, chose a spot I fancy, and sit. And watch. And listen. I may have to do this for several consecutive days.

8. Complete a novel that I am satisfied with.

9. Live by the sea. The place shall have a large kitchen, with a dining table in it, and a room for the grand piano and instruments and another room for the painting studio. It will also need a small study with a large chair and a single reading lamp. There will be books in every room.

10. Take ballet a little more seriously, or at least regularly, until I can walk across the room en pointe and feel like I'm barefoot.

I could think of more, (Greek and Hebrew, theology classes, learn to cook) but the above is daunting enough!

Art Commission

2011-03-31T01:30:00.001-04:00

And the winners are....

Meredith -- unicorn (No specifics! Woo!)

Joy --Eugenides, The Queen of Attolia (This will be embarrassingly easy)
Kathy -- a griever, The Maze Runner (This will be challenging!)

Congrats!!! I'm excited about this little project, I've found the idea charming in its entirety. I'll start at the top of the list and hopefully crank out one every few days. I'll post a picture of the results and then contact each of the winners to m This is my first time doing something so interactive on my blog and I've had a great time, hope you've enjoyed yourselves too!

Quenarth's Blirthday Party

2011-03-26T16:41:00.004-04:00

>> WINNERS FOR THE ART COMMISSION WILL BE ANNOUNCED TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT (3/30/2011) Three names will be randomly drawn. Click on the Art Commission tab if you haven't voted yet!

"Hooray! This is splendid!" -- Mr. Toad

   Come in everybody! Welcome! Here, have a party hat.

   This is splendid! I'm afraid I'm rather like Toad as your host today. As much as I'd like to be sweet Molely or the wise Rat, we're dealing with the serious exuberance of Party Business and I warn you the fever is catching ... we may have to steal a motorcar after the ice cream.

   So have a seat, I'll serve the cold ginger beer and we'll get started!

   Three questions about blogging: Put your responses in the comments of this post. This way, I get to know you better* and who knows...you could make a friend (i.e. "follower.")

*Or know even less. Creative responses are encouraged. Maybe you're really a secret agent from the future merely disguised as a quiet bookstore owner who leaves encrypted messages on his blog. Hey, I would click on the link to that blog.

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Happy Blirthday!

2011-03-22T01:32:00.002-04:00

Some call it a blogiversary, but I have "commitment issues" with my blog so lets not make this any more complicated by throwing about marriage analogies. Others, the serious bloggers, write special posts that begin "This day marks x years of blogging..." and then continue on their ponderous way to make their earth shattering post.

But we, dear readers, are going to have fun. Or I am, at least. Quenarth turns TWO this Saturday and we're going to have a blirthday! And we're starting off with a poll located (lovely Vana White gesture) to the right. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments of this post.

The Options

Book Giveaway -- self explanatory. I have very few books that I actually part with but there's the odd volume of fiction lying about that I've read once and vowed never to read again. So this just goes to show how much I love you...I'll be giving away books like Mockingjay.

Nameless Elf. But good looking, yes?

Art Commission -- I will draw, in graphite, any (except Harry Potter!!!) fictional character you ask of me. You will then receive the artwork in the mail and a photo of it will be posted here for all to see.

Elvish Translation -- I will translate anything (poem, paragraph, etc.) into Quenya (50 words or less). I shall then post it here, along with its Elven script equivalent complete with pronunciation. (Not quite sure how I'll do this yet, probably via a video).

Faery Gold -- Obviously the best option! Who doesn't want Faery gold? Get serious. But if I had any I would share.

Other -- You think you have a better idea? Then prove yourself and leave it in a comment to this post.

Go to it! And I'll meet you back here on Saturday for the blirthday post!

Listening in the Dark » Beethoven

2011-03-19T14:56:00.004-04:00

In which the blogger attempts to break her own rule and talk, from a non-academic perspective, about a favorite piece of music.

In my Junior year I, like every piano major, took the required “piano literature” course. A year long curriculum devoted to memorizing, contextualizing, and understanding the vast repertoire of the clavier instruments.

I recall on a particular night, preparing for a listening exam, I scrolled my iPod to the beginning of the new downloaded list.

At the close of another school day, the usual of classes, practice, and performance, came the nighttime activities of studying, grabbing the fastest thing to eat, and taping down my broken nails so the cuticles could mend while I slept.

Next track: Sonata Op. 53 in C Major, dedicated to Count Ferdinand Erns Gabriel von Waldstein, the third movement. And I forgot my hunger, pausing in the act of wrapping a finger in medical tape.

Writing With Annie Dillard

2011-03-12T15:23:00.001-05:00

   Reading Annie Dillard frightens me. Not so much by what she has to say (isn't that flattering), but how she says it. She knows what she's about.

   Dillard taught writing classes at Wesleyan University and insisted that anyone in the world could be a writer. One had only to work hard and learn the techniques; talent is nothing without hard work. One such technique she learned from Samuel Johnson's writings. I don't know about you, but I'm certainly open to learning from Mr. Johnson.

Step One
   Take a polished piece of writing (in the case of Dillard's students it was likely a non-fiction essay) and circle all of the verbs.

Step Two
   Add them up. 12 verbs you say? Are they good verbs? Can you double that amount?

Step Three
   What's a good verb? One that communicates the exact action. If you used an adverb get rid of it...that only means you used the wrong verb. Did he walk quickly or did he sprint? That one page, slogged with description, will come alive.
   But I found another of Dillard's tactics even more beneficial. After polishing and re-polishing your work, take up some scissors and, as Annie says, "Cut your voice free." Snip out only the good sentences. Yes, you know what those are. Staple these fragments to a paste board. Leave plenty of space. Now, write in the necessary "connecting sentences" to string all your good ones together...be as minimal as possible.

"One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better." - The Writing Life

Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded

2011-03-10T22:27:00.002-05:00

-A- AANSCHULTZ, CONREID
(c. 1820 -- October 12, 1888)

Inventor of the praxiscope technology (which see), Professor Aanschultz believed that close observation of physiology and similar superficial phenomena could lead to direct revelation of the inner or secret processes of nature. Apparent proof of this now discredited theory was offered by his psychopraxiscope, which purported to offer instantaneous viewing of any subject’s thoughts. (Later researchers demonstrated that the device “functioned” by creating interference patterns in the inner eye of the observer, triggering phosphene splash and lucid dreaming.) Aanschultz’s theories collapsed, and the Professor himself died in a Parisian lunatic asylum, after his notorious macropraxiscope failed to extract any particular meaning from the contours of the Belgian countryside near Waterloo. Some say he was already ustable from the abuse of his autopsychopraxiscope, thought to be particularly dangerous because of autophageous feedback patterns generated in its operator’s brain. However, there is evidence that Aanschultz was quite mad already, owing to the trauma of an earlier research disaster.

from Great Breakthroughs in Darkness (Being, Early Entries From The Secret Encyclopedia of Photography)

The Road to Faery: Sage

2011-03-03T21:26:00.005-05:00

Galadriel and her Mirror.
Source.

Being the third part of the Trivium Imaginarium

Read: Part One
Read: Part Two

"For this is what your folk would call magic, I believe; though I do not understand clearly what they mean..."

Galadriel
The Fellowship of the Ring

DEFINITION: A master of his craft not only in skill, knowledge, and understanding but also in experience. He understands that he knows only what he knows -- humbling thought.
PURPOSE: To go beyond merely reading fantastic literature as a favorite genre, consuming the next installment of whatever best seller...but to be able to discern good fantasy from bad fantasy. And I do believe that a case can be made for good and bad fiction. Understanding that the reader becomes what he reads, one must harness this power of ink becoming blood. Words crafted in an author's mind can become another's existence.
CURRICULUM: I have listed the books from the Novice and Journeyman along with the new curriculum. Context is everything. The more I consider the books I read at a younger age, the more I realize the depths and subtleties that eluded me then.

A Day Of Feathers

2011-02-16T02:40:00.003-05:00

I was thinking today of birds. This little volume is a gem, a collection of Chinese flower-and-bird paintings.

It isn't my style, and I've never been a great admirer of Asian art (I do enjoy their pottery very much!), but these little strokes of paint that form feathers and beaks are more birdlike than the birds I see at the feeder.

Even when I look at the images dead on, I feel as if my head isn't on quite straight because the bird seems like it ought to be in my peripheral vision, flitting past my sight.
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Bad Poetry

2011-01-26T16:01:00.005-05:00

Amon Lanc was a grassy hill that rose above the treetops of a great forest, thus its name "naked hill." Ringed with towers, it was the home of the Galadhrim, the Elven "people of the trees" before Sauron razed it to the ground and the forest once known as Greenwood the Great became Mirkwood. I think we're well acquainted with a certain Hobbit who discovered what a charming place that was...

(This is where I would insert an image of Bilbo Baggins fighting the spiders in Mirkwood, but after google searching for twenty seconds I became so squeamish looking at spiders that I had to get someone else to close the browser for me as I ran from the room screaming. Arachnophobic? YES).

The Galadhrim relocated to

The Story in Seven Parts

2011-01-25T00:09:00.004-05:00

Beowulf and Grendel

Adair Jones brought my attention to a book, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker. Without any ado, here’s the list from the book as provided by Jones:

Overcoming the monster
Rags to riches
The quest
Voyage and return
Comedy
Tragedy
Rebirth

While I have yet to get my hands on this book by Booker, this is the most concise list I’ve ever seen. How many writers’ guides are out there with titles like The 50 Bestselling Plots? A straight forward, scholarly and observational approach sounds wonderful…

When Life Gives You Lemons:

2011-01-09T20:07:00.004-05:00

...Make a lemon still life.

Current work in progress

   I have been an amateur oil painter for a few years and last fall I took my first ever class in painting.

   Let me back up. Signing up for art classes is not the kind of thing that I'm known for. I'm busy, I work long hours, and what free time I have I prefer to spend in a quiet room with a book...not, say, in front of a canvas making strenuous decisions about the color I think I see in the shadow on a lemon.

   But my pastor is also an artist, and since what he does influences so much of my life already I concluded it would be a good idea to set him loose on another area of my life, namely, my messy hobby of oil painting.
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Estel: New Light From Without

2010-12-25T18:58:00.002-05:00

Book X of The History of Middle Earth

Morgoth’s Ring: The Later Silmarillion

Part One: The Legends of Aman

In this segment, Tolkien concerns himself with the stories of the ancient peoples in the ancient realms. One essay in particular is entitled Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth, “The Debate of Finrod and Andreth.”

Mockingjay: The Hunger Games Trilogy

2010-12-21T18:37:00.001-05:00

This review contains spoilers, consider yourself warned.

I read the final book of Suzanne Collins’ popular trilogy on a three hour airplane flight, promptly forgetting most of it upon landing. However, two particular details stuck in mind for several weeks afterward demanding a second reading. I have decided that it this is a good book, meaning: it makes me care enough to dislike it and never recommend it to others. I commend the author for eliciting a reaction from me.

Character Development

Characters drive the plot or, in the case of Suzanne Collins, make it come to a complete standstill. Katniss Everdeen, our protagonist, has not matured or changed since the first book. She is still angry, impulsive, and easy to manipulate. In the beginning of the series she at least showed qualities of bravery and quick thinking; virtues that are missing in this book. Katniss prefers to live life as things happen, letting others take on the role of action. From her perspective we observe others and judge them: Gale for his radical actions, Peeta for his dogged devotion, Prim for her hard work and talents, etc. Katniss is at her best when she is spontaneously moved to act out, speak up, or even think…a fact that her peers notice and try to plan for. A girl who is best unscripted and angry, but otherwise useless.

The Road To Faery: Journeyman

2010-12-18T16:52:00.007-05:00

Being the second part in the Trivium Imaginarium
(Read the first part).

“Water flows downhill because it is bewitched."

- G. K. Chesterton

DEFINITION: The graduated apprentice. A craftsman who has learned his trade and puts his skill to practice, but is not yet a master.

Lessons in Chinese and Cello

2010-12-17T20:07:00.002-05:00

Advent Musings

Advent

English, noun.

1. The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important

2. The liturgical period of the preparation of Christ’s birth.

Adventus

Latin, masculine, 4^th declension noun.

1. Arrival

2. Approach

Outline

The Road To Faery: Novice

2010-10-15T01:15:00.006-04:00

Being the first part in the Trivium Imaginarium

Taran Wanderer

"Do we walk in legends
or on the green earth in the daylight?"

- J. R. R. Tolkien

DEFINITION: A little child at the beginning of his reading experience. Or an adult unversed in fantastic literature.

"Trivium Imaginarium" for short

2010-09-25T19:28:00.002-04:00

After some scrutiny, “The Beginner’s Guide to Faery” post has been found wanting. Here are some questions I’ve been mulling over:

1. If this is a guide on “how to read fiction,” specifically fantasy, then why did I write a book review? Shouldn’t one just, oh here’s an idea, recommend the book and then hope a few wise individuals go and read it?

2. Why should one read fiction anyway?

3. What’s all this talk about fairy tales, and why do I place them before novels? (I didn’t explicitly say that in the post, but that’s what I was thinking).

Answer to the first: no idea. The best I can come up with is that I’ve treasured “Smith of Wooton Major” for many years and I think I was having too much fun writing about it…I lost my original focus. Questions 2 and 3 deserve their own posts.

Uncommon Sense

2010-09-23T22:00:00.003-04:00

A meandering post that I somehow couldn't make shorter

There are times when my generation scares me. Usually I put it down to having read the wrong books, like Eustace Scrub in The Silver Chair who was “educated” about drains and elevator lifts and whatnot, leaving him not only uneducated but stripping him of any common sense.

I always think of The Jungle Book and the Mowgli stories when I think of common sense. It’s a strange association, I know, but nothing says “wisdom from experience” more to me than Mowgli pitting his survival prowess and cleverness against both men and animals. But perhaps the jungle law encapsulates it best:

A House For My Thoughts

2010-09-22T16:17:00.003-04:00

For a long while I’ve never considered myself a morning person, but with my new school schedule of mostly free mornings I’m beginning to change my mind.

We all look for those little moments of solitude. There’s a delight in silent surroundings, void of everyone else, where you can’t tell if you’re speaking your thoughts or thinking them loudly. This is a sacred atmosphere that I almost shy to describe; its entire purpose is to be left undisclosed and unexplained, used only for the personal enjoyment of a person’s joys.

Howl's Moving Castle

But I will disclose that feeling of a renewed mind in the early morning, when everyone else is asleep, and I discover that I need the entire house for my thoughts. Silence and solitude are a fresh canvas of endless possibilities: I can clean, garden, make music, sit still with a cup of coffee, search for a book to read, write a blog post…and each of these activities need the space of a different place. I would never drink coffee in the music room; some things are simply not done.

Language Inverted

2010-08-30T22:46:00.005-04:00

Many brilliant minds have spent their time contemplating, debating, and trying to understand music. Here is an interesting line of thought that's planted itself in my (of course brilliant) mind over the years.

I think we can all agree that music is its own language, it accomplishes precisely what Alexandre Dumas says it does: "Music expresses that which cannot be said, but upon which it is impossible to be silent." So what's the use in talking about something which expresses what cannot be said?

The Beginner's Guide to Faery

2010-07-25T20:19:00.004-04:00

I’ll have to write a post on fairy tales, “first steps in imagination” or something thereabouts, but for now I’m going to assume that those who wish to read more fiction, or start a habit of reading fiction, have all read their fairy tales. (You know, all 466 ((give or take)) tales in those "colored" fairy books of Andrew Lang's, and that's just to get started).

I love considering the idea that J. R. R. Tolkien’s Smith of Wootton Major is some kind of wonderful introduction to Fairy Land, a beginner’s guide to the kind of surroundings to expect and people one might meet. The idea occurred to me a few years ago when I had reread the little book and proceeded to George MacDonald’s Phantastes. The two books complemented each other so well I decided to see if I could flesh out some sort of guide:

The Fairy Land Curriculum

A progressive primer from novice to sage.

...or something along those lines. As already mentioned, I think those with a background in fairytales would be the best equipped for the content and so would benefit the most.

On The Shortness Of Life

2010-07-24T21:24:00.001-04:00

"The soul of Mr. Peregrine Smart hovered like a fly round one possession and one joke. It might be considered a mild joke, for it consisted merely of asking people if they had seen his goldfish. It might also be considered an expensive joke; but it is doubtful whether he was not secretly more attached to the joke than to the evidence of expenditure. In talking to his neighbours in the little group of new houses that had grown up round the old village green, he lost no time in turning the conversation in the direction of his hobby. To Dr. Burdock, a rising biologist with a resolute chin and hair brushed back like a German’s, Mr. Smart made the easy transition. “You are interested in natural history; have you seen my goldfish?” To so orthodox an evolutionist as Dr. Burdock doubtless all nature was one; but at first sight the link was not close, as he was a specialist who had concentrated entirely upon the primitive ancestry of the giraffe. To Father Brown, from a church in the neighbouring provincial town, he traced a rapid train of thought which touched on the topics of “Rome — St. Peter — fisherman — fish — goldfish.”

- G. K. Chesterton, The Secret of Father Brown
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Real Paganism

2010-07-23T00:20:00.003-04:00

“It must be remembered that in Mark's mind hardly one rag of noble thought, either Christian or Pagan, had a secure lodging. His education had been neither scientific nor classical — merely 'Modern.' The severities of both abstraction and of high human tradition had passed him by; and he had neither peasant shrewdness nor aristocratic honour to help him.” – C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

Mark Studdock is the postmodern man in Lewis’ fiction. Written in1947, a time when the seeds of deconstructionism and postmodern thought were only recently planted, we realize today that Lewis’ prediction was only too true.

Springtime Thoughts

2010-05-30T15:56:00.003-04:00

Found these two wonderful lists at the Femina blog. I love Pastor Wilson's introduction to each list as much as the questions themselves.

21 Questions for a Prospective Suitor

21 Questions for a Prospective Wife

Wordsmithing

2010-05-27T15:10:00.011-04:00

Friends have made some inquiries into the title of my blog; how do I say it? What language is it in? What does it mean? In a sense, ‘quenarth’ means nothing…at least, that’s what insufferably boring people would have you believe. But before I give everything away there is a little bit of history in the discovery of the word.

By my thirteenth birthday I had lived in Middle-earth for two solid years. There is still some debate as to whether I’ve left it yet even now, but I digress. I read ‘The Hobbit’ when I was eleven years old and avidly read as much Tolkien as I could after that, including ‘The Silmarillion’ and several volumes of ‘The Histories.’

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No Windows, Please

2010-05-03T11:49:00.008-04:00

While reading my usual list of favorite blogs, I came across this post at Pastor Sumpter's "Having Two Legs." (Those of you who read my Holy Week posts should get the Chesterton reference). Contemplating the post brought some memories back to me.

Job was one of my favorite "Bible stories" when I was little, right after my phase with the book of Esther. The part that always comes to mind, still to this day, is the very beginning when the narration brings us before God:

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Gentleman, n.

2010-05-01T21:27:00.006-04:00

I have often upheld Mr. George Knightley as the definition of ‘gentleman.’ When this example is unknown in conversation, I believe there is a problem. Especially if there are young men present.

    Mr. Knightley is the man of good sense and compassion. He avidly seeks out the comfort and happiness of those around him, even if it means correcting the mistakes of others. At all times honest, he is equally kindhearted.

    Concerning a difficult circumstance he reminds his friend that: “you will hear only truth from me.”

    Intuitively evaluating (correctly) the kind of person that is Mr. Elton: “That man is so arrogant it is a wonder he can stay on his horse.”

    Regarding the negligence of a young gentleman: “There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do, if he chooses, and that is, his duty; not by maneuvering and finessing, but by vigour and resolution.”
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Vengeful Reading

2010-04-29T18:07:00.006-04:00

Made use of my free time (allotment: thirty minutes) by dashing to the library and checking out books for my own personal reading instead of more material for school.

I write this at the one of computer stations in the library. To my left is an orange blond (orange tanner and streaked hair) and to my right is an older gentleman with thick glasses.

I decided to blog because, as I made my way to the non-fiction, I entertained high hopes of checking out Anne Lamott’s new book only to discover that all the volumes were gone. I took revenge by cleaning off the entire shelf of the “writer’s help” section. Among a lot of nonsense I found this honest book:

John and John

2010-04-05T19:51:00.002-04:00

Reading that John Donne poem reminded me of Doctor Atomic. If you ever get the chance to see this opera, do so (don't worry, it's in English).

Composed by John Adams (libretto by Sellars), the dramatization of of the 'Trinity' test of the first atomic bomb premiered in 2005 and was instantly hailed as a masterpiece.

Here is perhaps the most famous aria from the opera. Sellars employs Donne's holy sonnet ("Batter my heart, three person'd God") to illustrate Dr. Oppenheimer's anxiety and distress as he ponders what he's created. To prepare your ears, you should keep in mind that John Adam's established himself as a minimalist composer. So, although he likes short motives in repetition he does not adhere strictly to the rules of true minimalism. The result is a powerful forward motion of rhythm and directed intervals without the 'composer as scientist' or 'mechanical effect' of many minimalist artists.
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J. S. Bach's B Minor Mass

2010-04-04T17:10:00.004-04:00

Something for your ears and soul on this Easter afternoon. Here is a youtube link to a movement from Bach's astonishing B Minor Mass (BWV 232). This is one of my favorite portions of the mass because of its joyful imitation and highly complex harmonies...I don't want to say it's the most dissonant of all the movements, but it certainly has its share of crunch.

And if you like that, here is the Sanctus. Turn up the volume. And lock the door.

Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus...

Original page from the Credo

He Is Risen!

2010-04-04T01:25:00.003-04:00

From the twelfth play, “The King Comes To His Own:”

MARY MAGDALEN: Peter is here with you?
JOHN: Like a sick animal that has crawled home to die. He can’t eat. He can’t sleep. He can’t forgive himself. (With passionate self-reproach) It was my fault. I knew he was frightened, yet I left him alone in the house of Annas. Dear Lord! Was there none of us you could trust for five minutes?
MARY MAGDALEN: Poor Peter! He takes his failures hard.
JOHN: He calls himself a worse traitor than – I can’t speak the name. It is like poison to me. I can’t say our Master’s prayer. “Forgive us out trespasses, as we forgive” – no, it’s impossible….You heard what became of him?
MARY MAGDALEN: Yes. John, you can’t hate him worse than he came to hate himself. His self-hate murdered him.
JOHN (slowly): If I hate him, I am his murderer too….Oh, God! There is no end to our sins! Do we all murder Jesus and one another?
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Addendum to Yesterday

2010-04-03T15:48:00.002-04:00

Good Friday
by George Herbert

O my chief good,
How shall I measure out thy blood?
How shall I count what thee befell,
And each grief tell?

Shall I thy woes
Number according to thy foes?
Or, since one star show’d thy first breath,
Shall all thy death ?

Or shall each leaf,
Which falls in Autumn, score a grief?
Or cannot leaves, but fruit, be sign,
Of the true vine?

Good Friday

2010-04-02T15:18:00.002-04:00

Missouri is overcast with an eerie light at noon. Dark and beautiful quotes follow…

From the tenth play, “The Princes of this World.”

CAIAPHUS: You came to us of your own accord – and with the highest motives, I am sure.
JUDAS: I cam because I hated him. “The man who hates his brothers is a murderer” – I have murdered the Christ of God for hate…It was written that he must suffer – Yes! And why? – Because there are too many men in the world like me….I was in love with suffering, because I wanted to see him suffer. I wanted to believe him guilty, because I could not endure his innocence. He was greater than I, and I hated him. And now I hate myself….Do you know what hell-fire is? It is the light of God’s unbearable innocence that sears and shrivels you like flame. It shows you what you are….Priest, it is a fearful thing to see one’s self for a moment as one really is.

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Maundy Thursday

2010-04-01T19:11:00.003-04:00

I considered posting some quotes for each day of Holy Week, but decided against it. The reason being that I know too many of my reader's haven't read the books being quoted....I shouldn't share too much! With that said, here are a few I loved the first time I read them.

From the eighth play, “Royal Progress,” of “The Man Born to Be King.”

3rd WOMAN: Do tell me, Lazarus (with a nervous giggle) – I hope I’m not being impertinent – but what does it feel like to be dead?
2nd MAN: My dear! What a question to ask a man in the middle of dinner!
3rd WOMAN: Oh, but it’s so important! Please!
LAZARUS: Master, what shall I say?
JESUS (laughing): I’m sorry, Lazarus. You must do your best with it. But no State secrets.
LAZARUS (as he speaks, the conversation dies away into an inquisitive silence): This life is like a weaving at the back of the loom. All you see is the crossing of the threads. In that life you go around to the front and see the wonder of the pattern.
3rd WOMAN: What sort of a pattern is it?
LAZARUS: Beautiful and terrible. And – how can I tell you? – it is familiar. You have known it from all eternity. For He that made it is the form of all things. Himself both the weaver and the loom.

And from the ninth play, “The King’s Supper.”

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First Day of Holy Week

2010-03-29T19:08:00.003-04:00

This year I make like Lewis and read Dorothy Sayer's "The Man Born to be King" for Holy Week. If it's good enough for Jack, it's immensely good for me. To supplement, I'm re-reading G. K. Chesterton's "Manalive." I've never done this particular pairing before. Reading a dramatization of scripture while laughing at the antics of Chesterton's "holy fool" living and re-living life is wonderfully refreshing.
I want to give a quote or two from both books. In Sayer's play cycle I'm currently on the sixth, "The Feast of Tabernacles."

HECKLER: Now we know you are a madman. Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead -- and now you say that if a man keeps your saying he shall never taste death. What monstrous claim is this? Who or what do you think you are?
JESUS: If I tell you who I am, it is not to honour myself. My honour comes from my Father -- from Him whom you call your God. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. HECKLER: You are not yet fifty years old -- and have you seen Abraham?
JESUS: Indeed and indeed I tell you -- before Abraham was, I AM.

And another exerpt...
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Lewis and the Gospel

2010-01-06T19:51:00.004-05:00

Albert Campion would have recognized C. S. Lewis as a fellow “Expert on Fairy Stories.” Although the former is a fictional character, he has pertinent things to say about reality...but I digress already! I started this post with the intent of considering what Lewis has to say about myths and their important connection with the Gospel.

“If ever a myth had become a fact, had been incarnated, it would be just like this. And nothing else in all literature was just like this. Myths were like it in one way. Histories were like it in another. But nothing was simply like it . . . Here and here only in all time myth had become fact; the Word, flesh; God, man. This is not "a religion," nor "a philosophy." It is the summing up and actuality of them all.” (Surprised by Joy).

Lewis believed that the myths he had known since boyhood, the Greek stories and Nordic sagas, were more than tales for entertainment. More than devices made to pass the time. In these dark fictions are the thoughts, hopes, and dreams of mankind before Christ and they contain foreshadows of the history yet to come. Myths gain their historical reality in the fulfillment of Christ’s coming.
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A Christmas Eve List

2009-12-24T18:13:00.003-05:00

It is a day of rain and fog. Windless. Droplets fall from a low sky of still white, beading the downcast heads of dying roses who have yet to be pruned. My house is full of waiting and quiet contemplation. And so...

I wrap presents for my brother and his wife, thinking of their arrival tomorrow and the twelve days of celebration we have planned.

I make music. Working out Beethoven’s designs in the development of a sonata, I re-think his thoughts.

I polish the hundred year old wood floors until they glow, ready for guests.

Busyness: Part 2

2009-12-23T14:39:00.003-05:00

Something happened on Sunday night. I went to the open house Christmas party at my pastor’s house, an event I had been anticipating for nearly a month. After the grind that was the last three weeks of school, I had missed those consecutive Sunday worships and I was very much stuck in my cocoon of distractions. I knew I needed to go to this party, if not for my own good than for my sister who was getting fed up with my crankiness. The evening proved wonderful in three ways.

First, I hadn’t realized that I wanted conversation until I got there...and I got it. By the time I got home, my voice was a little hoarse. So many good and loved people to circulate with! So many good topics! So much laughter!

Second, I had missed my pastors and to be in their company and part of their conversations was like catching up missed benedictions. I went for three weeks without worshiping in church, without hearing the blessings, without singing with the congregation, and without lifting my hands. It was as though I had navigated the world with only one eye. Attending worship that morning and then the party that evening was the restorative double dose that I needed.
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Busyness: Part 1

2009-12-23T14:05:00.003-05:00

"Badger hates Society, and invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing." – Kenneth Grahame, “The Wind in the Willows.”

I have been told that I am a “typical pianist.” It has long been observed that certain personalities among musicians are associated with the instrument they play. Some of these stereotypical perceptions are actually quite accurate, although they are frequently unkind.Popular definition of a pianist: the workaholic whom you never see in any color, only performance black. Committed. Serious. All in all, good pianists are heard and not seen. (That 24/7 din that fills the hallways to the practice rooms? Guess who).

I like black (a lot), I am committed (entirely), I am serious (deadly) and as others can testify I am rarely seen (although Friday night there’s always a good chance). I like this image, which, although seemingly admirable for its hard working mentality I perhaps like the feeling of being busy more. When a day is full of things to be done I am conveniently unaware of “menial” things. Talking to my little brother on the phone to find out how his school day went, stopping by the grocery store for my mom, having lunch with my sister…all of these things gets pushed aside. Yes, I like busyness too much.
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Fact and Fiction

2009-12-15T13:42:00.005-05:00

King Frederick the Great on the Flute performing with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach on the Harpsichord and František Benda on the Violin.

I recently had to write a paper on James R. Gaines' book Evening in the Palace of Reason which I highly recommend. A colorful interpretation of Bach’s meeting with Frederick the Great of Prussia, Gaines carefully records the known historical facts but considers them in not so much a scholarly frame of mind as an imaginative one. Probably classified as "historical fiction" there's more history to it than most novels of the genre. Here are some wandering thoughts I had while enjoying the book (I'll try not to give too much away).

First of all, what is to be gained from reading a story-ized version of history? If only to exercise the mind and nothing more, that alone should be considered valuable. But the fact that people today don't even consider history as a story means this book would be highly beneficial at least to that audience. There is, however, more value to be gleaned from looking at fact through fiction.

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Silence

2009-11-23T14:47:00.001-05:00

I have had to ask myself, why don’t I write about music? Is it because I spend a third of my waking hours practicing it and another third (or more) studying, presenting, debating, or performing it for class, professors, students, performance halls full of people?

“Music expresses that which cannot be said, but upon which it is impossible to remain silent.” –Alexandre Dumas

Until something profound unfolds in my mind, I shall continue doing it instead of talking about it.

But do consider how observant Dumas is…not only does music express something which the human tongue never could, but the expression itself is the kind that comes springing up like a fountain. A natural but also necessary expression, or else the very rocks would crack the disobedient silence.

Brave the Storyteller

2009-11-23T14:06:00.003-05:00

“In the greatest fiction, the writer’s moral sense coincides with his dramatic sense, and I see no way for it to do this unless his moral judgment is part of the very act of seeing, and he is a free to use it. I have heard it said that belief in Christian dogma is a hindrance to the writer, but I myself have found nothing further from the truth. Actually, it frees the storyteller to observe. It is not a set of rules which fixes what he sees in the world. It affects his writing primarily by guaranteeing his respect for mystery….” --Flannery O'Connor

This is precisely the problem with many Christian readers today, who should take this leaf from O’Connor and attempt at being good storytellers of their lives. But instead their “moral sense” is replaced with pietism, and viewing their faith and thus the patterns of their life through a lens of thou-shalt-nots they are blind as to what they actually do.

"The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may well be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across to this hostile audience. When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have to assume that it odes not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock—to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures…”

Ink Back to Blood

2009-08-16T21:22:00.001-04:00

My reading group of church members, Cristus Convivium, is currently working through the book 'An Altar in the World' by Barbara Brown Taylor. It's an excellent book on living as Christians who (gasp) have physical bodies and, even more shocking, live in a created world. My pastor brought this quote (from another book of hers, Leaving Church) to our attention this morning:

"I know that the Bible is a special kind of book, but I find it as seductive as any other. If I am not careful, I can begin to mistake the words on the page for the realities they describe. I can begin to love the dried ink marks on the page more than I love the encounters that gave rise to them. If I am not careful, I can decide that I am really much happier reading my Bible than I am entering into what God is doing in my own time and place, since shutting the book to go outside will involve the very great risk of taking part in stories that are still taking shape. Neither I nor anyone else knows how these stories will turn out, since at this point they involve more blood than ink. The whole purpose of the Bible, it seems to me, is to convince people to set the written word down in order to become living words in the world for God’s sake. For me, this willing conversion of ink back to blood is the full substance of faith.”

Sunday school group thought a lot about Fahrenheit 451. A resistance whose sole aim is to preserve books by memorizing entire volumes. The transformation of each devoted person, who keeps the existence of a book by oral tradition, reaches the point that he is re-named after the book's title. Ink back to blood. Who her? Oh, that's Paradise Lost. She's always making eyes at Plato's Republic... I'm also reminded (strangely) of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card because of the embodiment that Ender has to go through...what he thought was merely a simulation of reality was actually real and his imaginary actions therefore thrust into real actions. Ink back to blood. And there's the example of Eustace from the Narnian Chronicles who did embody the books he had read with the problem that they were the wrong sorts books to begin with. Thus "with dragonish thoughts in his heart" he could not conceive that he had, quite obviously, been turned into a dragon. Ink back to blood, only it was the very worst ink to begin with.

Elf Documents

2009-08-12T22:17:00.003-04:00

This mansuscript, contained in The Book of Lost Tales as well as The People's of Middle-earth, is not in the published Silmarillion...an action of Christopher Tolkien's that often disputed. Personally, I wish it had been included but since we have it in other scources I'm content. Here is the second prophecy of Mandos concerning the battle of all battles at the end of all things:

Thus spake Mandos in prophecy, when the Gods sat in judgment in Valinor, and the rumour of his words was whispered among all the Elves of the West. When the world is old and the Powers grow weary, then Morgoth, seeing that the guard sleepeth, shall come back through the Door of Night out of the Timeless Void; and he shall destroy the Sun and the Moon. But Earendel shall descend upon him as a white and searing flame and drive himfrom the airs. Then shall the Last Battle be gathered on the fields of Valinor. In that day Tulkas shall strive with Morgoth, and on his right hand shall be Fionwe,and on his left Turin Turambar, son of Hurin, coming from the halls of Mandos; and the black sword of Turin shall deal unto Morgoth his death and final end; and so shall the children of Hurin and all Men be avenged.

Thereafter shall Earth be broken and re-made, and the Silmarils shall be recovered out of Air and Earth and Sea; for Earendel shall descend and surrender that flame which he hath had in keeping. Then Feanor shall take the Three Jewels and bear them to Yavanna Palurien; and she will break them and with their fire rekindle the Two Trees, and a great light shall come forth. And the Mountains of Valinor shall be levelled, so that the Light shall go out over all the world. In that light the Gods will grow young again, and the Elves awake and all their dead arise, and the purpose of Iluvatar be fulfilled concerning them. But of Men in that day the prophecy of Mandos does not speak, and no Man names, save Turin only, and to him a place is given among the sons of the Valar.

The Commonplace

2009-03-30T22:04:00.002-04:00

"You see, but you do not observe." --Sherlock Holmes

In the busy schedule that is life, sitting still for a handful of seconds and writing down absolutely anything is not only refreshing but enlightening. Francis Bacon said something once about the qualities of a good character; that reading makes a knowledgeable man, and speaking an experienced man, but writing makes a precise man. What's set in ink holds a power to display the truth, boldly, for our eyes to see more clearly…or, indeed, to see at all.

Lost Splendor

2009-03-26T21:20:00.003-04:00

When I was seventeen I was addicted to reading essays by famous people. These things come in phases. C. S. Lewis's slim volume On Stories contains his essay Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings and he says,

"In the Tolkienian world you can hardly put your foot down anywhere from Esgaroth to Forlindon or between Eryd Mithrin and Khand without stirring the dust of history. Our own world, except at certain rare moments, hardly seems so heavy with its past."

(Check out the map to see what lies between Esgaroth and Forlindon, and Eryd Mithrin and Khand. You know you want to). He reveals this theme of saturated history to be a constant anguish for the characters; forever reminded that the golden age of their time is past, memories of fallen cities and peoples, forgotten lore and art,

"They are at once stricken and upheld by the vanished civilizations and lost splendour...as we read we find ourselves sharing their burden; when we have finished, we return to our own lives not relaxed but fortified."

Heinrich Neuhaus on Practicing the Piano

2009-03-26T20:23:00.001-04:00

"Whoever is moved by music to the depths of the soul, and works on the instrument like a possessed one, who loves music and his instrument with passion – will acquire virtuoso technique; he will be able to recreate the artistic image of the composition; he will be a performer."

I believe there are four conditions that must be in place in order to be a pianist. The opportunity, the talent, the discipline, and the love. To have only three of these, and whichever three, guarantees a burn out at an early stage in life. I would think that this could be applied to any vocation.