Brag Blog

The Rationalist and his fellow teammates came in third place in their school's Battle of the Books contest. I was pleased that they at least placed. The Rationalist has been a part of many competitions and always missed making it into the top three.

Next week brings the Math Bowl for The Intuitive, a nerve-wracking, timed competition that is torture for me to watch. I can't handle hearing the beeping timer and watching the team members arguing about the right answer while they lose time, which also means they earn less points.

The Rationalist has become a SPIT--Safety Patrol In Training--following in my elementary footsteps. I have yet to tell him I got kicked out of the Safety Patrols for being a serial procrastinator who never turned in homework. Maybe I'll keep that to myself. Knowing my son, I'd lose all respect in his eyes.

The Rationalist was born to be an enforcer. I'm hoping becoming a Patrol doesn't reinforce the negative aspects of that personality trait. He already sees himself as the third parent in the house...no matter how many times I remind him that he isn't.

Red Green

What does it mean that my boys like The Red Green Show?

Magical Series

I finished all of the Harry Potter books a couple of weeks ago. Having completed the series, I had a few observations. The last four books are much lengthier, but also darker and more mature. While I enjoyed the first three books, I didn't think that Rowling hit her stride until the last four, with the last two, Half-Blood Prince and The Deathly Hallows probably being the best in the series. Interestingly, The Deathly Hallows develops, in a much more specific way than the previous books, basic, Christian themes.

I was left wondering if this had been her plan all along, or if it blossomed in the midst of so many fundamentalist, evangelical Christians denouncing her work as dangerous and occultish. Was this a way to poke them in the eye and turn their arguments to dust?

Either way, she does a nice job of bringing everything together and providing a satisfying ending to Harry's adventures.

After finishing my marathon reading of the Harry Potter books, I decided to pick up C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia books from the library. I had never read any of the others besides The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I used to read Lewis ravenously, but soon became burned out with his work. Having read most of his major works and essays, and some of his fictional books, I had decided that I had had enough of him and understood the major themes running through his writing.

The Magician's Nephew, the first book in the Chronicles reminded me of several things. The style of writing has changed so dramatically. Going from Rowling to Lewis was a bit of a shock. There is a certain stiltedness, or formality to the book. I realized that Lewis tells his tale from the position of an outside, grown-up narrator. He breaks into the story at times comparing the characters' ideas and backgrounds to an unspecified "nowadays". It's a different type of storytelling that is meant to evoke the idea of sitting around a fire while a friend tells a childhood story, or an adventure they once had. It is harder to lose oneself in that type of narration because you are always being brought back to the reference point of the story-teller.

As I thought about the differences between Rowling's and Lewis' magical series, it reminded me of the Oz books by Frank Baum. The style and nature of Baum's work is quite similar to Lewis's Chronicles and makes me wonder if the Oz stories served as a pattern for Lewis to start with.

One more stylistic difference jumped out at me. In the very beginning of The Magician's Nephew, before the plot gets fully underway, we are introduce to Digory's uncle through a conversation between Digory and his friend Polly. Digory's mysterious uncle and his unknown activities are always kept from Digory by his aunt leaving an impression of an eccentric old man with a hint of possible sinister intentions.

In modern stories, a frequently relied upon twist in a plot involves revealing an unknown, quirky, possible scary person as actually being quite nice and useful, explaining away the first impression as a misunderstanding and the rejection of people who are different.

In The Magician's Nephew, Digory's uncle is as sinister as he was implied to be in the beginning of the story. This struck me as unusual, and as an indicator of the time in which it was written.

Once I finish the Chronicles, I'm going to go back and finish the few Oz books that I never quite made it to.

Incredible .



It's strange to hear that voice coming from a young Taiwanese boy/adolescent.

Once you get past the dissonance, though...it's amazing.

Compassion

The same people who are aggressive jerks while driving on a busy road are the same people who bring traffic to a standstill as they slow their cars to watch a struggling turtle slowly trying to cross three lanes of rush hour traffic.

Even jerks want the underdog to make it.

Petty

Yesterday, I stormed out of the house completely irritated with DH. It was one of those stupid, maddeningly benign moments that transforms into an argument for no reason other than the underlying cantankerousness of each of us has decided to bubble up to the surface.

I slammed the door on my way out to the car, fuming as I hurried to get to where I was going.

After fifteen minutes of driving and stewing, I began to feel badly and figured I should call DH and try to make peace over the incredibly dumb argument. I reached into my purse with my free hand and grabbed the phone. As soon as I touched it, it began to vibrate.

DH was calling me...with the same idea of apologizing and making peace.

I should have been amused that our marital ESP was operating and we were both thinking and acting on the same thoughts.

Instead, I was irritated. In a split second, I decided to throw the phone back into my purse rather than answer it.

I was mad, for no good reason, that he was calling to make up....even though that was exactly what I had wanted.

People are funny.

p.s. I did call him back later and apologize.

Opinions

It's always funny to notice the conflicting attitudes people can hold within themselves.

In the midst of DH and I bantering back and forth with each other at his parents' house, I had a head-scratching moment. DH was teasing me while getting drinks for everyone for dinner. I told him, before he had actually asked me, that I thought I would like a Coke with my meal. Pretending to be put upon by my anticipatory answer, he declared that he wouldn't want to get it for me and risk offending my feminist ideals by implying that I needed a man to get my drink for me.

I laughed and sarcastically thanked him for being so thoughtful and respectful of my intrinsic equality with men.

His mother asked querulously,"Oh...are you a women's libber?", with an obvious tone of disapproval.

Stifling a giggle at the archaic term, I asked, "Why do you ask?"

DH strode the fence and jumped in, "I doubt she would fit into a specific box, or label."

Trying to answer my mother-in-law, I declared,"I would probably call myself a mild feminist. I don't know if I would fall in line with everything that stereotypical feminists promote, but I believe in the absolute equality of women with men and don't think there should be any barriers preventing women from participating in any realm of our society."

"Oh, I don't think so either," said my mother-in-law quickly, seemingly worried that she might have offended me. She talked for a few minutes about a friend and her daughter's radical feminism with a knowing smile meant to acknowledge how ridiculous the daughter was being. Then, after communicating the subtle dislike of feminism, she shocked me by saying:

"Actually, I think women are stronger than men anyway. Things that would crush a man are handled all the time by women."

I let out a snort of laughter and teased her. "So what you're saying is that women are not equal to men...they are superior! We shouldn't be fighting for equality, but instead should be focusing on domination of the world by the properly superior sex!"

We all laughed together.

People are funny.

Godspeed, Michael Spencer!

Yesterday Michael Spencer, better known as the internetmonk, passed away after a months-long battle with cancer.

It's hard to know what to say when someone you "know" through their blog and internet conversations is suddenly silenced, their voice no longer heard in everyday, ordinary updates.

I started reading internetmonk a few years ago, not long after I began blogging. It was always first on the list of blogs I would check out each morning, not just because Michael was a gifted writer, but because the conversations and commenters he was able to elicit on his site were always intriguing and diverse. He was good at playing the host and wrangling divergent people and viewpoints into an enjoyable rodeo of opinion and insight.

May God be with his family as they come to grips with losing him.

Happy Easter!

Great post on the importance of the empty tomb and the heart of faith.

Busy with family and enjoying the Holiday. I hope everyone else is too!

Who Do You Read?

Just an observation...

I enjoy reading the blogs of people who I don't agree with in every aspect, but who have enough points in common with me that a conversation is easily facilitated.

You learn more from interacting with people who aren't exactly like you, in which case each of you simply congratulates the other on how right they(and you) are, and who aren't completely different from you, in which case the chasm of differences becomes too wide to contemplate crossing.

Who do you read and why?

Blogroll Update

I'm going through the blogroll, deleting blogs that I haven't really read in quite some time and adding some that I read regularly.

The first addition goes to John Hobbins and his blog Ancient Hebrew Poetry. John actually frustrates me sometimes. I don't always agree with him and he lapses into occasional, fiery rhetoric. However, he almost always has something interesting on his blog and even when I disagree with him, I can see that he has thought deeply about the points he is making.

Next addition goes to Joel Watts with his blog The Church of Jesus Christ. Quite a weighty name to give to your blog! My husband looked over my shoulder one day while reading it, thinking it was the website of a new denomination or maybe a cult. Nope. Just some guy blogging....but he blogs frequently and has an interesting mix of ideas.

Third addition...Opining Online, by Donna B. I've run into Donna at Assistant Village Idiot's blog before and every time I click over to her blog I always find something interesting on it...a mix of personal blogging, conservative ideas and some posts that are just for fun. Well-rounded.

I'll be adding more over the next few weeks.

The Giver

I bought and finished The Giver, a juvenile/young adult book written by Lois Lowry, over the weekend. With future books in mind for the boys, I thought it would be good to read it and the plot summary on the back of the book seemed interesting.

First reactions:

1. The book deals with subjects that probably aren't appropriate for elementary age children. While not graphic in any way, a good reading of the book requires more of a sophisticated understanding of human development in order for it to make sense. When Jonas has a proto-sexual dream, he is told that he has experienced The Stirrings and it's time to begin his "treatment" which comes in the form of a daily pill meant to inhibit The Stirrings.

Further into the story, Jonas discovers that Release from the community is not a form of exile into another community, but is premeditated execution/death. He becomes enlightened of this fact by watching his father Release an infant; a disturbing scene, not because it is graphic but merely because of the sinister implications.

2. The book is very Logan's Runnish/Brave New Worldish. A future Utopia is achieved by carefully controlling all aspects of society, from birth to death.

3. The book is not a great representation of the sci-fi genre. It takes place in the future. It presumes all sorts of technical advances, but not much detail is put into these features and they are not carefully thought out.

Debra Doyle, a young adult fiction author, hits the nail on the head with this criticism:

Things are the way they are (in the novel) because The Author is Making A Point; things work out the way they do because The Author's Point Requires It."

She's right, but I think that only more sophisticated readers would be bothered by it to the point of distraction.

4. I found the ideas about communal memories probably the most intriguing part of the book. In The Giver, there is one person who holds all the memories that have ever existed. The rest of the community don't possess these memories of pain, war, starvation...and also happiness, individuality, differences in the way things are and the way things used to be. The Receiver/The Giver is the only person who hold this inner knowledge within themselves. They bear the burden of knowing the freedoms and joys that have been lost along with the pain and difficulties that have been banished.

The memories separate them from everyone else and place them in psychological isolation in the community.

While not being the only theme Lowry develops, it is the one I found most "true". Having knowledge of awful things that other people don't know about is very isolating. Not sharing that knowledge in order to protect others is a heavy burden.

It hit home for me because I have known things about many people that I have never shared because of how it would affect others. Either through chance, confession, or accurate intuition, many secrets have rolled into my path, many of which I'd like to be blissfully ignorant. None of them are earth-shattering, especially if you happen to be fairly cynical internally. Yet there are times when it would be nice to "un-know" some things.

But I guess that's what the whole "knowledge of good and evil" theme is about in Genesis.

There is no "un-knowing" available.

Update on Harry Potter

I've read the first 3 books already and let The Rationalist start in on the series.

He read the first book in one 24-hour period. He seems to enjoy them so far, having started the second one right after he finished the first.

I have moderately enjoyed the books, though they haven't been a complete surprise to me because I have seen snippets of the first three movies.

If I had one criticism it would center on the lack of character development of Harry Potter. I feel as if Hermione, Ron, and even Draco are more rounded out than Harry. He seems to always be reacting to things and he doesn't seem to possess much of an inner life outside of the context of his parent's death and Voldemort.

For a character who is supposed to be "the hero", he seems to lack substance.

Parental Censorship

I just started reading the Harry Potter books. When they first came out DH and I didn't have children and then, when we did, they were too young to be interested in Harry Potter.

The Rationalist has been asking to read them for quite some time, but they are just out of his assigned reading level for his accelerated reader program at school. Mainly, I was trying to make him wait until he was a bit older. From what I have heard, the last few books are a lot darker and have more general peril in them. I knew once he started the series that he would fly through the books in a matter of months, if not weeks, so I was hoping to let him loose on the entire enterprise once I thought he could handle all of them.

I am somewhat ambivalent about exerting a measured amount of censorship over what our children read. When I was a child, I was an advanced reader. By third grade, I was reading my mother's pulp fiction paperbacks, most of which were wildly inappropriate for me due to the sexual and violent content. By fifth grade, I was a huge Stephen King fan.

The scarier, the more horrifying, the better.

So....I understand the urge for fantasy and horror at a young age.

On the other hand, I was exposed to many subjects at a young age that I wouldn't want my own children to be exposed to. Walking the line between implementing parental guidance and allowing breathing space for the kids is a balancing act.

The Intuitive is ready to attack all of the R.L. Stine , Goosebumps books. I'm making him wait until 3rd grade only because I made The Rationalist wait that long. I had been turned off of the Goosebumps series when The Rationalist came home with one in first grade. The story involved a young girl become possessed by a scary mask and almost strangling her best friend to death.

Too much for a 6 year old to process.

By third grade The Rationalist landed in a classroom stocked with every Goosebumps book ever written. He'd read them all by Christmas break.

Now, I only casually keep track of what he's reading. There have been only a few instances when he has come home with a book that has been vetoed by us, usually because it has more realistic violence in it than we think he's old enough to handle. It is surprising sometimes what subjects pop up in the young juvenile section of the library.

One of the books he picked out in second grade dealt heavily with domestic abuse and had scenes depicting a woman being hit by her husband...way too heavy of a subject for an 8 year old to deal with. Usurping his choice, we made him stop reading it and find something else to meet his reading requirements.

It's becoming more complicated to figure out what is appropriate now that both of the boys are becoming more sophisticated.

The illusion of parental control I possess will probably completely evaporate over the next few years.

Wisdom or Hypocrisy?

Is holding your tongue in the presence of others, whose views are vastly different than your own, wisdom, or a hypocritical attempt to preserve relationship with those who would reject you if they knew what you really thought?