Portland Glass

Fiction and Solomon

King Solomon is attributed with having said "there is nothing new under the sun."

What if he's right?

In the final chapter of Cities of the Plain (Cormac McCarthy, 1998), One of McCarthy's characters (Billy) has a dream. Another character then talks about how when someone exists in a dream, they weren't just created at that moment, but they existed before that. In fact, it's quite egotistical to think that we could actually create a person just like that, just for that moment, for our own purposes. He proceeded to describe how that dream person must have existed before that dream, in other dreams perhaps, and went on to walk through other dreamers' dreams as well.

Jung, on the other hand, simply described these characters and events as aspects of our interior life. Again, no creation there, just what's inside us taking on various forms.

How about fiction? or art? innovation?

Previously existing elements placed together in ways and relationships they've never been in before? What about those ways and relationships? aren't they new? Did they exist somewhere before? I've got a handful of windows which are original work. That is, no one's done it exactly like I did it. But maybe the only difference is in the details. Are those inconsequential? ... I prattle.

I'm a reductionist. In that sense. I am compelled to agree with Solomon (and Plato?). There's only one story. There's only one work of art. There's only one anything - and we're just working to try to get as close to re-creating that "anything" as we can. And hopefully having fun doing it.

Christ the eternal tao - book preview

as I haven't finished reading it (barely begun), I can't offer a review, so I'll make it a preview - for it's a book I've been looking forward to digesting for quite some time. It starts with a bang (bigger than the big bang) and approaches its subject from the disposition of one involved in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. Among other things, the author catches my attention again and again. Here's a sampler so far.

- making it clear that this is not a syncretistic writing - which reminds me of a speaker I heard many many years ago (Ajith Fernando) who made sure we understood his point, being that there is no religion that contains the truth; All religions POINT to the truth though, and that truth is Christ.

- The Gospel of John begins powerfully, talking about the Logos (word) being God and with God and all things were created through the Logos. An Eastern Orthodox translation of this uses Tao (way) instead of Logos, and they do seem to be quite interchangeable. In as much as Heraclitus recognized Christ as he spoke of the mystery of the Logos, Lao Tzu recognized Christ as he spoke of the mystery of the Tao.

- the author speaks of how seekers in america are leaving the teachings of the churches and studying eastern thought. His interpretation of this movement (certainly resonates with me) is that the image of Christ is seriously obscured in the grossly tarnished image the american christian church puts forth. Whereas, though in Lao Tzu's writing, and still in Taoism, though as a dim reflection, a purer image of Christ can be found. It is easier to be pointed to Christ via Taoism than by the american christian establishment.

- that even after immersing oneself in Taoism, there still exists the seed that Christ planted that draws you further into faith in Christ - which is what drew the author back into the Eastern Orthodox tradition. (Though it seems that Orthodox tradition already has a fair openness to Taoist thought if only for its strong presence in and proximity to China.)

here's a few links:

A short bio on the author (Hieromonk Damascene)

and the Amazon link to the book 

More reviews...

Thought I'd redeem my last post by giving a few positives...

1. Stories of God: an unauthorized biography - John Shea (1978). Excellent, though dated, read. Not a theological text per se - but he speaks from the heart and references many great theologians. His treatment of who God is and our relationship to God in this era is fantastic. And his paradigms fall easily in with other excellent authors such as Henri Nouwen and Parker Palmer. A good one to read, let settle a few years then read again.

2. Watchmen (movie - 2009) - not the illustrated novel (Moore / Gibbons - 1995)- which I haveto confess I haven't read. Concepts were riveting and I'm still working them over. I love a superhero story with angst, even if it's as poorly done as Hancock was. Watchmen was not poorly done, and has far more angst than any superhero movie I've ever seen. It's worth the watch (watch the watchmen), has a great soundtrack, but is way intense visually, particularly re: gore, fight scenes, and a little bit of sex.

3. American Gods - Neil Gaiman. (2001) Pulp fiction - so nothing significant to say. A friend recommended this after I'd told him about Roger Lancellyn Green's treatment of the Greek myths (which I raved about). American Gods was the story of gods and heros set in modern America. The gods hadn't changed, except for being weaker for lack of worshippers. And Gaiman tells his story with enough understanding about their mischievious, often deadly character faults. And the reading is easy. But it reads like so many other modern fantasy genre that I was a little put off. But I had nothing better to do, so I stormed through all 465 pages in just a few days of mandatory lying in bed because my back is killing me.

There you have it.

Book Review: The Search for God and Guinness (2009)

It's often not a good thing to be working out a review for a book before you've even finished it. In Stephen Mansfield's The Search for God and Guinness, that's exactly what happened. When I saw the title of this book, my mouth watered - what an interesting idea. Then I opened the book - frontloaded with a number of interesting facts about Guinness - Arthur, the beer, the company, and the family. Then, the letdown (95% of the book). My quotable for this book: "The title says far more than the author ever does. Leave this one on the shelf - you'll enjoy it more that way."

I will attempt to finish the final fourth of this work, but it's like walking through a swamp - harder and harder as it continues. Mansfield writes in a manner I would call "modern, out-of-touch, mainstream evangelical preacher." As far as I can see, he has no audience for this work. Except possibly other modern out-of-touch mainstream evangelical preachers. Conservative christians won't choose it for the title (though it may actually do them some good). The rest of christianity will find it too bland for digestion. And the rest of the world will simply reel at the miscreant assumptions and proliferate christianese (sometimes couched in "inclusive church-speak"). I'm only quite glad I only borrowed it from the library.

Is it wrong to be this negative about a book? Parts of it come close to making my skin crawl - and certainly would if I hadn't been numbed already by a dearth of sermons from modern out-of-touch mainstream evangelical preachers...

11/2/09

I finally finished the book. So here's a final side about God and Guinness - though written in a language and from a view that most find distasteful for a multitude of reasons, the author did seem to express a little personal passion in chapter 5 (Guinnesses for God). As such, it was a little more palatable. Nonetheless, it was not worth the time spent reading it. Though, I'd say most of my disgust with the author lies in the fact that he has such a good title with such promise and I had high hopes as I first cracked it open. When those hopes were dashed relentlessly against the crags of mediocrity, I was notably pissed.

Also, I couldn't stomach reading the epilogue - it presents like a standard 5 point sermon extrapolating business / life more's from the lives of the Guinnesses as presented by the author. Nearly made me nauseous. Though on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being a guaranteed technicolor yawn, this book only would have rated a 2 - and without the epilogue - would have been a 1.5. Almost nothing to puke about in this read. It's just not worth it.