Sunspots 506

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
 
Christianity: Speculative Faith has a blog post about The Walking Dead, and how we deal with death generally. The author closes by saying: ". . . the reality is the absence of sex, gore, cussing, and violence doesn’t make a book Christian-compatible. How it handles death, however, determines how in sync with the Gospel a book is."
 
Speculative Faith also has a blog post by E. Stephen Burnett, which discusses six myths about heaven, which are common among believers, and others.
 
Relevant names the most important idol worshiped by Christians.

Humor: The funniest video I've ever seen on TV that didn't star an animal or a baby -- a 5+ minute interview of Anne Hathaway, by Jon Stewart, on the Daily Show. They crack each other up, uncontrollably, and apparently without really meaning to, about 2 minutes in, and never fully recover. The live audience was definitely amused. (Unlike some Daily Show scenes, there was no reason to bleep anything out, and there was no mention of politics of any kind.)
 
Science:  A 2 minute plus YouTube video on how large astronomical objects are (and how small the earth is!).
 
Wired reports on the Rosetta spacecraft's exploration of a comet.
 
FiveThirtyEight analyzes recent snowstorms in New York city, and finds that it doesn't snow as often now as it used to, but, when it does, it snows more.

Sports: Congratulations to the Gasol brothers, from Spain, who are the first brothers ever selected as NBA all-stars. (They will be on opposing teams.) Congratulations to their parents, too, I guess.
Image source (public domain)

Some quotations on fear

Genesis 3:9 Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (All Bible quotations from the World English Bible, public domain)

As it was, she was surprised into looking into the Beast's face.
The contrasts she found there were too great: wisdom and despair, power and weakness, man and animal. These made him far more terrible than any hungry lion, any half-tamed hydra, any angry sorcerer, terrible as something that should not exist is terrible, because to recognize that it does exist shakes that faith in the foundations of the natural world which human beings must have to bear the burden of their rationality. Robin McKinley, Rose Daughter. New York: Ace, 1998, p. 87. ("she" is Beauty.)

1 Peter 3:13 Now who is he who will harm you, if you become imitators of that which is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “Don’t fear what they fear, neither be troubled.”


I was in the chapel over the burial-vault of my race.  I called aloud:  "If any of the dead are moving here, let
them take pity upon me, for I, alas! am still alive; and let some dead woman comfort me, for I am a stranger in the land of the dead, and see no light."  A warm kiss alighted on my lips through the dark.  And I said, "The dead kiss well; I will not be afraid."  And a great hand was reached out of the dark, and grasped mine for a moment, mightily and tenderly.  I said to myself:  "The veil between, though very dark, is very thin." (George MacDonald, Phantastes, public domain)


GHOST, n. The outward and visible sign of an inward fear.

. . . Accounting for the uncommon behavior of ghosts, Heine mentions somebody's ingenious theory to the effect that they are as much afraid of us as we of them. Not quite, if I may judge from such tables of comparative speed as I am able to compile from memories of my own experience.
There is one insuperable obstacle to a belief in ghosts. A ghost never comes naked: he appears either in a winding-sheet or "in his habit as he lived." To believe in him, then, is to believe that not only have the dead the power to make themselves visible after there is nothing left of them, but that the same power inheres in textile fabrics. Supposing the products of the loom to have this ability, what object would they have in exercising it? And why does not the apparition of a suit of clothes sometimes walk abroad without a ghost in it? These be riddles of significance. They reach away down and get a convulsive grip on the very tap-root of this flourishing faith. (Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, public domain)


LONGEVITY, n. Uncommon extension of the fear of death. (The Devil's Dictionary)

My first religion was pure Paganism, which among sincere men is more shortly described as extreme fear. Then there succeeded a state of mind which is quite real, but for which no proper name has ever been found. The ancients called it Stoicism, and I think it must be what some German lunatics mean (if they mean anything) when they talk about Pessimism. It was an empty and open acceptance of the thing that happens—as if one had got beyond the value of it. And then, curiously enough, came a very strong contrary feeling—that things mattered very much indeed, and yet that they were something more than tragic. It was a feeling, not that life was unimportant, but that life was much too important ever to be anything but life. I hope that this was Christianity. At any rate, it occurred at the moment when we went crash into the omnibus. (G. K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles, public domain)

Revelation 6:15 The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. 16 They told the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of his wrath has come; and who is able to stand?” 

Thanks for reading.

The Hunting of the Last Dragon

I recently read The Hunting of the Last Dragon, by Sherryl Jordan. I discovered it because it won a South Carolina Junior Book Award for 2004. I'm not sure anyone save school librarians pays attention to such awards, or at least I wonder if the Juniors do. I did, and it is a good book.

There are several interesting features, besides what, from the title, would seem obvious.

One of those is the narrative structure. Almost the entirety of the book was ostensibly dictated to a monk, who wrote everything that Jude of Doran said, in his presence, with goose quill pens, on parchment, in 1356 AD, in England. Jude was a peasant boy, perhaps 15 or 16 years old during the time of the narrative.

Another is the presence of Chinese characters in a book set in 14th century England. The author doesn't seem to know whether or not that really happened at that time, but it is a central feature of the book, in several ways, and certainly adds interest. One thing I can tell you, without giving away anything essential, is that footbinding, an ancient Chinese practice, plays an important role.

The third feature is that, perforce, a fair amount of the book, although not the main action, takes place in a monastery. Although monastery life is not seen through rose-colored glasses, Jordan presents it respectfully. She treats the death of a monk, and his promotion to God's presence, as if it were true.

Finally, the book is a love story, although Jude doesn't realize it until the end.

Here's a quotation that I found interesting:
"Ambrose always said that fear was faith in one's enemy . . . " Sherryl Jordan, The Hunting of the Last Dragon, New York: HarperCollins, 2002, p. 87. (Ambrose does not appear in the book.)

I see what Jordan is saying. In a sense, fear is faith in one's enemy, be it a dragon, or Satan, or tornadoes, or our own nature and appetites. But that's not the whole story. Christ told us that there are some things that we should fear:

Luke 12:4 “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! (ESV)

Thanks for reading!