Agnostic editor makes case for the Bible, but not God

Slate’s David Plotz read every word of the Bible and lived to write about it in  Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible,

He tells about how fascinating are the stories, the etymologies (shibboleth),  the frequently used allusions. And how cruel the slayings, judgments, and punishments.

Plotz says he began the reading project as an unconcerned agnostic and ended as an angry agnostic. The Bible, it seems, turned him further against God. Yet he admits the value of such a study and wonders why, given the Bible’s significance, more of it isn’t required reading in college and high school.

We know the answer to that.

Who reads the Bible today? We  might “cherry pick” our favorite texts or the easier reads. Or we have determined which parts are just “in there” but not particularly relevant or were cultural manifestations and not applicable. In previous centuries in the West, a working knowledge of the Bible was a given. Today, in teaching, the many biblical allusions are lost on most students. And I’m talking S0lomon-level references.

So ket us hear the end of the matter. The Bible is for many The Word of God. For others, like Plotz, an interesting and important text. Others don’t have a position on it any more than they do on The Grapes of Wrath: it doesn’t figure into anything.

 

http://www.slate.com/id/2212616/pagenum/all/#p2

“We all will be received in Graceland”

For Christmas Daughter Dearest gave her brother a copy of Lyrics 1964-2008, an anthology of Paul Simon’s lyrics from songs spanning those years. Quite a career. Of course, these lyrics are all available free online, but the book makes for easy perusing not to mention an attractive coffee table addition.

Both kids are Simon fans, as we might expect, since they grew up with the music in the background on trips and around the house occasionally. Simon is a poet, and so there were always “meanings” to discuss — something to think about. That and the music. Since they were meant to be sung, the lyrics scan well, and while some of them might be considered “simple,” they supply a kind of natural American experience and catalog of emotion representative of the FIVE DECADES Simon’s work spans.

Reading through the lyrics, as with any poet’s works, I find it interesting to look for patterns of development in style, theme , or content. Simon has moved from the dark, melanchoy world of “Sound of Silence” (Hello, Darkness, my old Friend) and “I am a Rock” to fun works like “Call Me Al.”  (Simon with Chevy Chase)   that parodies music videos. There’s a kind of middle period with lyrics more mature, knowing, and disillusioned like “Fifty Ways” and “Slip Sliding Away.” Something for everybody.

Simon slips in plenty of irony, paradox, imagery, allusion, and metaphor to satisfy literary cravings as in my all-time favorite: “Graceland.” Working from the allusion to the Elvis home in Memphis as a metaphor for this, what I call “travelling song,” the gently driving music leads us through places of heartache and lonliness to a pilgrimage toward a place of solace and salvation — grace — favor. The kind we don’t have to deserve.  And the speaker has a “reason to believe/we all will be received in Graceland.”  Adding to the metaphor are images of the South and its hospitality,  not to mention Bible Belt Christianity.

The similes work: 
The mississippi delta was shining
Like a national guitar
I am following the river
Down the highway
Through the cradle of the civil war
I’m going to graceland
Graceland

He also writes

And she said losing love
Is like a window in your heart
Everybody sees you’re blown apart
Everybody sees the wind blow.

and a metaphor –

There is a girl in New York City
Who calls herself the human trampoline
And sometimes when Im falling, flying
Or tumbling in turmoil I say
Oh, so this is what she means
She means we’re bouncing into graceland.

I’d put “Graceland” in the category of songs of hope — optimisitic words from one who has known failure but who still is able to glimpse and reach for something better — a kind of salvation at least.

Mike Ragogna at the Huffington Post has some thoughtful remarks on Simon and the new book as well as some good commentary on the music industry.

Though it’s hard to separate a song like “Mrs. Robinson”  from the music, for fans it’s enlightening to read the lyrics as stand alone poetry.  And though Barnes and Noble has it rated at three stars, I would recommend it to any Simon fan’s library.

Work ethic healthy in Beatty Brothers

The Beatty brothers have written a book detailing how they have, since childhood, been making money Pulling Weeds to Picking Stocks. Now in their advice book they share the principles of hard work, organization, and business savvy that they learned from their parents.

The 7 x 5 inch 100-pager, written on a 9-12 year old reading level had, just four days ago, an Amazon ranking of around 560,000th. Not good.

Then on Friday, David Beatty called the Rush Limbaugh radio program and stated his intention to donate about a third of the profits to the Marine Corps for their service to the country and their family.

Today? Monday morning? The Beattys’ book has leaped to the number five position! A now sold-out bestseller. They earn money teaching marketing principles and have just provided a powerful object lesson.

What’s the chief lesson here? Hard work? Excellence in parenting? Good teen models? Only in America?

All of the above. And I also know that the publishing industry generates more stories of serendipity and human interest that often supersede the actual content of what they publish. Sequel? ” Meet the (Beatty) Parents.

Has “Atlas Shrugged?”

Atlas

In Ayn Rand’s last and most defining work, Atlas Shrugged, the world’s most gifted, innovative thinkers and inventors, the great minds of the nations, literally go on strike. In a socialist, government dominated, stifling society, these men and women of brains, brawn, and business acumen prefer going underground to benefitting those who lack all of the above. Many people, no doubt, identify with these Randian heroes as they struggle to pursue and produce excellence among those who lack the ability to apprehend or appreciate their talent. They go on strike, too, abandoning such people leaving them to their own inferior devices.

Though Rand was what one writer calls a “liberatrian atheist,” her ideas, her philosophy resonate with me on a fundamental level. There is truth here. It has mostly to do with freedom and man’s Godlike ability to imagine and create and achieve glory. It shows the nasty, fallen side, too – selfishness, cowardice, and jealousy.

Rand articulates her Objectivism in mellifluous prose making all 1,168 pages entertaining reading, that and also the longest novel in a European-based language. Her characters are exquisitely drawn and the good guys, hopefully not inimitable in reality.

Not everyone is or was thrilled with the novel. The National Review has posted a somewhat negative review by Whittaker Chambers from the 1957 archives, the year of the novel’s publication. Definitely worth reading.

Not intending to provide a traditional review (they abound,) I’ll change the novel’s ubiquitous query, “Who is John Galt?” to “Has Atlas Shrugged? ” Have those whose ideas, integrity, and independent self reliance create and inspire excellence abdicated their place leaving the rest to survive on their meager wits?

No? Then where are they? In our classrooms? In our courtrooms? In our capital city?

Finally I recommend William F. Buckley’s novel Getting it Right and the d’Anconia speech on money excerpt(Capitalism Magazine.) Also read the John Galt 90-page radio broadcast, a novella in itself, and Rand’s manifesto.

While it took me nearly a year to finish this novel, I’ll never regret or forget the experience. Today I rummaged used book stores for a copy of The Fountainhead.

Christian leaders not shacking up with novel

William Young’s The Shack is a best-seller for BN and has topped the NYT list. It’s a Christian genre book and that’s what makes its success surprising — and controversial. Albert Mohler, in a full-length radio program,  has called it “heresy,” and Lifeway has apparently pulled it. But in addition to sales, customer reviews say the book is enriching and renewing.

For me and other would -be writers the most interesting thing here is the book’s publishing history. Young, recently bankrupt and having lost a home of 19 years, wrote the book for his children and a few friends. They loved it, word of mouth marketing kicked in, and a best seller was born.

“Dear Mr. Young, we regret to inform you . . .”  Yes, the book, like so many other successes, was rejected by both Christian and secular publishing houses. Undeterred Young formed Windblown expressly for publishing his own novel. Then came a webpage. Barnes and Noble bought a few copies and when sales soared, ordered more. Many more.

Issues? Christian leaders say the book may be harmful. Fans say it’s the best Christian book they’re read. By the way, in the book God is a black woman.  A quick read will tell. I’m waiting for it to hit the used bookstores or be available at the library.

Young’s website gives the front matter and chapter one for readers. NYT Books has another review. And of course, blogs are weighing in on both sides.

Interview with a vampire reader

Chastened for criticizing a novel I had not read, I set out to read said novel, Rice’s Interview with a Vampire, and thus be able to discuss it from an informed point of view. ((See my post s on must reads and/or what constitutes a literary classic along with the comments.)

I’ll start with a positive. Rice is a good raconteur. Her narrative style is the right blend of dialogue, narration, and description. The disturbed, repellent characters are depicted in great detail and carefully drawn. Places, too, are vividly portrayed.

I’m forcing myself to finish the book. The subject matter is lurid and objectionable, dark and macabre. But this isn’t just a ghost story. Its insidious side is evinced in that the vampires are attractive, naturally, and the act of sucking blood is depicted as highly sensual — the ultimate experience.  That’s disgusting and for me offensive. Descriptive tales of how a person is tracked down and drained of his life blood, often with great pleasure in a spirit of fun, is reprehensible and appeals, as does such prurient literature to the basest nature. 

I’ve read 200 pages and I can’t find anything to take away from the book, nothing here enriches, elevates, informs, or pleases. It’s like falling deeper and deeper into a dark bottomless hole. What is Rice’s purpose?

I’m waiting to read any criticism until after I’ve finished, sometime Monday maybe. I’ve been told that there is heavy-duty philosophy here and perhaps I’ll find it in those remaining 150 pages.

“1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die”

Or else what? Objectionable use of the word “must” it seems. Of course the editor, Peter Boxall, wants to raise our literary antennae because he knows we haven’t read these books, not most of them, and so with the implied inferiority of cretins like us, the challenge to our education, we read his list. We are weighed and found wanting. Score one.

A vampire book, Mr. Boxall?

According to William Grimes in the Books section of the NYT, (RSS to right)  Boxall wants to critique “canonicity.” Academics subscribe to a long-standing list of must reads of their own: what an educated person should have read to be considered well-read, having encountered significant ideas well expressed that are life and possibly world changing. The classics.  They are under scrutiny if not attack. Interview With a Vampire is on par with Nineteen Eighty Four these days.

And the point can be made:  So if I haven’t read Macbeth, I don’t understand overweaning pride and ambition? Minus Huck Finn I won’t ever comprehend racial injustice or the painful initiation into adulthood and self reliance? 

No one “must read” anything. And I suspect that good common sense, humanity, pathos and social conscience may be bred without any reading, especially fiction, which comprises most of the 1001.

Having said that, I’m a Canon-ite. I believe in the value of certain agreed -upon fictions in providing illumination, clarity, appreciation, and joy regarding the human condition, all areas.

What I object to is the cocktail party game of one-up everybody with what we’ve read. Using classic literature for snobbery and denigration is ironically unfortunate. Somebody missed the lesson in all those pages.

First attempts by Ayn Rand

  I picked up an old, yellowed copy of The Early Rand (Signet, ed. Leonard Peikoff, 1984) and have thoroughly enjoyed reading from her early unpublished fiction. Peikoff and Rand were friends. In fact, she was influential in his move from studying medicine to philosophy.  He was one of those invited into the salon circle of disciples where Rand discussed her views.

For one thing, what the unpublished writings offer is her early struggle with the English language. She had emigrated to America from Russia in 1926 at 21 and had to learn everything from scratch. But the stories show the maturing of a great writer. In “The Husband I Bought” the language usage is rough, and the diction is imprecise.  The plotting is immature with more telling than showing. But the men and women, her characters, are predictive of the giants of fiction that Dagny Taggart and Hank Rearden are today — people of strength and integrity and self reliance.

Having read Buckley’s Getting it Right, an enjoyable and fairly accurate fictional account of the formation of the conservative movement, I know that Rand didn’t support Buckley or The National Review. She thought it “the most dangerous” publlication in America since she felt that Buckley wanted to merge conservatism with religion. He didn’t favor some of her views, which were conservative, but Godless. The novel is just plain good reading.

I reject Rand’s views of religion and some of her views on man. I thoroughly relish her postulations that show man as heroic, purposeful, determined, the ruler of the world, capable of anything for his own self interest and thereby the good of others. It’s a vision that lauds man’s creativity and ability to produce and to derive from his efforts a deeply abiding satisfaction, confidence, and love of life — capitalism. (Some of the works in this anthology are vehemently anti-Communist.)

In her fiction, the evil characters are the lazy, inferior men who resent and envy those who do produce and are successful. Her fictional situations show people who are despised for their want of vision and talent — characters who function best in at atmosphere of regulation and bureacracy enforcing status quo operations and considering anyone who is not content with that and cannot abide mediocrity a threat. The bad guy is a jealous, petty man.

Peikoff recommends reading the novels first and then trying the early work. I agree that this makes a fascinating study.

You might enjoy these articles:

From The Atlasphere, bio and some good articles on social and political topics, mostly conservative

On Rand  — http://txpayervoice.blogspot.com/2008/01/ayn-rands-birthday.html

Manybooks.net has only Anthem available free online and as an audiobook here.

 

Digitized reads – a plug

I discovered Manybooks,net four years ago when I was venturing outside the publisher’s literature anthology in search of readings that would better suit my students’ needs. The site is clean, only a few ads, and easy to navigate. Matthew McClintock maintains the site as a service to the Internet’s reading community. He reports that most of the works come from Project Gutenberg.  Amazing — no library card or gas, no time linits, no late fees, and 20,259 free texts from classics to dictionaries to pulp.

Users can search for a particular work or browse by author, title, categories, recent downloads, most popular, reviews, or new additions.  I find that “categories” is useful as it lists 56 areas such as science fiction, history, banned books, biography, and philosophy.  There’s mystery, poetry, psychology, young readers, and reference. The Harvard Classics is its own category.

Once you locate your ebook, you’ll need to either download it or read it online. Downloads are available in formats for your cellphone, iphone, Kindle, Palm, Blackberry, PDF, and many more. Most of the books are public domain or Creative Commons. Visit the “About” and the “Site News” links for more information.

Manybooks is completely free, but it does have a donations button. Why not? Another way to serve is to volunteer for Digital Proofreading. There’s a button for this program, too, and it’s an interesting read on how a text gets read, edited, and finally delivered. They ask for as little as a page a day, but readers may do a little or much.

I should note that in casually browsing through 20,000 texts, I’m unfamiliar with a most. Still, intriguing titles and sheer volume are compelling to a reader. But as you browse, some of the “household words” emerge: Shakespeare, Bacon, Freud, Barnum, Huxley, Webster, Franklin, Doyle, Montaigne, and more.

When people discuss etexts, the subject of comparison to traditional print formats arises. Articles abound. How often do you read electronically? For what types of reading: information or pleasure? What advantages or disadvantages do you see?

 a few articles
http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/horning/article2.pdf 

http://www.unf.edu/~tcavanau/presentations/SITE/ElectronicTextsasCourseTextbook.htm

http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0096.html

 

http://www.eastgate.com/HypertextNow/archives/Electronic.html

 

 

Rejection

Who faces rejection more than would-be writers and others who attempt to market their creative produce? You go to work on the text, hands trembling over the cold keyboard. You criticize yourself after every keystroke: immature, trivial, repetitive, boring, banal. Then the seed germinates. It grows. Oh yeah, you’re humming now — for about 250 words — then — nothing.

Strretch. Walk to the frig. Nothing there either. You know eating and drinking are only distractions. Back to it.

If you finish something, there’s the whole agent/editor/publisher routine if we’re fortunate enough to get that far. Most writers don’t. Most labor away unnoticed, unread, unpublished. But take comfort! Fitzgerald had a stack of rejection slips a few inches high. More recently, Jasper Fforde received 76 rejection letters from publishers before his first novel, The Eyre Affair, was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2001 J.K. Rowlings (Harry Potter) was rejected 12 times! There’s a lesson here. Maybe.

Publisher Alfred A. Knopf keeps an archive of its rejection files at the University of Texas. While the publisher has published some 47 Pulitzer winners, it has also said “No, thanks” to many that went on to fame.  In a review of these files in the NYT Sunday Books page, David Oshinsky says that reader reports that he encountered were fair, that rejections were most often deserved. Wanna-be’s should keep a balanced view.

That said, George Orwell was told. “It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA” when he submitted Animal Farm.

Discouraged about rejection? I wouldn’t mind joining the ranks of these “rejects:”

Dr. Seuss
Upton Sinclair
Vladimir Nabokov
Stephen King for Carrie — “negative utopia stuff won’t sell”
Ayn Rand
Anne Frank — 15 rejections before Doubleday took Diary of a Young Girl
Isaac Singer
Jack Kerouac
Sylvia Plath
Rudyard Kipling
H.G. Wells
Margaret Mitchell — rejected 38 times for GONE WITH THE WIND!

This site lists rejections of famous writers and some of the now-rued excerpts from publishers’ prematurely poor assessments. I like to read these. “Someday they’ll be sorry! “
http://www.writersservices.com/mag/m_rejection.htm