tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88161419934615743502024-03-05T02:24:56.056-08:00Where We Start From: Hope from the Narthex of the Apocalypse"The end is where we start from."
-T.S. EliotUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-78740214473901199712023-11-10T21:46:00.003-08:002023-11-10T22:54:54.779-08:00Images from Gordon Skagit Farms, Mount Vernon, Washington, October 2023<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitZ8qa19D8qvaMUEEhwVghRqVntjc-_H0utmCD9c-uoJA2BPRDprntcOQgZBEvG4pmSCD47c6hmCb_-n7Y3-KVw0enfXwVm0lA3Bw5FAcloMKOzcD_1ngofFxnSP_EwLX_5OslE60QDPzBweGB0RK13gKYy8K1wze08Jdm4ZaOOj52_8F08vSlSGJcTSY/s6000/IMG_3171.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitZ8qa19D8qvaMUEEhwVghRqVntjc-_H0utmCD9c-uoJA2BPRDprntcOQgZBEvG4pmSCD47c6hmCb_-n7Y3-KVw0enfXwVm0lA3Bw5FAcloMKOzcD_1ngofFxnSP_EwLX_5OslE60QDPzBweGB0RK13gKYy8K1wze08Jdm4ZaOOj52_8F08vSlSGJcTSY/s320/IMG_3171.JPG" width="320" id="id_5ad0_7273_51fa_6f76" style="width: 320px; 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height: auto;"></a></div><br><div style="text-align: center;"> All images shot with a Canon M50 Mark II<br>Lens: <a href="https://rainbowimaging.biz/products/35mm-aps-c-f1-6-mc-lens-adapter-for-canon-ef-m-m1-m2-m3-m5-m6-m6ii-m10-m50-m100" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fotasy 35MM APS-C F1.6 MC Lens</a><br></div><div style="text-align: center;">This wonderful, inexpensive modern lens gives images a warm vintage feel<br>© 2023 Jeffrey Dennis Pearce<br>All Rights Reserved</div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com15598 McLean Rd, Mount Vernon, WA 98273, USA48.420361799999988 -122.409115120.110127963821142 -157.5653651 76.730595636178833 -87.2528651tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-64940639563230840112023-11-10T21:26:00.002-08:002023-11-10T21:26:41.084-08:00Images from Ocean Shores, Washington, 2019<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvuhmKtzF-a0FBMUuPTjF9BFDZhS4P3GgxdkqThrXKz2U9kaLHkwRaqMu3TWcuSELYHFDzS-9RyU3-oQcX29w72j3EA30UVAIGJ80sEyX-exfxlvwD9R_zeBd5Ifz-zGfVrtliVHwAGeiSjUOk821nvLfHa4Mu_sbL3UERh67bLeLljaCc6cJXJ1JFBrE/s3024/IMG_1029.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh64XzRUvyLGKrCy9ZvbfW_EcvVpX3BtunPsiE3lqKOX7zquWMw0nBMQ8heXA-pFkAdnC386dPxEWnW-znwqXqCvoevmCLU0Y_D8O-oRnMd2Vt6tzAT1lIkYni_qYvM7k-NeIHv6W13itaw2LywBjMJ3CNSL4hKHlN-BV9BDDScfaumI568N6xHsiUAxDs/s4032/IMG_7195.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh64XzRUvyLGKrCy9ZvbfW_EcvVpX3BtunPsiE3lqKOX7zquWMw0nBMQ8heXA-pFkAdnC386dPxEWnW-znwqXqCvoevmCLU0Y_D8O-oRnMd2Vt6tzAT1lIkYni_qYvM7k-NeIHv6W13itaw2LywBjMJ3CNSL4hKHlN-BV9BDDScfaumI568N6xHsiUAxDs/s320/IMG_7195.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> iPhone 6S </div><div style="text-align: center;">Square images shot with 6x6 for iPhone app<br />Two images stylized by iPhone</div><div style="text-align: center;">© 2019 Jeffrey Dennis Pearce<br />All rights reserved</div> <p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comOcean Shores, WA, USA47.0074167 -124.161365318.697182863821155 -159.3176153 75.317650536178846 -89.0051153tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-16799336825411791262015-09-25T14:17:00.001-07:002016-01-05T23:33:49.050-08:00A Frighteningly Brief Introduction to the Gothic in Fiction, Music, T.V., and Film<div style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; 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<em><strong style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"The Gothic tale, characterized by its setting and atmosphere--the former tending toward ill-storied mansions located in remote, rustic areas, the latter toward gloom and impending disaster--flourished for many years: from the age of Horace Walpole and Anne Radcliffe into the early twentieth century, when it died with Edith Wharton. The genre also typically featured an unlikely, melancholy hero who confronts a half-remembered legend concerning a dark presence who once terrorized the region in life and is still rumored to haunt the land in death, or an innocent who was tortured to death sometime in the distant past and who is said to still walk the land after nightfall."</strong></em></div>
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<em><strong style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-James Person </strong></em></div>
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From its awkward beginnings in the late 18th century with Horace Walpole's pseudo-medieval novel, <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/696" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Castle of Otranto</a>, <a href="http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/themes/the-gothic" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the literary style known as "Gothic"</a> has grown to become very popular. While there are pure Gothic stories, often elements of the Gothic exist in other styles of tales. While the Gothic style nearly died out in the twentieth century, it is now alive and well. Authors of Gothic tales, or authors who use Gothic elements in their works, include Nathaniel Hawthorne,<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/34" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Washington Irving</a>, Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury, <a href="http://www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/about-kirk/" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Russell Kirk</a>, Mary Shelley, <a href="http://www.janeausten.org/" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Jane Austen</a>, the Bront<span itemprop="name" style="font-stretch: normal !important;">ë</span> sisters, Robert Louis Stevenson, Victor Hugo, H.P. Lovecraft,<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/aug/28/sheridan-le-fanu-two-centuries-birth-vampire-ghost-stories" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Sheridan Le Fanu</a>, Sir Walter Scott, <a href="https://edithwhartonsociety.wordpress.com/2013/10/31/looking-for-an-edith-wharton-ghost-story-for-halloween/" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Edith Wharton</a>, <a href="http://www.poemuseum.org/" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Edgar Allan Poe</a>, <a href="http://donswaim.com/" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Ambrose Bierce</a>, Ann Radcliffe, and Charles Dickens.</div>
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Modern and postmodern music, television, and movies are filled with Gothic creativity that draws directly and indirectly from Gothic literature. The Doors, The Cure, The Damned, and <a href="http://cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/alice-cooper-christian-world-belongs-satan" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Alice Cooper</a> are just four of a plethora of musical acts drawing on Gothic themes and styles. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052520/" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">"The Twilight Zone"</a> was, perhaps, America's first television experience of the Gothic, and it began a broader public fascination with the genre that has never waned, leading to such programs as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047708/" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">"Alfred Hitchcock Presents,"</a> <a href="http://www.addamsfamily.com/" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">"The Addams Family,"</a><a href="http://www.munsters.com/" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">"The Munsters,"</a> <a href="http://darkshadows.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Shadows_(1966)" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">"Dark Shadows,"</a> "Twin Peaks," "The X-Files," "The Ray Bradbury Theater," "American Gothic," "American Horror Story," "Supernatural," and "Hannibal," all of which, if not purely Gothic, are heavily imbued with Gothic elements, as is <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0796117/" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">M. Night Shyamalan's</a> recent series, "Wayward Pines." Also, Shyamalan's cinematic triumphs, <a href="http://decentfilms.com/reviews/sixthsense" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">"The Sixth Sense,"</a> and <a href="http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2014/10/aliens-demons-m-night-shyamalan-signs.html" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">"Signs"</a> are solidly Gothic films. Other marvelous Gothic films include <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0115218/" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Tod Browning's</a> version of "Dracula," with the incomparable <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000509/" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Bela Lugosi</a> in the title role, James Whale's adaptation of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" starring the talented <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000472/bio" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Boris Karloff</a>, who never spoke a word in this talkie,<a href="http://www.stmarymagdalenoxford.org.uk/what-anglo-catholicism" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Anglo-Catholic</a> director <a href="http://decentfilms.com/articles/terencefisher" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Terence Fisher's</a> tale of good triumphing over evil, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062885/" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">"The Devil Rides Out,"</a> and Alejandro Amenábar’s purgatorial and complicated "The Others," where Nicole Kidman gives a solid lead performance supported by a brilliant cast. I would be remiss to close without mentioning that Gothic "living movie" which blends hyperreality, nostalgia, the comic, and the Gothic to terrorize and enchant: Disneyland's <a href="https://disneyland.disney.go.com/attractions/disneyland/haunted-mansion/" style="color: #2954d1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Haunted Mansion</a>. In this dark ride, you actually participate in the movie as you ride through the Mansion on your "Doom Buggy." This ride is both symbol and enactment of the triumph of the Gothic in our culture.</div>
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-Jeffrey Dennis Pearce</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-26938432470875311092015-09-25T13:01:00.001-07:002015-09-26T21:18:25.811-07:00The Autumn People<div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Beware the autumn people…For some, autumn comes early, stays late through life…For these beings, fall is the ever normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond. Where do they come from? The dust. Where do they go? The grave. Does blood stir in their veins? No: the night wind. What ticks in their head? The worm. What speaks from their mouth? The toad. What sees from their eyes? The snake. What hears with their ear? The abyss between the stars. They sift the human storm for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners. They frenzy forth. In gusts they beetle-scurry, creep, thread, filter, motion, make all moons sullen, and surely cloud all clear-run waters. The spider-web hears them, trembles- breaks. Such are the autumn people. Beware of them.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">– Ray Bradbury, “Something Wicked This Way Comes”</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-21890066717510667222015-09-15T22:28:00.001-07:002015-09-26T20:33:19.749-07:00Wisdom from C.S. Lewis<div>
"We are bidden to 'put on Christ', to become like God. That is, whether we like it or not, God intends to give us what we need, not what we now think we want."</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-15973303267966747012015-08-18T01:07:00.001-07:002015-09-26T20:34:02.862-07:00New Volumes of Ghostly Tales from England<div style="text-align: center;">
Thank you to my cousin, David, for these marvelous books from England.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-63286411138095825202015-07-01T21:15:00.002-07:002015-07-01T21:15:44.877-07:00Working with Words<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">“To think creatively, to struggle with an opaque text or confounding idea, to seek connections between periods of history or disciplines of thought, and to search for the precise word or the right rhythm for a single sentence—these are human actions every bit as worthy as the wielding of a hammer, the manipulation of a surgical scalpel, or the making of a courtroom argument.” </span><br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/44007923-beginning-with-the-word-cultural-exegesis-modern-literature-and-the-q" target="_blank"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">― </span><span style="color: #666600; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Roger Lundin</span></span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">, </span><i style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: #666600;">Beginning with the Word (Cultural Exegesis): Modern Literature and the Question of Belief</span></i></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-60086118978884115932015-04-06T19:45:00.001-07:002018-12-21T09:37:58.752-08:00Sunset<br>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-8376643384260979862015-04-05T15:10:00.001-07:002015-04-17T18:34:09.878-07:00Jonagold and Asian Pear Blossoms<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-81882939482375402262015-03-31T22:29:00.001-07:002018-12-21T09:38:16.205-08:00Late Winter<div style="text-align: center;">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-26304425453466453862014-11-29T18:00:00.001-08:002018-12-21T09:38:32.520-08:00Late Autumn<br>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-68062371885698665842014-10-25T22:54:00.002-07:002016-10-25T19:28:54.520-07:00Place, Mood, and Character in Washington Irving's Ghostly Tale, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"<br />
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<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41/41-h/41-h.htm" target="_blank">"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"</a> by <a href="http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/wirving.htm" target="_blank">Washington Irving</a>, first published in 1820, is the quintessential American ghost story. I read it every Autumn before Hallowe'en, and I am always impressed by Irving's abilities. Irving was a great tale-teller with a gifted imagination, and a talent for vivid, drawn-out descriptions. The Headless Horseman actually appears in the story only briefly. The rest of the time, Irving carefully develops a strong sense of place, mood, and character, three elements necessary for a successful ghostly tale. For instance, in helping the reader experience Sleepy Hollow, a real place quite familiar to him, Irving writes:</div>
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<i><span style="text-indent: 1em;">"Not far from this village, perhaps about two miles, there is a little valley or rather lap of land among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull one to repose; and the occasional whistle of a quail or tapping of a woodpecker is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquillity...</span><span style="text-indent: 1em;">From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of SLEEPY HOLLOW, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere."</span></i></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 1em;">Irving's description of Sleepy Hollow even includes the natural sounds of the place. The reader is drawn into the story and, ultimately, experiences a pleasurable sense of participation in the terrors that ensue due to the realistic and detailed sense of place created in advance by the author.</span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 1em;">Mood is also critical to the success of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Once the reader is successfully carried away by the author to the place where the tale is set, he must feel the emotions proper to the tale, and, for a ghost story, creating a mood of foreboding and terror is key. Thus, for example, Irving, master of the genre, sets the proper atmosphere for his American classic by writing a terrifying description of the dark ride home endured by the hero of the tale, Ichabod Crane:</span></div>
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<i><span style="text-indent: 1em;">"</span><span style="text-indent: 16px;">It was the very witching time of night that Ichabod, heavy-hearted and crestfallen, pursued his travels homewards, along the sides of the lofty hills which rise above Tarry Town, and which he had traversed so cheerily in the afternoon. The hour was as dismal as himself. Far below him the Tappan Zee spread its dusky and indistinct waste of waters, with here and there the tall mast of a sloop, riding quietly at anchor under the land. In the dead hush of midnight, he could even hear the barking of the watchdog from the opposite shore of the Hudson; but it was so vague and faint as only to give an idea of his distance from this faithful companion of man. Now and then, too, the long-drawn crowing of a cock, accidentally awakened, would sound far, far off, from some farmhouse away among the hills—but it was like a dreaming sound in his ear. No signs of life occurred near him, but occasionally the melancholy chirp of a cricket, or perhaps the guttural twang of a bullfrog from a neighboring marsh, as if sleeping uncomfortably and turning suddenly in his bed.</span><span style="text-indent: 1em;">"</span></i></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 1em;">Character development is also important to Irving. Good storytellers triumph when they create realistic tales that readers can inhabit. Irving's descriptions of his characters are bright, colorful, and hold the reader's attention. Introducing Crane, he writes:</span></div>
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<i><span style="text-indent: 1em;">"</span><span style="text-indent: 16px;">The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield.</span><span style="text-indent: 1em;">"</span></i></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 1em;">Later, Irving goes beyond physical descriptions of his hero to tell us more about his personality: Crane is a lover of spectral tales, but he pays dearly for his indulgences in them:<br /><br /><i>"</i></span><span style="text-indent: 1em;"><i>Another of his sources of fearful pleasure was to pass long winter evenings with the old Dutch wives, as they sat spinning by the fire, with a row of apples roasting and spluttering along the hearth, and listen to their marvellous tales of ghosts and goblins, and haunted fields, and haunted brooks, and haunted bridges, and haunted houses, and particularly of the headless horseman, or Galloping Hessian of the Hollow, as they sometimes called him. He would delight them equally by his anecdotes of witchcraft, and of the direful omens and portentous sights and sounds in the air, which prevailed in the earlier times of Connecticut; and would frighten them woefully with speculations upon comets and shooting stars; and with the alarming fact that the world did absolutely turn round, and that they were half the time topsy-turvy!</i></span></div>
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<i><span style="text-indent: 1em;">But if there was a pleasure in all this, while snugly cuddling in the chimney corner of a chamber that was all of a ruddy glow from the crackling wood fire, and where, of course, no spectre dared to show its face, it was dearly purchased by the terrors of his subsequent walk homewards. What fearful shapes and shadows beset his path, amidst the dim and ghastly glare of a snowy night!</span><span style="text-indent: 1em;">"</span></i></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 1em;">Washington Irving, in his paragon of the American ghostly tale, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," carefully crafts his story using thoughtful and painstaking descriptions of place, mood, and character, which allow the reader to be spirited away (as, perhaps, Ichabod Crane was spirited away by the Headless Horseman) into the pleasure of a well-written ghostly tale, well-suited for reading on an Autumn night by a crackling fire, while outside the wind and rain do their worst.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-2958425039991354962014-10-06T20:50:00.004-07:002014-10-06T20:50:39.022-07:00From the Dust Returned<br />
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Ray Bradbury wrote many, many short stories, and several novels. <i>From the Dust Returned</i> is one of his "fix-up" novels, created by stitching together short stories that are loosely related, sometimes altering elements of the stories to make them fit better with each other.</div>
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Despite its Frankenstein's-Monster origins, this is one of Bradbury's masterpieces, a five-star novel. The 2001 hardback edition is covered by a dust jacket with artwork done by Charles Addams, a friend of Bradbury's, and the father of The Addams Family. This illustration was included with "Homecoming," which was a stand-alone short story in <i>Mademoiselle</i> magazine in October, 1946, and is Chapter Nine in the novel. The beauty of this novel lies in the richness of the prose, the humanity of the non-human (but for one member) Elliott Family of rural Illinois, and the macabre and grim atmosphere that haunts each page.</div>
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Elliott Family members include Cecy, an astral-projecting witch who can possess people, animals, and things, Uncle Einar, who has green wings, Timothy, the human foundling and family historian, and the Thousand Times great grandparents, a pair of royal mummies who do not live, are not dead, but exist. To close out this brief recommendation, I have posted a short passage below. Take a deep breath, focus, and enjoy. Happy Haunted Reading.</div>
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<i><b>"Can," started Timothy, and Cecy finished, "can death be remembered?"</b></i></div>
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<i><b>"Oh, yes. But only by the dead. You the living are blind. But we who have bathed in Time, and been reborn as children of the earth and inheritors of Eternity, drift gently in rivers of sand and streams of darkness, knowing the bombardment from the stars whose emanations have taken millions of years to rain upon the land and seek us out in our plantations of eternally wrapped souls like great seeds beneath the marbled layers and the bas-relief skeletons of reptile birds that fly on sandstone, with wingspreads a million years wide and as deep as a single breath. We are the keepers of Time. You who walk the earth know only the moment, which is whisked away with your next exhalation. Because you move and live, you cannot keep. We are the granaries of dark remembrance. Our funerary jars keep not only our lights and silent hearts, but our wells, deeper than you can imagine, where in the subterranean lost hours, all the deaths that ever were, the deaths on which mankind has built new tenements of flesh and ramparts of stone moving ever upward even as we sink down and down, doused in twilight, bandaged by midnights. We accumulate. We are wise with farewells. Would you not admit, child, that forty billion deaths are a great wisdom, and those forty billion who shelve under the earth are a great gift to the living so that they might live?"</b></i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-57398006778641203502014-08-24T17:24:00.000-07:002014-11-07T23:35:17.447-08:00The Sea<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRF4m4RseFS1qxFOE_uZmR6kKFUZQrACdyJeMYlM8GQBlyq0lNUGdOTv8LMheBHKqu6HH2q2agEVw8FZ75iz18WD2ka2fz9x7Hhy1DmXF4TSkSDopOdxhbb5eesj8_Secwv3JECpTv1Ac/s1600/Ocean+Shores+March+1984+Enhance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRF4m4RseFS1qxFOE_uZmR6kKFUZQrACdyJeMYlM8GQBlyq0lNUGdOTv8LMheBHKqu6HH2q2agEVw8FZ75iz18WD2ka2fz9x7Hhy1DmXF4TSkSDopOdxhbb5eesj8_Secwv3JECpTv1Ac/s1600/Ocean+Shores+March+1984+Enhance.jpg" height="223" width="320"></a></div>
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"It is said by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance that is in this Earth; and many of the Children of Ilúvatar hearken still unsated to the voices of the Sea, and yet know not for what they listen."</div>
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-J.R.R. Tolkien, <i>The Silmarillion</i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-24734014971335176382014-05-29T22:33:00.001-07:002014-05-29T22:34:22.450-07:00Source of the Butlerian Jihad in the Dune Universe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For Dune fans, here is an interesting article that finally makes clear the source of the name and inspiration for the Butlerian Jihad in Frank Herbert's science fiction universe. I printed it today (5/29/2014) from the microfilm archives of The Herald held at the Everett (WA) Public Library. Frank Butler was our family attorney before his retirement.</div>
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Article citation and annotation: </div>
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Wootton, Sharon. "Stanwood Butler Did It." The Herald [Everett, WA] 03 Dec. 2000, Books sec.: 2D. Print. Frank Butler, attorney from Stanwood, Washington, is identified as the source for the Butlerian Jihad in Frank Herbert's Dune universe.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMhl0FVo8je_I7W_9dOdviBP9FzxGCC75ApuTmEDmkC7fTmJVxF2qlbVaKbvR3OShOiYBkhtFWl2TTOhUP5JZn_oPkiXhCdNh-ho2QdcJxcqvAKPe1lw8TFhZSe8giEMVykbSUfoxnaLw/s1600/The+Herald+12-03-2000+Dune+Frank+Butler+article.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMhl0FVo8je_I7W_9dOdviBP9FzxGCC75ApuTmEDmkC7fTmJVxF2qlbVaKbvR3OShOiYBkhtFWl2TTOhUP5JZn_oPkiXhCdNh-ho2QdcJxcqvAKPe1lw8TFhZSe8giEMVykbSUfoxnaLw/s1600/The+Herald+12-03-2000+Dune+Frank+Butler+article.jpg" height="395" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-70089622246578724202013-12-13T22:11:00.000-08:002013-12-14T10:06:44.841-08:00The Best Popular Christmas Albums of All Time<div style="text-align: justify;">
All three of these albums, listened to in a darkened room with nothing but the Christmas tree lit up, bring back rich memories for me of the beautiful family Christmases my parents created for us each year as we grew up. They are artistic masterpieces that are still enjoyed by discriminating fans decades after their first releases. All are now available on CD.</div>
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<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/now-is-the-caroling-season-mw0000101538" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjGTps2ko18wHUB9RZWhtAVY4xB49Tw8SNHakRgV0eDeMCIO60W9QDrcLMRN2QqJ0h2MeKbz9gZl0EDaUhiQQrmUvNaKmGpvWFnstCQyy-mp0P5ItRxSaGF2VHWnjgRpSMyRZVi7GBXno/s200/Now+Is.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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This LP, released in 1957 by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, is a lush, warm chorale miracle. Excerpts from the title track appear in the middle and at the end of the album, which adds the feel of a live performance with everyone dressed in winter wear, walking on a stage with artificial snow falling around them. Mixing a capella and orchestral pieces, and a harmonious blend of sacred and secular songs, which come together as a superb whole, this album is flawless.</div>
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<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-voices-of-christmas-mw0000752759" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLsqL9eoSnmf0y4luU0k1MfINZGFgFMt-yB7rJtuSMT72TJcisa47hKz2cFQbelswiXLAoCWizYJMSaoouVX9XKmCBq5cmXY9-LJibppqKcHFWXQhPHsKKfLfVv2NWr1s7HsscITLTyCs/s200/Walter.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Walter Schumann's Christmas offering, released in 1955, offers some peppier tunes than Waring's album, and is just as magnificent in its harmonies, arrangements, and mood. Basso profundo master <a href="http://allthingsthurl.com/" target="_blank">Thurl Ravenscroft</a> sang in the chorus on this album, and his work brings a broader vocal range to the LP, which adds depth to some of the tracks. Schumann takes some risks here that all work well, such as the Pearce family favorite, "Christmas Tree," (who doesn't laugh at the "Presents nice!" lyrics) and the loud, bouncing "Christmas Gift," which is part of Schumann's successful attempt to incorporate black folk- and spiritual-style Christmas songs into the album. It's hard to pick favorite tracks, but "Fum, Fum, Fum," and "Christmas in Killarney" are two fun songs that will keep you coming back to this album year after year. </div>
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<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/christmas-wonderland-mw0000048351" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_JRa2ZLqDV6zHvJApHIR7BhUhhhk-A3Z_vtaohyphenhyphen77vLAY-KbQjBRU7fl0wrcnmTzOeHNzNe9f5vYQ1qeVzU4s2OBeA1Mfsgk1Y8LlamczsiJHN4BHryHgnp5y-2h02xD9t9M41-03g4Q/s200/Wonderland.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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German jazz master Bert Kaempfert released the most interesting, and best, popular instrumental Christmas album to date in 1963. Taking traditional Christmas favorites such as "The Little Drummer Boy" and "White Christmas" and mixing them with five original tracks (my favorite is "Holiday for Bells"), Kaempfert offers an album that is light and whimsical, yet offers tender, soft arrangements (such as the title track) that allow the album to bring the joyful listener a broad range of emotional enjoyment. Some of the tracks contain carefully-layered, high-pitched solo and group women's voices, making musical sounds that enhance the instrumental work. The title track, a Kaempfert original visualized by the album's dreamy cover, makes thoughtful use of a jazz organ and trumpet, and the whole album is enriched by the tightness of the musicians, and the effective use of brass solos.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-31831718350168312812013-11-22T23:19:00.003-08:002013-11-22T23:19:54.943-08:00We Remember C.S. Lewis, November 29, 1898-November 22, 1963<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC1DHmFngXachaLVS3bY4bZiK8Ii7T_hv7RL2zOCcGQtF_KvDRgXJWAwL-cTrgLa_LJh6GiuBZDjYEUhgiHsUdsDOgxOgRDGAAHsJEfxQt-2kgoGacH6X_k4lqoUCvjcnpdIMlXXAKBg4/s1600/CS+Lewis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC1DHmFngXachaLVS3bY4bZiK8Ii7T_hv7RL2zOCcGQtF_KvDRgXJWAwL-cTrgLa_LJh6GiuBZDjYEUhgiHsUdsDOgxOgRDGAAHsJEfxQt-2kgoGacH6X_k4lqoUCvjcnpdIMlXXAKBg4/s1600/CS+Lewis.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU6-Qdr82RoIwpgDIelN5XVY9EZqkW05E6mgyyTCtkB8sYS-oJhaCcy8gtA7yhiPhB6uk5NwVAOr_t4YCj5tiH1K0gNJtFSKgakzebqcxmUbXAu1ahelJ1mSliGTcPABVCmkukAFDM9Ks/s1600/CS+Lewis+Grave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU6-Qdr82RoIwpgDIelN5XVY9EZqkW05E6mgyyTCtkB8sYS-oJhaCcy8gtA7yhiPhB6uk5NwVAOr_t4YCj5tiH1K0gNJtFSKgakzebqcxmUbXAu1ahelJ1mSliGTcPABVCmkukAFDM9Ks/s320/CS+Lewis+Grave.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-27706623695687989492012-11-03T14:21:00.003-07:002012-11-03T14:24:08.322-07:00The Living, the Dead, and the Living DeadWriter <a href="http://ashleecowles.com/" target="_blank">Ashlee Cowles</a> delves into Russell Kirk's novel Lord of the Hollow Dark to mine gems of the moral imagination. <a href="http://www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/the-living-the-dead-and-the-living-dead/" target="_blank">This piece of literary criticism</a> is not to be missed.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-41587830658935823972012-10-31T21:33:00.001-07:002012-10-31T21:34:09.548-07:00Ghostly Kirk<div style="text-align: justify;">
Russell Kirk, the great American man of letters, wrote mostly non-fiction, but he also wrote twenty-two superb, unsettling ghostly tales. I maintain a web site called <a href="http://ghostly-kirk.weebly.com/" target="_blank">Ghostly Kirk</a> that is dedicated to these stories. Enjoy this site, but, better still, read the marvelous tales! Happy All Hallows Eve, All Hallows (Saints) Day, and All Souls Day.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-TLF2N14gRLAs11ACKJewAxA2M_EbY5NOIoTFRXhyphenhyphen84bohRp8oFniiF5J9LkfYTqk-os_NWjYWQWfXWyD5k0z5B4m0mavP-C45uWeQo6F2_5WwOPBpxdtH4Te_HAgfHWeUlw2Fp8ACLM/s1600/Kirk+at+typewriter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-TLF2N14gRLAs11ACKJewAxA2M_EbY5NOIoTFRXhyphenhyphen84bohRp8oFniiF5J9LkfYTqk-os_NWjYWQWfXWyD5k0z5B4m0mavP-C45uWeQo6F2_5WwOPBpxdtH4Te_HAgfHWeUlw2Fp8ACLM/s200/Kirk+at+typewriter.jpg" width="121" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Russell Kirk (1918-1994)</td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-88905714450805221742011-01-20T21:12:00.000-08:002019-01-27T21:09:18.803-08:00Memory and Fidelity<div style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"From first to last, the civilizations of Middle-earth, whether these be the warrior-societies of Rohan and Gondor or the peaceable farming and trading communities that make up the Shire, are built up through remembrance and custom. It is a modern mistake to think that great personalities can grow without being rooted in the rich soil of the past, in the memory of great deeds and in fidelity to promises made across the generations. Civilization is founded on covenants that cannot be broken without consequence. The great army of the dead will fight to regain its honor in the service of the King."</span></div>
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The Power of the Ring: The Spiritual Vision Behind the Lord of the Rings</u>, (p. 132) by Stratford Caldecott, The Crossroad Publishing Company, New York, NY, 2005</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">I cannot do the warmth, power, perception and beauty of Stratford Caldecott's (1953-2014) book justice with my words, so I have used some of his words. Caldecott's journal <a href="http://www.secondspring.co.uk/">Second Spring</a>, and his blog <a href="http://beauty-in-education.blogspot.com/">Beauty for Truth's Sake</a> are linked for your edification and joy.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-32052912225187978922010-10-30T10:30:00.000-07:002010-10-30T10:36:53.742-07:00Reading Ghostly Tales Aloud<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7C3GPRKuNFpF9wjjsnNuvOy8YzEvG9hpfKHtirPuZqJdW9fvMAU3OsM5OuzFOQTPSc4aeYtcZlyU9i93m_NMmEbaqqcKx2FRFvwAyNocGaYuL3_zoFtKjJzxTDXsa_xZ3mjFS3uquewE/s1600/scary_reading.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7C3GPRKuNFpF9wjjsnNuvOy8YzEvG9hpfKHtirPuZqJdW9fvMAU3OsM5OuzFOQTPSc4aeYtcZlyU9i93m_NMmEbaqqcKx2FRFvwAyNocGaYuL3_zoFtKjJzxTDXsa_xZ3mjFS3uquewE/s320/scary_reading.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">One way to cultivate and enrich the moral imagination is the reading of good stories. On Hallowe'en, we regularly gather at the house of some friends of ours after tricks and treats. For the last two years, we've read ghostly tales aloud. It started the first year with a story I had written. Last year, three of us read original tales, and I read some short ghostly fiction for the little people. This year, I don't think anyone has any original tales to offer, but I've selected a few stories to read, and may add a few more before the witching hour. I hope to read one of my favorites, appropriate for all ages, Walter R. Brooks's tale, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=RzzQuKxT0soC&pg=PA308&lpg=PA308&dq=jimmy+takes+vanishing+lessons&source=bl&ots=gnR-rGxITJ&sig=TsjEzZOV-WbcPHAdNyAAKPUoNY0&hl=en&ei=IVXMTIy2OYS2sAPz7K3ZDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=jimmy%20takes%20vanishing%20lessons&f=false">"Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons,"</a> which I read and loved as a boy. I highly recommend reading sound ghostly tales aloud with family and friends as a way to help renew and enrich relationships, and grow your moral imagination. Happy Hallowe'en!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-39417808724511494672010-10-27T22:37:00.000-07:002010-11-07T10:52:04.125-08:00Titles for All Hallows' Eve<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNi0pBShp8YfIcl8Su8uGiWLifWdiL2W-92dUGTkgS0fZqzaFFeEdZV_I1X7kkj38roaVVFMCahDk7h4NHYfoQtJW_M03rHfHmu_v_0LYTUR_uEH8-YhRJiD35GpKR5G2VxkJeKpc_pA8/s1600/Jackson+and+Pumpkins+10272010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNi0pBShp8YfIcl8Su8uGiWLifWdiL2W-92dUGTkgS0fZqzaFFeEdZV_I1X7kkj38roaVVFMCahDk7h4NHYfoQtJW_M03rHfHmu_v_0LYTUR_uEH8-YhRJiD35GpKR5G2VxkJeKpc_pA8/s320/Jackson+and+Pumpkins+10272010.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Jackson the Cat with some pumpkins grown by my uncle and aunt</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">All Hallows' Eve approaches...the perfect season for ghostly reading to stimulate the moral imagination...and to scare yourself.<br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here are some literary recommendations:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">1. <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1881555">The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving</a><br />
The atmosphere of this tale is perfect. I've read it many times, and no longer feel very sorry for the vain Ichabod Crane.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">2. <a href="http://where-we-start-from.blogspot.com/2010/10/october-country.html">The ghostly tales of Russell Kirk</a></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">These are my favorite ghostly tales. After reading them, you will never look at life, or death, or the afterlife, in quite the same way again. Audio links <span id="goog_1809435704"></span><span id="goog_1809435705"></span><span id="goog_1809435708"></span><span id="goog_1809435709"></span><a href="http://where-we-start-from.blogspot.com/2010/05/russell-kirks-ghostly-fiction-digitally.html">here</a> and <a href="http://www.ttf.org/index/resources/items/ex-tenebris-audio/">here</a>.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">3. <a href="http://www.litgothic.com/Authors/mrjames.html">The ghostly tales of M.R. James</a></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The greatest English writer of ghostly tales. You will be scared out of your wits.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Happy Hallowe'en!</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-44923755301989957072010-10-09T21:51:00.000-07:002010-10-09T21:58:19.093-07:00The October Country<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>"...that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain..."<br />
</b></div><b>From <u>The October Country</u> (1955) by Ray Bradbury</b><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">According to Mr. Bradbury, there is a country called "October." I am sure Mr. Bradbury has visited it many times. I've never been there, but I've seen glimpses of it, and have read much of its literature.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Some of the best literature of the October Country ever written are ghostly tales. I'm not talking about horror tales, with blood and axes and maniacs. I'm talking about suspenseful tales told in whispers about things behind doors, under beds, maybe in your closet. I'm talking about stories of revenants, ghouls, ghosts, and residents of Purgatory and Hell who come and go quietly in the dark shadows of our lives, from the grey corners of tombs and mausoleums and crypts. I'm talking about tales of moral judgement for the damned, who you cannot pity, because they have been given chances to repent, and rejected them time and again.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Without argument, the best of these stories are the <a href="http://www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/and-therefore-as-stranger-give-it-welcome/">ghostly fictions</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Kirk">Russell Kirk</a>, the Wizard and Sage of Mecosta, Michigan, man of letters, Stoic, Christian, American Patriot, and literary genius. As you catch glimpses of the October Country this month, and on through the Autumn and Winter months, traditional seasons for Anglo-American ghost story-telling, I heartily commend to you Dr. Kirk's ghost stories: morbid, creepy, understated, beautiful tales reminiscent of the moral stories of the Old Testament, with no delay for judgement for the damned, but with mercy aplenty for the righteous.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">If you want to read all 22 of his ghost stories at a reasonable price, and your library cannot help you, you need to buy two books:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://isbndb.com/d/book/ancestral_shadows.html">Ancestral Shadows: An Anthology of Ghostly Tales</a>, which contains 19 stories, plus an essay called "A Cautionary Note on the Ghostly Tale," and <a href="http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/k/russell-kirk/surly-sullen-bell.htm">The Surly Sullen Bell: Ten Stories and Sketches, Uncanny or Uncomfortable, With a Note on the Ghostly Tale</a>, which contains the three tales not in Ancestral Shadows, plus an essay called "A Cautionary Note on the Ghostly Tale," which is not the same essay in <u>Ancestral Shadows</u>, though it has the same title. Both of these books can be found used at very reasonable prices. I've been able find new copies of <u>Ancestral Shadows</u> over the years at huge discounts.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Beware! These stories are not for the faint of heart. Kirk himself writes in <u>Ancestral Shadows</u>: "Elaborated from certain encounters of mine with life and death, these stories were not written for children." Indeed. And though fictional tales, they are truer than most of what passes for real life in our dark, neo-Barbarian Age.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitgXAvZa7Xi228lTNA2gXbld-qgMqvFhWRsYCL1ZgFfFDJYm4D16DxyCX2X1JtgoK2IPDGdo5bQ_rQZ3OuuY7Fyv7MfdJZiQPCn_jxSbjmm5x7ZwhUyltLFyZ0tJKoQwTj2Miwi5Ti2Ko/s1600/AncestralShadows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitgXAvZa7Xi228lTNA2gXbld-qgMqvFhWRsYCL1ZgFfFDJYm4D16DxyCX2X1JtgoK2IPDGdo5bQ_rQZ3OuuY7Fyv7MfdJZiQPCn_jxSbjmm5x7ZwhUyltLFyZ0tJKoQwTj2Miwi5Ti2Ko/s1600/AncestralShadows.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8816141993461574350.post-66295621915865803142010-05-29T11:33:00.000-07:002010-05-30T16:43:44.044-07:00Review of Where Love Is, There God Is Also<div style="text-align: justify;">Where Love Is, There God Is Also (Leo Tolstoy, compiled by Lawrence Jordan, Fleming H. Revell, 2001, 93 pages, cloth), serves as a powerful introduction to Leo Tolstoy’s (1828-1910) gospel-based short stories for those familiar with his earlier works, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and his wider array of short stories with a secular focus, as well as for those whose literary wanderings exclude the great Russian. The book contains three short stories, “Where Love Is, There God Is Also,” “The Three Hermits,” and “What Men Live By,” each written by Tolstoy after he had renounced his earlier works as “products of an idle brain.” These stories give us an understanding of the practicality of Christ’s teachings for daily living. They remind us, through direct confrontation with Tolstoy’s brutally honest prose, that to be faithful to Jesus Christ we must move beyond mere mental and verbal assent to His teachings into the realm of assent and practice, of faith and works. This key but oft-neglected principle of Christian theology, that faith is inseparable from works, finds an ardent defender in Tolstoy.</div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Where Love Is, There God Is Also” tells of a cobbler, Martuin Avdyeitch, who, after a series of personal misfortunes, begins to read the Gospels over and over again. His readings begin to consume all his spare time, even when “…all the kerosene in the lamp would burn out.” After reading the passage in St. Luke’s Gospel about the women who anoints Christ’s feet while He dines at Simon’s house (St. Luke 7:36-50), Avdyeitch falls asleep. He hears the voice of Christ say “Look tomorrow on the street. I am coming.” Avdyeitch spends the next day awaiting Christ’s visit. Looking out of his window throughout the day as he works, he sees five people in need of help, and works to meet their needs. As he practices what he has learned through reading the Gospels about love and servanthood, he continues to watch for Christ. “Where Love Is, There God Is Also” captures the essence of Christ’s teaching in St. Matthew 25:35-36: “For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.” The piercing, beautiful story illumines the Gospel truth that by loving and serving others, we love and serve Christ, and obey both His words and His deeds. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The Three Hermits” tells of an Orthodox bishop on a sea voyage who learns of three monks who live on a small island. He convinces the captain of the ship to go close enough to the island so he can row in to visit the hermits and give them some spiritual instruction. When he learns that their prayers are very simple, he attempts to teach them the Lord’s Prayer, which he finally succeeds in doing after a whole day’s work. Returning to the ship with the sound of the hermit’s voices in his ears, he lays down to sleep as the boat leaves. What happens next breaks the bishop’s pride as he realizes how advanced these men are in the spiritual life, even though they are ignorant of correct prayers and systematic theology. Again, the beauty of faith and works finds clear expression in the lives of these simple but fervent monks: we must receive the kingdom of God with the faith of a child in order to receive it at all (Luke 18:17), and those who want the kingdom of God must take it by force (Matthew 11:12). </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The final story, “What Men Live By,” tells of an angel, Mikhaila, who is punished for disobedience by being incarnated and sent to live among Russian peasants until he learns three important lessons: what is in men, what is not given to men, and what men live by. As the angel works in a cobbler’s shop, he observes human nature and human events, and through this learns important Gospel truths that he had not grasped before. The angel does not learn these truths through mere hearing, but through witnessing the people around him succeeding and failing to live out what they believe. What men live by is, of course, God, and here Tolstoy reminds us of one of the most important truths of the Gospel: that man does not live by bread (or anything) alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tolstoy, in these three short stories collected in Where Love Is, There God Is Also, does not attempt to tell tales to replace the stories of Christ, or to improve on them, but to show us the ease with which we can confound the wisdom of the world simply by putting these teachings into practice. Offering short stories as a means to present the working out of the Gospel in our common lives represents a most noble use of literature by this literary master.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">-Jeffrey Dennis Pearce </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com