Month: February 2015
Some Thursday on a Thursday
My fiancee, Paul, picked up a second hand copy of G. K. Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare a while ago at a second hand book fair. We’d both read Chesterton’s Orthodoxy before, and I love the odd saying I’ve read by Chesterton. But neither of us had as yet ventured into any of his fiction. And boy was this a place to start. When Paul finished the book, he said it blew his mind and he couldn’t work out what the ending had all meant. But he wanted me to read it. So I did.
This is a great book to read. Firstly, because it’s just full of so many hilarious moments. Two characters carrying on a silent conversation by means of a finger tapping system even as they talk to another character. A crazy chase through France full of numerous misunderstandings. And the clever little jokes that Chesterton constantly sets up. Secondly, though, every chapter has a new surprise. After a while, I did figure out the pattern, but this didn’t stop each twist making me want to keep reading. It really is a thrilling read and quite hard to put down. But thirdly, it’s just a book which begins and ends in confusion. Likely you will struggle to work out what is happening for the first few chapters. Then you get into the swing of it and believe you know what’s going on. But by the end, you’ll be left with hardly any idea what it was all about and will want to start reading it all over again. And that feeling is probably a healthy thing to experience every now and then. Personally, I feel I’ve found a few small bits of meaning throughout the story, but can’t yet manage to string them into a cohesive whole. And it’s frustrating. But it’s a good reminder that sometimes we can’t just know everything right away. Or at all.
But here are my thoughts for those who have read it. Perhaps don’t read any further if you’re yet to read – I wouldn’t want to take away the pleasure of those surprises. Continue reading
Stories, Wonder and Children
As we grow old … the beauty steals inward.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sense and Sensibility
I never told you I finished Sense and Sensibility! I did, quite a while ago. And only one big thing struck me at the end and stuck with me: Austen’s ideas about love. I don’t have too much to say about it, so this will be short, but in Sense and Sensibility at least, Austen paints and beautiful and true picture of the kind of love that marriage should be built on. Indeed, every relationship should be built of this love, but of course we’re discussing Austen, so marriage must be the theme of the day.
I was particularly struck by this in the final chapters of the book through Marianne’s story. Marianne has loved two men by the end of the book (do not read further if you don’t want any spoilers): Continue reading
Crossing the Bar
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
#rabbitswithswords
It’s been very quiet around here for the last month and bit, barring that one post on Austen I graced the blog with. I fully intended to get back on track with the writing once I was on holidays, but a few things happened.
- All those life admin things I put off and ‘didn’t have time for’ when studying for exams suddenly needed to get done.
- I suddenly had time to do everything I wanted to do when studying but didn’t have time for.
- I was waiting for the book I wanted to write about to be returned to me
But this morning I finally got over that last point and realised that it’s probably better to write about the book without it in front of me. That way, I can tell you about those things in the book that really struck me, so much that I remember them without prompts from the actual book.
S. D. Smith’s The Green Ember is the book in question today. I stumbled upon Smith’s kickstarter project for the book through a blog I follow, and I’m really glad I did. The Green Ember is just a lovely book. Beautiful illustrations, engaging writing, likeable characters and, hey, there’s rabbits with swords. The thing that struck me most about the book, however, is the greater reality that can be glimpsed through the storyline: the Christian longing to go home. Smith creates a world in which a people(/rabbits) are in exile from their true, beautiful home and are working and preparing to return. Getting home promises to be a difficult undertaking as it’s been overtaken by their enemies, but they have a great longing for return that burns in their hearts and unites them all in one purpose. I would not say this is an allegory of Christians and their journey to heaven, because in my understanding each aspect of an allegory myst relate to a specific part of the truth. I don’t think you can do that in The Green Ember. But what it is is a very effective picture which can help you see this reality in a new way and so deepen your understanding of this it and help your heart long for the true home of heaven just a little bit more. Going to the land of rabbits with swords helps you to see your own position a little more clearly when you return to it.
Christians are a people who are not yet home. We ought to be longing for a better place, a dwelling place with the God who’s people we are. We ought to be preparing for this return home, prepared to fight the forces of evil which oppose us. And I think The Green Ember helps us towards this end, in a small way.
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