Wednesday, September 6th, 2006

Time	Event
12:14p	FARMER IN THE SKY I continue strolling down memory lane rereading Heinlein's juveniles. This time it is FARMER IN THE SKY, a book that did not stick too prominently in my memory from when I read it first three decades ago, for the reason that it by and large was not very memorable. This does not mean it was not good; but it does mean that it was not great. The writing is always crisp, clear, smooth, professional, easy-to-read: but in this case there is neither memorable character or plot. As Cymbeline is to Shakespeare, FARMER is to Heinlein. SPOILER WARNINGS. IF THERE WERE A PLOT TO THIS BOOK, I GIVE IT AWAY. ( more here ) There just was not enough butter to scrape over the bread here. FARMER IN THE SKY might have made a good short story (the book was originally a short story in BOY'S LIFE, called 'Satellite Scout') but there is not enough material to make for a novel. For one thing, the fact that the main character is an Eagle Scout could have been subtracted from the story without it making any change. It should have been crucial to the plot. I used to be a Scout, and I love scouting and the whole idea of scouting. A story showing how these simple, honest virtues taught by Baden Powell, luxuries on Earth, but necessities in the wilderness, would have been a great story. (6 Comments | Comment on this)
1:22p	Exactly right Here is a comment from Mark Shea at CATHOLIC AND ENJOYING IT. The perfect rightness of his remarks merits that they be reprinted in full: "We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful." - C.S. Lewis Over at Rod's blog, there are various discussions going on about the West's lackadaisical and baffled response to Radical Islam, all having the inadvertent effect of bearing out my point that only a healthy spirituality can cure a diseased one. Currently the West is trying to confront the inflamed disease of Radical Islam with something called "Western Values". This means, basically, a tepid commitment to my personal truth of the moment, modified by various fears of theocracy, lack of abortion rights, getting killed, and bad cable access. It also means "unfettered commitment to the needs of my groin" and "a vague sense that I am entitled to something". Various other things go into the stew as each Imperial Autonomous Self seasons to taste. But what does not go into it is a common creed or even a sense of the common good. Consequently, Westerners are flummoxed by the hollowness of their own response to Islam and, in particular, by the alacrity with which we are willing to cave into Islam's threats of forced conversion. I'm not one to boast "Lord, even if everyone else were to deny you, I will never deny you!". I've heard that song before and pray "lead us not into temptation" lest I make an idiot of myself. But that said, I have to add that, if I were not a believer, I don't see what the big deal would be if I pretended to convert to Islam in order to save my skin. If all I'm betraying is Madonna, Planned Parenthood, the Glory of Sodomy, You Deserve A Break Today, and similar Western Values, then I don't know that some inchoate tribal fealty to them would persuade me to make my wife a widow and my children fatherless. I *hope* that, as a Christian, I would have the stones to take a bullet rather than renounce my Lord, who bought me with his blood. But I don't know what I'm made of, the heart being desperately wicked and all. So I'm not particularly appalled by the acts of the FOX News guys, since I have no particular reason to think they were betraying some ultimate trust. They may well have simply been figuring "This will get me home to my family". If they were Christians or Jews, it's a different story. But if they weren't, it seems to me we Christians have to do as Dante would have done and judge pagans by their own standards, not ours. Our culture has labored for 40 years to create a populace in which all reference to the Transcendent has been stamped out of existence. To suddenly be appalled when a man's vision is no higher than a cow's is a strange reaction to men who acted exactly as all our Manufacturers of Culture have programmed them to act. (17 Comments | Comment on this)
4:23p	Celebrating September 11th Just in case you forgot: http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/video/palestinians-celebrate-911.mov (Comment on this)

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