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Climbing Parnassus -- Tracy Lee Simmons |
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Written by Mike Noel
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Wednesday, 10 February 2010 |
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I have spent the last 22 months of my life learning Classical Greek. These last two years have significantly increased my interest in the Classic languages so when I saw an interview with Tracy Lee Simmons discussing the value of Classic language learning I was intrigued and decided to read his book. Climbing Parnassus is subtitled A New Apologia for Greek and Latin and that is what the book delivers. It is a 250 page argument for the teaching of Greek and Latin as a fundamental and core part of our education system.
Simmons is not delusional. He realizes that the battle for Classics has already been fought and his side lost. However, he feels that there is still something valuable to be gained by the few who will pursue these languages. He also makes the case that this course of study is not suited for everyone due to either limitations or interests.
Climbing Parnassus starts of with definitions. Simmons defines terms such as education, liberal education, and classical education in non-modern terms. These definitions highlight a distinction (that he implies has mostly been lost in the modern world) between "education" and "training". The latter refers to learning what to do and how to do it while the former refers to cultivation and formation of character and intellect. He goes so far as to say that the ancients would scoff at what we call education and tell us that it misses the point entirely.
After establishing definitions for his terms and concepts Simmons takes us through a history of the classical languages in education. I found this part of the book very interesting. It was enlightening to see that it has only been in the last 100 years that classical languages have fallen out of vogue with the educated elite.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 10 February 2010 )
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Tales from the Arabian Nights -- Sir Richard Burton |
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Written by Mike Noel
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Monday, 21 December 2009 |
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Most people have heard of Aladdin and His Magic Lamp or Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. These are just two of the tales from the 1001 Arabian Nights. This collection, translated into English by Sir Richard Burton in the 19th century, provides an excellent spectrum of the these Arabian Tales. It is not easy reading to the modern American reader. The language and structure is obscure (by today's pitiful standards) so it takes work to read. However, it is worth the effort.
The stories provide abundant detail about the middle eastern culture, philosophy, and religion. A reader cannot escape the constant references to Allah and Islam. It is also impossible to not detect a very different view on the issues of life and death when compared to western culture.
While reading this I was struck with the absurd mythological aspects of the stories. Many of the stories contain overt religious messages but they are wrapped in incredible and unbelievable contexts. This made me rethink much about western culture and our myths, stories, and religious beliefs. Are the religious stories that we know and believe just as absurd to an outsider? Somehow I don't think so but then maybe that is just because I'm on "this side" of the perspective. It is almost as if the Arabian Nights stories combine highly fantastical stories, like our Little Red Riding Hood, or Hansel and Gretle, and combine them with deeply religious lessons.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 21 December 2009 )
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Written by Mike Noel
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Sunday, 27 September 2009 |
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Saturn is an interesting novel about mankind's first exploration of Saturn. It is more focused on the trip to Saturn than any actual exploration of the planet (or it's moons or rings). The leaders on Earth put 10,000 people from various philosophical, vocational, and geographical regions on a large habitat and launched it towards Saturn. Most of the story takes place during the journey (25 months) while the different groups vie for dominance on the habitat. The interesting part of the story is the social experiment as we see how the different groups, with a fresh start, end up creating many of the same problems on the habitat that they were avoiding on Earth.
There is a bit of a surprise ending to the story. Not so much a surprise as a different twist on the entire story. It is subtle though. The reader has to be paying attention to the last page or two or they may miss out on the main point of the whole story.
Interesting characters and an interesting setting make the book a fun read but the more philosophical side of the book is a little weak. As is typical for science fiction, the handling of religion is a caricature. For those with a predilection to demonize religion this probably works just fine but for those who take a more reasoned approach to religion, it undermines the rest of the book.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 04 November 2009 )
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The Black Rood -- Stephen Lawhead |
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Written by Mike Noel
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Sunday, 02 August 2009 |
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The Black Rood is the second book in Lawhead's Celtic Crusades trilogy. The first book, The Iron Lance followed the story of a Celtic boy named Murdo as he traveled to the Holy Land and brought back the sacred lance. In The Black Rood Murdo's son Duncan follows in his father's footsteps, in rebellion, and returns to the Holy Land. Duncan's quest is to obtain the Black Rood.
The word "rood" derives from old English and means, roughly, a rod or a pole. In the context of this book the Black Rood is a portion of the cross that Jesus was crucified on. Duncan, being a devote Christian, accepts it as his mission to go to the Holy Land and rescue the holy relic from unworthy hands.
Lawhead's story takes on the flavor of an adventure story punctuated by strange visions and tantalizingly supernatural events. They are tantalizing because it's not quite clear if what the reader just witnessed was a supernatural intervention or if it was just a figment of the character's mind. And all along the object of the quest is a curious, mysterious, and sacred relic.
It seems to be Lawhead's trademark to end each book with a dramatic bit of tension, sometimes even shocking. This book is no different. After months of travel and captivity Duncan finds himself almost at the end of his journey when everything threatens to fall apart. And in the end Duncan learns that those things he thought were the most important were not.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 04 November 2009 )
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The Eagle's Brood -- Jack Whyte |
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Written by Mike Noel
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Friday, 13 March 2009 |
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The Eagle's Brood is the third book in The Calumod Chronicles series by Jack Whyte. This series is one of the best Arthurian legend series, intended for adult audiences, I have read. This book focuses mostly on Merlyn and secondarily on Uther, his cousin from their shared grandfather Picus Britannicus. The story is complete in itself but you can see the slowly moving events that have been progressing since the beginning of the series. The slow transformation of Britain from landscape dotted with Roman outposts to a barbaric land overrun with Celts, Saxons, Picts, Scots, and anyone else who thinks to come along. But there is a subtle order growing in the midst of the chaos. Some foreshadowing of what is to come.
There are two main conflicts that Merlyn deals with in this story. One is an internal conflict. An atrocity occurs and Merlyn believes that Uther committed the crime. He fights with his self because he believes that Uther is capable of committing the crime but he doesn't want to believe it. Throughout the story circumstantial evidence continues to build up and point at Uther's guilt.
The second conflict is between Camulod and Lot of Cornwall. Lot continuously wars against Camulod as he attempts to grow is power in the southwest corner of england. Harboring a personal grudge, Lot is especially vicious towards Merlyn and Uther.
The book is good, and like the others in the series, it is definitely intended for adult audiences.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 04 November 2009 )
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Written by Mike Noel
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Friday, 30 January 2009 |
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We saw this movie a couple of months ago but it has taken a while for me to get my thoughts together enough to write something on it. It's not that the movie was all that deep as much as I've just been really really busy with life. I admit that I had some reluctance to go see this movie. The scenes in the previews focused on the two main characters spending a lot of time yelling at each other and generally being unhappy. The last thing I wanted to watch was two hours of an unhappy married couple fighting. Eventually we saw it. I was happily surprised by the quality of the movie and the story. Very touching and encouraging.
In broad strokes the plot is predictable -- a married couple has trouble with threatens to dissolve the marriage but through a bunch of emotional turmoil they manage to keep it together. I say that this is predictable because we've seen this kind of movie many times. What makes Fireproof better than average is the way that it connects in a very real way with real people. The situations and circumstances that the husband and wife deal with are likely quite familiar to the average American married person. Further, the responses by each of the movie's characters are realistic.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 04 November 2009 )
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The Black Tower -- P. D. James |
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Written by Mike Noel
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Monday, 26 January 2009 |
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The Black Tower is P. D. James mystery novel. This is the fourth of
her mysteries that I've read and to be honest, this one left me fairly
cold. If this had been the first James novel I read I probably
wouldn't be all that interested in her. The story was hard to follow
and the characters were all too similar. So much so that they all
kind of melded together so it was hard to keep track of who was doing
what and why.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 04 November 2009 )
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Red Mars -- Kim Stanely Robinson |
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Written by Mike Noel
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Monday, 26 January 2009 |
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Red Mars is a semi-realistic story about colonization of Mars. It is classified as "hard sci-fi" since it is based on plausible science and technology. The story spends most of its time looking at the various characters and their interaction while the exploration and colonization of Mars is carried on as a backdrop to the drama. The plausibility of the endeavor is tantalizing in that it almost makes you believe that this sort of thing could happen in our lifetime or our children's lifetime.
This book has been considered one of the sci-fi top books since it was first written and so I have seen it prominently displayed on the shelves at most bookstores I visit. It has been at the top of my interest list for some time. A couple of months ago I saw the book at a used book sale and decided it was time to read it. Overall it was a good book. Parts of it were a bit hard to swallow and parts of it, particularly the strong secular humanism preaching, were just irritating. (Why is it that most science fiction authors feel that they need to promulgate that philosophy on the poor reader?)
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 04 November 2009 )
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The Mentalist Betting Game |
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Written by Mike Noel
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Thursday, 18 December 2008 |
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The Mentalist is CBS's new spin on the detective/crime scene genre of TV shows. It is like a modern day Sherlock Holmes and it is amazingly popular. The characters are fun, quirky, and interesting. The "mystery" part of the plot captures the ellusive aspect of making sense while not being obvious. Watching the "mentalist" do his stuff is intriguing as well. This is definitely one of the better shows on TV right now. One of our favorite things to do during the show is to try and figure out who the guilty party is. In most cases it is a surprise but after the fact you can see how all of the pieces fit together. It is tantalizing to think that there is enough information to figure it out during the show but it is still not obvious. This is a part of the fun of the show. While watching the show recently, and trying to figure it out, I realized that we could make a fun game out of it. And so the "Mentalist Betting Game" was born. Here is how it works. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 18 December 2008 )
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