Quote for Pip

In my Twilight review I mentioned a C.S. Lewis quote, and I think this is the one I was thinking of:

"In this sub-species [of bad science fiction] the author leaps forward into an imagined future when planetary, sidereal, or even galactic travel has become common. Against this huge backcloth he then proceeds to develop an ordinary love-story, spy-story, wreck-story, or crime-story. This seems to me tasteless. Whatever in a work of art is not used, is doing harm. The faintly imagined, and sometimes strictly unimaginable, scene and properties, only blur the real theme and distract us from any interest it might have had." (C.S. Lewis, On Science Fiction, in the collection Of Other Worlds)

There's also this one: "I have sometimes wondered whether the 'excitement' may not be an element actually hostile to the deeper imagination." That's taken from On Stories (also in Of Other Worlds), in which Lewis is arguing that there is more that draws us to story than the action and suspense of the plot. It's an excellent essay; if you ever get the chance, read it.

Twilight

I also read the first three Twilight books this week. They were engaging some of the time (I like Alice) but I found them rather frustrating. Stephanie Meyers has a good story in there, but she can't seem to find it. (Not that I won't read the fourth book too when I get the chance...) Anyway, I've been thinking about the books in relation to three quotes.

The first is C.S. Lewis's, which I shall have to paraphrase because our internet is still down and I am working away from home and I don't have my copy of Of Other Worlds with me. Lewis said that there are certain ideas that can only be explored with fantasy. But many writers unfortunately jump onto the fantasy bandwagon, missing the point of fantasy and writing "fantasy" stories that could just as well--or better--be written without the fantasy element. Lewis laid down a general rule, that if the fantastic element isn't integral to your story--drop it.

Stephanie Meyers seems to me to have this problem. She has the makings of a great fantasy story in the love affair between a mortal and a vampire (I'm hearing echoes of Tuck Everlasting and the Lay of Luthien), but she instead fills her story with irrelevant action and teen angst.

I'll leave the other two quotes without commentary.

"Love, having become a god, becomes a demon." (C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves)

"Q: Maybe writing is some kind of Resurrection Stone.
"A: Yes, of course, but I think you realize that once you’re writing to make a dream come true. If it’s just like that then, for me, writing loses its worth. Describing your fantasy is not the same as creating a world." (J.K. Rowling, interview with Spanish magazine El Pais)

Offline

This will be short - I'm posting from a friend's house because, after some bad storms on Thursday, our internet went out and is still out two days later. I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever have internet again.

In the meantime, this week I read the first three books of the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, about unextraordinary Bella, who goes to Forks, Oregon and is suddenly every guy's dream, including the unearthly gorgeous vampire, Edward, who she falls in love with, and one of the local werewolves. Werewolves happen to be the mortal enemies of vampires.

There are so many questions left unanswered . . . What will happen to Bella? Will she end up a vampire and love Edward forever? Will Edward put up with her whining, stubbornness and selfishness that long? Will she stay human and pretend to be his grandmother when she's eighty and he's still seventeen because vampires don't age? Or, in a bizarre twist, will she ditch Edward altogether and decide to run away with the werewolf? Would this series seem less self-absorbed if it hadn't been written in the first person, from Bella's point of view? Was it really necessary for this series to be so steamy that I'd blush to think of my preteen daughter reading it (if I wanted her reading about vampires and werewolves, that is)? Why is it that every time I think of Bella and Edward, I can't get the song "Muskrat Love" out of my head?

This quote from the first book pretty much sums it up (it may not be exact; the book is loaned out and I typed it from memory): "There were threre things I knew for certain. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was some part of him--I didn't know how large a part--that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him."

Everything seems to hinge on the Big Question of whether vampires have souls. There's a new fourth book in the series. I might just read reviews (spoilers) to see what happens. But I have my own theory. I think it will go something like this: "But if the Volturi could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, they would have read there a different incantation. They would have known that when a willing vegetarian vampire who had committed no treachery was willing to suffer eternal destruction in a human's stead, the Table would crack and Transformation itself would start working backward . . . "

Here's my favorite quote from the series--Good Vampire Edward can read most peoples' minds; Good Vampire Alice has a limited ability to see into the future. "Edward and Alice playing chess was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen. They'd sat there nearly motionless, staring at the board, while Alice foresaw the moves he would make and he picked the moves she would make in return out of her head. They played most of the game in their minds; I think they'd each moved two pawns when Alice suddenly flicked her king over and surrendered. It took all of three minutes."

I've also started Ruth Beechick's You Can Teach Your Child Successfully. And I'm changing over Parents' Review article files on the amblesideonline website - merely a cosmetic change, just so they look better. The last 150 are done; the rest are in progress. Then, during the next couple of years, I'll read through them one a day, proofreading as I go.

Miss M's Swing Pictures

The cute one

The silly one

The sweet one

The fun one

Miss M's Plans for Grandma's Future

Miss M was thinking out loud as I was laying with her at bedtime. She said out of the blue, "Tutu (grandma) needs to marry somebody." I asked her why. "Because then I'll have a grandpa. Both of my grandpas are in heaven. I wish I could go to heaven to see them." She never met either of her grandpas, but she loves her Tutu, who she's met. Actually, I didn't know she was able to put all of that together. We haven't talked about it all that much.

I don't think Tutu knows that plans are being made on her behalf.

Socialization Snobs

I saw this article at HomeschoolBuzz.com.

"Homeschooling allows us to be socialization snobs. We can filter out kids whose behavior offends us. We don't discriminate on the basis of race, creed, nation of origin, or other such nonsense. No, we discriminate on the basis of morals. If your kid insists on talking about the number of boys she slept with in the last month, I really don't want her around my kid. Call me fussy." Read the rest of the post here.

Fireworks

Happy 4th, everybody!

How Does a Poem Mean? ch 1

I started this book with Tim and J yesterday. I'm just going to say a teensy bit about it because I think that to do any more would be more work than I need.

John Ciardi says that a poem isn't about what it means; poets don't write poems because they have something to say. People who put a message into rhyme usually end up writing doggerel. Poets write poems because they like to play with words. And people by nature enjoy tackling challenges, so poets like to the challenge of working within the framework of poetic style. Their playing with words might be likened to a juggler. The more difficult he makes it by juggling more balls, the more pleased he is with himself, and the easier he makes it look, the more people will enjoy watching him. A poet enjoys seeing how he fit words into a difficult set of parameters. And the more smoothly he can make it work, the more his poetry is enjoyed by others.

Good poems often go from specific details to something bigger, and the best poems do it seamlessly. Ciardi uses Rober Frost's poems Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Eve to show this. Robert Frost starts with a specific snowfall in a specific woods, but ends with a broader context ("...miles to go before I sleep.") If asked what he meant by that, he doesn't exactly know, because it wasn't written to say something specific. Yet through Frost's mastery of words, it elicits a feeling in those who read it.

That's why the book is called "How" does a poem mean, because the art is how words are used more than the precise, direct meaning of the poem.

Pride and Prejudice Reading Schedule

My friend Ginger and I finished Jane Eyre this week (my other friend finished weeks ago!). So far, the books we've read have been Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Jane Eyre.

Today we start Pride and Prejudice. The best schedule seems to be one chapter per day, six days a week. It's manageable, and if anyone falls behind, it's easy to catch up on a weekend.

Pride and Prejudice reading schedule for Jul-Aug 2008

Jul 2-5: Ch. 1-4
Jul 6-12: Ch. 5-10
Jul 13-19: Ch. 11-16
Jul 20-26: Ch. 17-22
Jul 27-Aug 7: Ch. 23-28
Aug 3-9: Ch. 29-34
Aug 10-16: Ch. 35-40
Aug 17-23: Ch. 41-46
Aug 24-30: Ch. 47-52
Sept 1-6: Ch. 53-58
Sept 7-13: Ch. 59-62

Van Loon's Lives

Tim and I are going to read this over the summer. It looks like a fun book and I've been waiting for years to finally read it. Van Loon gives these dinner parties and invites famous people from history - usually two at a time. And then he writes about what happened. Here's the contents; the descriptions of each chapter are funny, but I only typed in the guests.

Van Loon's Lives

1. Desiderius Erasmus pg. 3
2. William the Silent and George Washington pg. 68
3. Sir Thomas More and Desiderius Erasmus pg. 128
4. Bach's and Breughels pg. 141
5. Cervantes, Shakespeare, Moliere pg. 162
6. Archbishops of Bithynia and Cyrenaica pg. 216
7. Cartes and Emerson pg. 244
8. Empress Theodora and Queen Elizabeth pg. 296
9. Robespierre and Torquemada pg. 356
10. Buddha pg. 429
11. Saint Francis, Hans Christian Andersen and Mozart pg. 431
12. Beethoven and Napoleon pg. 475
13. The Greatest Inventor of All Time pg. 525
14. Plato and Confucius pg. 532
15. Peter the Great, Charles XII of Sweden and Voltaire pg. 577
16. Dante and Leonardo da Vinci pg. 629
17. Montaigne and Rabelais pg. 671
18. Emily Dickinson and Chopin pg. 731
19. Lost Children of History and Benjamin Franklin pg. 767
20. Fridtjof Nansen, Jakob van Heemskerk, Willem Barents and Surgeon de Veer pg. 799
21. Thomas Jefferson pg. 855