Platypus of Truth

Guess who's working through "The Song of Sir Roland" in the original Medieval French?

With the "Iliad" finished, my students are now moving into our textbook unit on Ancient Greece. Already, I can see that they understand the information at a deeper level than in the past. Beyond that, the literature teacher has also caught the Classical infection, and is having the students read "Antigone" before they launch into the Odyssey in February. That means that if my plan to do a unit on the "Aeneid" at the end of the year goes through, the 9th and 10th graders will have four classical works under their belts. That's a good, solid start.

As I look back through this series of posts, I notice that a constant theme comes up: enchantment. A good video game should have loads of it. By enchantment, I mean that delightful sense of the "other" that commands our whole attention and alters our perceptions of reality. Think of the last time you watched a really good play. Was there a moment during the performance when you forgot that you were watching a series of staged actions and felt "caught up" into another world? That is the sensation that a well-made game strives to create. The only difference is that the audience can now interact with the drama. The designer of the popular "Super Mario Brothers" series said that he strove to create a "magic garden" that players were invited to explore. I think that is what has always drawn me to these games. It's the same impulse that led me into the world of the theater: a desire not just to view, but to be a part of something "...

Today marks the end of my experimental "Iliad" unit for my 9th and 10th graders. We have just finished 24 days of Homer. On the whole, I think it was a resounding success. I only had one small-scale mutiny to put down, and many great moments to offset it. In addition, several kids positively caught fire. One of them even picked up Dante's "Inferno" on his own initiative and is eating it up. I'm busy writing down a final lesson plan set for the unit that I'll be putting on file. If all goes well, I'll be doing the "Aeneid" with them at the end of next semester. Meanwhile, we'll see how they do with the "Odyssey" for the English teacher. Great Books Work!

My Kids: "Mr Harrington! Mr Harrington! There's an awesome new video game coming out." Me: "What's it called?" My Kids: "Chrono Trigger. It looks awesome!" Me: "It is. I played that game when I was your age. It's one of my favorites." My Kids: *stunned disbelief* "You played it? That's awesome!" Just glad to know that quality entertainment is being passed on to the next generation.

What is adventure? Why do we all have this part of ourselves that longs for something beyond the world of safe and comfortable things? Why do we like being scared? I tried to think what made "Metroid" such an instant classic. It's one of the oldest Nintendo games I can remember, and yet they're still making sequels to it today. The clinging metroids seem to be the key. They remind me vaguely of the "face-huggers" in "Alien." There's also that sense of dark and mysterious "other" in every corner of the game. The eerie effect is only reinforced by the soundtrack. Like "Alien," there's very little frantic action in "Metroid," but rather a sense of deepening mystery and creeping dred. Unlike "Alien," however, it has an added sense of enchantment that runs throughout the game. 8-bits and all, the imaginary world of Zebes and its bizare flora and fauna are marvelous. Something in it taught me...

Interesting article from my home-state here .

With All Hallows' Eve and All Saints Day rapidly approaching, I offer you a trio of modern "saints" to keep in mind: Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Each of them, in their own fashion, was willing to reclaim territory for the Church that had been ceded without a fight to her enemies. Let us remember them, imperfections and all, and strive to imitate their best qualities as they imitated Christ.

Heaven's War Charles Williams+C.S. Lewis+J.R.R. Tolkien+Cathars+Alastair Crowley+Comic Books=Crazy Delicious! (Or at least something I wish I'd come up with...)

A world of wonder. I've always appreciated the Final Fantasy series for its art. Normally, I favor invented worlds with a down-to-earth, historically plausible look. Something where you can almost feel the weight of the chain mail and smell the fresh leather of a shield strap. It's the reason why John Howe is my favorite Tolkien artist. The art of Final Fantasy (especially what was released in America as II and III) is nothing like that. There's an ethereal quality to every bit of steam-punk, cyber-punk, high fantasy mish-mash in the game. Don't bother with the politics of the civilizations, finding a coherent cultural motif for the costumes, and theorizing about how the weapons would work in the real world. You'll just hurt yourself. Final Fantasy is candy for the eye and candy for the mind. It's a world that you emerse yourself in not by detail-mongering, but by sitting back and letting it carry you along. There are sword fights and operas, airship...

Secret of Mana Did I waste time on video games as a kid? No. When I was growing up, there was always plenty else to do. I walked in the woods, made movies with my friends, painted miniatures, and went to youth group, among other things. I had good friends and there was a lot to do growing up in rural southern Connecticut. So what was the lure of video games? In my family, and in my circle of friends, video games were a social sport. We picked hard and detailed games to play that encouraged cooperation and creative problem solving. The first thing my brother and I ever did together (I mean really together) was to beat "Secret of Mana." My sister used to sit and watch, and occasionally got in on the action as well. That memory will stick with me till the day I die. I have so many memories of sitting in the basement and penning a map, or slogging through a guidebook as my friends and I tried to crack a particularly tough puzzle. There were the soda ceremonies m...

Autumn is always a time of nostalgia for me. It was my favorite season growing up, and I have many happy memories attached to it. For some reason, it also gives me a hankering (rarely fulfilled) for playing some old school video games. To go with the flow then, I'm giving my 10 personal (emphasis on personal) favorite video games of all time. 1. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 2. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3. The Legend of Zelda 4. Chrono Trigger 5. Secret of Mana 6. Final Fantasy II 7. Final Fantasy III 8. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars 9. Final Fantasy 10. Metroid

I am currently preparing two primary source reading units for my 9th and 10th grade World History class. Next week, they'll begin reading Homer's "Iliad." After that, they will read the "Odyssey" for English class and then finish off the year with me by reading Virgil's "Aeneid." We'll be discussing each day's reading using the first fifteen to twenty minutes of class, and I'll be interested to see how much they'll get out of it. My hopes are not too high. What I'm really aiming at is the bare minimum of exposure and getting one or two of my brightest pupils actually interested in the classics. Worrying over whether or not I'm right to push them so far brought back to mind just what I was reading for class when I was their age. Just to clarify, I went to a New England private academy for the first half of my high school education. So let's see what I can remember. 9th Grade: The Odyssey by Homer Romeo...

Thoughts after reading the "Iliad" to prepare a Greece unit for my students: -Hector is a jerk until he's dead. He even advocates the exposure of Achaean corpses and then has the cheek to turn around and ask Achilles to spare his. He rudely ignores Polydamas' prophecies and fights outside the gate to save his pride knowing full well what it will cost his family and city. After he's dead, he becomes a martyr for the cause. -Agamemnon has several moments of true leadership to balance out his pettiness. In this way, he's a haunting foil to Achilles: the two men are more alike than they want to acknowledge. -We see that Achilles is the better man at the funeral games of Patroclos. His lordliness, tact, and generosity there give us a window into Achilles before his fight with Agamemnon and the death of Patroclos consumed him. -Nestor is a boring, rambling, old man who's better days are far behind him, and yet every Achaean treats him with the upmo...

All hail the return of the blessed season!

Why pulp? After all, there are so many great books out there, why bother with the low-brow of bygone era? Sure, there's a lot to dislike about pulp, particularly Edwardian pulp: the overt racism, the Social-Darwinism, awkward gender-roles, inconsistent quality of writing, and the endless assertions that "no, no, THIS was my greatest battle" at the outset of each new episode. You could level the same accusations at Homer, but almost 3,000 years of human opinion affirms that Homer is at a completely different level from "Moderately-Helpless Space Babes of mars." Pulp may have multiple virtues in its own humble way, but I think the one that looms largest is precisely the one that our age lacks: courage. Courage is the ability to do what one thinks is right in spite of fear. After two world wars and the shattering loss of Western cultural confidence in their wake, courage has almost vanished from among our everyday virtues. Sure, it makes good rhetoric durin...

Utnapishtim spoke to his disciple, and his disciple listened to his wisdom; the wisdom of the time before the Flood: "Did you not hear that the gods sent the Flood to ravage all mankind because they were noisy, oh my disciple? Were you told upon your mother's knee that the world bellowed like a bull and the gods called down the Flood to silence it? The storm riders were let loose to drown their noise, and the depths were opened to silence their bellowing. Seven days it rained, and forty days the tempest raged upon the face of the earth. The gods hid in the highest heavens, and all things upon the earth became as clay. Better a lion than the Flood. Better a bull than the Flood. Better a plague than the Flood. Is that what you were told?" "There is a truth in these things. For then men were greater than they are now, and they had ears that were open to the call of Wisdom, and houses that were open to the wind. But men grew tired of Wisdom, and they were c...

A Fragment from Thus Spoke Utnapishtim : Now Utnapishtim sat upon his rock and his disciple sat at his feet, and he begged Utnapishtim to tell him of peoples and places, and of all that he had seen since the coming of the Flood. And Utnapishtim smiled and said: "I can remember the coming of Arius and his sons, for I saw them from my mountain, oh my disciple. Were they not each the image of a god of war; red of hair and skin like new-cast bronze. Each carried a long spear and a well-honed sword at his hip, and they rode on chariots while their men drove the long-horned cattle behind them. Were not these the names of the sons of Arius: Hit, Cadmu, Persis, Ind, and Hy? Do I not know what the sons of Arius did at the great banquet they made on the day that they defeated the people of the two rivers?" "Know then, oh my disciple, that I saw it all. They made a great banquet upon the plain and each drank from the skull of a prince of Ur. There they slaughtered untold numb...

This year, I will be teaching World History I (prehistory to 1500). As such, I've tried to sketch out for the students the three broad phases of man and their most basic worldview. Any attempt to do this sort of thing is problematic at best, but high schoolers need something to start with, something foundational, before the process of deconstruction (and reconstruction?) can be done in college. The first is ancient (or pagan) man. Ancient man's approach to life was essentially tragic: hope, joy, and love were fleeting at best and the underlying structure of reality was rooted in pain and chaos. The best a person could do was to bear up nobly under the weight of suffering and turn it into some great act or art that gave meaning to existence. The second is medieval (or monotheistic) man. Medieval man's approach to life was essentially comedic: no matter how bad things get, they will be resolved for good in the end. If we're talking about the European Christians ...

Observations on the State of Christian Education and Suggestions. I am, in large part, a product of Christian education. For the last few years, I've been giving back to the system at a small private school. My experiences on both sides of the desk have begun to coalesce lately, and so I offer the following as a provisional and tentative sketch of what I've learned. Christian education, at its best, revives the old ideal of the university; where all the disciplines meet under a common uniting principle to shape students into integrated physical, emotional, and spiritual beings. However, experience, studies, and anecdotal evidence have suggested to me that this ideal is rarely reached. There are several factors in play that seem to me to hinder many Christian schools in their attempts to offer an excellent and truly Christian education: Problems: 1. Lack of a clear philosophy of Christian education. It seems to me that many churches decide that something is wrong with the...

Lines quoted by Lewis in "Surprised by Joy" from Euripides: "Oh God, bring me to the sea's end To the Hesperides, sisters of evening, Who sing alone in their islands Where the golden apples grow, And the Lord of Oceans guards the way From all who would sail Into their night-blue harbors — Let me escape to the rim of the world Where the tremendous firmament meets The earth, and Atlas holds the universe In his palms. For there, in the palace of Zeus, Wells of ambrosia pour through the chambers, While the sacred earth lavishes life And Time adds his years Only to heaven's happiness"

Odds and ends as summer wraps up. My big "thinking book" for this summer was "The Closing of the American Mind" by Allan Bloom. Yeah, I'm coming to this one a little late, but I was just a kid in the '80s when it was written. I undertook it as a sort of intellectual archeology, since it influenced people who have influenced me. Even if it's a little out of date, (and when has that ever stopped a Torrey student?) it's still worth the read just to uncover some of the ideas and problems that shaped the way we were taught. Hopefully, I'll be able to continue that archeology by digging into a bit of Strauss later in the year. In prepping for my American History class, I also undertook to read "1776" by David McCullough. My grandmother sent me the illustrated edition for my birthday. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read and all the reproductions of historical documents were fun to play with and will be useful in the classroom. Finally, I...

Now on the fortieth day, the great strength of Utnapishtim failed him and his foot stumbled, and Utnapishtim cried out. Then a great wind came from the East and drove a wall of sand between him and his pursuers, and Utnapishtim rose up and ran. A while later, his strength gave way again, and he stumbled in the way, and cried out with a loud voice. Then a great fire came across from the West and burned between him and his pursuers, and Utnapishtim rose up again and ran. When darkness came, his great strength was at its end, and he stumbled to the ground, and let out a great cry. Then a storm came from the North and the springs of the earth were opened and Wheels of Og's chariots, and the hooves of his horses, and the feet of his footmen were snared in the mud. Then Og lost Utnapishtim in the midst of the storm and great was the wrath of Og in that day when he lost Utnapishtim in the heart of the storm. Then Utnapishtim found a tree and laid himself beneath it to die. And Wi...

Well, we've been back from a wedding in Penn. long enough for the jet lag to start wearing off at least. We were out there for a wedding where I was the best man. The service was held in a beautiful little church that dates all the way back to the Revolution. The graveyard was well worth the trip as well, and it was nice to get a chance to indulge in two of my less-frequent hobbies: church-seeing and graveyard-seeing. The reception following the wedding was held in a manor house. All in all, it was quite a classy affair. Did I mention they used the marriage rite from the 17th century Irish Book of Common Prayer?

Thus did Bera, Priest of the City, and Birsha, Priest of the Forest, and Bela, Priest of the Plain, all fail to move Utnapishtim from his place at the crossroads, but each led away a part of the people with them until only a few remained to hear the words of Utnapishtim. Then word came to Og, King of Bashan, that Utnapishtim had come down and taken his stand at the crossroads. So he gathered to himself a new army, horsemen, and footmen, and chariots, and took the road that led from the sea. So Og, King of Bashan, and his army, his horsemen, and his footmen, and his chariots, went up to Utnapishtim. Thirty-nine days they traveled, and on the fortieth they came to the crossroads. Now Utnapishtim saw the clouds of dust, and perceived that Og was coming up from the sea. Then the people that remained to hear the words of Utnapishtim were filled with great dread, and they all fled so that Utnapishtim was left alone. So Og, King of Bashan, came to Utnapishtim. And Og boasted before U...

News of how Utnapishtim had received Bera, Priest of the City, and Birsha, Priest of the Forest, spread far and wide and came to the ears of Bela, Priest of the Plains, as he was directing the mowers, and builders, and all the people of the Plain. When Bela heard how Utnapishtim had rejected Bera and Birsha, his wrath was beyond measure, for he said in his heart "will not the fool challenge me too, and take away all that I have worked for, and all that my fathers' fathers have worked for?" So too he girded up his loins and went up to the crossroads. Thirty-nine days he traveled, and on the fortieth he came to Utnapishtim. When Bela came to the crossroads he heard Utnapishtim addressing the people thus: "What shall I say to you, oh men of reed houses?" And the people responded to Utnapishtim: "We do not live in houses of reed but in houses of stone! They are strong and tall, as our forefathers built them!" But Utnapishtim replied: "Would th...

It's funny, but it's true; during the school year I have to shut half my brain off so that I can teach. Bare me out on this one. You can't walk into a room full of eighth graders and say: "Modern America can only be understood in terms of Nietzsche's understanding of the creative man, or "over-man," as the maker of values via his will-to-power perversely democratized so that all of us can become value-generators." Well, you can, but they'll just look at you funny and roll their eyes. That's not to say that teaching teenagers doesn't require any real mental effort, quite the opposite, but that it uses certain mental faculties to the limit while demanding that others be temporarily suspended. You have to figure out how to communicate complex information in a way that they can grasp and run with. When you're mentally sparing with them, you still have to keep one hand behind your back. The goal is to help them develop their abilitie...

Following from what I have stated in the last post about my read of "Dune," I want to address what I think is a sub-theme that flows out of it. Since the focal character of the drama is the planet Arrakis, the humans in the book are there as fauna and loci of planetary change. Thus one of the primary lenses through which Herbert views them is in how they adapt to life on Arrakis. In light of this, it is no surprise that the entire first book of the novel "Dune" deals with the attempts of the Atreides family to adapt to life on Arrakis. Because of the predators on Arrakis, the Harkonnens (indeed, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is fond of referring to himself as a predator), most of them are wiped out. This is to be expected when a new species is introduced to an area; it will either flourish and displace indigenous life forms (ie. the rabbit or the cat when introduced to Australia), or rapidly decline unless some sort of adaptation occurs (ie. colonial European...

This post comes at the urging of a friend and a stroke of inspiration prompted by a web comic last weekend. I wanted to write a series of meditations on Frank Herbert's "Dune" earlier this year, but was prevented by illness from following through. As a further bit of background, my wife and I were reading the book together out-loud at the time. It was my third time through the novel and her first. Since its appearance, "Dune" has been the poster-book for proponents of transhumanism ; the belief that science should be employed to help humanity "transcend" unwanted features of current human existence such as sickness and death. In the sixties, this interpretation was linked with the drug culture so that "Dune" became "all about the spice." The drug angle seems to be losing steam the further we get from the sixties, however, and the new take on the book is heavily influenced by environmentalism, cloning and genetics, the oil ...

This one came highly recommended from a friend. "The High House" follows in the footsteps of George MacDonald's "Phantasties" and "Lilith," and that is the best place to start with this quirky, imaginative, highly literate, work. (Speaking of starts, this also seems to be Stoddard's authorial debut.) Stoddard is absolutely steeped, and I mean STEEPED , in the works of the Inklings (Tolkien, Lewis, and Williams in particular), their influences (Norse Mythology, Chesterton, MacDonald), and their contemporaries (Burroughs, Dunsany, Lovecraft, Eddison). If you aren't borrowing a copy, be prepared to annotate! However, "The High House" does not come off as simply imitative or a pastiche (though as a new author, their are moments when his allusions are too heavy or descend to the level of strait borrowing). At its best, it stands as a genuine, new contribution to the field; both interpreting the works that influenced it and yet prod...

May our little loves grow bigger under the sovereignty of the Love that moves the sun and other stars. No king but King Jesus!

Nothing makes for a morning of enjoyment like finding out that an elderly historian is liquidating part of his library and that you get first pick. The only thing that could make it better is if he wasn't an Americanist... Oh well. I still got to bring home some treasures including: "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," "The Closing of the American Mind," and Winston Churchill's "A History of the English Speaking Peoples." All for free, of course. And just in time too; my summer reading is going faster than I planned.

The Marble Faun serves as my introduction to the writings of Nathanael Hawthorne. It's more of a back door in, as a move in the middle of my junior year of high school prevented me from having the normal entre of The Scarlet Letter . I did get a chance to read his friend, Herman Melville's great work, Moby Dick , which still ranks pretty high on my list of all-time favorites. At any rate, it was about time that I sat down with a work by one of New England's great writers. The Marble Faun is often seen as one of Hawthorne's weaker works because of the heavy element of travel-log in the story. I have to say that made it particularly enjoyable to me as I could sit down every hundred pages or so and google-image every place, monument, painting, and sculpture that he mentions. It added a welcome layer of thick description, and put him instantly in dialog with so many great works, that I felt that I received more than the usual level of enrichment. Besides, I'v...

I've been dealing with various tooth related problems that have been keeping me in pain since the beginning of May. The dentist has been working away on them (he's been gracious enough not to charge for the lion's share of the work) but other problems I have (like grinding) keep interfering with the work, and the teeth are having a hard time accepting all the fillings, re-packings, grindings, bite-adjustments, and what-not. To sum it up, I'm in a lot of pain, and I don't know when, how, and at what cost this will all end (my dentist, at least, is pretty optimistic). If you would pray for healing, that would be great.

In honor of Michael Ward's groundbreaking new book, "Planet Narnia," I've decided to post my own seven heavens of summer reading. Each book is selected to follow the virtues of a particular planet in Medieval cosmology. Jupiter: The Trojan War by Barrey Strauss This is a master-work that blurs the line between history and novel in the vein of Jonnathan Spence's Treason by the Book . Strauss combines the evidence from latest dig at Hisarlik with Homer's text, and a strong, swift human sympathy to create a narrative overflowing with regal tragedy. The strong narrative structure makes for a very pleasant summer read that won't bog you down in a mire of scholarly prose. Mars: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice-Burrows In keeping with its title, this book overflows with Martial virtues. It's also a quick read, and a nice, refreshing break from today's 700+ page sci-fi behemoths. Sol: The Book of Lost Tales Volume II by J.R.R. Tolkien Fo...

I always tell my kids that the moral of every Russian fairy tale is "don't ask the Baba Yaga for favors!!!!". Evidently, however, if someone else sends you to ask the Baba Yaga a favor on their behalf, you just might get something really nifty; like a glowing skull on a stick that vaporizes your enemies. Of course it helps if you have a magic doll that can do just about anything if you feed it. I definitely see this one coming up in future lectures...

I've finished "A Princess of Mars," and it turns out to have followed through with my original expectations. Overall, I liked the book. It was a fast-paced, short read with just enough depth to keep you interested and a pacing that keeps you from pausing to break out and laugh at the absurdity of the whole thing. Classic pulp to the core. The heroes are larger than life, the villains are just plain villainous, and the ending sets up for plenty of sequels. My only qualm: since when is it o.k. to sack a city using ravening hordes of brutal barbarians just to get the woman you love out of trouble? In keeping with the Martian setting, exulting in physical prowess, and martial skill are at the core of this work. This would leave us in a Nietzachean universe were it not for the countervailing emphasis placed on love, pity (Zarathustra's great sin!), and friendship. Moving on down my list of summer reading, Hellboy Volume 8: "Darkness Calls" came in yest...

Summer is here, and with it my return to pulp! Hellboy Volume 8: "Darkness Calls" has just shipped, and while I'm waiting I've decided to delve into one of those ubiquitous ur-sources: Edgar Rice-Burroughs' "A Princess of Mars." The book is an odd (but appreciated) mixture of fantasy and sci-fi that reminds me very much of Lewis' "Out of the Silent Planet." It's also much lower (so far) on the whole quotient of "metal-clad-space-bikini-babes" than much of the later jacket covers seem to suggest (Though I think it's implied that our heroes spend most of the first chapters in a sort of heroic grecco-roman nudity). Maybe I just don't understand what good space-pulp is all about... It does have giant green men though! Anyhow, I'm only a third of the way through the book, so a full review will have to wait. It's well done so far, and holds my interest much better than more recent novels in the genre seem to....

What do you say to all of your adoring followers? -just hope no one cuts my head off...

What do you mean I have to recheck, sort, and file all of my students' textbooks A.S.A.P.!?!?!!!

What do Thucydides and Xenophon have to tell us about democracy (it being an election year and all): 1. Democracy is not the opposite of tyranny. It is merely the tyranny of the majority. 2. Building off of #1, democracy often ends up being the rule of whatever elite can most effectively sway the majority. This leads to de facto aristocracies (ie. Bushes, Kennedys, Clintons). 3. Democracies tend to function by fomenting class envy and other forms of "us vs. them" thinking. 4. Building off of points 2 and 3, democracies tend to be guided by the passions of the many, and are thus highly inconsistent in their policy-making. 5. Following from point 4, democracies are much more likely to go to war than more conservative forms of government. 6. Again, following point 4, democracies most adept at short, concerted bursts of energy, and break down when it comes to the long haul. None of this is to say that Thucydides and Xenophon are right in their observations. One ...

One day of finals left...

So, I got to see "Prince Caspian" for my birthday. It was as good as I had hoped, and I think that I might (heresy of heresies!) have liked it better than the book. One way or another, it was a thoroughly solid adaptation. The clincher is that the movie feels like Narnia all the way through. Though I greatly appreciate Peter Jackson's adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings," I can't say it did as much. I'm going to put that firmly on Gresham's heavy involvement with the film. If you get a chance, I'd recommend seeing the film and then reading Gresham's biography of Lewis "Jack's Life" just so that you can see the points where Lewis "enters" the film via Gresham. As a final note, "The Voyage of the Dawntreader" is in pre-pro, and this second strong showing gives me great hope for the series.

So I've decided to try my hand at creating a play this summer. The working title is "The Conqueror Worm." It's got a little bit of Poe, a little bit of Hellboy, and a little bit of Hawthorne. We'll see if it holds up when finger meets keyboard or if it collapses under the weight of its own absurdity.

My wife and I are taking a tour through the Odyssey as I push on to Xenophon's Education of Cyrus in my personal reading. Reading three Greek works at once with three different translators allows you to pick up on the peculiar cadence of Greek speech. It also begins to push you into the Greek mindset: love of well-turned phrases, logical argument, and extended discourse upon a multitude of topics, just to name some of the tendencies I've noticed. The Greeks come down to us mainly through their writing, but these qualities remind us that Greece was primarily an oral culture with writing serving as an aid to memory. The fact that their foundational works, The Iliad and The Odyssey , are oral poems bears witness to this. Greek books were made to be read aloud, and there is a certain pleasure that comes from experiencing them that way. What may seem dull or tedious on the page, comes to life when read out-loud with voice and intonation. Give it a try. Or as Fitzgerald pu...

Must be getting close to the end of the school year....

A Torrey tutor once asked me if I thought we should read Xenophon in Torrey. It's a hard question. Xenophon is what we might label a "minor genius." He was on the outskirts of the Socratic circle in Athens, and may have had connections to Thucydides as well. His works, numerous by ancient standards, fail to rise to the level of Plato and Thucydides but have still enjoyed a remarkable popularity down through the ages. So why read Xenophon? Since I'm working my way through his "Hellenica" right now, I thought I'd try and tackle that question. 1. He's our only fully extant source for the period beginning at the end of the Peloponnesian War and ending with the hegemony of Philip of Macedon. As such, he is also the lone chronicler of the Spartan Empire. 2. He's one of our few sources for the Achamaenid Persian Empire. The other two major sources are the Bible and Herodotus. 3. He shows us what an average Greek trying to live according...

We're back from Washington and trying to get over the jet lag. My back and stomach survived the trip, though I'm still in a fair amount of on and off pain. Here's one of my favorite pictures from the trip. The image is of the capital rotunda, and the fresco is called the "Apotheosis of George Washington."

Hi all, my wife and I will be back East next week for my student's senior trip. They visit the Capitol, Gettysburg, Philadelphia, and New York. We're going with the same agency we went with last time, and I was really impressed with last year's trip. This should be another great experience. Please keep us in your prayers for safe travels and also that my health problems (bad back, stomach) would not get in the way of the trip.

The doctor says that I'm healing up on schedule, and that he doesn't see any reason to resort to harsher treatments. Evidently, the condition I have never fully heals, but as the damage done to my chest heals, the stomach stuff should become more manageable . Hopefully that's the last word on it.

I go in to the doctors on Thursday at 3:00 this week. I have some symptoms that they're worried about, though they can't say what kind of tests they want to run (if any) until they've had a look at me. Until then, I'm on an all liquid diet. Please pray: 1. for healing. 2. for wisdom for the doctors to correctly diagnose and treat my illness. 3. that any tests or treatment would be easy, quick, and as painless as possible. 4. for my family and community that have been stressing and suffering with me through this. 5. for grace for me not to make extra trouble for my family and community through either frustration or short-temperedmness.

Hi all, this is just a note to let you know that I will be lecturing on C.S. Lewis' "Till We Have Faces," at BIOLA University on the evening of March 6th. The lecture should be in Sutherland at 8pm. All are welcome!

Finally starting to get better this week. We'll see how it continues to go. Thank you all for your prayers.

J.S. Bach's "Sheep May Safely Graze".

Three years ago, two friends of mine decided that I needed to expand my hobby interests. For years, I've collected and painted miniatures for relaxation and as a way of beatifying my office space. I collected them for the craft, and without much concern for the games in which they were meant to be used as pieces. My two friends, however, thought that my interests stopped just short of some real fun. They thus decided not to rest until, via birthday and Christmas presents, I had a entire playable army of my own. This Christmas, they've officially done it. I am now the proud owner of a 2,000 point High Elf army. So a word of thanks to the guys who "presented" me into the world of table-top war-gaming. Next time you're in town, we'll have a go at it. Of course the best thing about having a 2,000 point army? More models to paint! ;-) At least as soon as I heal up enough to do a little painting... :-P *The Picture is taken from the "Warhammer: Hi...

Well, events of the last month have derailed much of my proposed blogging. Thoughts on Dune have gotten overwhelmed by my current reading of The Half-Blood Prince (A day late and a dollar short, but I'm almost done with the series). Still, I may attempt to restart that thread at a latter date. With N.T. Wright in the bag, the new theological work is Bishop Ryle's book on holiness. We're reading through it for faculty devotions. I've wanted to dig into Ryle for a while, so now I get my chance. I've also finished the first edition printing of The Book of Lost Tales I that my in-laws were nice enough to get me for Christmas (The picture above is J.R.R. Tolkien's painting of Taniquetil). I recommend it for lovers of The Silmarillion and those who have a keen interest in artistic composition. If you're in the mood for more of The Lord of the Rings it comes off as fragmented and frusterating (That was my impression when I first picked it up many ...

Woot! Woot!!

Well folks, it looks like I've got something weird again. Some of you may remember the tale of the sixth-month long ear infection and its final eradication? Well this time it's a hiatal hernia. In layman's terms, that means that a part of my stomach has lurched up through my diaphragm causing all kinds of discomfort. The methods of treating it are also agravating some of my other wonderful little conditions ensuring that I'm kept continual discomfort. Four different doctors have looked at my case and here's their prognosis: 1. This is fairly common. 2. It's very rare that it has to be fixed with surgery. 3. They think they can fix mine with drugs and exercise. 4. If I do end up needing surgery, it will be major. Right now, my stomach's a bother, but the real trouble is that the things I need to do to fix it put a lot of pressure on my bad back which has voiced its displeasure by keeping me in near constant pain for the past two weeks. Combine ...