Platypus of Truth

I was sitting in my office the other day in a rather downcast mood. With all the reading I had been doing lately, I’d amassed quite a list of duties that all seemed to jostle and push about for first place in my attentions. It ran something like this: Read the Bible more Pray more Make sure to stay as active as possible in Church Keep up on current world politics to be a good citizen Follow current American political scene and develop positions on key issues Continue research into global slavery and consumer products Make more time for spiritual disciplines such as silence and fasting Give Kreeft’s Catholic arguments in “Ecumenical Jihad” a fair hearing Increase exercise and modify diet to deal with stomach trouble Keep up on “hard” reading to stay sharp Of course the list could have gone on longer, and my main feeling after I’d set it down was embarrassment at how short it was. Surely, I had no right to feel in the least perplexed or overwhelmed. After all, these thin...

I've finally finished E.R. Eddison's epic fantasy "The Worm Ouroboros." I know of nothing comparable to it except "Dune" and "The Lord of the Rings." If you are a lover of epic and fantastic literature, you should read this book. *Potential Mild Spoilers Ahead* That said, let me move into a discussion of the work. The strength of "The Worm Ouroboros" lies primarily in its ability to enchant. The wealth of settings from bright halls to sorcerous chambers, ruined towers and woody bowers, edges of glaciers and fields of slaughter provide a rich set of backdrops that fire the imagination. Eddison also adopts a deliberately archaic style; a modified King James English. This, combined with the episodic and heroic style of the work, make the reader feel as if he is encountering something from Malory or Spenser. Heroic feats, shows of courtesy, and fierce combats abound. All this takes place in a stunningly constructed, though not p...

After going back over my test results, it looks like I may have a stomach infection. So now I'm on antibiotics. If my symptoms don't clear up, we go into aggressive treatment and probably surgery (though my doctor says it's very rare to treat a hernia like the one I have with surgery).

I've decided to begin posting material from my new WIP on a blog I've created for that purpose. If you're interested in reading it and giving some feedback, let me know and I'll email you an invite.

Just reached 25,000 words, or half the size of a nanowrmo novel. Slow and steady wins the race.

What do Charles Williams, George MacDonald, H.P. Lovecraft, Hellboy, and Edgar Allan Poe have in common? Lots of things, but most importantly for this post would be that they are all influences on my latest WIP. No vampires, thules, or undead Aryan fishmen this time. I promise!

Summer reading rarely goes as planned, and that's the fun of it. Sure, there may be some things you have to read for work or school, but if you have any vacation time, or even if you're just on a day or weekend trip, there's always a place where a good book can be sneaked in. What book? Who cares, so long as it's good! So, down the winding trails of this summer's reading. In order to balance out the chunk of Heinlein I started out summer with, I picked up some GKC and CSL. Heretics and The Four Loves are both re-reads, but The Ball and the Cross and The Allegory of Love were both new. B+C was delightful, as Chesterton always is, and A of L was a real mental workout. I'm not a medievalist, but I've read a fair cross-section of the books Lewis is dealing with, and it was good to be able to start forging them into a coherent and linear picture of the development of the courtly love tradition. After freshening my mind up, I plunged back into the...

Nothing out of the ordinary showed up on the barium test today. I have a moderate sliding hiatal hernia with very piddly reflux. The specialists are going to go over the images again just to make sure and then they'll pass them on to my doctor. I have a consultation to reassess the matter two weeks from now. Our thanks to all those who have been praying.

Barium and x-ray test is scheduled for 9:30 this Thursday. I'll have my follow-up visit on the 23rd. Meanwhile, I'm still playing with my diet and taking, at my doctor's instruction, a double dose of meds (neither seem to be working).

Well my blood work has come back negative. There's no evidence of a stomach infection or a hormonal imbalance. Next up is the barium and x-ray test. Depending on what that shows, the doctor will decide on my next round of tests. Meantime, I'm in daily discomfort and the change in meds doesn't seem to be working.