Platypus of Truth

I grew up surrounded by graveyards.  They intrigued me by day and creeped me out by night.  Some of them had witches, some of them had apostates, not a few had a charnel house, and a few had ghost-stories. I've also liked Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" since seventh grade.  With that in my background, you'd figure I'd have picked up a copy of Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book" sooner.  Fortunately, a friend gave me a copy for my birthday and I've just finished reading it.  I can see why Gaiman took away the Newbury medal for this piece of work.  It is a compact and delightful retelling of "The Jungle Book" that seamlessly blends its source material into the dark and weird world of Gaiman's fiction.  The characters are well-drawn and compelling and the story unfolds at just the right pace.  Though the main character is a child, there is nothing childish about the work.  Each sentence is the work of a mature author at the h...

* All Images Copyright James R. Harrington 2011

I had my directorial debut this year as a drama teacher.  The play we chose to do was Aurand Harris' adaptation of C.S. Lewis' "The Magician's Nephew."   It was well received by the school community.  While pictures are pending, here is the director's note that I whipped together (last minute) for the program.  (nota bene: I am heavily indebted to Dr. John Mark Reynold's lecture on the Magician's Nephew for the Torrey Honors institute for pointing out that "The Magician's Nephew" revolves around our response to pain.) Welcome to our 2010/2011 Drama performance of C.S. Lewis' "The Magician's Nephew."  "The Magician's Nephew" was originally meant to be the second installment in The Chronicles of Narnia.  During composition, however, Lewis found himself increasingly unable to continue and thus shelved the manuscript for a number of years.  The reason for this may be that the story was becoming too perso...

Summer is here in all its heat (and humidity this year!) and languor.  Thus, it is time for the return of Summer reading.  Over Finals week I was able to complete (nota bene: this was all for professional development as well as personal enjoyment): "When Athens Met Jerusalem" by John Mark Reynolds (2nd read) "World War I" by John Keegan (friend and mentor of V.D. Hanson and third title I've read by the author) "Civilization and its Discontents" by Sigmund Freud (filling in an important hole in my understanding of the 20th century) On the ticket are: "At the Back of the North Wind" by George MacDonald (been on a kick lately and even read a couple of bios) "Orthodoxy" by G.K. Chesterton (umpteenth readthrough for a reading group) "Chaung Tzu" (the second great Taoist text) "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaimon (thanks Liz!) "War in Heaven" (2nd time for a reading group) "The Rape of Nankin...

Our school had its graduation ceremony this Saturday.  In addition to the ceremony, an intrepid group of teachers made the rounds of four to five graduation parties as well.  It's an honor to be invited to a student's graduation party, an event usually reserved for family and close friends.  It's saying that they value what you've done for their child enough to consider you part of the family. I was mulling this around in my head during the ceremony while a slide-show of the seniors was running along with the typical sentimental music by a popular country singer playing in the background.  One of the lines in the song struck me: "now I know why the leaves change in the Fall."  For the students, graduating is bitter-sweet since it means leaving friends and family.  It means saying goodbye to childhood.  However, the thrill of a new life and new experiences awaiting them tends to overwhelm this sober side.  For the parents, it seems to be in the r...

This week found us watching a documentary called "Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037."  It's the story of the creation of a Steinway concert grand piano.  It's an enjoyable piece, but one of the recurring themes struck me in particular.  New York Steinways are still largely made and tuned by hand and this is the key factor in their excellence as musical instruments.  Most modern pianos are made and tuned by machine.  The result is a a large number of less expensive pianos and a great diminution in quality.  The narrative according to the documentary is that modernization is destroying the older and superior way of hand-craftsmanship.  This struck me as odd since the piano is a quintessentially "modern" (post 1648) instrument.  Let me explain. The sheer complexity of a piano makes it a daunting task for any craftsman.  Producing it at a cost which places it within the purchasing range of the Bourgeois is nothing short of astounding...