Platypus of Truth

I mentioned reading a passage from J.R.R. Tolkien's "Leaf by Niggle" several days ago and immediately thinking of "The Legend of Zelda."   Now "Leaf by Niggle" is heavily platonic in its conception of the afterlife; advancing toward the divine through an ever more real series of images.  We see this also in C.S. Lewis' Narnia where at the end of the ages the cast are invited "further up and further in."  Now there's something in this idea of advancing through stages or levels towards a fulfillment or consummation that put me in mind of video games.  The player works his way through a series of worlds, or as Miyamoto calls them "gardens," toward some desired object, the goal of the quest and the end of the game.  In the Legend of Zelda series, this goal is often the mystic Triforce, a tripartite object representing the balance between wisdom, courage, and power.  To master this object, the one who seeks to win it must brin...

This Christmas, we've taken advantage of being at home to sample a bit of what Houston has to offer on the cultural scene.  This meant a trip to the MFAH to see their King Tut exhibit and to the Worthen Center for the Houston Ballet's production of The Nutcracker . The cost of seeing the King Tut exhibit was bankrolled by my grandmother this year.  For what it cost, however, the exhibit was absolutely worth it.  It think we spent three to three and a half hours carefully working our way through the cases.  The core of the gallery was a stylized recreation of King Tutankhamen's tomb with key pieces from each of the chambers.  This was contextualized by several rooms worth of Egyptian art that included everything from megalithic statues, to a death mask, to a toilet seat from Amarna.  There was an audio guide that went with the exhibit as well narrated by Harrison Ford that was worth the extra price.  Included for free were a series of videos that expl...

Thanks to a generous family at our school, this year's Christmas haul has a decidedly Greek twist to it.  New titles added to the "independent study" list: The Best of the Achaeans by Gregory Nagy The Cambridge Companion to Homer ed. Robert Fowler Epic Bards and Oral Singers by A.B. Lord Blackwell's Companion to Ancient Epic ed. Miles Foley Now I can go back and re-write my Master's Thesis.

There's a nice little interview here about THE BEST HOLIDAY COMIC EVER .  Seriously, if you haven't picked up a copy of Scrooge and Santa yet you need to now.

There's something about turning 30 that seems to send people back to the books.  It's as if the 4+ year trauma of college wounds the intellect so deeply that it takes years to fully recover.  By about 30, though, it seems to be back in working order and ready to go.  I take as evidence of this the large number of friends that I have that are auditing courses, taking classes, considering going back for a masters, learning a new language, or just taking on a challenging course of study.  The bug hit me last summer and I spent a good portion of my bonus on amassing a small library of books on Ancient Greece.  Though I don't teach them, the Ancient Greeks are my first academic love and I thought it was high time I returned to them.  So...  Here's what I'm working on: Alexander by Robin Lane Fox Traveling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer by Robin Lane Fox Early Greece by Oswyn Murry The Spartacus War by Barry Strauss The War that Killed Achilles b...

I roomed with film majors in college and in grad school and picked up a few things along the way.  That aside, however, I only have mild pretensions to being a film aesthete.  All comments about film on this blog should be taken in that spirit.  With that out of the way, we can move on. I had a truly enjoyable evening last night with my wife and a couple of friends eating expensive cheese, drinking Martinelli's, discussing Charles Williams, and watching Terrence Malik's "Tree of Life."  Now I have loved Malik's work since I saw the "The Thin Red Line" between the end of high school and the beginning of college.  It was the first movie that really opened me up to the potential film has as a vehicle for discourse.  I don't think "The Thin Red Line" did that just for me either.  Many of the young aesthetes intellectuals Freshman year had had their cinematic awakening after watching Malik's masterpiece.  College is a time for affectation...

I was working my way through "J.R.R. Tolkien Artist and Illustrator" when I found this passage from "Leaf by Niggle": You could go on and on, and have a whole country in a garden, or in a picture (if you preferred to call it that).  You could go on and on, but not perhaps for ever.  There were the Mountains in the background.  They did get nearer, very slowly.  They did not seem to belong to the picture, or only as a link to something else, a glimpse through the trees of something different, a further stage: another picture. The first thing that popped into my head when I read this was what Shigeru Miyamoto said about creating the Legend of Zelda series .  He said that he envisioned the games as a set of gardens in which players could wander and explore.   Thinking a little further, the defining feature that encloses the world of Hyrule in the first four games is a mountain range.  There was something magical about reaching the top of Death Moun...

Long wintry afternoons and evenings aren't just for books.  If you grew up in the 80s (or more recently), it's also a time for gaming.  If you're old school, this can mean getting out the pen and paper.  If you're teh uber, then it means more time on WoW.  I, striving for To Meson in all things, tend to prefer the old snes.  Once old Bessie is out of the mothballs, that begs the question of what game to play. Picking a game at Christmas is a lot like picking a book : the question of atmosphere is paramount.  As with Christmas reading, then, I like a game that has a more mellow pace and tone.  The bright and tinny world of Super Mario Brothers is out then.  Also out are the cartoonish creatures of Secret of Mana .  The Legend of Zelda series is welcome any time of the year, but I think I like it best in Summer or fall.  Metroid comes nearer the mark.  What's left?  This year, I think the answer to that question is Final Fa...

The world is getting colder, the days are getting shorter, and work is winding down for the semester.  With the Christmas holiday coming, it's an ideal time for reading.  Now I always read, but Christmas seems to call for some change change in the line up to match the peculiar feel of the season. Changing my reading list to fit the holiday mood does not mean Christmas books, though it can.  There's nothing wrong with curling up by the fire to read Dickens "A Christmas Carol" or work through Matthew and Luke's accounts of the Nativity.  However, I meant something beyond the obvious Christmas additions.  There are certain books that you plow through and there are certain books that you eat up.  Christmas, for me, calls for neither.  Instead, I prefer books with a narrow emotional register that absorb and enchant; the perfect companions for long, cold, quiet nights. Last year's book of choice was the novella "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" by H...

This post comments on Fritz Leiber's "Swords Against Death."  If you wish to remain spoiler free, do not read on. As noted earlier, Fritz Leiber begins his tales of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser with a heroic foursome; the two male leads and their ladies fair.  By the third tale, however, the foursome is reduced to a duo with the death by art magical of Lady Ivrian and the intrepid Vlana.  The result seems to be that our heroes can now never be whole and are thus doomed to wander the world in search of adventure and forgetfulness.  This equation almost changes in the second volume with The Price of Pain-Ease where the wizards Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes promise to restore a lost love to one of the two men provided he can steal the mask of Death.  Tormented, literally, by the ghosts of their lost beloveds, Fafhrd and Mouser accept the quest even if it means slaying each other to get to the mask.  Along the way, they conti...