What's Going on Here?

Okay, so I've forgotten about the blog for a bit... parenthood, teaching, grading, coaching, half-begun writing projects, and the dishes are to blame.  (Unlike the sink, the blog doesn't smell if I ignore it for too long).  But I'll be getting back to it shortly; I promise.

In the meantime, a quick thought as I glance at my last entry, "Winter is Coming."  That was in anticipation of the HBO series, "A Game of Thrones," based on GRRM's acclaimed novel...

Watched the premier.  Didn't care for it... I'll post my thoughts at a later date (maybe after I give it a second look on DVD).

Now the latest novel in the series, A Dance with Dragons, which came out in July, was fantastic.  Review to come.

Un-coincidentally, it's the mid-year grading crunch at school.  Somehow, all those blue books, exams, papers, and stacks of unchecked homeworks always inspire me to undertake lots of new intellectual and creative endeavors.  Where's my free time when I need it?

Winter Is Coming...

No, not outside.  On television, and in the bookstores.  With the impending premier of HBO's adaptation of George R.R. Martin's novel, Game of Thrones, and with Martin's announcement of a July release for the long-awaited fifth book in his Song of Ice and Fire series, A Dance with Dragons, I'll have to revisit the medievalism question.  (Wow, it was almost a year ago).  Summer is also coming... it might not be until then that I get back to it.  I'm an intellectual glacier in a digital rapid landscape.

Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities (Martha Nussbaum)

Just bumped to number one on my reading list: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9112.html.  I hope to find an informed, intelligent articulation of some of my recent inklings about education, the liberal arts, and technology, and a lens to focus and expand my thinking about those issues.

I'll post my thoughts when I'm done, although it may not be any time soon.

The Theology of Speculative Fiction

Some of the most legendary writers of science-fiction have been thoughtful atheists (Asimov, Clarke), while some of the most important literary fantasists have been thoughtful believers (Tolkien, Lewis).  Yet the genres of fantasy and science-fiction are often lumped together (appropriately so) and share millions of loving readers.  (I'm one of them.)  Both are literatures of the imagination, about things contrary to known fact; both fall into the broader category of "speculative fiction" (as opposed to "realistic fiction").  How then, does one make sense of this common theological split between them?

True, it's not a dichotomy: Philip Pullman is an atheist writer of fantasy, Orson Scott Card a Mormon writer of science fiction.  Meanwhile, much science fiction, points out Adam Roberts in his The History of Science Fiction*, carries messianic themes (see Frank Herbert's Dune series, for instance).

But the theological split within the broad sci-fi/fantasy genre seems predominant enough to merit consideration.  Much (not all) science fiction is about transcendence achieved through technology (Asimov comes to mind, especially--see his book I, Robot, or his short story "The Last Question").  Much (not all) fantasy is about transcendence achieved through mystery and things unseen.  So then does a book like Herbert's Dune really belong more to fantasy than science fiction?  Perhaps this is the true dividing line of the genres, which at their best and most successful are narratives of transcendence.


*Roberts further argues that science-fiction is primarily "Protestant" in spirit, while fantasy is primarily "Catholic."  An interesting premise that views the genres somewhat differently than I have.

9/11/2010

Copyright David Galalis

Photos at Ground Zero taken yesterday by my brother:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/david_galalis/sets/72157624936246020/

Good Dog

One of the most moving scenes in all of The Odyssey is about Odysseus' dog.  Odysseus has returned to Ithaca, but he's disguised as a beggar.  He returns to his home (or his "manor," as Fitzgerald, the translator of this particular edition calls it--Odysseus is the king of Ithaca, remember), and no one recognizes him, except for faithful Argos...

While he [Odysseus] spoke
an old hound, lying near, pricked up his ears
and lifted up his muzzle.  This was Argos,
trained as a puppy by Odysseus,
but never taken on a hunt before
his master sailed for Troy.  The young men, afterward,
hunted wild goats with him, and hare, and deer,
but he had grown old in his master's absence.
Treated as rubbish now, he lay at last
upon a mass of dung before the gates--
manure of mules and cows, piled there until
fieldhands could spread it on the king's estate.
Abandoned there, and half destroyed with flies,
old Argos lay.

Essential Things

School's about to start back up, and we're a decade into the 21st century.  The reason I mention that is because I expect to hear a lot about what number century we're in this year in professional development activities.  Such talk is frequent in public education today, with lingo like "21st century skills," "21st century learning," "21st century learners," "21st century teaching," "21st century teachers," "21st century classrooms," "21st century schools," etc. ad. nauseam.  Apparently, someone somewhere noticed that the odometer has turned over onto... yes, the 21st century. 


What there is not a lot of talk about, disturbingly, is precisely what these 21st century terms mean.