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| Well, with the birth of Lena in November and the start of my first teaching position at Westmont College in January, I have had little time to read. Actually, I take that back. I have been reading a lot. Most of it has been out of the 8th Edition of Fox's Human Physiology, though. We are studying the muscular system right now, and I'm learing a lot about isotonic and isometric contractions, something I knew little about before last week. Physiology is a stretch for me, since my expertise is in molecular and cellular biology and the last 5 years has been on the cells and molecules of the sea squirt. But I'm enjoying the challenge, and I'm enjoying my students.
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| Kim and I are huge Beverley Nichols fans. After reading the Merry Hall series any fan of British humor or gardening would be a convert. Nichols has a wonderful, playful sarcasm with just the right amount of understatment. His obsession with his plants and his cats is contagious. I'm all for a domed greenhouse and a fernery and cats, but I draw the line at ceramic fauns. I just can't go there. Perhaps with age I may change my mind.
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| This book is the next best thing to a window in Kim's womb. The in utero pictures are amazing! I almost said awful, because I am truly in awe of the wonders of God's creation when I see the elegance and beauty of a developing child. Right now our nugget is covered in soft, fine hair called lanugo that makes the little ones all furry looking. The cheezy 1970's pictures of swedish couples are pretty fun too.
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| "Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and
specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will
correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books."
-C. S. Lewis Introduction to St. Athanasius' On the Incarnation, trans. by Sister Penelope Lawson
Like old books, old movies allow one not only to see the faults
our forefathers (which we are unlikely to have) but to also see their
virtues (which we are also unlikely to posses). Cimarron is badly
acted and contains some ugly racist stereotypes, but one thing can be
said for it: It takes the time to tell a long story of a woman's
life. We see her in her youth and we get to know her
family. We see her toil to make a new life and we glory with her
in her accomplishments. We cry with her in her tragedy and watch her
mature into a wise, faithful and respected matriarch of her family and
town. It is an epic. It is a saga. Tragically, the days of
sagas are gone. Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are
notable exceptions, and I would argue that is one of the reasons for
their huge success. Some may deny this claim by pointing out the
large number of sequels that follow characters over several
movies. I think, however, that most sequels these days add little
to the development of the character and mainly attempt to
reproduce the exact same themes and feel of the original movie.
Think City Slickers II "The Legend of Curly's Gold" or the new Pirates
of the Caribbean "Dead Man's Chest". Most movies today are
snapshots of people's lives, often celebrating a single day in the life
of a person who's most interesting time in life is probably still
before them. What is a young couple's year of courtship compared
to the story of that couple's life raising a family and growing old
after a live of love and sacrifice? What is the story of Joseph
compared to the overall story of Abram to Yeshua?
Herein lies what I believe to be an inherent shortcoming in the medium
of film: it's inability to adequately portray a saga. I
loved the Lord of the Rings movies, but I was also deeply
disappointed. Even the extended versions, which together are over
11 hours long are unable to tell the story of the ring without
resorting
to long narration, huge omissions or conflating and truncating
scenes. Film is great for creating amazing visual images
(especially in our day of visual effects), touching the emotions
through drama and acting, and capturing the "feel" of a era through
costumes, music and speech, but it is unable to tell a long
story. I loved Braveheart, but I would be a fool if I thought I
knew much at all about William Wallace. I learned a little about
Wallace, and I learned a little about the history of the
English-Scottish conflict but what I saw and what I felt was the virtue
of courage.
I fear for the generation
raised on movies. Our attention span becomes shorter and shorter
with each successive Owen Wilson movie we watch. My generation and
more so the young people I work with now must learn to read old, long
books for the Book of Books is very old and is very long, but is very
necessary to read and understand.
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| The 39 Steps is another of Hitchcock's "innocent man on the run" movies
much like North by Northwest and The Man Who Knew Too Much. The
main character falls into a dangerous consipracy and has to solve the
mystery and foil the dasterdly plot to save his own life. I loved
the scene where Hannay sneaks into the political meeting and is
mistaken for the keynote speaker. The scene reminded me of Fletch
where while Fletch is on the run from the cops he gives his speech for
"Fred the Dorf Dorfman" in the banquet hall. The scenes with
Hannay and Pamela handcuffed together were fun. Still not as
exciting or as well written as N by NW.
The Lady Vanishes was a gem! There is something romantic about a
mystery on a train. A train captures all the essential aspects of
a great mystery. There is the danger of a moving vechicle, the
tension of enclosed spaces, the excitement of strange unknown people
and distant places and the romance of a forgotten mode of
transportation. Hitchcock puts all these aspects into play in
this engaging story. The lovely Iris and "the most contemptable
man in the world" (Gilbert) attempt to solve the mystery of the missing
Miss Froy. The attraction/repulsion dynamic between Gilbert and
Iris was wonderfully done and the witty banter between the two english
cricket fans made this a five star film.
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