The Landmark Thucydides
The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories
Christianity and Liberalism
Jesus: Made in America
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
On the Nightstand
The Landmark Thucydides
The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories
Christianity and Liberalism
Jesus: Made in America
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Man Who Would Be King
Just finished reading The Man Who Would Be King (hereafter, MWWBK), by Rudyard Kipling. I enjoy Kipling, though I know others do not. I get his imperialism, I think. MWWBK is a short story, though I didn't realize this at first. The volume I have, published by Oxford World Classics, gave me access to a lot of Kipling short stories in the genre.
MWWBK is about a journalist who, by chance, meets a man on the train. The man on the train asks the journalist to deliver a message for him to another man on another train. The journalist decides to do this and then promptly reports both men for con-artists (which they are). Some time later they both show up at the newspaper printer and ask the journalist to hear their plan for the domination of some mysterious kingdom in the hills of Afghanistan. He gives them some assistance and off they go. Two years later one of them shows up and tells the journalist their story. This is the real meat of the story.
The delivery is fun and energetic. I won't spoil the real story, but instead direct you to read it yourself. Enjoy!
MWWBK is about a journalist who, by chance, meets a man on the train. The man on the train asks the journalist to deliver a message for him to another man on another train. The journalist decides to do this and then promptly reports both men for con-artists (which they are). Some time later they both show up at the newspaper printer and ask the journalist to hear their plan for the domination of some mysterious kingdom in the hills of Afghanistan. He gives them some assistance and off they go. Two years later one of them shows up and tells the journalist their story. This is the real meat of the story.
The delivery is fun and energetic. I won't spoil the real story, but instead direct you to read it yourself. Enjoy!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
100 Cupboards
About two years ago, while at the ACCS conference in Atlanta, I discovered that Doug Wilson's son, Nathan, had been doing some writing. He had published two cute books on Noah's flood and Adam's fall at that time and was prepping for his first big release (as in Random House), Leepike Ridge. I picked up the two small books and brought them home. We enjoyed them. The next year for Christmas I ordered Leepike Ridge from Amazon for my son. He read it and enjoyed it, so did my wife. Then I heard about 100 Cupboards. I ordered it too. My son read it, but got a little freaked out while reading it. My wife read it, and understood why James had been a little tense about it. I still didn't get around to it. I had too many other things to be reading and preparing for. So I went on about my merry way. Then I heard that there was a second volume to the 100 Cupboards, Dandelion Fire. And a third to be released eventually. I decided to read 100 Cupboards.
That was one of the best reads I have done in a long while. Over the summer, I had made it my mission to read what James would read this year, so I would be able to talk with him about it. So I had read some children's literature in the recent past. But Wilson's prose is fantastic. Far better than anything I had read recently.
The story is really good too. What happens when a twelve year old boy goes to live with his aunt and uncle in Kansas because his parents are taken hostage while on a South American bicycle expedition? Well, obviously he discovers that there are magic cupboards in the attic where he is sleeping and accidentally wakes up a witch. This is a story that was clearly the product of a mind steeped in some of the best writing of the world. Lewis, Tolkien, Chesterton, O'Connor all find voice here.
One of the most fun things about the book though is its relationship to modern fiction. At first glance, it seems very like Harry Potter or other similar books. However, there are differences that need to be noted. In Harry Potter, as in many books today, the protagonists make really bad decisions, deceive others and go against authority figures. Much of these things happen to Henry York as well. The difference is in modern fiction, this behavior is almost always praised implicity or explicitly. What I mean is, either the characters are victorious in their tasks because they lie, cheat, or otherwise break the rules (hence implicitly teaching that breaking the rules is often a good thing) or they are outright told that by someone else in the book ("If you hadn't stolen the thing no one is supposed to touch and gone where no is allowed to go and told these lies to us, the world would have ended. Way to go!"). In Wilson's hands, these actions take place. Henry and his cousin Henrietta deceive their authorities (uncle or dad), sneak around when they aren't supposed to, and hide information from others so they can do something cool. But this book makes it very clear that if they had told Uncle Frank what was going on, things could have been much better. Henry is not rewarded for doing bad. This is what makes Wilson's book different from other books I've seen recently.
I think this is a worldview difference. Wilson is a Christian and writes like a Christian. That doesn't mean someone is saved in the book or evangelized. It means that the events of the book take place in a world governed by biblical values and biblical reality.
I have read the second book too, and am beginning the third. More to come.
That was one of the best reads I have done in a long while. Over the summer, I had made it my mission to read what James would read this year, so I would be able to talk with him about it. So I had read some children's literature in the recent past. But Wilson's prose is fantastic. Far better than anything I had read recently.
The story is really good too. What happens when a twelve year old boy goes to live with his aunt and uncle in Kansas because his parents are taken hostage while on a South American bicycle expedition? Well, obviously he discovers that there are magic cupboards in the attic where he is sleeping and accidentally wakes up a witch. This is a story that was clearly the product of a mind steeped in some of the best writing of the world. Lewis, Tolkien, Chesterton, O'Connor all find voice here.
One of the most fun things about the book though is its relationship to modern fiction. At first glance, it seems very like Harry Potter or other similar books. However, there are differences that need to be noted. In Harry Potter, as in many books today, the protagonists make really bad decisions, deceive others and go against authority figures. Much of these things happen to Henry York as well. The difference is in modern fiction, this behavior is almost always praised implicity or explicitly. What I mean is, either the characters are victorious in their tasks because they lie, cheat, or otherwise break the rules (hence implicitly teaching that breaking the rules is often a good thing) or they are outright told that by someone else in the book ("If you hadn't stolen the thing no one is supposed to touch and gone where no is allowed to go and told these lies to us, the world would have ended. Way to go!"). In Wilson's hands, these actions take place. Henry and his cousin Henrietta deceive their authorities (uncle or dad), sneak around when they aren't supposed to, and hide information from others so they can do something cool. But this book makes it very clear that if they had told Uncle Frank what was going on, things could have been much better. Henry is not rewarded for doing bad. This is what makes Wilson's book different from other books I've seen recently.
I think this is a worldview difference. Wilson is a Christian and writes like a Christian. That doesn't mean someone is saved in the book or evangelized. It means that the events of the book take place in a world governed by biblical values and biblical reality.
I have read the second book too, and am beginning the third. More to come.
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