My family has been wiped out with the flu this past weekend, so we were out of touch with the news… and I mean totally out of touch. I’m back at work and have just learned about the mass killing that was done in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. While I didn’t know any of the victims, I know people at church who knew them. Also, we went to church in Capitol Hill for a while when we first moved back to Seattle, so we know a number of people in that neighborhood.
I’d like to ask for folks to pray that in the midst of all this horrific tragedy, that God’s glory would be known. I know some folks from church are trying to reach out to those who were part of the rave that was the ‘opening scene’ for this tragedy. But any way possible, may God be glorified.
Like Matt, I’ve gotten a bit behind on logging what I’ve read. So here goes.
The Epic of Gilgamesh. This was required reading for a class I’m taking in non-Western mythology. It is the Penguin Classics edition by Sandars, and did a pretty good job of putting the text into readable English. The story is deceptively short: the epic itself takes only 58 pages of the 128-page book. There is an excellent introduction with the history of the epic and its discovery, but for a critical edition, the lack of an index was disappointing (and annoying, when discussing the book in class).
The Arcanum by Thomas Wheeler. A supernatural thriller in which Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini, H.P. Lovecraft, and Marie Laveau try to recover the lost Book of Enoch while Aliester Crowley lurks in the shadows. I shall review the book by way of analogy. Wheeler’s The Arcanum is to Charles Williams’ War in Heaven as the movie Van Helsing is to the movie Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
The Philosophy of Horror or Paradoxes of the Heart by Noel Carroll. This is the book I’ve been looking for. An intelligent examination of the horror genre: what horror is, why it is effective, and why we read it. Some of the philosophical musings went right over my head, but I think I’ll read this book again some day.
Lost Horizon by James Hilton. There is a micro-genre of stories about people having philosophical awakenings after their experiences in the first World War, and this was recommended to me as one of the best. A hijacked airplane is flown to a remote village in Tibet called Shangri-La. The four passengers on the plane adapt to Shangri-La in different ways, and the main character, Conway, develops a special relationship with the High Lama. Some of the philosophy seemed a little woo-woo New-Agey, but the story was interesting — especially the ambiguous ending — and certain passages about the escalation of violence in society seemed almost prescient.
A New Kind of Christian by Brian McClaren. This is the first book of McClaren’s trilogy about pastor Dan Poole, and consists mostly of conversations between Poole and his daughter’s high school science teacher, Neo. Poole is a fictional character, but the the evolution of Poole’s thoughts about the church and Christianity are meant to mirror McClaren’s own process. I had mixed feelings about this book; some of the questions it raised were ones I’ve had myself. And I appreciated much of what was said about Christianity in a post-modern culture. However, I thought the book spent a lot more time talking about what is broken, and less about what we should be doing. In that respect, I enjoyed a more recent McClaren book, A Generous Orthodoxy, which I felt was more positive in tone.
One other thing that occurred to me while reading the book was a question of who the book was for. It just seemed that someone would already have to be open to certain aspects of pomo theology to move past the first couple of chapters. But the book raised enough good points that I think I’ll continue with the next two volumes in the series: The Story We Find Ourselves In and The Last Word and the Word After That.
Realist Debbie Lauro will be promoting her recent book, Hansell’s Dragon, at a meet-the-author event on March 28 at the Owosso Public Library and on March 30 at the Durand Public Library.
For anyone who is in Michigan, come on out and meet Debbie!
16 Blocks
Director: Richard Donner
Starring: Bruce Willis, Mos Def, David Morse
Trailer: www.apple.com/trailers/wb/16blocks/trailer
Rated PG-13 for violence, intense sequences of action and strong language
Reviewed by Paul Christian Glenn
On the day that Bruce Willis receives his inevitable lifetime achievement award from the Academy, 16 Blocks won’t be included in the highlight reel. That’s a shame, because the film very nearly works as a character study interrupted by a few action sequences. Instead, director Richard Donner settles for a routine action flick bookended by a few poignant character moments.
Willis plays Detective Jack Mosely, another variation of the broken-down cop character he’s perfected over countless other films. This time he’s an unapologetic alcoholic with a bum leg and a silly-looking cop-stache who shuffles around the precinct, grunting at colleagues and marking time until retirement.
One morning Mosely is assigned to escort a key witness (Mos Def) to the courthouse. It’s a simple assignment, he’s got two hours to go 16 blocks. Unfortunately for Mosely, he looks a lot like Bruce Willis, and that means things are going to get very noisy very quickly. It turns out the witness, Eddie Bunker, has dirt on a bunch of cops, and they’d all feel better if he died before giving his testimony. Cue the ambushes, shoot-outs, bus chases and intense looks of incredulity from Willis.
The first act, which sets up Mosely’s character and predicament, is nicely handled. Willis’ enduring popularity as an action star is his ability to project that “everyman” persona; no matter how many times we see him perform Herculean feats of improbable justice, we always believe that this is the first time anything like this has ever happened to him. It’s an undervalued quality in action flicks, and Willis’ knack for it is unmatched. As the simple assignment goes awry, Mosely digs down and reawakens the old cop who once believed in truth, justice and the American way. His face takes on that look of irrepressible determination, and we in the audience feel a familiar comfort.
In the second act, however, the film stumbles. Donner, a veteran action director, knows how to compose a thrilling chase sequence, but that in and of itself is not enough to buoy an entire act. Bickering and bonding, Mosely and Bunker race through seedy bars, dark alleyways and crummy apartment buildings as they try to elude the bloodthirsty cops. Bunker talks a mile a minute and Mosely responds with monosyllabic grunts, and we’re reminded of every other mismatched buddy shoot-em-up since Lethal Weapon, which Donner also directed. Mos Def uses the inherent comedy of their incompatibility to generate some easy laughs, but the urgent nature of their situation prevents the characters from becoming anything more than rough sketches.
And then, in the third act, a funny thing happens. The pedal-to-the-metal pace suddenly subsides, and you can practically hear the gears grinding as the story downshifts from big, overblown actioner to gripping, emotional drama. It’s an admirable twist on the genre, and it even plays well, with both Willis and Def rising to the occasion, but unfortunately it’s too little, too late. The film hasn’t earned its thoughtful resolution, and the powerful climax that could have been is only barely glimpsed.
Mos Def can’t yet open a picture by himself, but it won’t be long. He’s a charismatic actor who brings life and love to a very thin character here. After a silly but likeable turn in The Italian Job, he brought mesmerizing power to his small part in The Woodsman, easily holding his own against Kevin Bacon. 16 Blocks is his most prominent role to date, and should catch him some juicier parts.
David Morse is serviceable in the role of Mosely’s cold-blooded former partner who leads the band of dirty cops. We immediately know that he’s a sleazy guy, because he chews gum with his mouth open, which makes him detestable on principle alone.
Bruce Willis is reportedly working on a fourth Die Hard picture. At 51, he can’t have too many more of these blazing action movies in him, so one can only hope that he goes out on a high note. 16 Blocks is just too disparate to be it.
I’ve gotten a bit behind on logging what I’ve read, but most of what I’ve read either has not inspired much comment from me or I’ll be reviewing it elsewhere, so this will be mostly a laundry list with short comments about what I’ve read this past month:
- Nightwatch by Terry Pratchett. It’s Discworld, do I need to say more? Fun and thought-provoking. Will be reviewed in forthcoming issue of Deep Magic.
- Sorcery and Cecilia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. An epistolary Regency-era novel about people being turned into trees and magic-possessed chocolate pots. Lots of fun. I’ve got the sequel (recently published) loaned to me by a friend in my soon-to-read pile.
- The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. The grand-daddy of Gothic novels. I was summarily unimpressed, other than finding it interesting where all the tropes originated.
- Magic Street by Orson Scott Card. Card finally does contemporary fantasy. It was slow starting, but ended well. Good book.
- The Year of Our War by Steph Swainston. I started reading this one, but couldn’t get into it sufficiently. I sent it back to the library and will try to get into it again sometime this summer.
- The Early History of Rome by Livy. For the boys’ schoolwork.
- The Best Things in Life by Peter Kreeft. A set of Socratic dialogues between Socrates and some moderns. Also for the boys’ schoolwork. When Kreeft is at his best, the dialogues are captivating, but when he’s got an axe to grind, suddenly there aren’t many questions and Socrates is suddenly pontificating instead of probing. Uneven.
- The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable by F.F. Bruce. Yes.
I’m sure there’s something else I’m missing, but I don’t have my pile in front of me to check.
I think that brings me up to 13 books for the year. Still working on An Instance of the Fingerpost in between other stuff. The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award long list has come out, so I’m busy with that.