The Book of the New Sun

Posted on April 24, 2004 by Joseph

I just finished reading Shadow & Claw which contains the first two volumes of The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. I really like the book and would recommend it to anyone. I became interested in Gene Wolfe after seeing the Gene Wolfe Interview conducted by James Jordan. I like most of what I’ve read by James Jordan and have also liked the Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith which Jordan recommends.

In the first chapter of Shadow & Claw a statement is made that grabbed my interest and has caused me to want to understand more of what the author intended. The narrator says the following after the main character Severian is given a coin:

We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges. When soldiers take their oath they are given a coin, an asimi stamped with the profile of the Autarch. Their acceptance of that coin is their acceptance of the special duties and burdens of military life–they are soldiers from that moment, though they may know nothing of the management of arms. I did not know that then, but it is a profound mistake to believe that we must know of such things to be influenced by them, and in fact to believe so is to believe in the most debased and superstitious kind of magic. The would-be sorcerer alone has faith in the efficacy of pure knowledge; rational people know that things act of themselves or not at all.

This statement is very interesting to me because each day I am seeing more and more how a true understanding of symbols is lacking in the religious circles I grew up in. Most of those people think that symbols mean nothing unless I do something to give them meaning. The fact is that symbols have meaning whether I understand or not. This includes Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Both of these symbols affect the individual and are not effected by the individual.

I am looking forward to reading Sword & Citadel which contains the third and forth parts of The Book of the New Sun. I am enjoying Gene Wolfe so far and expect that to continue. I eventually want to get into some Jack Vance who is supposed to write in a similar style.

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Science Fiction Stories

Posted on March 2, 2004 by Joseph

Alastair in his latest post, Pious Fictions, talks of the need for Christian to tell stories especially in the area of Science Fiction. I totally recommend that you read his post and then also look at The High Crusade, a new blog Alastair mentions. That blog has a post on Star Trek: Enterprise that helped confirm for me some of the problems I saw this season. That post gives a lot of information about the first two seasons of the series and points out how morality is seen as totally relative to one’s own culture. This was always the case with Star Trek but not nearly as blatant as recently. I have only seen episodes from the third season and have been annoyed by the fact that not only morality but everything else is relative and inconsistent. Since the Enterprise has entered the Delphic Expanse they have experience weird anomalies in space. Multiple times they have talked about these anomalies as if the laws of physics are different in this area of space. This is irrational. Just because an aspect of the laws of physics has not been experienced before does not mean that it contradicts known physics. This whole idea illustrates the arrogance of scientists who think that if they can’t see it then it’s not true. How can Star Trek have a mostly consistent universe in the 24th century (The Next Generation) but not so before — with not even a mention of how weird the universe was back then. Just the usually inconsistencies of Star Trek I guess. I would still recommend Star Trek: The Next Generation though. Most of those episodes were rather interesting.

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11 Oscars for Return of the King

Posted on March 1, 2004 by Joseph

It’s great to see that The Return of the King won 11 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director. It now is tied for the record with Ben-Hur and Titanic. I had hoped in this final installment that Return of the King would finally win the Best Picture award.

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Peter Leithart’s New Site

Posted on February 27, 2004 by Joseph

Peter Leithart is now blogging at his new website, Leithart.com. I especially want to point out the articles page on his website where you will find a comprehensive list of articles that Peter Leithart has written.

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Failed Foreign Gun Control Laws

Posted on February 24, 2004 by Joseph

Gary A. Mauser has published a study showing the effect that restrictive gun laws have had in Britain, Australia, and Canada. He says that ” . . . violent crime rates, and homicide rates in particular, have been falling in the United States. The drop in the American crime rate is even more impressive when compared with the rest of the world. In 18 of the 25 countries surveyed by the British Home Office, violent crime increased during the 1990s. This contrast should provoke thinking people to wonder what happened in those countries where they introduced increasingly restrictive firearm laws.” The media is very good at ignoring these kinds of facts. The Failed Experiment, which gives the details of the study appears to be helpful in showing that the United States should not follow the lead of Britain, Australia, and Canada.

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Gene Wolfe at excellent prices

Posted on February 23, 2004 by Joseph

John Barach posted today on Gene Wolfe’s Storeys from the Old Hotel. I had tried to buy it before after seeing it mentioned at the Gene Wolfe fan page that references James Jordan’s interest in his works. Storeys from the Old Hotel is not available new from Amazon.com but I found it on BookCloseOuts.com for $3.49 (retail is $14.95). I was even more excited when I discovered that they currently have 14 titles by Gene Wolfe in stock at incredible prices. The also have 6 titles by Jack Vance who is an author I first saw linked to on Jeff Meyers’ blog. I ordered Storeys from the Old Hotel, Sword & Citadel, The Demon Princes: Volume 1, and The Demon Princes: Volume 2. I am excited about the good prices and hope that others will benefit from this too.

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Updated Scripturizer plugin

Posted on February 16, 2004 by Joseph

Dean Peters has updated the Scripturizer plugin. The update includes some basic bug fixes and some new features that are really nice.

For those unfamiliar with Scripturizer, it is a plugin for the Movable Type blogging system. When you include Bible references such as Romans 3:23 or Romans 1:16-32 the system will automatically convert them to links to the passage on either the Bible Gateway or ESV (for those who choose the ESV) website.

The plugin provides plenty of ways to recognize and link your reference. I will illustrate a few with text. Romans 3: 23 is a classic verse which sums Paul’s argument in Romans that all (both Jew and Gentile) are sinners. He starts this argument around Romans 1: 16 – 17 and extends it all the way through Romans 2 and then conludes with Romans 3. Some significant verses throughout this passage include Romans 1:16-17, 2:1&29, 3:10-20.

The parenthesis problem involved with spaces has also been fixed (John 3:16).

Update: Since I have updated to MT 3.1 I have not gotten scripturizer to work. That is the reason you don’t see anything linked as I state in the post.

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Scripturizer Plugin

Posted on February 14, 2004 by Joseph

The Scripturizer plugin for Movable Type is scheduled to be updated this weekend. I am looking forward to this and am excited about some of the new features. Rob Hulson has posted an excellent article explaining how to install the plugin in plain english (I wish I would have had this the first time). It looks like Dean Peters will add the ability to link to the ESV on it’s own site (the links on his site do that). I think that will be great.

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A+ Certification

Posted on February 14, 2004 by Joseph

My job is changing this year so that I will be dealing more with selling and supporting computers. My boss would like me to get my A+ Certification for various reasons. I am now reading the A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide. I find this kind of interesting that I am learning to support PCs which I don’t even like. I use a PC all day at work and a Mac at home for everything else. I would gladly use a Mac at work but my boss doesn’t like the idea. From my limited knowledge of PC support at the moment, it seems to me that a Mac would be a lot easier to support especially in hardware areas because there is a much more limited choice of configurations (than the hundreds of PC manufacturers).

If you are in the market for a new computer and aren’t sure what to get, go to Apple.com and get a Mac. It’s just better (and doesn’t have viruses).

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Bush and the Air National Guard

Posted on February 14, 2004 by Joseph

The Washington Times has printed a letter to the editor, Bush and I were lieutenants, by one of the men who served with President Bush while he was in the Air National Guard. The article helps to clear up a lot of the misconceptions that are floating around in the media about Bush’s military service. Those on the extreme left will not let facts influence them, but this information will be helpful to others who are concerned.

There is also a second article at the Washington Times, Bush’s drills with the Alabama Guard confirmed, that gives more information from people who knew President Bush at the time.

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