THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
09/14/07 -- Vol. 26, No. 11, Whole Number 1458
El Presidente: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
The Power Behind El Pres: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
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Topics:
Correction/Apology (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper
and Gerald S. Williams)
Mission Accomplished ... Again (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Worldcons of Diminished Expectations (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
The Answer (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
3:10 TO YUMA (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
GOLDA'S BALCONY (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
Science Fiction Films' Quality and Cost (letter of comment
by Andre Kuzniarek)
Anthropocentrism (letter of comment by Andre Kuzniarek)
James Fenimore Cooper and Re-reading Authors (letter of
comment by Mike Glyer)
Additional Senses (letter of comment by Gerald S. Williams)
Hugo Awards, Dogs, Cats, and John Steinbeck (letter of
comment by John Purcell)
This Week's Reading (RELIGIOUS LITERACY)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Correction/Apology (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper and
Gerald S. Williams)
And once again, I have conflated Gerald Ryan and Jerry Williams.
Contrary to what the table of contents and header said, the
letter of comment on C. S. Lewis's Catholicism (or lack thereof)
in the 09/07/07 issue of the MT VOID was by Jerry Williams.
To quote from another Catholic writer (that of the "Confiteor"),
mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. [-ecl]
Jerry Williams adds, "Gee, I'm starting to think that I only get
published because of my name. There seems to be some more
confusion between me and Gerald S. Ryan. (I must admit, the
first time I saw a post from Jerry Ryan, I wondered whether it
might have been the one from 'Star Trek' fame.)" [-gsw]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Mission Accomplished ... Again (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Quote seen in a press release: "[Ridley] Scott, who considers
BLADE RUNNER his most accomplished movie, was in Venice to
promote the Final Cut [version of the film]."
I don't think there is any doubt about it being his most
accomplished film. It was "accomplished" for its original
release. It was "accomplished" again for the Directors' Cut.
The IMDB lists 15 different versions over the 25 years since its
release. That means the film is "accomplished" on the average
about once every 22 months. How many films are accomplished so
frequently? He called this the final cut, but history suggests
he will have accomplished it again by July, 2009. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Worldcons of Diminished Expectations (comments by Mark
R. Leeper)
One of my friends--one whom I see almost exclusively at the World
Science Fiction Convention (or Worldcon) each year--announced
this week that he was not going to the Worldcon any more. He
says that it no longer is meeting his needs, and his answer is to
go instead to San Diego Comic-con each year. He invited his
friends to join him in this change of habit. Well, I am not
going to do it. I will probably continue to go to the Worldcon
each year. But I have to admit that part of my Worldcon-going
habit is just force of habit. The fact is that at one time I
derived a great deal of pleasure from going to a Worldcon and a
great deal of the pleasure has fled from the experience. And I
am asking myself why.
I should point out that this essay could be interpreted as a
complaint about how Worldcons are run and an attempt to influence
them. That is not the case. I really would like to stay out of
fandom politics. And I do not have the ego to suggest that
Worldcons change to match my interests. I thinking about why I do
not feel a strong sense of loss by missing Worldcon this year and
just looking at the trends of Worldcons and examining why my
reaction to them is not as positive as it once was.
Certainly part of what is going on is the repetition. One does
not expect the 30th potato chip to taste as good as the first one
did. There is too much commonality between conventions for me to
find each one fresh and new. I have been a steady attendee of
Worldcons. Of the last 32 Worldcons I have missed only three.
For some reason I feel the Worldcons of the 70s seemed to have
more verve. Somehow Worldcons seem more staid and less energetic
as there are fewer young and active attendees. I will get to the
changing demographic later.
My interest in science fiction is probably as much in film as it
is in literature. Worldcons used to have very good film
programs. Frequently the first thing I would look up in the film
program is what films do they have that I had not heard of
before. Also they would have in-depth behind-the-scenes
presentations of upcoming films. Worldcon would be the first
place I would have heard about many forthcoming films and I will
have seen props and production sketches for the before most of
the public. I am told there are still such presentations at San
Diego Comic-con, but it is hardly worth the studios' efforts to
send production people to the Worldcon. A large Worldcon is one
with 7000 attendees. San Diego claims to get 150,000 people, at
least by their accounting. The similar film presentations would
have to have huge audiences. A presentation to an audience that
big must be projected on a screen and then it becomes a lot like
watching television--live television, but television nonetheless.
It is the scale of a San Diego convention that is the most off-
putting thing about it. So I would not like the presentations
there, but I am not seeing them at all at Worldcon any more.
Instead what Worldcons are getting is a reel of trailers, most of
which I will soon be seeing in movie theaters. Seeing them early
is of some interest, but not a lot.
But what I miss from the Worldcons of the past is the
introduction to already existing films I have not been able to
see or perhaps have not even heard of. I had seen a lot of the
classics shown on TV. But no TV stations had or would show MAD
LOVE with Peter Lorre. It was a little too weird for general
audiences I would guess. A convention was where I finally caught
up with it in 1977. I don't think I got another chance to see it
until the 1990s. Other films like MALEVIL and THE APPLE WAR I
have seen nowhere but at a Worldcon. Now if I want to see rare
films I do so mostly through home video. The video revolution
has allowed me to see some obscure films, but the obscure variety
that used to be shown at Worldcons are not on video and are still
out of reach. The film programs at Worldcons, if they have them,
offer fewer obscure films. And frequently those are on video.
Too many people have been allowed to exploit the convention for
political purposes. Many of the panels have been politicized by
people with an axe to grind. There is gay fandom, fat fandom,
feminist fandom, all wanting to make political points. The whole
world is politicized. I go to Worldcons to get away from that.
There are fewer panels about the sense of wonder and more of
people trying to get some political gain.
Another effect of the changing times is that the star power of
the professionals is wearing off. At one time at conventions I
was seeing people like Isaac Asimov, Jack Williamson, Hal
Clement, R. A. Lafferty, and L. Sprague DeCamp. Of the old guard
there are still a few who are alive and who go to Worldcons. The
foremost of these is the mellifluous-voiced Robert Silverberg and
seeing him is always a pleasure. But these days the stars seem
to be writers I have never read. Perhaps they are good writers,
but they are of a modern group of writers who are (for me) not as
much fun to read. However good a writer like Charles Stross is,
it is hard for me to get excited about seeing him at a convention.
In fact, most of the authors who are currently writing do not
seem to have such a strong following proportionally among the
younger fans. Their prose is heavier and lacking in "sense of
wonder." It appeals more to serious older readers. But fewer
young people are going to Worldcons. I think there is also a
factor of a generation brought up on video and computer gaming
that is more interested in the visual media. For people of my age
science fiction was the escape from what we had to read in
school. These days science fiction was what kids were forced to
read in school when they would have preferred to be playing
computer games. Written science fiction just is not the kick for
them that it was for us. They want media and computer games.
As the Worldcons have less focus on the media, conventions like
San Diego with a membership in the hundreds of thousands and
Dragoncon in the tens of thousands can afford to offer a lot of
film programming, a lot of television programming, and a lot of
gaming programming. It may also have the literature programming
of a Worldcon, but if so it is lost in the competing types of
programming. Younger fans less enamored of reading may not miss
it. It seems these mega-convention events are siphoning off
younger Worldcon attendees already in short supply. (Rising
membership fees I assume uniformly make all conventions costly.)
The result is that Worldcons seem to have an average attendee age
that gets older with time.
Not helping the demographic problem is the occasional foreign
Worldcon. Foreign Worldcons are just not going to attract young
people from the United States. I really like going to see
another country for the first time and then at the end of my trip
going to a Worldcon, but the truth is that foreign Worldcons are
harder on the younger United States fans than it is on the older
ones. Foreign Worldcons require and investment of time and
money. As security concerns and waiting times for passports
increase, more domestic fans will be discouraged.
As I grew older I found I could expend both more time and money
on travel. I also had more of a taste in the exotic than many
younger people have today. I did not have the time or the money
to go to Heidelberg, Toronto, or Melbourne in the 1960s and
1970s. I still could not go to Melbourne as late as 1985. I
would have liked to go but did not have the funds or the vacation
time. Since 1985 I have been able to afford the vacation time and
cost for every international Worldcon--certainly more than younger
working fans could. I would see the country and then go to the
convention. This year's Japan is the one exception because I have
already seen Japan and if I go again I will not want to spend
several days in a science fiction convention. I do not think
whatever is happening at the Worldcon can compete with just going
out and seeing the Japanese culture. In any case I think that
foreign conventions are a factor in the rising average age of
Worldcon attendees.
As I say, I am not advocating any change to the policy associated
with Worldcons. I do not want Worldcons tailored to me. I am
not suggesting, for example, that we need to or should abolish
foreign Worldcons. I am just exploring why I am less satisfied
with Worldcons as time goes by. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Answer (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Last week Evelyn cited a quote from John Steinbeck in which he
mentions the pi-th root of -1. In my comment I asked people to
try to figure out what are all the numbers that are pi-th roots
of -1. Here is the answer.
exp(iA) = cos(A) + i*sin(A) where A is an angle measure in
radians.
If we let A equal any odd integer times pi, the right hand side
becomes -1. If o is an odd integer this says
exp(i*o*pi) = cos(o*pi) + i*sin(o*pi) = -1
So exp(i*o) = (-1)^(1/pi).
So the pi-th roots of -1 are precisely those numbers you get when
you take exp(i) and put it to a power that is any odd integer.
The only person who sent in the correct answer was David
Shallcross. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: 3:10 TO YUMA (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: A very short Elmore Leonard story, much broadened to
make a classic western with Glenn Ford, is expanded again to make
a bigger and more powerful version. A needy farmer agrees to put
a notorious bandit on a train to prison. But he is going to have
to really earn his pay. Christian Bale plays the farmer and
Russell Crowe the rather complex stage bandit. This film
combines action and character, adding in realism that the
previous version did not have. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
In March 1953 Elmore Leonard published in "Dime Western Magazine"
a short western story, "Three-Ten to Yuma". Four years later it
was the inspiration for Delmer Davies's very loose adaptation,
which expanded the story and found considerably more dramatic
potential. 3:10 TO YUMA has become a minor classic of the
Western film, remembered better than most, but not with the
reverence that a HIGH NOON receives. Now half a century later
James Mangold has taken the film version and transformed it again
into a much bigger, brasher, and more violent Western, but now
the characters and the action compete with each other to dominate
the film.
Christian Bale plays Dan Evans, a sod-busting farmer whose farm
is just about ready to give out. If he cannot get together money
soon he will lose his farm to the bank. He is fighting pressure
to remove him. Meanwhile notorious stage robber and killer Ben
Wade (Russell Crowe) meets Evans just long enough to steal some
horses from Evans. When the law captures Wade, somebody is
needed to take Wade across country to get to the nearest train
depot and put him on the train for Yuma prison. Evans agrees to
take the job in return for a very badly needed $200. The problem
is that Wade's gang is deadly and is just as set on making sure
that Wade is not on that train. Wade seems to take a friendly
interest in Evans's family, but what does the killer really have
in mind?
That is the plot, but it could be the plot of a much more trivial
horse opera. What sets this story apart is the enigmatic
character of Wade. He is cold-blooded on one hand, but he also
seems to be in some ways amiable and idealistic. People who are
determined to hate him soon find their resolve against him
weakening. He seems a pleasant man. Is he sincere or is this
the hypnotic guile of a snake. He seems to have flashes of real
decency and flashes of ugly violence. The film centers on this
ambiguity. Evans will have to decide if he can trust his
prisoner or not. His life may hang on the decision.
In the 1957 version Van Heflin played Dan Evans and Glenn Ford
played the enigmatic Ben Wade. Both are good actors, but by
comparison to this version both seem a little too clean and
smooth. Neither really seemed grizzled by being on the frontier.
This film has a much greater feel of realism. It also has more
action and violence, though it does not get in the way of the
character questions. It is hard to take a film that is well-
remembered and improve on it in a remake. But Mangold's
realistic style and fleshing out of the plot arguably make this a
fuller telling of a story that develops from version to version.
Both versions are suspenseful, but this one is enthralling all
the way through. On the other hand the script borrows a lot from
other classic Westerns, notably HIGH NOON.
Christian Bale is playing a sort of lackluster character, at
least at the beginning. Even his son does not respect him.
Later without changing style he becomes more magnetic. Russell
Crowe has to be an enigma throughout though later in the film it
is easier to judge what he is thinking.
There are some minor problems with the film. The film takes
place in Arizona but was shot in New Mexico. That should be a
good match, but the film does not feel like we are seeing
Arizona. Much of the early part of the film takes place in the
town of Bisbee, Arizona. The town looks flat. The real Bisbee
is located in a canyon. Dan Evans had his leg shot off in the
Civil War. He walks with a limp but still seems to be a very
good runner. That seems inconsistent.
It is nice to see that there are still good Westerns being made
every year or so. It is a genre that it would be a pity to lose.
The genre gets a (medical) shot in the arm with 3:10 TO YUMA,
which I rate +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.
Film Credits: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0381849/fullcredits
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: GOLDA'S BALCONY (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Valerie Harper plays Golda Meir, former Prime Minister
of Israel in a one-actor play by William Gibson. Golda Meir in
retirement reminisces about her life, the history of Israel, and
the most important decision she ever had to make. The film is
powerful and well-acted even if there are stylistic glitches in
the presentation. Jeremy Kagan directs. Rating: low +3 (-4 to
+4) or 8/10
[Note: This is not the science fiction author William Gibson.]
Films that have been willing to look at the Middle East conflicts
from Israel's perspective have been increasingly rare over the
years. But if anyone in Israeli history can be said to be
remembered fondly by the world it is the Russian-born, American-
raised, Golda Meir. She was the Prime Minister of Israel from
1969 to 1974, back when female world leaders were an extreme
rarity. With her outwardly grandmotherly appearance she led
Israel through some of its greatest crises. William Gibson, who
wrote the plays "Two for the Seesaw" and "The Miracle Worker",
each a classic of the American stage, also wrote "Golda's
Balcony", a one-actor play that looks into the heart of the
likable, angry, and occasionally fierce woman who was Golda Meir.
The film is directed by Jeremy Kagan who previously directed
HEROES, THE BIG FIX, and THE CHOSEN.
The setting of the film is simply what the title says. Golda
Meir is in retirement, secretly near to death, remembering her
life, the short history of the state of Israel, and the most
terrifying days of her life during the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
Her mind flits from one to the other telling all three stories.
Meir is deeply troubled at the course her life has taken and
specifically with the irony the desire to improve the world had
given her power, but the responsibility of that power is the
defense of her country and that self-defense ultimately leads to
killing. She likens it to a pot of soup--a positive thing, but
at the bottom of the pot there is blood. Note that in the rules
of Kosher the presence of even the tiniest drop of blood makes
the whole pot of soup inedible. Just a little evil destroys all
the good. Meir sees her dilemma as being what inevitably happens
when idealism becomes power. It destroyed her personal life and
forced her to order killing.
In the stage play Meir tells her stories dramatically recounting
and taking all the parts. For example, in an exchange with David
Ben-Gurion, Meir will say what she said and then gives an
impression of Ben-Gurion responding. The film takes this a step
further by compositing images. So we can see two or three (or
more) Valerie Harpers on screen at the same time. One may be
Valerie Harper doing Golda Meir; one may be Valerie Harper doing
Golda Meir doing David Ben-Gurion. She has a different stature
and voice, but occasionally it becomes momentarily difficult to
tell who is speaking. To add to the visual confusion the
background is generally newsreel footage of the incidents she is
discussing. Sometimes the background is visually altered into
stepped gray-scales. Kagan probably realized that something
needed to be done to make the background interesting, but his
choices were less than ideal.
Still, Harper's versatility shines through in her playing dozens
of characters from a little boy in Russia, to her husband, to
world leaders, and to a Holocaust survivor who herself had to
make a terrible choice. It is an amazing feat for her to wear
the Golda Meir makeup and still make herself look and sound like
Henry Kissinger. This is a performance full of such little
wonders.
GOLDA'S BALCONY is a powerful and moving portrait of the life and
crises of Golda Meir. It is a film that deserves to be
experienced and remembered. I rate it a low +3 on the -4 to +4
scale or 8/10.
Film Credits: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0860418/
A side note here: Jeremy Kagan, who directed GOLDA'S BALCONY, is
also the director of THE JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN. This is my
personal choice for one of the finest and most under-appreciated
family films ever made. The story is of a young teenage girl who
is forced to travel from Chicago to Washington State on her own
with very little money during the height of the Great Depression.
THE JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN and GOLDA'S BALCONY are two films that
deserve to be seen and remembered. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Science Fiction Films' Quality and Cost (letter of comment
by Andre Kuzniarek)
In response to John Purcell's comments on science fiction films
in the 08/31/07 issue of the MT VOID, Andre Kuzniarek writes, "I
consider PRIMER the best pure SF film ever made, and I believe it
must also be just about the lowest budget SF film as well. I
wouldn't compare something like IT CONQUERED THE WORLD, but even
if, Roger Corman's movies still probably cost more than what was
spent on making PRIMER..." [-ak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Anthropocentrism (letter of comment by Andre Kuzniarek)
In response to Mark's comments on anthropocentrism in the 08/31/07
issue of the MT VOID, Andre Kuzniarek writes:
I think I mentioned this to you before, but a recent book comes
back to the idea of defending the anthropocentric view (sort of),
to try and instill a certain sense of "destiny" or pseudo
sacredness to the sciences that might substitute for the awe
factor people seem to get from their religions:
THE VIEW FROM THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE: DISCOVERING OUR
EXTRAORDINARY PLACE IN THE COSMOS by Joel R. Primack and Nancy
Ellen Abrams (ISBN: 1-594-48914-9)
One of the points made reiterates yours about the unlikelihood of
there being anything sentient in universe that would be observing
it, but other points explain how the scale moving outward in
space reflects the range of scale moving inward to the quantum
level, such that our scale is darn near close to the middle of
things. And the positioning of earth and the solar system in the
galaxy as well as the galaxy itself are all somewhat in the
middle of the possible ranges that can support such structures,
and our appearance on Earth is about in the middle of its
lifetime, etc... [-ak]
Mark replies:
I guess it raises the question, "If we were intelligent life but
on the scale of 10^(-10) in size, would we be less observant
outward and understand more the subatomic and the quantum? Would
we always be positioned logarithmically halfway between the
largest things we can observe and the smallest? Would we not
still be in the middle of things?" [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: James Fenimore Cooper and Re-reading Authors (letter of
comment by Mike Glyer)
In response to Mark's comments in the 08/17/07 issue of the MT
VOID on James Fenimore Cooper's writing (regarding disguising
oneself as a bear), Mike Glyer writes:
I just remembered that one of the early Aubrey/Maturin novels by
Patrick O'Brien involves Aubrey's escape into Spain while
disguised as a dancing bear.
Is there a tradition of such stories the two are drawing on, or
did they just use the same idea? [-mg]
[Mark responds, "I can't say I know of any tradition. I guess I
just think it is a weak plot point. I can't imagine it ever
working in the real world. Certainly not if the escapee has to
move around and be seen by someone not too far away. Don't try
this at home kiddees." -mrl]
I didn't find it objectionable when O'Brien used it, but good
writing always helps. If Mark Twain was alive he wouldn't have
picked on "Patrick O'Brien's Literary Offenses." [-mg]
[Mark replies, "I don't know whether I am sure that is true, but
we will never know." -mrl]
One last thought--there's really no need for you to deconstruct
Bradbury as a great writer. Certainly a beloved and popular sf
writer, and the first to be accepted by American school teachers
as worthy of having his stories used in their classrooms, which
was remarkable. Yet even at that time, knowledgeable sf readers
pointed to other writers' work as the best in the field.
Frankly, I am nearly always disappointed when I reread stories I
loved as a teenager and haven't looked at since. Last week I read
the unedited version of STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND. The only
part that made me glad was the introduction, which explained how
Virginia Heinlein found a way to get paid for this book a second
time! [-mg]
[Mark says, "I would say for me the disappointment occurs only
occasionally. Perhaps I am still a teenager at heart. I have to
say it never did much for me. It is too much about Jubal Harshaw
and not enough about Valentine Michael Smith. But that is just
my take. -mrl]
[Evelyn adds, "I see now that both Bradbury [THE ILLUSTRATED MAN]
and Heinlein's STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND are on the summer
reading lists for high schools near us. How times have changed!"
-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Additional Senses (letter of comment by Gerald S. Williams)
In response to Mark's comments on additional senses in the
09/07/07 issue of the MT VOID, Jerry Williams wrote, "The fab 5
senses get all of the press, but I think there are others that
are even more commonly shared (such as kinesthetics and
balance)." [-gsw]
Mark replies, "I think these get lumped into "feeling" which
covers a multitude of lesser senses." [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Hugo Awards, Dogs, Cats, and John Steinbeck (letter of
comment by John Purcell)
In response to the 09/07/07 issue of the MT VOID, John Purcell
writes, "Well, Mark, once again the Hugo Awards have been
presented, and it didn't take long for the grumphing and grousing
to start. I admit to being a part of it, but only because there
were a couple folks in the fan categories whom I felt should not
been included due to eligibility requirements. We can leave this
debate out of MT VOID, naturally, but it is always interesting to
note how personally some folks take these voting results. No
matter what, congratulations to all the winners! Now the
question is, do I want to read any of the fiction nominees and/or
winners? So far I haven't read a single one of these for this
year or any from the last fifteen years. Oh, well." [-jp]
Mark replies, "I have to say I don't generally try to read the
Hugo nominees. I prefer classic SF, and I have to admit even
that is a smaller proportion of my reading these days. When
sense of wonder fell out of science fiction it simply moved to
science non-fiction books. Or you can even find it in short
articles on the Internet, like the one about Oscar." [-mrl]
John continues, "Having a large number of pets running around our
house definitely gives us an opinion about Oscar, the death-
smelling cat. We are convinced that cats--dogs, too--can
definitely sense whether a human is a 'good' or 'bad' person; the
desire to be petted and treated nicely is strong in both animals,
but cats assuredly have more attitude than dogs. If you have any
doubt about this, I refer you to an e-mail that's floated around
the ether for the past five years or so, 'Excerpts from a Dog's
and Cat's Diaries'." [-jp]
Mark notes, "Readers can find this at
http://www.ukcardmakers.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=228. It
is harder to bribe a cat. I think that it has recently been
discovered that cats do not taste sweet. That is one sense they
are missing. Food must taste very differently to them.
(Actually, I guess if you want to make a cat taste sweet, you can
add honey to the BBQ sauce. Ouch, I didn't really make that
joke.)" [-mrl]
John goes on, "As for our cats and dogs, the cats are very good
at 'knowing' their human cohabitants, avoiding us when they sense
tension in the air, wanting to be loved or played with, or simply
getting in our faces when the food dish is empty, a la Garfield.
So Valerie and I weren't really surprised to read about Oscar.
You mention that dogs have a better sense of smell is verifiably
true, but dogs don't acknowledge the smell of imminent death
because 'maybe dogs have more tact or may easily go into denial.'
If this was our house and you were talking about our dogs, we
would have to add the phrase, 'Or maybe they're just too stupid.'
Timmy, Fossey, and Pulcinella start barking uncontrollably when a
squirrel farts two counties over, but a complete stranger can
walk into our house right past the three of them sleeping away,
piled upon the couch, with not even a nose whisker twitch of
acknowledgment. What a bunch! Thank Ghu we have Waldo, our
outdoor cat, guarding the house against intruders. He's one
tough kitty. This sign should be posted on the front door:
'Don't piss off the cat.' It is not nice to cross Waldo. Ooh...
A Steinbeck book review! I have always liked Steinbeck's novels,
and I have heard of this journal before but never read it. This
sounds quite worthwhile to track down. Half-Price Bookstore,
here I come! I really love that store. For Christmas all I want
is a $50 gift card from there and turn me loose in there for an
afternoon. That is my idea of the ultimate Christmas or birthday
gift. Thanks for the issue, and keep them coming." [-jp]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
While I agree with the basic premise of RELIGIOUS LITERACY: WHAT
EVERY AMERICAN NEEDS TO KNOW--AND DOESN'T by Stephen Prothero
(ISBN-13 978-0-06-084670-1, ISBN-10 0-06-084670-4), I have
several complaints about his claims.
First, while I agree Americans are not as religiously literate as
they should be, I question the statistics he quotes. I find it
hard to believe, for example, that ten percent of Americans think
that Joan of Arc is Noah's wife; I think it more likely that ten
percent of the responders thought they would have a joke at the
surveyor's expense. And if less than half of Americans can name
even one of the four gospels, how does that sync up with the
claim that 75% to 85% of Americans claim to be Christian?
I also think that Prothero's coverage is spotty. He talks about
some of the differences between Roman Catholics and Eastern
Orthodox, but does not mention the calendar differences (which
result in Easter and Christmas falling on different days for the
two groups). Nor does he say that the Islamic calendar is a
strictly lunar calendar, so that the holidays cycle through all
the seasons. He does not even mention Wicca or Jews for Jesus.
Prothero spends a lot of time on different versions of the Ten
Commandments, but none on the differences in the Lord's Prayer,
which is at least as important when it comes to the notion of a
non-sectarian prayer.
He defines polytheism as "Belief in multiple gods. Hinduism is
typically described as polytheistic, though many Hindus insist
that behind the myriad manifestations of divinity is one Absolute
Reality.". Why doesn't he add, "Sort of like the Trinity"? :-)
(Admittedly, in his definition of the Trinity, he does say that
"some outsiders see at least a hint of polytheism in this
belief.")
Of fundamentalism, he says, "Some scholars have tried to apply
this term to other modes of religiously inspired antimodernism...
But fundamentalism proper is a Protestant impulse that bears only
superficial similarities to such movements." Well, maybe in his
opinion, but his definition does not require that.
Second, while I agree that Americans should be better educated in
world religions, I think Prothero underestimates the difficulty
of finding someone to teach an unbiased course in world religions
at the high school level. His examples of where this has been
successful are all from multi-ethnic urban areas; he does not
explain where in a small town where every belongs to the same
church, or possibly two or three different Christian churches,
one will find someone who can teach his proposed course
effectively.
And lastly, when asked where the time for this course on world
religions will come from, Prothero quotes Warren Nord as saying,
"Why require the study of trigonometry or calculus, which the
great majority of students will never use or need, and ignore
religion, a matter of profound and universal significance?"
Well, overlooking the question of why mathematics is always what
people propose cutting back, this will only provide time for
students in a college-preparatory program. I suspect that a lot
of students are already not taking trigonometry or calculus, so
unless Prothero thinks religion is of importance only to the
college-bound, he needs to come up with something else.
One of Prothero's targets is Karen Armstrong, and in particular,
her book THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION, of which he says, "To the
Buddha, Confucius, and other founders of these faiths, Armstrong
writes, 'what matters was not what you believed but how you
behaved. ... 'For them, religion *was* the Golden Rule.' What
we have here is yet another effort to turn religion into a water
boy for morality." I suppose he would have said the same of
Hillel, who was asked to summarize the Torah while standing on
one leg and said, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your
neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go
and study it." And Prothero even cites this story in his
dictionary of religious literacy.
And of course, many religions emphasize orthopraxy rather than
orthodoxy, for example, the ancient Roman religion, or (arguably)
Orthodox Judaism.
(Coincidentally, at the same time I had checked out RELIGIOUS
LITERACY, I had also checked out THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION. I did
not get very far in it though--either Armstrong's writing has
gotten more dense since her book THE HISTORY OF GOD, or I have.
What I did read seemed to indicate that she believes that the
very early Aryans lived in a very idyllic society, at one with
nature and all that. I am not sure I believe that.
Here's the religious literacy test Prothero gives his religion
classes at the beginning of the term. Add up your points and
double the result to get a 100-point-based score. The answer
will appear next week.
1. Name the Four Gospels. (1 point each)
2. Name a sacred text of Hinduism. (1 point)
3. What is the name of the holy book of Islam? (1 point)
4. Where, according to the Bible, was Jesus born? (1 point)
5. President George W. Bush spoke in his first inaugural address
of the Jericho road. What Bible story was he invoking?
6. What are the first five books of the Hebrew Bible or the
Christian Old Testament? (1 point each)
7. What is the Golden Rule? (1 point)
8. "God helps those who help themselves." Is this in the Bible?
If so, where? (2 points)
9. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
Heaven." Does this appear in the Bible? (2 points)
10. Name the Ten Commandments. (1 point each)
11. Name the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. (1 point each)
12. What are the Seven Sacraments of Catholicism? (1 point each)
13. The First Amendment says two things about religion, each in
its own "clause." What are its two religion clauses?
(1 point each)
14. What is Ramadan? In what religion is it celebrated?
(1 point each)
15. Match the Bible characters with the stories in which they
appear. Some characters may be matched with more than one
story or vice versa.
Characters:
Adam and Eve, Noah, Paul, Moses, Jesus, Abraham, Serpent.
Stories:
Exodus, Binding of Isaac, Olive Branch, Garden of Eden,
Parting of the Red Sea, Road to Damascus, Garden of
Gethsemane.
(1 point each)
Oh, and happy New Year! [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
It's just life... wake up and smell the thorns.
-- "Meet Joe Black"