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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Nathan's LiveJournal:
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| Saturday, July 11th, 2009 | | 12:40 pm |
Riffin' on Griffins
 The griffin, that majestic beast that is part lion and part eagle, is one you might recognize from architectural representations, or from heraldry. Or, if you're like me, you first came across the animal in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, under the alternate spelling of "Gryphon."  While there are some variations, the best-known image of the animal has the features of an eagle (including wings) in the front, with the hindquarters of a lion. Greek mythology said that they guarded treasure in India and Scythia, and griffin figures were commonly placed in positions in which they appear to be guarding something. Griffin myths are thought to have originated with the Persians, and later spread to other parts of the world. This page refers to them as having been known in Egypt prior to 3300 BC. There are also some definite similarities in the Jewish Cherubim, which are sometimes depicted with features of both lions and eagles. Winged lions were common in statuary in those parts, and the Wikipedia article suggests that the immediate predecessor of the Hebrew Cherub was the Phoenician Lammasu, a sort of human-headed winged lion.  In medieval times, the griffin came to be regarded as a symbol of Jesus, as its dual nature as lion and eagle is similar to Jesus' as both God and man. A bit of a stretch, I'd say, but maybe they just wanted an excuse to keep making griffins because they looked cool. It was also the Middle Ages that produced the idea that griffins are monogamous (which is kind of weird, as I don't think either lions or eagles are), and they came to represent that as well.  One common older myth about griffins was that they hate horses, and regard them as prey. The hatred is sometimes regarded as a result of the horse-riding Arimaspians trying to steal the gold that the griffins guarded, but I have a feeling that the idea of the enmity came before this explanation. I know that weasels are regarded as the enemies of basilisks, and there might well exist similar enmity between other fantastic beasts and ordinary animals. Regardless, the idea of mating griffins with their equine enemies eventually came into play, quite possibly inspired by a line in Virgil's Ecologues. And that was the origin of the hippogriff, which combines features of the lion, the eagle, AND the horse. They're supposedly faster and easier to tame than pure griffins, and they commonly appear in fantasy bestiaries alongside their more ancient parent species.  Current Mood:  restlessCurrent Music: Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians - Egyptian Cream | Powered by Last.fm | | 2:00 am |
| | 1:20 am |
Nine Years
I don't think ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) bethje and I really did anything for our dating anniversary last year (hey, it was only four months since we'd gotten married), but this year we exchanged gifts. Beth gave me three CDs (Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense, Frank Black's All My Ghosts EP, and Robyn Hitchcock's Luminous Groove box set) and a copy of Robert Rankin's The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse. How did she know I wanted those things? Oh, right, my Amazon wishlist. {g} At night, we saw Brüno, which we both enjoyed. I didn't like it as much as Borat, maybe partially because it was much the same, only with gay jokes added in. Still definitely worth seeing if you enjoyed Borat, though. I did have to wonder how much some of the people who conversed with Brüno were playing along. I can believe that those gay converters were totally clueless, but the part where he was interviewing the parents of infant models was a little harder to believe. But then, I guess that was the point. And since it's now technically the eleventh, happy birthday to therealtavie and her twin sister Kirsten, eagledna, and (even though she said last year that she doesn't celebrate her birthday) dragonxbait! Current Music: Frank Black and the Catholics: Living on Soul | | Friday, July 10th, 2009 | | 2:32 pm |
What can green do for you?
One thing that's been annoying me recently is how often people, especially on the television box, mention "green" products and policies. I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with the term, even though there are a lot of things of a green color that are actually harmful to the environment, from radioactive waste (it's always green in cartoons, anyway) to the Incredible Hulk (I don't think those shirts he's always ripping off are biodegradable). I mean, I never had a problem with the name of the Green Party; and while I don't like all of Greenpeace's tactics, their NAME never bothered me. No, I think it's mostly just over-saturation, and how the term has become another advertising buzzword. Remember when everyone was yakking about carbs, or twenty years ago when every other commercial said something about fiber and/or oat bran? The additional concern here is that, when something becomes a buzzword like that, consumers tend to forget the original REASON why they're looking for things that are high-fiber, low-carb, or green. It turns into more of a feel-good thing, with people buying organically grown products not because they actually taste better or have known health benefits, but simply because it helps them feel better about themselves. Which I guess is fine, as long as they don't bother other people about it. It's just kind of irritating to keep hearing the same practically empty terms over and over again. That said, I'm ALSO sick of people insisting that recycling involves sorting through garbage (granted, I haven't heard that one much recently, but it used to come up pretty often), or that global warming isn't real because it's still cold sometimes (yeah, Hannity, I'm looking in your direction). It's not that I'm not in favor of the environment, just that I don't think buying things with "green" written on the package is the best way to accomplish environmental change. EDIT: Also, happy birthday to aliste, and happy dating anniversary to bethje! Current Mood:  irritatedCurrent Music: Tori Amos - Yes, Anastasia | Powered by Last.fm | | 2:08 pm |
See You Later, Allegory
As I mentioned to rockinlibrarian a little while ago, one thing I like about fantasy is that it can deal with real-world issues without quite addressing them directly. I suppose there are occasions where this could be a cop-out, but in many cases it works quite well. Fantasy can, for instance, make comments on politics or religion without actually mentioning any specific people. This differs from allegory, in which everything stands for something else, and any criticisms or compliments offered really ARE to specific real-world people or things. While some stories are specifically written as allegories, it seems to be popular among literary interpreters to want to give allegorical meaning to others as well. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a prime example. In 1964, Henry Littlefield came up with the idea that the book could be read as sort of an allegory on the 1896 presidential election and the battle between gold and silver standards. Even though Littlefield admitted that he didn't think L. Frank Baum actually intended this meaning, variations on the Parable on Populism theme appear quite frequently, often without even crediting Littlefield, and it's pretty common for people to think that's what the story is actually about. I guess that, in the world of supposedly scholarly literary interpretation, a popular turn-of-the-twentieth-century children's book isn't worth discussing in and of itself, but a popular turn-of-the-twentieth-century children's book that's secretly about politics (even though critics somehow missed this for upwards of sixty years) is worthwhile. I've seen more or less allegorical interpretations of other such books as well, but I notice that annotators like Martin Gardner and Michael Patrick Hearn tend to disregard them. In a way, allegorical interpretation is kind of lazy, because it simply requires a critic to come up with one overarching idea for the whole story, rather than examining its parts separately. Also pretty much inevitable for any popular literary work is the Freudian interpretation, which is basically that everything is actually about parent issues and sex. (Yeah, I know there's actually more to it than that, but that's the common view on Freudian takes.) While this kind of interpretation definitely holds water in some cases (traditional fairy tales were big on having step-parents who want to kill or humiliate their new step-children, for instance), I have to say that it's probably a bit overextended (heh heh, I said "extended") in many situations. For instance, I can't quite buy the popular argument that beheading represents castration anxiety, if only because I think the idea of decapitation is scary enough without working crotches into it. (You know, if seemingly innocuous images in dreams and writing are symbolic of sex, does that mean dreams and writings that are flat-out about sex are actually symbolic of something else? I'm sure I'm not the first person to have asked this question.) I guess I've never been too much of a fan of symbolic interpretation of literature. Sure, I'll look for themes and allusions, but I think the idea that everything is actually representative of something else ruins a lot of the fun. When I do scholarly takes on fictional works, I prefer to think of the fiction as if it's describing actual events, as is probably obvious from my Oz posts. And that's one reason why, despite my bibliophilia, I probably never would have made it as an English major. Current Mood:  fullCurrent Music: Tori Amos - Icicle | Powered by Last.fm | | 2:01 am |
| | Thursday, July 9th, 2009 | | 4:37 pm |
When Reality Trumps Imagination
As both a skeptical atheist and a fantasy and mythology buff, there are many things that I can be pretty sure aren't true, but I think it would be pretty cool if they were. Take the Loch Ness Monster, for instance.  The chances that a lake that size would be able to support a creature that large are practically zero, but isn't it an interesting idea? Ditto for the Abominable Snowman, dragons, magic spells, and the sunken land of Atlantis. Continuing from the theme of my last post, however, I don't really find astrology interesting enough to want it to be true. The idea that planets are entire worlds, many much bigger than our own, is more fascinating to me than the one that they're just there to govern personal behavior and destiny. Not that they can't be both, I suppose, but I reiterate that the creators of astrology weren't really sure what planets were. A better example of what I mean is Young Earth Creationism. I'm well aware that, whatever they try to argue in Kansas, evolution and Creationism are not opposites. But let's indulge the Kansans for a minute and say our two choices really are scientific theories and Biblical literalism. On the one hand, you have a universe billions of years old, an ancient planet that eventually came to support life, and a constant procession of different life forms evolving and dying out. On the other, you have these things coming into being when a big guy in the sky wills them to. Impressive, sure, but hardly as fascinating. Of course, what's true doesn't always fall into line with what's interesting, but it seems odd to me that some people still want to cling to belief systems that are LESS engaging than reality. Maybe that's one reason I like fantasy so much. Fantasy readers can escape into universes where the more interesting explanations for things really ARE the right ones. Current Mood:  hungryCurrent Music: Monkees: Auntie's Municipal Court | | 12:05 pm |
No Apology for Astrology
The second Bullshit! episode of the new series was about astrology, a subject I'm surprised Penn and Teller hadn't covered before (and they even joked about that at the beginning of the episode). It was pretty typical of the show, pointing out the tricks that astrologers use while also taking some cheap shots, like at the guy who took forever to define astrology. Unlike orgasm therapy, astrology is something into which a lot of people seem to put a fair amount of stock. I see plenty of people talking about what their star signs signify when it comes to life choices. I don't think this episode is likely to change anyone's mind about the topic, but I do have to wonder why so many people who are aware that astrologers are basically pulling parlor tricks still consider their star signs to be of some kind of importance. One thing I'm curious about when it comes to the pseudoscience is whether all astrologers are of the carnival huckster variety, or if there are some who actually follow the established rules and believe in it themselves. Or ARE there any real established rules? Astrology is an ancient practice, but it's not like there wasn't plenty of humbug in the ancient world. Just look at the ambiguous prophecies of the Oracle at Delphi, for instance. Still, ancient astrology definitely had its place, as it paved the way for astronomy. But, well, to follow the rules about how planets govern our lives that were conceived by people who hadn't yet figured out what planets actually WERE sort of seems akin to how the Catholic Church of the Renaissance era accepted Aristotle's ideas wholesale, even though Aristotle himself was a supporter of logic and observation. Current Mood:  groggyCurrent Music: Tori Amos - Baker Baker | Powered by Last.fm | | 2:01 am |
| | Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 | | 2:40 pm |
Sarah Palin, Still Failin'
If I may reuse a tired metaphor, Sarah Palin is basically a flaming car wreck. She's terrible, but I can't stop myself from looking. And now she's quitting her job, trying to claim that it's more courageous to do nothing than to, you know, govern a state. Nobody seems to know what the real reason is, but I've heard that her heart was no longer in the job, which would make sense aside from the fact that it would require her to HAVE a heart. And it's been proposed that the cost of legal bills might be a major factor in her resignation. I recently read this op-ed column, which has a main conclusion that I agree with (namely that Palin's career probably would have worked out better if she HADN'T accepted the offer to be McCain's running mate), but I have to object to some of the writer's other points. For instance, he says that her religion was "mocked and misrepresented," but I have to suspect that, when your religion involves being blessed by witch doctors and Alaska being the last refuge during the End Times, misrepresentation of it could only be a good thing. The author also buys into Palin's insistence that she was attacked for certain things that she really wasn't, at least not in the most visible criticisms. I think Palin and her supporters WANT people to attack for being a woman who has a child with Down's Syndrome, or to make jokes about the statutory rape of her daughter, because these things are easy to defend against. When it comes to actual issues, however, it's a little trickier, so Palin seems to want to divert attention from those. You know, like her homophobia, her lack of preparation, her constant talking down to her own base, and her general hypocrisy. And good glaciers, is she ever hypocritical! Sorry, Sarah, but you can't try to use your family as stepping stones to power, then get upset when they become the subjects of media attention. You can't act like your experience as the mayor of a tiny town (although, to be fair, I think Wasilla is bigger than the town where I grew up) was relevant to your intended goal as Vice President, and then act like Obama's time as a community organizer was worthless. You can't get indignant about other people making personal attacks against you, and then imply that David Letterman is a pedophile and Keith Olbermann the spawn of Satan. (Okay, you technically CAN do these things, but they make it difficult for anyone to take you seriously.) And I don't think I would have particularly cared that you had a pregnant teenage daughter if it hadn't been for your constant harping about abstinence and the sanctity of marriage. Sure, many people, including me, have made fun of fairly trivial aspects of Palin's life, like the fact that her children have names that sound like they'd fit in quite well at Santa's workshop, but these things are ultimately not the reason so many people don't like her. Well, they're definitely not the reason I don't like her, anyway; they're just kind of funny. The thing is, there are certain areas where I can kind of identify with Palin. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had job interviews where I tried desperately to relate something I'd done before to an area in which I'd never worked. And I think that's basically what Palin was doing when she said her foreign policy experience involved looking at Russia. In another universe, perhaps I would be leaving sympathetic comments on her online journal about how stressful those interviews are. The thing is, though, that it's a little different when the job you're applying for is one step away from being Chief Executive of the United States. On a similar note, I've seen people suspect that Palin quit during a holiday on purpose, and I'm not sure I can blame her. I know I've sometimes called people when I was pretty sure they wouldn't be in, so I could say what I needed to say without having to worry about getting a response for a little while. I think there's a chance I might find her awkward fumbling more endearing if she didn't have that insatiable lust for more power than she can handle. I actually think one reason she made it as far as she did in a traditionally patriarchal political party is that she gave the impression that she wanted to be the exception rather than the rule. Sure, she was a woman who wanted to be in charge of a superpower, but I think the Joe Six-Packs realized that, as long as SHE was able to have power, she was okay with every OTHER woman making less money than men doing the same jobs. My favorite speculation is that Palin quit so that she could run for president in 2012. Yeah, I'm sure the Republican Party would LOVE to nominate someone who gave up partway through her last political position to a HIGHER political position. Good riddance to bad reindeer rubbish, I say. Current Music: Erin McKeown - Cosmopolitans | Powered by Last.fm | | 12:23 pm |
Warping for a Living
 I'm not sure what the first video game was to refer to a way to skip levels as a warp zone, but it's become pretty common parlance. Of course, the word "warp" had already been associated with transportation because of Star Trek, but warp drive works a little differently than a warp zone. Still, they're manifestations of the same basic idea, which is abnormally fast transport. The idea of such transportation is an old one, achieved in fantasy by means of seven-league boots and magic spells. In science fiction, however, it takes on a certain level of necessity, what with travel between solar systems being an integral part of many stories set in space. Since we don't know of any way to travel faster than the speed of light, and that would require a travel time of four years just to reach Proxima Centauri, writers of space stories have to come up with their own ways for spacecraft to circumvent the speed of light. One of the most common is hyperspace, which is basically an alternate universe where travel is faster for some reason. From what I've read, Star Trek's warp drive doesn't work exactly the same way that hyperspace normally does, instead having something to do with forming a bubble of normal space-time around the vehicle while it travels through subspace.  No, not THAT Subspace, although there are some definite similarities. The thing is, with hyperspace or warp drive, space travel is fast, but still takes time. Warp zones in video games tend to provide transportation that's instantaneous (allowing for processor delays). That's more like the idea of a magic door, or the means of five-dimensional travel used by the women in Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. I often find myself thinking that teleportation would be one of the most useful magical powers to have. It would save a lot of time if I could just jump into a pipe and end up at work a few seconds later, wouldn't it? Then again, if work had a dress code, that pipe might be awfully dirty. Mario and Luigi have the sense to wear overalls when making their way through warp pipes. Current Mood:  nerdyCurrent Music: Moxy Früvous - You Will Go to the Moon | Powered by Last.fm | | 2:01 am |
From Twitter 07-07-2009
- 19:14:37: We're back from our wild night in Atlantic City.
- 19:15:19: You can now build an owl at Build-A-Bear, and its head can spin all the way around. That's pretty cool.
- 19:24:41: @colleenanne He's too busy narrating the thoughts of the grown-up Fred Savage.
- 19:43:35: @themall Did you ask the dog why her namesake didn't go to Michael Jackson's funeral?
- 20:16:56: I don't know what price to name on Priceline, and Captain Kirk is too busy sexing up green women to help me!
- 22:29:16: Al Sharpton is kind of annoying.
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com | | Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 | | 9:54 pm |
The Working Mutants of Oz
I can be a sucker for a good origin story, and the Oz series contains quite a few of them. In this post, I'm going to focus on two initially ordinary Ozites who underwent magical mutations that gave them unusual powers, and then became vigilante crime-fighters. No, that's what might have happened in the comic book world, but in Oz they pretty much just kept doing their jobs, although they DID get each get a chance to participate in an adventure with Ozian celebrities. First up is Carter Green, the Vegetable Man of Oz, who first appears in The Hungry Tiger of Oz. He was a Winkie who pedaled fruits and vegetables throughout Oz, but eating too many of his own goods turned him into a vegetable himself. He is described as having a beet-like face with whiskers like roots, celery leaf hair, a turnip nose, corn ears, and a potato-ish body. In this form, he has no need to eat or sleep, but his feet will take root if he stays in one place for too long. His adventure occurred when Betsy Bobbin bought some strawberries from him, and the two of them were caught on one of those magical roads that were all over Ruth Plumly Thompson's Oz. They ended up in the country of Rash, where the Hungry Tiger had just arrived the previous night, and the three of them helped the rightful ruler of Rash, Prince Evered, to take back his throne from his evil uncle. While Carter is mentioned in some later books, he isn't really described as doing much of anything. March Laumer did write a book called The Vegetable Man of Oz, but the title character actually spends a lot of the story in an immobile form. I kind of have to wonder how Carter managed to stay alive, since Ozian plants don't share the near-immortality of the country's animals. He does replace his ears when they pop, so maybe he's gotten into the habit of growing replacement body parts for himself, as Jack Pumpkinhead does with his heads.  Following up the vegetable man with a medicine man, we come to Herby, a sort of Gillikin country doctor. Due to the general lack of sickness in Oz, many of Herby's medicines are designed to cure ailments such as bad tempers and yawning during speeches. Really, they're essentially mind- or behavior-altering drugs, which I know bothers some modern Oz fans, but maybe magic can overcome the harmful side effects that such drugs often have in the Great Outside World. Anyway, when Mombi became mad at Herby's using the best herbs in the area, she threw him into a cauldron of cough medicine and poured the resulting mess into a bottle. This bottle remained on a shelf until it was broken by Prince Philador of the Ozure Isles, which resulted in Herby's showing up again, just as good as new. Well, except he's shorter, has cough drops for eyes, and has a handy medicine chest inside his own chest. At the end of the story, Ozma appoints him as her Court Physician. As with Carter, he doesn't appear in any more major roles during the Famous Forty, but he's mentioned more often than the Vegetable Man. The late Mark Haas wrote a book with Herby as the star (called, sensibly enough, The Medicine Man of Oz), but it was pulled from publication due to copyright restrictions.  Current Music: The Monkees - Calico Girfriend Samba (Previously Unissued) | Powered by Last.fm | | 8:17 pm |
Night at the Casino 2
Since bethje has an uncle who gambles a lot, he was able to get us a room at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City last night. We stayed in the Chairman Tower, which is the newer, ritzier one of the two towers. I guess some people feel that a name reminiscent of the Chinese Communist Party sounds like a cool place to stay. Actually, the high-rollers at the Taj Mahal are referred to as "Chairman" and "Executive" levels, which kind of seems to destroy the fun image that most casinos like to have. I mean, is there anything LESS fun than high-ranking businessmen? Anyway, the room was pretty swanky, and it was on the seventy-third floor, which gave us a nice view. I did notice, however, that there was a fee to use the wireless Internet there, while there wasn't at the Super 8 where we stayed last month. Not that it really matters, since neither of us have laptops, but I found it interesting. We had dinner at a place called Plate (which was actually right next to another restaurant called Burger; I guess that Trump likes simple names), where the service wasn't very good, but I did like the little pepperoni pizza that I had there. EDIT: Also, we went to a go-go bar for the first time. One thing I have to wonder is why I always see Indian people gambling at the Taj Mahal. Wouldn't they consider it an insult to their culture, and not want to go there? Oh, well. Maybe if I ever visit India, I can stay in the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Hotel. So, anyway, we're back now, and I believe my next post will be another one about Oz characters. Hey, what would you expect from me? Current Music: Frank Black and the Catholics - I'll Be Blue (electric version) | Powered by Last.fm | | Monday, July 6th, 2009 | | 2:58 pm |
The Continuing Adventures of Mrs. Yoop
I finished two more Oz books in the past few days, and coincidentally enough, they both featured Mrs. Yoop rather prominently. You know, the yookoohoo giantess who transformed the main characters in The Tin Woodman of Oz, and ended up as a green monkey? The Emerald Enchantress of Oz, by Peter Schulenburg - This is a pretty interesting Oz story, featuring an enchantress who was put under an enchantment herself by her sisters, the Wicked Witches of the East and West. The diaries of the two witches play a major part in the story, as do Mrs. Yoop and Boq. The writing is a little awkward in spots, but the story is quite good. A Promise Kept in Oz, by Dennis Anfuso - This was actually a graphic novel, and one done in a rather comical fashion, with a lot of meta-humor about how the pictures are all in black and white (which they are, except for the cover), and how much time the various characters get on stage. There's also sort of a sitcom setup in that Mrs. Yoop (still in green monkey form) has a roommate and an obnoxious neighbor. It's still a coherent and consistent Oz story, however, with Mrs. Yoop taking advantage of a favor that the Scarecrow owes the stork who rescued him back in Wizard. Since both books do include Mrs. Yoop, it got me thinking about how to fit her history together. Obviously, when a fan writes a story about an Oz character, they don't always check to see what other fans have already written about that character. In fact, it can often be very difficult to do so. Still, as a self-professed continuity nerd, I like to try to work these things together as well as I possibly can, and there isn't anything all that contradictory in the accounts I've read of Mrs. Yoop. Emerald Enchantress, while published in 2003, actually takes place not long after the events of Tin Woodman; the Royal Timeline of Oz places the events of both in 1916. In Enchantress, the former giantess uses her magical jewelry to temporarily take forms other than that of a green monkey, transferring the simian form to Boq when she does so. Emmy the Enchantress takes away enough of her jewelry to make her powerless to do this anymore, but the yookoohoo receives no additional punishment, so her state really isn't changed by the events of the story. Promise Kept has Mrs. Yoop end up as an ordinary brown monkey, with a ring that prevents her from using any more magic. While this graphic novel refers to the events of Tin Woodman as having taken place over ninety years previously, I also have to take into account the late Fred Otto's short story "The Fate of the Yoops," which appeared in the 1983 Oziana. In this story, Reera the Red offers to help Mrs. Yoop but actually tricks her, and transfers her green monkey form to her husband Mr. Yoop, while turning Mrs. Yoop herself into a turtle. The former giantess is green at the beginning of the story, but I think it's easier to explain how her color changed than how she would have changed back from a turtle, so it's most likely that Promise Kept actually takes place BEFORE the Otto tale. The only other story I can think of that stars Mrs. Yoop is Time Travelers of Oz (not to be confused with Time Travelling in Oz or Time in Oz), which states that Mrs. Yoop and Reera are sisters. Yeah, I know the former is (or at least was) a giantess, but the story has it that she and her husband didn't take on the forms or habits of giants until after they were married. While this would make it odd that Reera doesn't recognize Mrs. Yoop as her sister in the Otto story, but I get the impression that they would have been estranged for some time by then. Another interesting thing to note about "The Fate of the Yoops" is that Mrs. Yoop travels to retrieve her husband with a familiar of Reera's named Thrug, who is in the form of a donkey. In the 1985 Oziana, Otto has another story called "Mombi's Pink Polkadot Vest," in which the Wicked Witch of the West has a donkey named Thrug, who had originally been a dragon. I think it's likely that Otto meant us to assume that this was the same Thrug, who presumably went to live with Reera after the Witch died. In Red Reera the Yookoohoo and the Enchanted Easter Eggs of Oz, we learn that one of Reera's other familiars is an ant who prefers to remain in the form of a horse named Bone White. Current Mood: ozzyCurrent Music: They Might Be Giants - Flying V | Powered by Last.fm | | 1:32 pm |
Well, I'll be a country's uncle!
The Land of Oz has been cited as the first truly American fairyland, and there's probably a good deal of truth to that. Even today, fantasy seems to be dominated by British authors. L. Frank Baum might not have been the first American fantasy author, but perhaps he was the first to create an entire fantasy world that had special significance to Americans. The only other author I know of who set out to write specifically American fairy tales was Carl Sandburg, with his Rootabaga Stories, and that was after Baum's time. Still, while there are plenty of American elements in Oz, it still has elements of fairy tales from the old country, not least of which being in the fact that it is, as the Scarecrow tells Benny in Ruth Plumly Thompson's The Giant Horse of Oz, a "magical monarchy," rather than a republic. So, all in all, it comes across as a little odd that John R. Neill would want to bring in Uncle Sam as an Oz character. He is, after all, not quite as universal as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. To provide more details, the heroes in Lucky Bucky in Oz visit Wise Acres, a country club with a membership made up entirely of uncles. Uncle Sam is the president, and he is described as "tall, not fat like the others, and had a tuft of whiskers on the end of his chin." The picture of him that appears on page 226 of the book shows him looking a lot like he does on the military recruitment posters, but without his top hat, and his clothing "not at all star-spangled" (as John Bell puts it in the Nonestica discussion of the book). Bucky immediately recognizes Sam as his own uncle, but does he mean this literally, or simply in the sense that all Americans are metaphorical nephews and nieces of Uncle Sam? We never really find out, although the explanation I've thought up is that it's a little of both. Sam was an uncle of Bucky's who somehow came to Oz, and took on the role of his famous namesake. Since Americans have been prominent in shaping the recent history of Oz, he felt at home there, and decided to stay. Whether Columbia and Brother Jonathan are also hanging around somewhere in Ozma's dominions remains to be seen. I think the reason why the American symbol shows up in an Oz book might be because it was published in 1942, by which time the United States had fully thrown itself into World War II. The rear dust jacket flap of Lucky Bucky originally included a note attributed to Bucky himself, telling readers to buy war bonds because "[t]he Nazis and Japs are harder to beat than the Gnomes." Sam is never a major character in the story (he doesn't even show up until close to the end), but I think his presence is probably a reflection of wartime patriotism. Current Mood: restlessCurrent Music: Laura Cantrell - Little Bit of You | Powered by Last.fm | | Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | | 2:38 pm |
Enochin' on Heaven's Door
In Genesis 4, Cain's descendants are listed as Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, Methusael, and Lamech. Then in Genesis 5, we learn about the descendants of Cain's younger brother Seth, who are Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech. Either no one was particularly creative with names back then, or we're looking at two versions of essentially the same story. I can't help but wonder if the Seth version was an alternative made up by someone who didn't like the idea of the entire human race being descended from a murderer. We get more details on the people in Seth's line, including the ridiculously long lifespans that they had. Of particular interest is Enoch, the seventh of the antediluvian patriarchs, who lives a mere 365 years. But while the others in his line were specifically stated to have died, of Enoch it says, "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." Why the different phrasing? Well, if we look at the Sumerian King List, you'll find that the seventh king mentioned is En-men-dur-ana, who was the subject of a myth about being shown the secrets of Heaven and Earth by the gods. The number seven was of great importance to the ancient peoples of the Middle East, one reason that I've seen suggested being that it referred to the seven visible planets. Regardless, with the significance of sevens, it's not too surprising that the seventh mythological Sumerian king would have been given special treatment, or that the Hebrews would follow suit with their seventh patriarch.  The best-known description of Enoch's cosmic adventures is in the Book of Enoch, a document from around the time of the Maccabees. The book is now often called 1 Enoch, to differentiate it from two other books about the patriarch that were written later. Of course, the Biblical mention of Enoch walking with God dates back to long before the writing of the Book of Enoch, so there's no way to know whether the book was based on existing traditions, or simply an imaginative explanation of the brief Biblical references. Regardless, the book describes how Enoch is given knowledge of the workings of the world, and information about the future. The book was rather popular, and is even cited in the Epistle of Jude, but was never accepted into most versions of the Biblical canon. I say "most" because it was accepted by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the only fully extent manuscripts are written in the ancient Ethiopian language Ge'ez. I have to suspect that one reason most early Christians weren't too keen on including it is that it states that the coming Messiah will be Enoch himself, and it would have been a bit difficult to say that Jesus and Enoch were one and the same. Not surprisingly, Enoch's earthly lifespan of 365 years has been linked to the number of days in the solar calendar. I'm not sure whether any calendars back at the time of the writing of Genesis (whenever that was) actually used 365 days, but maybe the Babylonian astrologers had figured out the length of a solar year. Regardless of when it happened, Enoch did eventually come to be regarded as the inventor of the solar calendar, as well as astronomy, writing, arithmetic, scales, and tailoring. He was truly the Edison or Popeil of his time. Because of his association with mystical knowledge, he is sometimes regarded as a counterpart to Hermes Trismegistus, a combination of the Greek Hermes and the Egyptian Thoth. He is also sometimes credited with the Pillars of Enoch, two columns on which various information is written. Actually, the pillars were originally credited by Josephus to Enoch's ancestor Seth, but the Freemasons came to associate them with Enoch, and it's apparently a popular idea that the Great Pyramid is one of the pillars. Why anyone would confuse a pyramid with a pillar isn't clear (Josephus knew they were different things), but I suppose there's no accounting for mystics. I wrote a paper on 1 Enoch in college, and that made me interested in learning what was in the other two books of Enoch. I haven't read either of them, but 2 Enoch (also known as Slavonic Enoch, after the language in which the only known complete manuscripts were written) apparently deals with much the same thing as the Ethiopian book, but seems to be more concerned with the Jewish priesthood. 3 Enoch, which takes place in the second century AD but was probably actually written in the fifth tells the story of Rabbi Ishmael, who visits the Seventh Heaven and finds Stephen Collins. No, seriously, he finds Enoch, who has since become the angel Metatron (not to be confused with the leader of the Decepticons).  The guy doesn't look particularly trustworthy, does he? Maybe that's why he was the main villain in The Amber Spyglass. Next week, we'll take a look at the remaining patriarchs prior to Noah and the Flood. Current Mood:  confusedCurrent Music: The Minus 5 - Your Favourite Mess | Powered by Last.fm | | Saturday, July 4th, 2009 | | 7:22 pm |
I See Dead Memes
First, a meme from burningofroissy: Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!" [or just saying you want to participate -ed], and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your journal, and explain what they mean to you.MythologyIt's been one of my most significant interests for years. I guess I have a special fondness for the myths involving weird monsters. Oz fandomOz has been my first literary love for years now, and I've done a fair amount of my own writing pertaining to L. Frank Baum's fairyland. Thoughtful essaysNot sure why anything thoughtful would be associated with me, but I think that's definitely the best kind of essay. LogicI'm not always (and perhaps not even usually) a logical person, but I think I ASPIRE to be. Not necessarily to Vulcan levels or anything, but I appreciate the ability to reason. MusicWell, it hath charms to soothe the savage breast, doth it not? Okay, what else? Well, bethje and I watched The Sixth Sense last night. I don't know how much it was ruined for me by already knowing the twist ending, but I can usually enjoy movies (and books) even when I do know what's going to happen. It's the journey that's important. Here, however, the journey was incredibly slow-paced (although nowhere near as bad as The Village, from what Beth tells me), and didn't seem to consist of much other than hints that Bruce Willis' character is dead. And at the end, they pretty much hit you over the head with it, as if M. Night were thinking, "Even the dumbest viewer will understand the twist in THIS movie!" I'm not sure why it was a big hit back in its day. Current Mood:  guilty | | 5:34 pm |
The People Who Are Their Countries
Happy Independence Day to my fellow residents of the United States! In honor of today, I'm going to cover a nationalistic sort of mythology, that of the national personification. The most famous one for the States is, of course, Uncle Sam, the bearded guy in star-spangled clothes who points rudely at you until you agree to go die in Iraq.  The common origin story for Uncle Sam is that he's based on Samuel Wilson, a meat inspector during the War of 1812. He used the initials "U.S." on the meat barrels, and one of the troops who received the meat joked that it stood for Wilson's own name, hence "Uncle Sam." By the end of the Civil War, he had become the most prominent personification of the nation. His popular image was, not surprisingly, largely influenced by Thomas Nast, the same guy who brought us our modern depictions of Santa Claus and Jack Frost, not to mention the animal symbols of our two main political parties. But Sam has not been the only human symbol of the States. There was also Columbia, a female figure who dates back to the beginnings of the country, and can still be seen in the logo for Columbia Pictures. Another was Brother Jonathan, whose height of popularity occurred before the Uncle Sam character was created, but who stuck around in some form until the Civil War.   Many other countries have their own personifications. England has John Bull, who was used for the same purpose, but still looks less like he wants you to join the military than that he wants you to have some tea and crumpets with him. A popular French personification is a woman who originated during the French Revolution, often dressed in tricolor and Phrygian cap as in XTC's "Then She Appeared." Interestingly enough, she shares the name of Andy Partridge's then wife, Marianne. Apparently Marianne is one of the trampier national symbols, as she is occasionally depicted exposing one or both breasts.   In a link to classical mythology, many of the female personifications are actually versions of Athena, as can be seen in this picture depicting the Triple Entente. From left to right, these patriotic ladies are Marianne, Mother Russia, and Britannia.  If you're at all interested in this topic, I'd recommend this Wikipedia page as a good starting point. Johnny Canuck, Italia Turrita, the Irish Kathleen Ni Houlihan, the Indian Bharat Mata, and the Icelandic Lady of the Mountain are all there. Current Mood: not very festiveCurrent Music: The Young Fresh Fellows - Ballad of the Bootleg | Powered by Last.fm | | Friday, July 3rd, 2009 | | 2:18 pm |
The Real McCaughey
As he did back in 2001, Scott McCaughey released albums by both of his bands, the Minus 5 and the Young Fresh Fellows, on the same day. Unlike with Because We Hate You and Let the War Against Music Begin, these two aren't packaged together, but I imagine that most people who want one will probably want the other. Back when the Fellows were still playing and recording regularly, Scott tended to use the Minus 5 for songs that didn't fit so well into the Fellows' typically fast and fun rock. Now that the Minus 5 has become Scott's main band, the differences between the two groups' songs aren't as pronounced, although the new Fellows record is still the more upbeat one. I'd say the main difference between the bands now, however, is more the lineup. The Fellows still have the same lineup as they have since This One's for the Ladies, with Scott, Kurt Bloch, Jim Sangster, and Tad Hutchinson. The Minus 5 has a more fluid lineup, with Scott and Peter Buck as the only two real constants.  On Killingsworth, the other musicians working with Scott and Peter include all of the Decemberists, as well as long-time Minus 5 collaborator and sometime Posy Ken Stringfellow. One thing I particularly noticed about this record is the frequent appearance of female backing vocals, as in my personal favorite song on the album, "The Lurking Barrister." Also worth a mention is the old-timey banjo gospel song "I Would Rather Sacrifice You."  I Think This Is begins with the song "The Guilty Ones," and the line, "Got a crappy apartment, with staples in the walls." This alone is enough to show that the band still maintains its sense of humor and fun after all these years. And if that's not enough evidence for you, other song titles are "Lamp Industries," "Betty Let the Good Times Crawl," "Shake Your Magazines," and "If You Believe in Cleveland." It's not the Fellows' best record by any means, but it's good, fun rock music all the way through. Both albums are highly recommended. Current Mood: rockedCurrent Music: The Young Fresh Fellows - Used to Think All Things Would Happen | Powered by Last.fm |
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