Tivo and the Very Full Day

[altivo]

Too full a day. I can't squeeze it all in this little box.

My desk was loaded down with stuff to be cataloged, so I had to plow through that yesterday and today. All caught up now.

Remember those 160 pounds of OpenVMS manuals that I acquired a while back? They arrived yesterday. Four boxes. All in good shape. Lots of technical reading for the geek in me.

Gary also got me a copy of a book from back in the 1960s, The Pooh Perplex which is a mock-scholarly collection of essays about Winnie-the-Pooh written in the style of various types of critic. My favorite so far is the one by the "Christian" critic who insists on making a religious allegory of everything and constructs a huge and complex argument to explain why Eeyore is the Christ figure in the book. Eeyore? Well, he's my favorite character but I think he'd be as much disturbed by this notion as I am. Except that it's all tongue-in-cheek stuff anyway.

Started cleaning tons of old, unneeded paper from my study at home, piles of magazines and such. When it's done, I'll have room to collect more. ;p

That's all for today. Big thunderstorms coming later tonight and all day tomorrow, with possible hail and tornados. Whee.

Comments

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

Well, let's be fair. Most of the greatest works in English literature have some form of biblical symbolism and allegory in them. I'm not so sure about Whinnie the Pooh. :P There is also a difference between what someone sees in a story and what the author's intent was. I see Christian symbolism in many things that others would not and I concur with some other notable scholars of the fairy tale in that by its nature, it reflects the Christian story. But this of course was not a serious critique so it's beside the point. I guess I would say that while it would be a stretch to label Whinnie the Pooh as a intentional Christian allegory with Eeyore as Christ (I don't get that one), I do not think it would be unreasonable to find biblical truths or symbols in it.

Now something I can never imagine or comprehend is your love of reading technical manuals :P

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, to really appreciate the humor of the "Christian" critic you have to see his essay alongside the one by the guy who measures everything in terms of D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers. They are equally absurd, yet both are couched in exactly the pompous and authoritative language so often used by overinflated academic writers.

I don't deny that Winnie-the-Pooh (as most other children's books) contains examples of what can be called Christian virtues (though most of those could just as well be called Buddhist virtues or Pagan virtues too.) It is possible to argue that just about anything is allegorical, but not always possible to prove that it was the author's intent to make it so. Lewis denied that The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was allegory or even Christian (and indeed, he got the idea long before his own conversion) but even I can see how easy it is to read it as such.

In this case, the "Christian" critic manages not only to make Eeyore into a Christ figure, but concludes that the entire collection of Pooh stories has only one purpose, and that is to convince everyone that they must join the Church of England. The other essays are similarly farcical.

As for the technical manuals, well, some people read automotive manuals for fun too. Or cookbooks. Or gardening books. Generally we do this because we intend or hope to apply the contents to something work or hobby related and so it is in my case with computer manuals and radio manuals. (And, for that matter, cookbooks.)

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

Lewis denied that The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was allegory or even Christian (and indeed, he got the idea long before his own conversion) but even I can see how easy it is to read it as such.

He denied that it was an allegory but he did not deny that it was Christian. It was a Christian supposition, not an allegory. Narnia was basically an imaginary supposition of Christ entering into another world. It is true that many of Lewis' ideas for Narnia predate his conversion (like Mr. Tumnus when he was 16) and it is also true that Lewis draws upon classical pagan imagery and themes, but none of that changes the basic message and theme of it. Douglas Gresham, Jack's step-son, can attest to what inspired Lewis to write his books and they were meant to be very Christian. Lewis himself stated that he wanted readers to fall in love with Aslan in the hopes they would fall in love with Christ. Librarian though you be, I do think that Jack and those whom he knew personally and shared his own thoughts with are even better qualified to explain the meaning of his work than you or I are. Actually, your the first and only person I've ever heard deny the, what seems to me and just about everyone else, obvious and dominant Christian element to the series. Indeed, the overtly religious tones of the books are what draw a lot of criticism of the series from non-Christian critics. As have the films. It is not only Christians who recognize the religious undercurrent of Narnia.

And I can understand the need to read manuals in order to do things for work or hobbies. I just don't see how they can be all that fun to read...except maybe as bathroom reading :P

*sigh* There I go again. Stirring up trouble. I probably should just keep my mouth shut and just keep things to myself, as usual.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, if a hobby is something that you do out of sheer interest and curiosity, for personal enjoyment and entertainment, then learning how to do it or to improve your success at it by reading something should also be pleasurable, no? That still applies, whether the book is a manual on the care of horses, raising tropical fish, growing tomatoes, or maintaining and tuning a complex computer.

As for Lewis, yes, the books became increasingly Christian in intent as he went on, sometimes in subtle ways, and other times in blatant, "hit the reader over the head with an anvil" ways. I've read Lindskoog's analysis too. And a very contrary one that appeared back in the 70s, I think it was in The Horn Book (a journal about children's books intended for teachers and librarians) that attempted to show that the Narnia books were dangerous, perverse, and frightening to children. Critics can create just about any argument they choose, and that's really the point of The Pooh Perplex, to show the absurdity of such writing.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

There was a book out recently called Planet Narnia (televised in this country in a dumbed-down form as The Narnia Code) that claims the Narnia books were also designed to reflect the seven medieval planets.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I missed that. I'll have to check into it.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

Not allegories, but supposals, supposedly. ;)

Unrelatedly, Tivo, I thought this might interest you: Alert FM

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for providing the actual quotes. That first one, including especially the line "At first there wasn't anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord," is of course what I was rather clumsily trying to repeat above.

I'd forgotten that word "supposal" but it's rather apt because it makes me think of "proposal" as in "proposition" combined with "suppository." ;p Not that I don't dearly love the Narnia stories, because I do. However, I've always disliked the way they are often used as a sugar coated pill to pound people about the head with Christianity. I'm also much amused by the way in which they are embraced by some proponents of Christianity who nonetheless will foam at the mouth at any suggestion that furry fandom might be harmless or moral.

I was aware of "Alert FM" but I rather see it as an effort to profiteer from the paranoias promoted by Homeland Security and the Bush administration. We already have similar communication capabilities in place, and it looks quite redundant to me. Reminds me of Garrison Keillor's fake advertisements for "The Fear Monger's Shop" selling all the best home security gadgets and with branches in all the fine suburban shopping malls.

Conventional television and radio are, in the US at least, required to immediately broadcast this sort of alert. Since the vast majority of homes and workplaces have one or the other going all the time, the coverage already exists. Add in the existing NOAA alert system, which I use because I do NOT keep radio or television going all the time (and we also use it in the library BTW) and the coverage approaches 100%. Alert FM looks merely redundant and costly to me. XD

Crucifixtion = a nail in the butt?

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

Eeyore- disturbed? Heh, doubtful... not that it makes much difference anyway, but thanks for noticing him.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

Gary needs you to do something special for/to him.

Getting special old books like that is not to be
taken lightly.

^.^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Heh. He's learned from me to hang around ABEBooks.com. Someone else asked him if he could find a copy, and since they were only a dollar, he got two.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Oooo look at all the manuals, *builds them into a sofa shape and curls up on them* Mmmm books :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Be careful. Those looseleaf binders have some sharp edges. I think the jaws might be a little hungry too after being stored away for ten years or so.