7 Quick Takes, March 12, 2010

From Conversion Diary’s regular feature Seven Quick Takes Friday.

1. The big news of the week is that we have a new YELLOW! car. It looks basically like the picture below, but with no black trim to set off the YELLOW! I’d love to have name ideas for it.

NOTE: All names suggestions including the word “lemon” will be automatically discarded :)

P.S. Did I mention it’s YELLOW!? Because it is.

2. A friend of mine who works at a Northern Virginia non-profit forwarded me the following story. It’s true; I’ve seen the original emails.
*******
April 7, 1999
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Doe:
These are several lawyers in your state that either we have worked with in the past or who have told us that they would be willing to help people in your situation.
[List attached, including lawyer French]
Sincerely,
My Friend
*******
April 8, 1999
Dear Mr. Friend:
I appreciate your response to our inquiry regarding assistance in our issue with Connecticut pertaining to my nephew's case. However, I need to bring you up to date regarding one of the lawyers you referred us to.

I am a Major in the Connecticut Department of Correction and I am personally acquainted with inmate French. It was just a couple months ago that Connecticut was treated to headline news about the "born again Christian lawyer" who was arrested for murdering his wife and two young children. Since being incarcerated awaiting trial on Capital Felony charges (potential death sentence here), he has been involved in several disciplinary actions involving organized inmate disobedience. Having met the prisoner and being familiar with the details of his present circumstances, I would heartily recommend that he be deleted from your referral list.
Respectfully,
Mr. Doe
Major – Connecticut Dept. of Correction

3. Back when I used to read World magazine regularly, Andree Seu was my favorite columnist. Her recent column “What’s in a Name?” was superb, as usual. She discusses the difference she found sitting at a formal seminary dinner, where “the after-dinner speaker waxed of venerable ‘traditions,’” and at a banquet of truckers, when “I knew right off the bat that it was all about Jesus and not about the organization; the excitement for Him was palpable. You don't know off-white until you see white next to it.” It’s well worth the read.

4. The movie will probably be awful, but the trailer for the remake of Clash of the Titans looks cool. Perhaps I’ll go. When I was young and heard about the original movie, I thought that “Clash” was a person, and wondered why I’d never come across him in my mythology books.

5. On the other hand, I am most definitely going to this one. I can’t wait.

6. Eve Tushnet linked to a fascinating article called “Why There Is No Jewish Narnia.” The premise of the writer, Michael Weingrad, is that “To put it crudely, if Christianity is a fantasy religion, then Judaism is a science fiction religion. If the former is individualistic, magical, and salvationist, the latter is collective, technical, and this-worldly.” He goes on to contrast the two religions more fully:

Christianity has a much more vivid memory and even appreciation of the pagan worlds which preceded it than does Judaism. Neither Canaanite nor Egyptian civilizations exercise much fascination for the Jewish imagination, and certainly not as a place of enchantment or escape. In contrast, the Christian imagination found in Lewis and Tolkien often moves, like Beowulf or Sir Gawain, through an older pagan world in which spirits of place and mythical beings are still potent. Nor is this limited to fauns and elves. This anterior world can be dark and frighteningly alien, as Tolkien has Gandalf indicate in The Two Towers. “Far, far below the deepest delvings of the Dwarves,” the wizard says, “the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not.” Lewis sounds the same note in Perelandra when, far below the surface of the planet Venus, his protagonist catches an unsettling glimpse of alien creatures, and wonders if there might be “some way to renew the old Pagan practice of propitiating the local gods of unknown places in such fashion that it was no offence to God Himself but only a prudent and courteous apology for trespass.”

The writer also points out that “Christianity offers a far more developed tradition of evil as a supernatural, external, autonomous force than does Judaism.”

As a Christian and a fantasy fan, I don’t agree with everything Weingrad says, but I think he’s right in his basic premise.

7. A very cool public service announcement from our friends across the pond, on the importance of wearing your seatbelt. (Warning: profanity in the comments) I remember that when I was in 10th grade health class in public school, the state police brought in a machine called “The Convincer.” You sat on a car seat in a metal frame with a shoulder/lap belt, and rolled down a slight hill until the frame hit the end and stopped short. The first ride was at 5 mph, which wasn’t too bad. The second ride, where you hit the object at 10 mph, left me with a bruise on my shoulder for several days. Since that time, I have always worn my seatbelt.

And with that moralizing, I’m off! Have a great weekend.

--DJ