The Damnation of the Fey Folk

     So, I did miss Sunday's update, but I have a good excuse! I woke up at 6:00 and drove to Austin for a concert there (called Spirit Fest - Switchfoot, David Crowder, Mercy Me, etc.) and didn't get home until 1:15... the next morning.... So! It is Wednesday and I am updating now! On another interesting note Louie Giglio is my convo speaker today so yay! 

      Today's topic of conversation is that of the Faerie! Mostly when the average modern thinks of the Fairy they think of sweet little creatures with butterfly wings, like this:

 

but I am here to tell you that this modern conception is completely false... and insipid. The modern fairy, while pretty, can hardly be called a fairy at all. In tradition Fairies are shape-shifting troublemakers known for causing mischief and being particularly dangerous. Most treatment of the subject of fairies in antiquity deals with how to protect one's self  from their malice. Fairies were known for anything from leading travelers astray on their journeys, creating any sort of unexplained mischief, and even kidnapping children. They weren't particularly nice sorts of creatures, in fact the name Fairy - or Fair Folk - is a sort of platitude meant to keep the recipient of the title in a good mood. Fairies weren't even exceptionally pretty (except when they wanted to be) and their shapes could  range from ethereal humanish beings, to small little troll looking things. It was really the Victorian Age that killed the real fairy. Tinkerbell can be seen as the last vestige of an old tradition. 

     But, then, why does this even matter? Well, I think it matters because in modern times we don't have monsters anymore, at least not in our stories. Well, who cares, and  isn't that a good thing? I would argue that it's actually a disturbing trend in literature. We take creatures like Fairies and render them utterly impotent. We've seen this done with other creatures too - Vampires are now the boyfriend every thirteen year old idiot girl wants because he's dangerous and sparkles, werewolves are sympathetic creatures who have no control over what they do, an ogre can be a hero, and even witches and wizards can be merely misunderstood people who were never given love and affection as children. Now, don't get me wrong,there is some kind of human appeal in stories like this (except Twilight, I will never understand the appeal of Twilight). It's always nice to root for the underdog or explore some aspect of goodness in a creature that's typically evil, but stories like this come at a cost. When you redeem monsters you have no choice other than to make human beings the villains, or at least make real humanity irrelevant.

       By making monsters more human or stripping them of their ugliness you lose the opportunity for effective moral stories. You can make moral points of good triumphing over evil using only human characters, but the effect is much more horrifying. If, however, the evil is wrapped up in some inhuman creature you can fully support the actions of the hero. Of course Dorothy melts the witch, of course, of course Harker and Quincey destroy Count Dracula, of course Aslan destroys Jadis. The old monsters, the old mythical creatures were created to serve as tools for human morality. You do them a disservice by lessening their malice, and you do the human race a disservice too. Having a sweet and pretty butterfly fairy strips it of all of its power and renders it only useful for drawings and paintings. But if you have malicious fairies, fairies that are spiteful and dark, and mysterious, then you have a story. If you have vampires that sparkle then you have Twilight, but if you have Count Dracula then you have allegory and moral meaning. Human beings are storytelling creatures, we only do ourselves a disservice when we take away the potential for a moral story away by giving monsters humanity. The only way we can save creatures like fairies, then, from the fate of becoming completely impotent is by damning them. It is only by damning monsters to a fate of wickedness that they become safe for human beings. The real danger lies not in their evil, but in allowing them to be saved. When the monsters are blessed we have no other choice than the damn ourselves.

I do apologize for the garbled nature of this post, it was written as a stream of consciousnesses sort of thing.   

Writing Project

      

     It is November. Can you smell the fresh sent of slightly cooler, but not really weather? Can you hear the sound of dead brown leaves starting to blanket the earth? Can you see the sun through the cold wet rain clouds? Can you taste the Thanksgiving food and birthday cake? Can you feel the ominous and ever present weight of deadlines crushing down upon your soul? Yes, it's that wonderful time of year once more! Speaking of deadlines that prey upon your subconscious slowly eating away your sanity it's also NaNoWriMo! Unfortunately I am not able (due to time constraints) to participate in the full thing, but I am using school as an excuse to spiritually participate in the NaNo fun. For one of my classes we have the option of, instead of writing a boring term paper, to write a small portion of an epic poem! So of course I'm doing that! I'll be sharing bits of what I'm working on as the month progresses. Who knows, I may even turn it into an even larger project some day!

     I'm pretty excited about this project. I got the idea while I was siting in my Narnia class, when we were discussing Prince Caspian. At one point in the book Doctor Cornelius mentions that when he was much younger he went on a quest to discover the Horn of Queen Susan that Caspian would then use to call back the Pevensies. Clearly this needed to be completely divorced from its original context and made into a religious allegory. Anyways, I think it will be fun. The hardest part is that the story has to be rhymed and metered which is never fun. It also has to sound archaic. Still, the premise of the whole thing is that it follows Cornelius as he begins his journey to find the magic horn of Susan, having been commanded in a dream to do so. Along the way he seeks refuge from a storm in a castle with a bad host and finds a beautiful woman trapped there. He must save her (or does she save him?) and together they will resume the quest for the horn. There's much more to the story than that, but that's all I think I'll have room for within the confines of the paper. I'm using Cornelius as an allegorical representation for faith and his journey as the search for the good true object of faith (the horn). Along the way he's guided by human reason (named Idhrennial) who is his proper companion right until the end when he must make the rest of the journey alone in order to discover the horn kept by Divine Wisdom (Theonoe). Once he finds it he must take it and keep it until it can be passed down to one who will be able to use it (Caspian).

     It's been pretty fun to write my own fairy story. It was definitely inspired by the Faerie Queene (in addition to Lewis). Allegory is always fun to write, though. Poetry has never been my specialty, but I'll post snippets on here occasionally throughout the month. I believe that the fact that it was inspired by the Faerie Queene fits the theme for this month ;) but anyways, I'm pretty stoked. Happy November everyone!

Election Soapbox

     

     I know that I said I was going to be going with a theme here, and I am, but please allow this brief insertion  of a non related subject. Theme posts will be updated on Wednesdays and Saturdays (or was it Sundays?).

   So, today is the 6th of November, A.K.A. voting day - possibly the most infuriating and irritating day of the year. All of the political obnoxiousness on both sides of the spectrum has been building for this day. Facebook is a nightmare. I hate election years, and I hate politics. "But Mariah, as Christians it's up to us to try and reform society through politics in order to bolster the church and reform America! I still have faith in America!" Garbage like that makes me want to claw my eyes out. Do you know how horrible it is to have to hear stuff like that for MONTHS leading up to the election.

     Now, I know that the election is important for the country, but what really irritates me is the Christian perspective on politics. For Christians it is possibly the most unimportant event of the entire year, and let me tell you why. It is 100% impossible for Christians to reform the country through politics. In fact, the goal of Christians should not be to reform America. We are not bounded by political lines and geography. We are not even called to reform the world! We're called to interact with people and to save human lives, not countries. Let me try and structure this a bit more intelligently.

     I think that much of the problem with the American Christian's interest in politics comes from a very arrogant place. We, as Americans, tend to conceive of our Country as the "City on a Hilltop" the Light to the Free world, the most important country in the world and as the Last Hope for all mankind. We are a very patriotic people, and perhaps rightly so (although I would contend that), but I think that our nationalistic conception of ourselves betrays an underlying and very dangerous arrogance. "Well, is it wrong to have national pride. We're a great country, we've done great and amazing things!" In answer to that I'd say no, it's not a bad thing to have national pride - as long as your boasting is directed in the correct direction. As Christians we should believe that any successes or triumphs that our nation has had are blessings from God. The danger comes from believing that we have been a great nation to being proud of ourselves from having been born there, and many Americans cross that line (many Christian Americans too). Nationalistic pride is a foolish thing to have ultimately. You could no more have chosen where you were born than what eye color you have. And, in the end, America won't matter one little bit. The only country that really matters (according to Christian belief) is Israel. So, I certainly hope that America is not the world's last chance for a good society, since we will cease to matter very much before the end (much like Assyria or Rome [who matter in terms of cultural contributions, but are not real players in the political game anymore]).

   I also find the notion of "Having Faith in America" to be wildly disturbing. Any person who has faith in their country is misplacing that faith indeed. Especially in a liberal democracy, to say you have faith in your country amounts to saying that you have faith in your fellow citizens. I don't know about other people, but I personally have very little faith in my fellow man. Human beings are notorious for making terrible political decisions. In fact, almost always we make horrible decisions - why? Because we're a fallen people. The American government is made up of people who have the potential to be as tyrannical as the worst third-world leader. We have a system that keeps people like that in check - but so did the Romans. (let it be noted that I am NOT saying that some politician will rise up and dominate the American government. I'm merely making the point that terrible people live in America too). Should we then have any kind of faith in our country? Absolutely not. We should have faith in our God, who is not the American God, or the Republican God, but is the God of the whole world. Kingdoms come and go, but our God remains.

     And as for the idea that it is up to Christians to be actively involved in politics in order to reform our country - while commendable - is, I believe, ultimately false. There are some things we should fight for, but there also needs to be a realization that laws and legislation have never made man moral. They can control his behavior to some extent, but they can't control his mind and beliefs. Politics are divisive, you can appeal to one set of people using political methods, but you completely alienate another side. Instead of politics people need to be focusing on the culture and positively changing the world around them through their interactions with people and through positive contributions to the culture. What we've done is we've created a purely Christian sub-culture that is incapable of interacting on a meaningful level with the rest of the country. What we need is not more Christians books or music or movies, but books that are written by Christians. What I mean is we need more Tolkiens - people who are Christians and who create art that's not explicitly Christian but that their faith bleeds through.

     Now, I'm not saying that people shouldn't be interested or aware of what's going on around them politically. I'm just saying that the American Christian needs to be careful how much of his hope is tied to the political state of his country. Republican or Democrat, no matter who wins, God is still on his throne. Christianity was never made to pick sides in a political debate. To do so limits the power of the Gospel. We are meant to be at war the world, not to make peace with it through political avenues. Christians need to be engaged in life (that does include politics) we just always need to remember that the hope for our future does not rest in the victory of any political candidate or party. So do go out and vote toady, participate in the system of government that you were born into, but remember that no matter what happens our future is secure (in an eternal sense... life could very well suck here).     

The Faerie Queene

     

     Well, it seemed appropriate for the first post of the month to be a commentary on the object that inspired the theme! The Faerie Queene is an early Renaissance work written by Edmund Spencer. Spencer was an incredibly ambitious poet. His goal in writing The Faerie Queene was to become what Homer had been for Greece, Virgil for Rome, and Dante for Italy. He pretty much wanted to be remembered as the greatest English poet in the whole history of Englishdom, and he would have succeeded too, if it hadn't been for Milton and his Paradise Lost (who, coincidentally, was inspired by Spencer). The Faerie Queene was his magnum opus. It served several purposes, a tribute to the English language, an homage to Queen Elizabeth, an allegorical account of virtue and faith, and as the victory anthem of English Protestantism. Interestingly enough, Spencer was far more enthused about Protestantism and far more vitriolic towards the Catholic church than Queen Elizabeth was, which was a bit of a downer since he was trying to win her patronism with the work. The Faerie Queene, while stunningly beautiful still, is unfinished. Spencer died before he could finish the work. It was meant to be composed of seven books, we only have five completed works, with bits of a sixth book. Even still, it stands as a momentousness testament to Spencer's brilliance and is one of the great works (in my opinion) of the Faith (the only downside being that it is so hateful to Catholicism, which I find truly unfortunate even if understandable for the time in which it was being written).

      The First book of Faerie Queene is what I'll be focusing on in this post, and only briefly at that. I mentioned before that this work is an allegory, and boy is it ever. I'm willing to throw out there that it's more allegorically dense than Dante. It serves as an allegory of the victory of Protestantism over Catholicism, an allegory of the creation of Britain, a more contemporary historical allegory, and as a basic Christian allegory. It's depth is beautiful, but its surface is just as beautiful. The Faerie Queene takes readers to a work of Knights and enchanted streams, of dragons and evil wizards, of good and wicked women, and a place where pagan myth and Christian truth mix together to create an exotically beautiful fantasy. The first book follows the journey of the Red Cross Knight as he travels with his lady - Una - to her kingdom in order to fight the dragon that has captured her mother and father and all of her people. It's wonderful, and has quickly become one of my favorite things to read. You always figure out some new aspect of it every time you pick it up, which is always wonderful. Also, and possibly the most important thing, is that professional bindings of it are incredibly beautiful. A beautiful book deserves a beautiful cover, also it has been very well illustrated over the years. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys allegory and beautiful things. Because of what it is it can be incredibly difficult to understand. The Norton Critical edition is always good to have since its notes explain some of the symbolism, but even that is woefully lacking in some aspects. It's not an easy read by any means (especially since Spencer wanted to mimic Chaucer's style and wrote it in Middle English) but is an incredibly rewarding one.

     I guess the reason that I chose this to be the theme is because I'm kind of obsessed right now with the idea of religious enchantment, and it seemed liked a good thing to make posts about. Plus I'm also writing an 'epic' for a class term paper and I can post bit on here with this theme. So, yay for the first post of the month! Hopefully this will improve my own skill a bit and provide something interesting for other people to look at!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Idea

     So, for the longest time now I've been having a lot of trouble coming up with posts for this blog. Sometimes it's because I have waaaaaaaaay too much to say, and sometimes because I have nothing to say at all. So, since I mostly made this for myself anyways I've my discipline is somewhat lacking, like right now, I'm supposed to be working on another paper, but I'm doing this instead #irony? So, I guess it would be neat to give myself writing deadline goals that don't have grades attached to them if I fail (plus also they'll be fun!). So! Now to the challenge. Every month I'll give myself a theme (usually a literary one), and will attempt to post at least twice a week with that theme. Since October ends on Wednesday I guess I'll start with November. I can post on anything really as long as its in that theme and is of a reasonable length. My theme for the month of November will be......

Edmund Spencer's Faerie Queene (one of my most favoriteist books ever) Look for it in the month of November!

I don't have time for this

  

   But that's never stopped me before! I keep meaning to post something on here, but I really have nothing interesting in my life at the moment. Midterms will be over tomorrow, but I don't get to breath yet because I have a five page paper due Thursday and a 10 page research paper due Friday. After this week things will get a little better I guess, this weekend I'm going to a symphony and next Tuesday I'm going to an Opera... for free... that's cool I guess. Also, I did read Silver Chair this weekend, I haven't read that one in a long time. Still not my favorite... The rest of my papers won't be due until the end of November, and then there's finals... but after that CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!! I'll tell you what I am ready for a little holiday cheer. Not that I'll get to relax much over the break either though.... Children, being a chronic procrastinator doesn't make your life better. Even if you can do it, doesn't mean you should. Take it from someone who knows. #notworthit.

     Ethics is not as fun of a class as I expected it to be. Because of that I have amended my expectations for next semester and have no illusions about the interestingness of Epistomology (although I still have Hope for Metaphysics). I love my major, but I mostly love electives. In fact, I've arranged my senior year so that I will take nothing but electives. Electives are the classes you actually care about. Like, next fall I will be in a Lord of the Rings class. MY SCHOOL IS OFFERING A LORD OF THE RINGS CLASS!!!! So, on that note I will now mindlessly transition into a geekfest about the new Hobbit trilogy. THEY'RE BRINGING IN THE APPENDICES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH IS THE VOICE OF SMAUG AND THE NECROMANCER AND MARTIN FREEMAN IS BILBO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHH! IAN IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN"T WAIT FOR THE 14THHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. So yeah, that Hobbit thing... it'll be pretty cool, I guess... If you're into that sort of thing.

     Thank you for indulging in my procrastination. I think it was a successful attempt to waste time until lunch so that I could eat, and then have to pack my school things which will take the remainder of my time before I have to leave for class so I don't have to work on my paper which I should be doing right now, but am not. Fish.