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Now that my summer classes are done, I'll have more time for my fun reading and also for blogging.

I enjoyed the reading for my coursework immensely. Chaucer is always a favorite, and, believe it or not, religious writings of the Renaissance and Reformation have always been favorites of mine, too, so I was revisiting writers and concepts that I enjoy this past month.

I'm currently working on writing my papers for my independent study. My text for one is Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici. We read an excerpt for our class, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Browne was possibly one of the earliest theologians to preach tolerance, though he does it in a way that could seem to be offering intolerant tolerance.

One concept that I receive from his writing, however, is that it doesn't matter what the religion is dressed it, but what the body of knowledge underneath the trappings of ritual is actually teaching. I smile when I think of this, because it has been my own personal feeling for quite some time that religions are all basically the same, just dressed in different clothes.

Of course Browne does not go so far as to say that. He instead says that Christians would do better to direct their energy toward proper worship, rather than toward the ridicule and persecution of those that are mistaken in worship.

I enjoy the text and find my paper to be leaning in the direction of analyzing the relationship between the individual and the group. In the American ideology, it is standard for the individual to break away from the group, to flout tradition and convention and stand out as some type of hero for doing so. The English ideology, however, is highly concerned with maintaining the group. The standard tends towards the individual breaking away, and then finding some sort of compromise with the group in order to be accepted back into the fold.

Browne, it seems, is advocating tolerance for the sake of maintaining the group. His discussion of heresy leans towards this, as he says it is only a heresy if you persist in believing an erroneous philosophy, and if you try to convince others or your erring thoughts. So, if people in possession of religious beliefs that differ from that of the True religion (in Browne's view, Anglicanism) would just keep it to themselves, there would be no issue.

That is what I'll be exploring as I write my paper. Dr. Rice is only asking for 3-4 pages, so I'll have to reign myself in. My problem tends to be biting off a rather large thesis. I could write 20 pages on most topics, but bite off too much for the shorter papers.

Mean while, I've also been reading The Girl With No Shadow by Joanne Harris. It's a sequel to Chocolat and so far is very different from its predecessor, a little darker, a little bit more like a mystery, but still Harris so I'm enjoying it.

More later.

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds   

Admit impediments. Love is not love  

Which alters when it alteration finds,   

Or bends with the remover to remove:  

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark   

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;  

It is the star to every wandering bark,  

 Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.  

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks   

Within his bending sickle's compass come:  

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,  

 But bears it out even to the edge of doom. 

 If this be error and upon me proved,  

 I never writ, nor no man ever loved. 

If Shakespeare was right, and this is love, does it exist? Or is it yet another 

ideal that literature has created for us, and that we will never find?

I love Middle English

Today was my first day of Chaucer. The largest complaint I hear about that class is that reading Middle English is a pain. Dr. Rice assigns a text that contains the Middle English. There are great footnotes, but it does take a little longer than reading in Modern English.

I have to say, though, that I love Middle English! As soon as I start trying to pronounce it, I know I get it wrong, but once you get into the rhythm of it, it's not that difficult to follow. Of course, I have had some prior experience reading it, so that give me an advantage.

Reading Middle English has reawakened my desire to learn Old English as well. It's so much fun! 

If you've never had your arm stolen as part of a fraternity initiation, you probably wouldn't understand

Breathers by S.G. Browne is my first foray into romantic zombie comedy. While I am not typically a fan of anything zombie, this book is brilliantly written. The humor is ironic and dry, and dark enough to satisfy even the colonial Americans.

Browne researches thoroughly to provide all the gory details of human decomposition, taking some liberties, putting the reader in the position to be sympathetic with the narrator, Andy, as he relates the plights of a reanimated corpse who has been forced to live with his parents. You see, zombies aren't allowed to live alone; they have to have a relative or willing foster parent to keep track of them.

Andy becomes dissatisfied with his life (or un-life, whatever you want to call it) and begins protesting. This results in his arrest, and his confinement at the SPCA where he is kenneled with the dogs or cats, and fed kibble until his parents reluctantly come to get him.

But, as he keeps reminding us, if we haven't been in his shoes, we can't understand.

The book provides an interesting study of how the class of undead is oppressed by all, managing, through all the dark humor and somewhat disturbing scenes, to reveal that it is human nature to discriminate, but it is also human nature to survive, even after death has occurred.

15 Books

Following is a question survey my friend posted on Facebook that I think nicely complements my blog. 

Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag however many friends you want, including me because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose.

If anyone I haven't tagged does this, tag me so I can see your books!

And the list, in no particular order:

1. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

2. Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett

3. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (yes, technically a trilogy, but I count it as one)

4. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

5. The Sun Also Rises by by Ernest Hemingway

6. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

7. Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris

8. Holy Fools by Joanne Harris

9. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

10. Walden by Henry David Thoreau 

11. Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin: Writers Running Wild in the 20's by Marion Meade

12. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

13. Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins

14. Sunshine by Robin McKinley

15. The Winds Twelve Quarters by Ursula Le Guin

Fairytale, or schizophrenic hallucinations?

Last night I finished reading Carolyn Turgeon's Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story.

Depending on your taste in books, this is a great read. I personally love fairy tale retellings, no matter what form they appear in. Turgeon weaves the fairy tale of Cinderella with a modern-day story, placed in New York, featuring Cinderella's fallen fairy godmother as the first person narrator. 

As the story progresses, Lillian, the godmother, finds it increasingly difficult to separate present day reality from her memories as a fairy godmother, and the ways in which she failed Cinderella.

I won't spoil the story for those of you that might read it; all I will say is that the novel begins with the certainty that it is a fairy tale retelling, and continues that way, but leaves the reader wondering if the fairy tale is the reality in the novel, or if it is living true to its name. 

Now, it's on to Breathers, my first foray into romantic zombie comedy, fondly abbreviated as rom zom com. 

Tam Lin by Pamela Dean

I just finished reading Tam Lin by Pamela Dean. It is part of the Fairy Tale Series, in which different authors are selected to write retellings of fairy tales, in whatever format they choose.

Pamela Dean selected Tam Lin, which is actually a ballad with fairy tale elements. You can find the various versions of Tam Lin  at this website: http://tam-lin.org/

Dean's retelling of the story is quite genius. For the majority of the novel, you will wonder where the fairy tale elements come in. At the start, there is a glimpse of the supernatural, and throughout the main character, Janet, tries to solve the mystery of a girl ghost that haunts her dormitory room in her first year at Blackstock, a fictitious university in Minnesota. 

Janet is an English major, and the characters regularly quote Shakespeare, Keats, and others, and make allusions to mythology and the Classics, creating a rich tapestry that portrays quite accurately the conspiracies and politics, the quirks and anxieties of being part of a Liberal Arts department. 

Elements of the fairy tale appear periodically throughout this novel, but it isn't until the end that the pieces come together. As I read, I kept wondering where the retelling came in, but the series doesn't dictate in what form the fairy tale appears, allowing the authors free reign.

I don't want to say more for anyone who might read it, but Tam Lin is a lovely book and worth the read.