Backed the Wrong Horse?

Yi Kwang-su

Wikipedia

One of my favorite columnists, Professor Kim Seong-Kon (SNU, KLTI), recently lamented:

Koreans would be unlikely to select Yi Kwang-su for a list of great Korean writers . . . . To Korean eyes, . . . Yi betrayed the . . . country and thus can never be condoned, regardless of . . . importance and eminence as [a] writer . . . . I am saddened and ashamed that for these reasons, Koreans are often labeled . . . parochial and nationalistic (Kim Seong-Kon, "Embracing those who are different," Korea Herald, March 5, 2014).

Regrettable, then, the fact that Sun-Ae and I chose to translate Yi Kwang-su's novel The Soil, as we will perhaps be forever linked to a 'traitor' . . .

Age and Youth Debate . . .

Old Man and Young Man

Recently over at the Marmot's Hole blog, a genial fellow who calls himself "Hoju-Saram" (Australian person) posted a comment about his callow youth:

Back when I was stupid, I wandered out of the South Central bus terminal, determined to make the most of my 8-hour layover by walking to downtown LA. I got about 100 yards towards Compton when I started getting circled by gang-bangers.

In case you were wondering, he survived, which allowed me to respond:

I used to be young and stupid like that, too, but I'm no longer young.

Which garnered a puzzling response from a fellow going by the moniker "Super H Mart JW":

Wrong! It's all downhill after you're 40, didn't u get the memo?

"Eh?" I wondered:

Wrong about no longer being young? But I'm over 40!

Which got this reply:

About being young and stupid!

To which, I provided the only possible, truest answer:

The older I get, the stupider I was when young.

Which brought the exchange to an end in which both youth and age each thought to have bested the other . . .

Terrance Lindall and Bienvenido Bones Banez: Signed Art

Beast Sh*tting
Bienvenido Bones Banez Jr.

My friend Terrance Lindall informed me yesterday that today (New York time), Friday, March 7th, 2014, at 5:30-6:30 PM, in the WAH center (directions), there will be a "Book Release" of The Satanic Verses of Bones Banez as Revealed to Terrance Lindall, in Ten Books (think ten 'chapters'), and that both Bienvenido Bones Banez and he will be present to sign copies. Lindall notes that these copies are "Magnificently Illustrated By Bienvenido Bones Banez Jr." and cost $50.

I should remind readers that I edited the text (though the final edit choices were left to Lindall's hand) and penned an introduction, from which I excerpt this passage:

Bones is working within a theological tradition of the fortunate fall, or felix culpa, a view that God not only foreknew man's fall but in some mysterious sense foreordained it! Satan thus becomes not just the adversary of God but also God's instrument, and in that narrow sense even deserves admiration. The devil is therefore God's paintbrush for the world! And Bones dares to take that brush in hand and color the world in revealing the fallen glory, like stained glass windows in hell, of what he, in a bold poetic conceit, calls our "666-World," the Tribulation Era spoken of in the Bible's final book, The Revelation of Saint John the Divine.

Lindall adds that there will also be a first viewing of his new Paradise Lost print series, 13 signed and numbered giclée prints in an edition of 100, each further embellished by hand ($3000 for the set). A sample is depicted below:

Creation of the World
Terrance Lindall

And since we're on the subject of such religious themes as God and the Devil, let's not forget that Terrance Lindall has also illustrated another such literary work . . . The Bottomless Bottle of Beer!

David Brooks on Vladimir Putin

David Brooks
New York Times

David Brooks, in "Putin Can't Stop" (New York Times, March 3, 2014), proposes some incalculable factors in Russian nationalism, as shaped by Russian messianism:

To enter into the world of Putin's favorite philosophers [i.e., Nikolai Berdyaev's The Philosophy of Inequality, Vladimir Solovyov's Justification of the Good, and Ivan Ilyin's Our Tasks] is to enter a world full of melodrama, mysticism and grandiose eschatological visions. [For example:] "We trust and are confident that the hour will come when Russia will rise from disintegration and humiliation and begin an epoch of new development and greatness," Ilyin wrote.

Three great ideas run through this work. The first is Russian exceptionalism: the idea that Russia has its own unique spiritual status and purpose. The second is devotion to the Orthodox faith. The third is belief in autocracy. Mashed together, these philosophers point to a Russia that is a quasi-theocratic nationalist autocracy destined to play a culminating role on the world stage.

These philosophers often argued that the rationalistic, materialistic West was corrupting the organic spiritual purity of Russia. "The West exported this anti-Christian virus to Russia," Ilyin wrote, "Having lost our bond with God and the Christian tradition, mankind has been morally blinded, gripped by materialism, irrationalism and nihilism."

Brooks declines to think that Putin takes these views so seriously, but worries that Putin might be unable to contain the nationalist forces he's using against the West for its support of Ukraine's rebellion. Keep in mind that quasi-religious urgings of this sort are "incalculable."

But . . . although Brooks is reminding us of some actual ideas with a long history among Russians, I wonder if he's being fair to the complexity of Berdyaev and Solovyov (Ilyin is perhaps a different matter). Or does Brooks mean that Putin has deformed the thought of these thinkers to support Russian nationalism's messianic bent?

Any experts out there among my readers who can better inform us?

Uncle Cran's Follow-Up Report

Uncle Cran with Frozen Jackhammer

Today's report from Uncle Cran opens with details of his performance as an ice-bound ice-breaker:

I scraped the 4 inches of snow off the concrete slab on the south side of the house, then used a shovel to break up the ice this morning. It measured different thicknesses, from 2-1/8 to 2-1/4 inches thick.

There's another of those uses of the pronoun "it" that Uncle Cran loves to employ, and since a pronoun usually refers back to the nearest noun, I infer that "It" refers back to "morning." Thus: "This morning measured different thicknesses, from 2-1/8 to 2-1/4 inches thick." I thought mornings were measured in hours, minutes, and seconds, but anyway, if I remember my math, 2 minus 1/8 equals 1 and 7/8, and 2 minus 1/4 equals 1 and 3/4, so Uncle Cran's morning was a bit uneven, though the difference is hardly worth mentioning. I don't know why Uncle Cran makes his farm reports so freaking complicated!

The only place I can break up the ice is where the sun is shining on the concrete.

I think Uncle Cran means he doesn't know his ice from a hole in the ground unless the light isn't where the sun don't shine. He is therefore only going to work in the sunlight. Primarily, that appears to mean that he's going to let Mother Nature solve the ice problem, as his following words show, a reasonable decision, I might add, since she's responsible for this problem, anyway.

There has been very little melting as the temperature gets to 7-9 degrees at night, and up to 34-36 degrees about noon.

The temperature is predicted to get higher the rest of the week, and the snow and ice should start melting more quickly.

There is a chance of rain on Friday, so that should really cause the stuff to melt.

By "stuff," Uncle Cran means "snow" and "ice." Let's call it "snice." As in: "It's snice out there."

Some readers might find my paronomasia funny. If so, stick around . . .

Uncle Cran Reports!

A big winter storm seems to have hit the Midwest and parts of the South a couple of days ago, so let's go to Uncle Cran's Ozark Farm Report for a full and accurate briefing:

Yesterday about 9:30 AM it started sleeting/freezing rain that continued until we went to bed at 10:00 PM. There was 2 inches of sleet mixed with ice at that time. This morning at 5:00 AM there was another 4 inches of snow on top of the sleet and ice. While I was shoveling snow at the barn, Gay called me. She had slipped on the ice and I had to help her get up. Thankfully she wasn't hurt.

I started at 8:00 this morning feeding cows, chopping ice, shoveling snow and using the tractor to clear snow from the front of the hay barn. I was able to get two round bales out into the field. Then I drove the tractor up and down the driveway.

Eh? Why "up and down the driveway"? Just for the hell of it? Or the challenge, to see if you could?

It took four tries before I got all the way to the road.

That can happen when you drive "up and down the driveway" a few times.

We can get the truck out if needed, but we don't plan to go anywhere before Wednesday as the road is ice covered. It sounded like every school in north Arkansas and southern Missouri is dismissed, and who knows how many others in the two states. Schools in our area have already missed 23 or more days because of snow.

But it does have some benefits.

Always look on the bright side of life!

We weren't able to burn our trash for almost three weeks, as there was a burn ban most of this time. The sleet and snow will bring needed moisture as well as adding nitrogen to the fields. This will stimulate the grass in the fields when the weather warms. So Gay and I will take things easy the next few days.

There appears to be an unfinished thought in that passage. Anyway, Uncle Cran hadn't originally included any pictures, so I asked:

Any photos? Is this like the ice storm of a few years back?

Uncle Cran replied:

The snow was so beautiful when I went outside this morning. Now that I've shoveled, waded through, driven the tractor through, and the dogs have made tracks everywhere, it isn't so pretty. The wood pile I took a picture of back in February is down to just a few sticks. But you can see by the fence another two ricks I cut recently that hopefully will last until sometime in April.

From ricks to sticks! But he did send two photos, the one above . . . and this one:

Hmmm . . .

Helluva Good Story!

Amazon

My son En-Uk isn't yet interested in reading books, whether English or Korean, but he does read a lot of Korean comics on his smartphone, and I finally glommed onto the rather obvious fact that he might be more easily persuaded to read graphic novels, so I've been purchasing them on Kindle and lending him my iPad.

Just two days ago, I bought the graphic story Heck, by Zander Cannon, expecting from the blurbs for it to be some sort of adventure story about a descent into Hell, and it is that, but it's also so much more!

Google Images

The story is -- one might say -- a postmodern retelling of Dante's Inferno, and it's actually an ethically profound story, something that I hadn't anticipated!

Google Images

The story affirms the virtues of loyalty to friends and courage to protect them, as well as the importance of rejecting various vices that Dante once warned about, but it also shows the difficulty of refraining from succumbing to temptation, due to the power of desire and the weakness of the will.

At the same time, Heck is a helluva good story!

Sunrise? Sunset?

Must be Nero fiddling on the roof, though, if that place is as fiery as it looks! Supposedly photographed from outside our apartment by my wife, but these blood-red structures look like the Gates of Hell, and I don't believe I've seen those gates anywhere around here . . . but one can never be too careful, so I'll keep an eye out for them.

Speaking of Hell, work starts up again today . . .

Off the Top of My Head

I was so busy today that I had no time to reflect upon serious topics, so here's a photo from about a week ago of me and the kitty named "Scat" distracted by something to our left from reading the news . . . well, one of us, anyway. I can't be sure Scat actually knows how to read, though he invariably joins me there, often even leaning upon my shoulder for an hour as I read, so he might also be reading.

As my own long-time readers will note, this is one of my few bareheaded photos -- I usually wear a cap to maintain my dignity and (more importantly) my mystique. No, I do not mean my mistake! Don't even think that I lost my hair by mistake (as if I would be careless about something like that)! Nor by intention! As if! I lost it neither by accident nor by design, but by masculine necessity: excessive testosterone! You can look it up.

Anyway, when students wonder why I wear a cap and ask me if it's for religious reasons, I say, "It's even more important than religion. I wear a cap for three crucial reasons -- to protect my head from cold, from heat, and from ridicule!"

Speaking of which, I'd better brace myself for smirky snark . . .

Reza Varjavand Asks: "Is Fear of Islam unfounded?"

Professor Reza Varjavand
Saint Xavier University

The Muslim commentator Reza Varjavand, associate professor of economics and finance in the Graham School of Management at Saint Xavier University (Chicago), asks a provocative question presumably related to the "Islamophobia" epithet used in silencing criticism of Islam: "Is Fear of Islam unfounded?" (Iran.com). Since his remarks are quite brief, I'm posting them in their entirety here:

Once again, a violent attack by Muslim extremists astounded the world, they murdered a number of innocent students in Nigeria just because they were attending school and learning what their attackers called Western education! Is this the religion whose prophet allegedly said "Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave"? I think the world have seen enough images of atrocities committed under the name of Islam: Blown-up buildings, burning cars, beheading, flogging, arresting innocent people for no reason, butchering of a British soldier in a street of London, Boston bombing, Train bombing in Madrid, fatal shooting of 13 people by army major Nidal Hassan, public executions in street, death threat against, or assassination of, writers or those who express their opinions just to name a few.

Sometimes I ask myself is this what Islam is all about?

In light of all of these, we, Muslims, keep telling others how peaceful our religion is which reminds me of that famed Wendy's "where is the beef" commercial. Aren't Muslim influential leaders guilty of implicit complacency by remaining silent and not publically condemning such atrocious acts or taking a firm position against them?

We may not be able to change this madness; at least we can say something about it.

Professor Varjavand's query about fear of Islam goes a step beyond what one might expect, for his remarks imply that such fear is rational, different from the supposedly irrational fear of Islam implied by the term "Islamophobia," a sort of pop-psychology term intended to simultaneously label critics of Islam mentally deranged and morally evil.

Professor Varjavand reminds me of Dr. Khaled Hroub, whom I posted upon two days ago. Perhaps these two Muslims speaking out are indications of a growing chorus of Muslim voices raised in criticism of Islam? Or should I say, of Islamism? Varjavand and Hroub don't. They say "Islam."

Professor Varjavand himself even sounds like a skeptic in stressing that Islam's prophet allegedly said, "Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave." Varjavand must have considerable doubts about the hadith, the record of sayings and actions attributed to Muhammad.

Such skepticism opens a door to reform of Islam because the hadith allegedly record Islam's prophet advocating expansionist jihad, brutal criminal law, murder of political opponents, death to infidels, death to apostates, death to critics of Islam . . .

That last one, however, tends to suppress dissent about Islam, thereby clarifying why we still find so few Muslim critics like Varjavand.