Boguslawski: The Blossoming of Middle Ages

The Blossoming of Middle Ages (Villard's World)

(70" x 30" oil on canvas)

Alexander Boguslawski

(Image Supplied by the Artist)

About three years ago, I posted several blog entries on "Blessed Silence" and related icons, through which I became acquainted with Professor Alexander Boguslawski -- art expert as well as artist -- and learned a great deal from him about these icons. He graciously allowed me to post images of his art on my blog, and he hasn't fogotten our discussion, for he recently contacted me:

It's been several years since our discussion of Blessed Silence. Every so often I return to your fascinating blog to check what's going on. I'm happy to see you are doing well. I decided to send you the photo of my latest painting, The Blossoming of Middle Ages (Villard's World). It is a triptych, 70 x 30 inches, oil on canvas. Four months of work. You can see details on my website . . . . I hope you like it!

I do like it, and have therefore posted it above -- as readers will already have noted. For those interested in a larger image, simply visit Professor Boguslawski's website and scroll down the "Alphabetical List of Paintings" to find The Blossoming of Middle Ages. You'll also find some details and an explanation of the work:

The Blossoming of Middle Ages was created for a friend, a professor of humanities at Valencia College in Orlando. Since his doctorate dealt with medieval technology, and one of his favorite subjects was Villard de Honnecourt, the canvas is saturated with allusions to Villard and to Middle Ages in general. However, in addition to this, the painting includes my renderings of the Temptation of St. Anthony (on the left) and of St. Francis with Animals (on the right). For the monsters surrounding St. Anthony I used my imagination, but added a few creatures from Villard's Sketchbook: a griffin, a fly, a lobster, and a snail. For St. Francis, I included mostly real animals (with the exception of two wacky birds and a strange antelope-like ruminant. The other creatures were selected for their unusual appearance, their uniqueness, or their compositional flexibility. The major feature of the group is the purple dragon petted by the saint. In the center of the painting, at the bottom, we see the owner of the painting in red robes, sitting on a barrel filled with his home brew, Dragon Ale, and guarded by his favorite dog, Luke. In front of him are books related to Villard -- Portfolio, Le 'probleme' Villard, and Architector. In the hands of the owner is a book with my signature and date, as well as Villard's initials and some imaginary design. The stone masons working on the wall are inspired by medieval manuscripts as are all the carpenters with a hoist building a bridge from the monastery to the cathedral. It is important to notice on the facade of the cathedral gothic figures in the portal, the figures of kings and saints, the images of 'green men' above the doors, the labirynth on the wall, and various details present in many real gothic cathedrals. The monastery is romanesque and features a small garden attended by monks but based on the garden of the owner of the painting. A tiny figure of a flying monk alludes to the legend of Elmer of Malmesbury who, in 1010, supposedly made a pair of wings and flew from the Abbey's tower. More workers are shown building a small model of a church on the left. Bridges, windmills, water mills, a medieval gusli player and a burger discussing something with a lady in blue complete the story. Of course, many slopes of this imaginary town have faces hewn out of stone, one of my trademarks and favorite things to paint.

Very informative. And appropriate for my interests and this blog, given the prominence of art and technology in the life of Villard de Honnecourt, a thirteenth-century artist from northern France.

Professor Boguslawski notes "the images of 'green men' above the doors" of the cathedral (and a green man seems to be tormenting St. Anthony), and on his website, he has also posted a photograph of such a green man: "the green gargoyle from one of the French cathedrals."

I'm curious if these 'green men' had any connection to the Green Knight of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Or, for that matter, if there has been any influence on the Green Goblin of the Spiderman comics. Perhaps Terrance Lindall would know . . .

Paraphrasing Techniques: Applied Again!

Culture Shock?

First Indian Student in Dresden

East Germany (1951)

(Image from Wikipedia)

I'm still busy preparing materials to teach Korean students how to paraphrase, but I wanted to go beyond the rather mechanical method that I was using two days ago in "Paraphrasing Techniques: Applied!" I use some of those same techniques, of course, but I also introduce the strategy of "Thorough Rewriting." You'll see what I mean in this lesson plan:

Original passage on "Culture Shock":

Note that this original passage would be a direct quote and would thus need to be put into long-quote form (block-quote form), which would mean indenting it as a block:

Moving to a new country can be an exciting, even exhilarating experience. In a new environment, you somehow feel more alive: seeing new sights, eating new food, and hearing the foreign sounds of a new language. Soon, however, this sensory bombardment becomes sensory overload. Suddenly, new experiences seem stressful rather than stimulating, and delight turns into discomfort. This is the phenomenon known as culture shock. Culture shock is more than jet lag or homesickness, and it affects nearly everyone who enters a new culture -- tourists, business travelers, diplomats, and students alike. Although not everyone experiences culture shock in exactly the same way, many experts agree that it has roughly five stages. (Oshima & Hogue, 2006, p. 47)

Note the position of the period. After a long quote, continue the paragraph, so don't indent. Don't forget the bibliographical entry that comes at the end of the paper in the References section:

Oshima, A., & Hogue, A. (2006). Writing academic English (4th ed). White Plains, NY: Pearson Longman.

Note that when one begins paraphrasing, the passage is no longer a quote and would not be put into block-quote form.

Let's now apply the paraphrasing techniques that we have learned, much as we did last time, along with some paraphrasing strategies, e.g., reordering and rewriting, that we have also learned about and used:

Take the first sentence of the passage and apply some of these techniques to its parts:

"Moving to a new country can be an exciting, even exhilarating experience."

Let's first use "Technique Number 1" (synonyms). Let's apply this technique to the word "country," choosing from a list of synonyms: nation, state, land, commonwealth, kingdom, realm, sovereign state. If we use "land," we get:

Moving to a new land can be an exciting, even exhilarating experience.

This is no longer an exact quote, so we don't use quotation marks, but it is still too close to the original and thus constitutes plagiarism rather than a good paraphrase. If we look carefully, we see that we can rewrite this sentence by radically cutting away excess verbiage, a step toward thorough rewriting:

A new land can be exhilarating.

Note that we've also used "Technique Number 2" (word forms) in changing "exhilarating" from an adjective to a verb, though perhaps the change is from attributive to predicate adjective. Anyway, this shortened form will work fine if the context makes clear that one is speaking of moving to a different country. But we could also add a couple of words in our process of rewriting:

Living in a new land can be exhilarating.

This says about the same thing as the sentence did before the changes, but it differs greatly in form, thus approaching the aim of a paraphrase: "same meaning, different form." We might as well change "exhilarating" by finding synonyms for "exhilarate": excite, delight, cheer, thrill, stimulate, animate, exalt, lift, enliven, invigorate, gladden, elate, or inspirit. Let's use "invigorate," and change "new" as well:

Living in a different land can be invigorating.

This is a rather thorough rewriting achieved largely through cutting and adding words, along with substituting synonyms. Let's now turn to the next sentence:

In a new environment, you somehow feel more alive: seeing new sights, eating new food, and hearing the foreign sounds of a new language.

Here, we see that we can cut the first clause, for it essentially repeats the meaning already given in the first sentence:

. . . seeing new sights, eating new food, and hearing the foreign sounds of a new language.

But this is a sentence fragment, so let's connect it to the first sentence:

Living in a different land can be invigorating . . . seeing new sights, eating new food, and hearing the foreign sounds of a new language.

But these need a connecting expression. Let's add "because of" or "through" since the relationship is likely causal, and these prepositions bring in "Technique Number 3" (clause to phrase). Let's also cut more words:

Living in a different land can be invigorating through the new sights, new food, and new language.

That looks quite good, so let's move to the nest sentence:

Soon, however, this sensory bombardment becomes sensory overload.

We can easily employ "Technique Number 7" (change transitions):

But soon, this sensory bombardment becomes sensory overload.

And we can smooth this sentence out by moving "soon" to get rid of a comma:

But this sensory bombardment soon becomes sensory overload.

What we now have looks like a candidate for some synonym work. Let's first replace "bombardment": bombing, attack, fire, assault, shelling, blitz, barrage, flak, strafe, fusillade, or cannonade. We have a problem. These all sound negative, but something positive was meant by the invigorating new sights, food, and language. The word "bombardment" must have been used in a metaphorical sense, but we can't be sure that a synonym will work that way, so let's rely on our imagination here. Since the sights, food, and language are all invigorating, they could be described as delightful, so let's use "delight." We also need an antonym for "delight" to correspond to "overload": dissatisfaction, distaste, displeasure, disfavour, or disapprobation. Let’s use "displeasure." And what can we do about "sensory"? We could just delete it. These changes give us:

But this delight soon becomes displeasure.

Note that we can attach this sentence to the previous one, and we can also adjust some word forms ("Technique Number 2") for a more thorough rewriting:

Living in a different land can be invigorating through the new sights, new food, and new language, but these delights soon become displeasing.

Let's turn to the next sentence:

Suddenly, new experiences seem stressful rather than stimulating, and delight turns into discomfort.

If we think carefully, we see that this sentence repeats some of what has been said already ("suddenly" repeats "soon"; "new experiences" repeats "new sights, new food, and new language"; and "delight turns into discomfort" repeats "these delights . . . become displeasing"), so let's trim it and add what remains to the previous sentence:

Living in a different land can be invigorating through the new sights, new food, and new language, but these delights soon become displeasing -- stressful rather than stimulating.

We now see that we can replace "stressful" with a synonym: worrying, anxious, tense, trying, hard, taxing, demanding, wearing, tough, draining, exhausting, exacting, traumatic, agitating, or nerve-racking. Let's use "exhausting," partly because it's opposed to "invigorating." And we can replace "stimulating" with a synonym: inspiring, prompting, urging, spurring, arousing, animating, rousing, prodding, quickening, whetting, or impelling. Let's choose "animating" since it's similar to "invigorating." We now have:

Living in a different land can be invigorating through the new sights, new food, and new language, but these delights soon become displeasing -- exhausting rather than animating.

Let's remind ourselves of what remains to be paraphrased (still using the long-quote form know as a block quote):

This is the phenomenon known as culture shock. Culture shock is more than jet lag or homesickness, and it affects nearly everyone who enters a new culture -- tourists, business travelers, diplomats, and students alike. Although not everyone experiences culture shock in exactly the same way, many experts agree that it has roughly five stages. (Oshima & Hogue, 2006, p. 47)

Rather than go through this line by line, let me show the passage transformed (which wouldn't be a long quote in block form, incidentally, and the period moves to a new position):

This is culture shock, which is neither merely jet lag nor homesickness, and it strikes almost everybody who lingers in an unfamiliar culture. Although culture shock differs from individual to individual, the experience has about five phases (Oshima & Hogue, 2006, p. 47).

Can you identify the changes? Let's work as a class . . .

[The class works together.]

. . . Let's now put the entire passage down for viewing:

Living in a different land can be invigorating through the new sights, new food, and new language, but these delights soon become displeasing -- exhausting rather than animating. This is culture shock, which is neither merely jet lag nor homesickness, and it strikes almost everybody who lingers in an unfamiliar culture. Although culture shock differs from individual to individual, the experience has about five phases (Oshima & Hogue, 2006, p. 47).

That's a pretty good paraphrase.

And that's what I've prepared for tomorrow's lesson on paraphrase, intended for about 10 students but now burdening the world.

The old days . . .

The man depicted above in a photo from Center for the American Idea, Josiah Bunting III -- a military historian, novelist, and inspirational speaker -- notes the historian Henry Steele Commager, pictured below in a photo from Amherst College, and makes a point about the way that Americans learned in the old days.


The passage is from Bunting's article "Gen. George C. Marshall and the Development of a Professional Military Ethic," in Footnotes: The Newsletter of FPRI's Wachman Center (June 2011, Vol 16, No 4):

Many of you, if you are historians, know the word "prosopography," an alluring subset of history concerned with the study of groups united in some purpose or by some chronology . . . . The most important prosopography in our history is that of the American founders. Henry Steele Commager talked about periods of extraordinary fluorescence in human leadership and human talent in history. He detailed the Athens of Pericles, Elizabethan England, Renaissance Italy, and particularly the American founders. How was it that at that time in our history we had a number of people born roughly between 1730 and 1750 who grew to be such extraordinary human beings allied in a common purpose -- people of astounding versatility? Where did they come from? Commager makes the point that once you clear away the debris of great challenges bringing forth great leadership, you have to look very seriously at the way people were raised and how they were educated. What did they study? What did they read? What were their parents’ expectations for them? They were not obsessed with SAT scores, there were no Blackberries, no one cared if you went to Princeton or the University of Virginia. You went up to your room at 7:00 at night, and if you were John Adams, you read Plutarch, and you were given no rewards for reading Plutarch. This is essentially Commager's thesis.

It seems that in the old days, greatness called for inner-directed men. Thanks to progress, we can now be great through obtaining high SATs and getting into an Ivy League school.

If only I'd have had a Tiger Mother . . .

Paraphrasing Techniques: Applied!

Technique?

(Image from Free Dictionary)

For those interested in paraphrasing techniques, I worked up some materials yesterday morning, as you can see:

Paraphrasing (25 Minutes)

Text on "Women's Liberation"

Original Passage:

The traditional husband-wife relationship is undergoing a radical transformation. Because so many women are working, men are learning to share the household tasks of cooking, cleaning, and even caring for children. In some families, there has been a complete reversal of the traditional roles: the husband stays home, while the wife earns the family's income. It should be pointed out, however, that this is an exception, not the rule. In most families in the United States, the husband still earns most of the money, and the wife still does most of the housework.

Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue, Writing Academic English (4th ed), White Plains, NY: Pearson Longman, 2006.

Paraphrasing Techniques (with examples from last week):

1. Change to synonyms.

Examples: profound --> deep; humorous --> funny

2. Change word forms.

Example: The evidence supports their interpretation. --> Their interpretation receives support.

3. Change from a clause to a phrase.

To express this in a different way . . . --> In other words . . .

4. Change from quoted speech to indirect speech.

Hamlet asked, "To be, or not to be?" --> Hamlet asked if one should be or not be.

5. Change from active voice to passive voice.

The data show a causal relation. --> A causal relation is shown by the data.

6. Interpret meaning / Identify the underlying meaning of a statement.

The coward dies a thousand deaths; a brave man dies but one. --> A brave man may die, though only one physical death, but a coward dies in many ways even if he escapes physical death.

7. Change transitions.

However . . . --> But . . . ; Therefore . . . --> So . . .

Let's take the first sentence of the passage and apply some of these techniques to its parts:

"The traditional husband-wife relationship is undergoing a radical transformation."

Let's first use "Technique Number 1" (synonyms). Let's apply this technique to the word "traditional," choosing from a list of synonyms: old-fashioned, old, established, conventional, standard, fixed, usual, transmitted, orthodox, accustomed, customary, ancestral, long-established, unwritten, or time-honoured. If we use "established," we get:

The established husband-wife relationship is undergoing a radical transformation.

This is no longer an exact quote, so we don't use quotation marks, but it is still too close to the original and thus constitutes plagiarism rather than a good paraphrase.

Let's turn to "Technique Number 2" (word forms). Let's apply this technique to the expression "radical transformation" by altering the adjective-noun combination to an adverb-verb combination: "radically transforming." We can drop the original verb, "undergoing," since the new, adverb-verb combination contains its meaning:

The established husband-wife relationship is radically transforming.

But we notice that a passive construction would work better, so let's apply "Technique Number 5" (active voice to passive voice):

The established husband-wife relationship is being radically transformed.

This is still rather close to the original sentence:

The traditional husband-wife relationship is undergoing a radical transformation.

We therefore need to change this sentence some more. Techniques 3, 4, 6, and 7 don't apply here, but we can apply "Technique Number 1" (synonyms) three more times, for "relationship," "radically," and "transformed":

Synonyms for relationship: association, bond, communications, connection, conjunction, affinity, or rapport

Synonyms for radically: extremely, completely, entirely, sweepingly, violently, severely, extensively, excessively, thoroughly, drastically, or rigorously

Synonyms for transformed: changed, converted, altered, translated, reconstructed, metamorphosed, transmuted, or renewed

Let's use "bond," "thoroughly," and "changed." These give us the following paraphrase of the original (with the unchanged parts in red):

Paraphrase: The established husband-wife bond is being thoroughly changed.

Original: "The traditional husband-wife relationship is undergoing a radical transformation."

This paraphrase looks different enough from the original to avoid plagiarism.

Now, can we apply techniques 3, 4, 6, or 7 to any of the remaining sentences in the original passage? Yes, "Technique Number 3" (clause to phrase) can be applied, with the change shown in red:

Original: "Because so many women are working, men are learning to share the household tasks of cooking, cleaning, and even caring for children."

Paraphrase: Due to the many working women, men are learning to share the household tasks of cooking, cleaning, and even caring for children.

The paraphrase is obviously still too close to the original, but we’ve already seen how to deal with that problem.

Applying "Technique Number 4" (quoted speech to indirect speech) can also work. The passage itself has no quotes, but we can quote from the passage:

Quoted Speech: As Oshima and Hogue (2006) observed, "the husband still earns most of the money, and the wife still does most of the housework."

Indirect Speech: Oshima and Hogue (2006) observed that the husband still earned most of the money, and the wife still did most of the housework.

This paraphrase is also obviously still too close to the original, but, again, we've already seen how to deal with that problem.

Applying "Technique Number 6" (interpret meaning) can also work. Let's take another sentence:

Original: "It should be pointed out, however, that this is an exception, not the rule."

Paraphrase: Note, however, that this is not the usual case.

And we immediately see that "Technique Number 7" (transitions) can be applied here:

First Paraphrase: Note, however, that this is not the usual case.

Second Paraphrase: But note that this is not the usual case.

We've now used each of the paraphrasing techniques, numbers 1 through 7.

Let's now look at the result of all our effort at paraphrasing the original passage given at the beginning:

Paraphrase: The established husband-wife bond is being thoroughly changed. Due to the many working women, men are learning to share the household tasks of cooking, cleaning, and even caring for children. In some families, there has been a complete reversal of the traditional roles: the husband stays home, while the wife earns the family's income. But note that this is not the usual case. In most families in the United States, Oshima and Hogue (2006) observed that the husband still earned most of the money, and the wife still did most of the housework.

Compare this to the original:

Original: "The traditional husband-wife relationship is undergoing a radical transformation. Because so many women are working, men are learning to share the household tasks of cooking, cleaning, and even caring for children. In some families, there has been a complete reversal of the traditional roles: the husband stays home, while the wife earns the family's income. It should be pointed out, however, that this is an exception, not the rule. In most families in the United States, the husband still earns most of the money, and the wife still does most of the housework."

There are still too many things in common for this paraphrase to avoid plagiarism. But here's a much more complete paraphrase in which many things change:

More Complete Paraphrase: The established husband-wife bond is being thoroughly changed. Due to the many working women, men have now accepted the division of housework and are willing to cook, clean, and take care of children. Some families have even completely reversed the conventional roles, with the husband remaining at home and the wife serving as wage-earner. But note that this is not the usual case. Oshima and Hogue (2006) observed that most American families still had the wife doing the greater part of the housework and the husband earning the larger salary (Oshima & Hogue, 2006, p. 36).

Note that even though this is a paraphrase, one must still cite the source, i.e., Oshima & Hogue, 2006, p. 36. (Incidentally, I've had to make up a page number since I don't know the original page, but you should always use the correct page number for quotes and paraphrases.)

I would add one final point. Although this paraphrase is more complete, it is not quite ideal, for the sequence of sentences in this paraphrase follows the sequence of sentences in the original passage. Let's rework things a bit more through some restructuring:

More Complete Paraphrase Restructured: Due to the many working women, the established husband-wife bond is being thoroughly changed. Men have now accepted the division of housework and are willing to cook, clean, and take care of children. Some families have even completely reversed the conventional roles, with the husband remaining at home and the wife serving as wage-earner. But note that Oshima and Hogue (2006) observed that most American families still had the wife doing the greater part of the housework and the husband earning the larger salary (Oshima & Hogue, 2006, p. 36).

I have moved the phrase "Due to the many working women" to the first sentence and deleted the clause "this is not the usual case," and adjusted the results.

There. I hope this is benefical for somebody, and there may be more to come.

Just thought that I'd warn everybody . . .

Paraphrasing Techniques

L.H.O.O.Q. (1919)

"Elle a chaud au cul"

Marcel Duchamp

Plagiarism or Paraphrase?

(Image from Wikipedia)

I'm taking part -- a bit abruptly, actually -- in a funded study on how to avoid plagiarism. I say "abruptly" because I found out on Tuesday evening and received the materials on Wednesday evening for the first session on Thursday. Consequently, the Thursday session was a bit rough because I wasn't thoroughly prepared, but I actually learned some important techniques for paraphrasing a passage. Take this nonsense passage, for instance, which I've just now patched together from some sample words, clauses, and sentences that I initially came up with for class last Thursday:

Profound and humorous is the evidence that supports their interpretation. To express this in a different way, "To be, or not to be," for the data show a causal relation. Thus, the coward dies a thousand deaths; a brave man dies but one. However, therefore, let us now conclude.

That's my patched-together nonsense passage. Let's now look at a list of paraphrasing techniques that was given to me on Wednesday evening, and for which I came up with those sample words, clauses, and sentences:

1. Change to synonyms.
2. Change word forms.
3. Change from a clause to a phrase.
4. Change from quoted speech to indirect speech.
5. Change from active voice to passive voice.
6. Interpret meaning / Identify the underlying meaning of a statement.
7. Change transitions.

Such techniques was I given to work with. Well, let's apply these to avoid plagiarism:

Deep and funny is the evidence through which their interpretation receives support. In other words, to continue living, or to kill oneself, for a causal relation is shown by the data. Thus, a brave man may die, though only one physical death, but a coward dies in many ways even if he escapes physical death. But so, let us now end.

I've applied these techniques rather mechanically, somewhat as a translation engine might, so this is rather crudely done. Does this paraphrase escape plagiarism? Not entirely, for it reproduces the sequence of clauses in the original, and some of the sentences are too close as well.

For that reason, the material that I was given last Wednesday also adds a few paraphrasing strategies, one of these being:

Reordering: Paraphrase by reordering word(s) or phrase(s) of source texts.

I won't bother with that in today's post, but that would be necessary -- though a "thorough rewriting" (as the material suggests) would also prove beneficial in avoiding plagiarism.

I might return to this issue of paraphrase over the next four weeks.

New Brewment Moving . . .

Christopher Bowen's British-Style Pub

Photo by Fred R. Conrad

(Image from The New York Times)

Uh . . . make that . . . "New Movement Brewing . . ."

I confess, I've had a drink or two . . .

Anyway, I'd like to tuck a private pub of the sort in this photo into a corner of my apartment, but my wife, for some reason, objects. Something about 'space'. Now, I can't imagine what brewing a bit of beer has to do with things extraterrestrial, but I'm no authority on that, so I defer to her superior knowledge.

But if the universe were large enough -- and it certainly feels expansive after a few drinks -- I'd brew my own beer, much like the men mentioned in John Holl's New York Times article, "Need a Six-Pack? Hit the Basement" (June 22, 2011), who are part of a small-brewing renaissance:

Home brewing, which was rendered illegal by Prohibition and not legalized again until 1979, is enjoying a resurgence. The American Homebrewers Association, based in Boulder, Colo., had just 11,724 members in 2006; that has since more than doubled, to 26,000. This increased interest, in turn, has fostered a mini-boom in brewing equipment, according to Gary Glass, who is the director of the association. "Home-brew supply shops reported a growth of 16 percent in gross revenue, according to 2009 numbers," Mr. Glass said, referring to the change from the prior year. The numbers for 2010 are not yet available, he added, but he anticipates double-digit growth once again.

This increase has been aided by the rise of social clubs, books and competitions geared to home brewers, as well as by the success of microbreweries over the last two decades, which has inspired many amateur beermakers. The D.I.Y. [Do It Yourself] and locavore [local eating] movements have played a role, too. "There is a trend to do things more locally," Mr. Glass said. "You don’t get any more local than doing it at home."

You see? You'll not only be brewing your own beer, you'll be doing something environmentally ethical! But don't let that stand in your way. Read the article. Follow the advice found there. Brew your own.

I'll drink to that! Too bad I have to buy that drink . . .

European Islam?

Sehitlik Mosque in Berlin

Sean Gallup, Getty Images

(Image from The Chronicle of Higher Education)

One of my history students this past spring semester wrote a research paper that cited an article by Paul Hockenos, "Educating Imams in Germany: the Battle for a European Islam" (The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 18, 2010) and even though nearly a year has passed since its publication, the article is still worth reading because the issue of how to integrate Islam into European civilization will likely be with us for a long time.

The background to the issue is the growing Muslim population -- and not only in Germany, but throughout much of Western Europe -- for the second and third generations are not assimilating well, nor is Islam integrating well. Most Muslims live in enclaves where Islam is the leading religion, and the religious leaders are foreign to Europe, often funded by conservative oil money, and preach a very conservative form of Islam. Moreover, these religious leaders often know no European languages and understand little about European cultures. But let's turn to Hockenos:

In a Germany struggling to come to grips with its burgeoning, four-million-strong Muslim population (about 5 percent of the populace), the use of imams sent from Turkey and other foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia, has come under sustained fire from integration-minded critics. After all, argue some intellectuals, politicos, and other citizens across Germany's political spectrum, including the more moderate currents in the Muslim community, how can the foreign clergy advise believers -- many of whom grapple with profound disadvantage in Germany -- without mastering the lingua franca and knowing the world they live in? The imams have, in part, been held responsible for Muslims' ghettoization, as well as fundamentalism in some pockets of the country.

Germany thinks that it has an answer to this problem: education with the aim of producing an Islamic education that will make critical thinking an integral part of the pedagogical approach and thereby assist in the integration of Islam and the assimilation of Muslims:

Fostering a generation of German-schooled imams, seen as central to breaking the vicious circle of Muslim exclusion, is the chief aim of an Islamic-theology initiative announced by the government in January [2010]. The effort is a vital front of the Islam Conference, started in 2006, an ambitious, wide-ranging process set in motion by the German government to consider the yawning gap between mainstream Germany and its Muslims. The conference, designed to map out a long-term integration strategy, painted a dismal picture of the reality faced by German Muslims. It is a reality marked by meager integration; growing alienation and even fundamentalism among the second and third-generations; the ossification of a Muslim underclass; and dysfunctional communication between Germany and its Muslims, nearly half of whom are German citizens. One of its key recommendations is to focus on the training of the Islamic community's personnel, including religion teachers, as well as the dearth of Islamic theology in German academe.

Bringing Islam into the classrooms at the very highest level, Germany hopes, will have an educational and cultural trickle-down effect. And so the country's foremost academic advisory body, the German Council of Science and Humanities, announced the creation of cutting-edge academic institutes -- hybrids of seminary and religious-studies programs -- to examine Islamic theology with a critical bent and teach it to Germany's Muslims in a university setting. "This," stated the council's 158-page report, "is the best way to insure the academic quality of research and instruction, to intensify the discourse with other disciplines with different worldviews, and to create a reliable theological foundation for interreligious dialogue."

Although the institutes will be anchored in state-financed colleges, the country's Muslim communities will have a substantial voice in their curricula and management, just as Christian churches do in theology departments across Germany. The council's recommendations are not blueprints for the two or three new planned institutes, estimated to open in 2012 and to cost about $4-million annually in government funds, but rather a visionary démarche, the specifics of which -- the study program, size, and composition of faculty and students -- will be hammered out by the vested parties over the next few years. Certain, however, is that these new academies will nurture not only German-speaking imams with European orientations, but also -- if everything goes according to plan -- new ranks of male and female Muslim religion teachers, public intellectuals, scholars, and faith-based social workers. The long-anticipated proposal explicitly mentions the training of qualified religion teachers for the estimated 700,000 Muslim pupils in Germany who do not enjoy faith-based religious instruction on a par with that of their peers who belong to the major Christian denominations.

This is a visionary undertaking that aims to ground Islam in the European Enlightenment and thereby create a rational, critically self-reflective European Islam. The goal is a worthy one, and I think that it has to be attempted, but I also foresee problems, partly due to Islam's decentralized state (partially resulting from the fall of the caliphate). I'm not alone in this. A man whom I knew when I lived in Tübingen and pursued doctoral research there at Eberhard Karls University, Christoph Markschies -- who did his doctoral and post-doctoral studies under Professor Martin Hengel and also took part in seminars led by Professor Alexander Böhlig -- holds similar views:

The establishment of faculties of Islamic theology "could change the very character of Islam in Germany and Europe," says Christoph Markschies, president of the prestigious Humboldt University of Berlin.

The issue of Islam in Germany's public sphere is explosive -- and certain to stir up pique before the faculties open their doors. "The execution of these plans will bring up a lot of difficulties," predicts Markschies, a Protestant theologian. He welcomes the consensus around the project but warns that when it comes to establishing the institutes, "there's going to be bitter conflicts, not least within the large number of different Islamic communities, that will pit conservatives against progressives, Sunnis against Shiites, and so forth." Before concrete steps to create the institutes can be taken, the German universities have to locate a single, authoritative institution in the Muslim community to act as an interlocutor; the inability to do so in the past has proved the major stumbling block in establishing Islamic theology courses on a much smaller scale.

There's also the matter of an intransigent Islam, due either to fundamentalism or lack of education:

Against the backdrop of international terrorism, including a foiled bomb plot in Germany in 2007, and studies documenting failed integration, Germany's foreign imams have come under intense public scrutiny. One study discovered a pronounced conservative, fundamentalist streak among up to 20 percent of Islamic preachers in the country. Many of the imams possess little higher education, and some come from extremist ranks.

I'm surprised that the number is only 20 percent, for I suspect that the percentage is higher. But the German state believes that the academic institutes called for by the German Council of Science and Humanities offers an answer, and Markschies agrees:

The kind of academically rigorous theology that will be offered at Germany's universities, says Humboldt University's Markschies, is something rare even in the Muslim world. "Islam lacks a Western-type theology, characterized by a critical, open-minded discourse about its texts, its assumptions, and its history," says Markschies, who'd like to see one of the institutes find a home in Berlin. "The Christian religions have engaged with the Enlightenment and issues like human rights and personal liberty for some 200 years, which still has to happen in Islam. Bringing Islam into the German universities will compel it to face discourses about democratic norms and will ultimately change it, the way Christianity changed when it confronted modernity."

I hope so, but success in attaining this goal will come only if Muslims themselves accept the aims and the institutes, and this acceptance would have to come not only through openness on the part of German Muslims but on the part of Muslims throughout the world, for Islam in Germany -- as in Europe generally -- cannot be isolated from religious currents within global Islam. There will be great resistance to an Enlightenment-based Islam in the worldwide Muslim community, for as Markschies has pointed out, "Islam lacks a Western-type theology, characterized by a critical, open-minded discourse about its texts, its assumptions, and its history," and that's a fact about the 1.5 billion Muslims of the Islamic world, not just about Germany's four million Muslims. And even German experts warn of unintended consequences:

Ulrike Freitag, a professor of Islamic studies at Berlin's liberal-minded Free University, warns that the introduction of Islam into academe is open-ended, with no guarantee that something progressive will emerge. "On the one hand, there's enormous potential for a new interpretation of Islam," she says. "There's the possibility of a new kind of discussion between Sunnis and Shiites or an alternative reading of the Koran." On the other hand, she is wary that German universities "could wind up with something very conservative. The orientation of the migrant communities and their descendants is overwhelmingly traditionalist," she says, referring to their interpretation of the Shariah on matters such as gender, family law, clothing, and moral codes in general. "They could unite around a minimum conservative consensus rather than dare to try something new."

Markschies himself acknowledges doubts:

Although the Islam Conference and the planned Islamic institutes are enormous steps forward, those involved admit that the road ahead is treacherous. Markschies, for example, wonders whether there are enough qualified Muslim academics to fill the new posts.

Even if qualified scholars from the Muslim community do step forward, who will protect them from the fundamentalists as these scholars begin to offer a more open Islam based on a "Western-type theology, characterized by a critical, open-minded discourse about its texts, its assumptions, and its history"? Such scholars will be subjecting the Qur'an to skeptical analysis and raising questions concerning the traditions about Muhammad, and such an approach will not be tolerated by radical Muslims, either worldwide or in Europe itself.

A bloody fight looms . . .

Vulgar Visitor . . .

Gypsy Scholar: A Korean?

Somebody anonymous searching the internet for the online publishing phenomenon Amanda Hocking came across my blog yesterday, specifically, this entry: "Shocking Hocking: A Young Adult Story." Something about that particular post on Ms. Hocking's abrupt, stunning success as a writer set him off:

"You f**king Korean pr**ks. You mothers expect your KIDS to pay for your old age. YOU ENSLAVE YOUR F**KING KIDS! You should pay for your own old age. Do the right thing and don't take handouts."

As I rather dryly noted in response:

Someone imagines that I'm Korean . . . . I trust that readers can see why I deleted this 'comment' (and God only knows why it was posted to this blog entry).

The asterisks, of course, are my obscuring substitutes for the original, more 'obscene' letters. At first, I wondered why -- in the name of all that's holy and decent -- this vulgar fellow had reacted with such vicious, vulgar abuse, and why he had assumed that I was a Korean mother, but when I looked over my post again, I figured out what had triggered his wild overreaction, namely, the part where I comment about the fixation upon fan fiction that Amanda Hockings had during her teenage years, a portion of the New York Times article that Sa-Rah and I were reading aloud. As I noted:

My daughter stopped, blinked, and smiled. She also writes fan fiction . . . about the singers in the K-pop group Girls' Generation. I don't know if that sort of pop music writing would lead to popular writing, particularly since she writes her 'fan-fic' in Korean. If she's going to make millions for my old age, she'll need to write in English.

That's what the irascible fellow was overreacting to. He immediately typed an irate comment, without even bothering to check and see to whom he was directing his words, else he wouldn't have called me a "mother" (unless he meant something worse!), nor would he have called me a "Korean" (unless he considers that a general term of abuse!).

But he perhaps soon realized his mistake, for assuming that I found his footprints (location and IP address duly noted, sirrah) via my site meter, this fellow briefly checked my profile and surely discovered, from my name and biographical details, that I'm not Korean, after which he seems to have gotten the hell away from my blog, possibly a bit embarrassed.

I do wonder, however, if he dimly understands the seriousness of his irony-challenged condition.

Amanda Hocking's Paradox . . .

Amanda Hocking

(Image from Amanda Hocking's Blog)

After posting "Shocking Hocking: A Young Adult Story," on Amanda Hocking's success as described by Strawberry Saroyan in her New York Times article "Storyseller," I decided to see if Ms. Hocking has a website. She in fact has several, including a blog, appropriately designated Amanda Hocking's Blog, which has a recent blog entry about the NYT article: "Those People Aren't My Family" (June 19, 2011).

Among other things that she wrote concerning the interview by Ms. Saroyan was this aside about the photographer who took the picture that accompanied the article:

Side note: The guy who took the picture -- Ben Innes -- is the first person to photograph me using an actual camera that uses real film instead of digital. Also, he told me this great joke: What do you call a wharf next to a pier? A paradox. Get? Cause they're a pair of docks? Anyway. It's a great joke, and he was a nice guy.

That is a great joke, and it's an even better joke if one adds a punny twist, as I did in a comment:

I read the NYT piece and was impressed, so I had my 14-year-old daughter read it aloud, and I even blogged on it: Shocking Hocking: A Young Adult Story.

My daughter now wants to read your books. Congratulations on your success. May it continue.

Oh, and I also liked the paradox joke, partly because I discovered another joke within a pun:

"What do you call a wharf next to a pier?"

"A wharf next to appear? Is this a trick question?"

So far, Ms. Hocking has graciously ignored my atrocious pun, which is perhaps not as funny as I first imagined.

But I still like it . . .

Salwa Al-Mutairi: More on Sexual Slavery!

Salwa al-Mutairi

aka Salwa al-Mteiri

(Image from MEMRI)

Readers will recall that I blogged on this 'clown' Salwa al-Mutairi several days ago, as well as -- more recently -- her comrade-in-arms, Abu-Ishaq al-Huwaini, but we now have a video of Salwa al-Mutairi's high hopes of introducing sex slaves to Kuwait. Here are excerpts, provided by MEMRI (Special Dispatch No. 3924, June 19, 2011):

"I asked [a Saudi mufti]: What is the law with regard to slave girls? The mufti told me that the law requires there to be a Muslim country raiding a Christian country -- sorry, a non-Muslim country -- and taking POWs. I asked him whether it was forbidden [to turn them into slaves], and he said that Islam does not prohibit keeping slave girls -- on the contrary."

Let's see . . . Muslims raiding a non-Muslim country and taking POWs (prisoners of war), identified by Ms. Al-Mutairi as slave girls! Since when are civilians considered POWs? Oh, right -- we're dealing with categories formulated according to Salafi insistence on shariah, which has absolutely nothing to do with modern, secular understanding based on human rights and the laws of just warfare. Rather, shariah stipulates that:

"The law pertaining to slave girls is not the same as for free women. Free women must cover their bodies, except for their hands and faces. The slave girl must cover up from the belly button down."

Well, that explains an image that I'd always assumed was a piece of Orientalist art, an Arab Bedouin posed with an Asiatic-looking girl naked from the waist up. I recall ridiculing the sketch as obviously an ignorant projection or Western assumptions about Arabs and sexuality since anybody with a modicum of knowledge on the Arabic world would know that the women were prudishly covered up. I was wrong. I hadn't reckoned on non-Muslim slave girls! As al-Mutairi kindly explains:

"There is a big difference between slave girls and free women. With a free woman, the man must make a marriage contract, but with a slave girl -- all he has to do is buy her. It's as if he married her. So there is a difference between slave girls and free women."

But the ever-rigorous Ms. al-Mutairi wanted to be absolutely certain:

"Here in Kuwait too, I asked religious scholars and experts about this, and they said that for the average, good religious man, the only way to avoid forbidden relations with women is to purchase slave girls."

Such a "good religious man" seems to lack sufficient self-control if this is his only way to avoid 'forbidden' relations. What can such a fellow do if he lacks sufficient money to purchase a slave girl? Well, there's always this . . . or is that solely for women? Nevertheless, Ms. al-Mutairi hopes for the best:

"I very much hope that such a law is legislated. Just like they allow servants, they should allow slave girls and legislate a proper law in this regard. We don't want our children to fall into the abyss of fornication and similar filth, God forbid. Allah willing, things will work out."

Just look at the face of this woman at about 2 minutes and 20 seconds into the video, when she states this hope and calls on Allah to grant it. Such piety of expression! I say that without irony. The woman expresses herself with great reverence in appealing to Allah's will that sex slaves might be brought to Kuwait to prevent 'fornication'. What a twisted, despicable view of sexuality, marriage, human relations, and reverent religious piety. As if sexual slavery itself were not the depth of sexual depravity, deserving the label "fornication" if anything does. Yet, Ms. al-Mutairi imagines that she's doing those infidel women a favor:

"There are countries like Chechnya, which are at war with another country. In such a case, there must be POWs, so why not go and buy those prisoners? Is it better for them to be slaughtered over there? Go and buy them, and sell them to traders here in Kuwait."

Ms. al-Mutairi forgets that if infidel women are being slaughtered in Chechnya, it's the jihadis who are slaughtering them.

The more I read what Islamists have to say, the more I wonder if Edward Said got things entirely wrong in his book Orientalism -- and if those whom he called 'Orientalists' got it right.

Shocking Hocking: A Young Adult Story

Bloody Successful!

(Image from Amazon)

I'd heard of this young, twenty-six-year-old author Amanda Hocking, but I didn't know her story (or her stories, for that matter) until reading this New York Times article "Storyseller," by Strawberry Saroyan, which tells of her rise to e-fame, beginning around April 2010, when she started self-publishing her novels online:

Hocking uploaded "My Blood Approves" to Amazon and, about a month later, to Smashwords, a service that makes her books compatible not only with the Nook but also with less popular devices like BeBook and Kobo. (When, in October 2010, it became possible to self-publish directly on Barnes & Noble's site for the Nook, she did so.) It's a surprisingly simple process in each case -- much like signing up for Facebook. She took the e-leap because she thought that even if she sold her vampire books, there was going to be a reaction against them before they made it into stores.

The first day, she sold five books. The next, five more. "I took screen shots a lot," she said. Then she uploaded another novel and sold a total of 36 books one day in May. "It was like: 36 books? It's astounding. I'm taking over the world."

Soon she started selling hundreds of books a day. That June, she sold 6,000 books; that July 10,000. "And then it started to explode. In January, it was over 100,000." Today, she sells 9,000 books a day.

Wow! I should try that. Except that I haven't written any books. Maybe I could find a ghostwriter? That'd be appropriate for the sort of stories that seem to appeal to young adults these days -- vampire tales, werewolf thrillers, zombie memoirs, troll bodice-rippers. Yeah, that's right, troll romances. A heart that thrills for trolls? Hard to imagine. Initially, she herself wasn't heart-thrilled over them:

At first, she wasn't a fan of trolls either -- "they kind of freaked me out" -- but when she ran across a line in her research that said they could sometimes be attractive, she decided to rethink her position. "They're not so common, and I thought: No one else is doing this. Let's go for it."

Trolls? Attractive? Those big, dumb, lumbering lugs? I guess you gotta read her books to meet some goodlooking ones, but she writes fast, so the books are ready to read:

Her actual time spent writing a novel, she said, is two to four intensive weeks. "But I say that and people are like, 'Whoa, that's fast.' And it is. But the series I sold to St. Martin's, for example, I've been really working on it in my head for over a year. So by the time I sit down to write, it's already written."

Apparently, she does what she does do well:

"She's just a really good storyteller," [says her editor at St. Martins, Rose] Hilliard . . . . "Whatever that thing is that makes you want to stay up late at night to read one more chapter -- she has it."

I read this article with my daughter, who's fourteen, hoping to inspire her, and I did see a reaction at this line on how Ms. Hocking spent her teen years:

She channeled her feelings into fan fiction.

My daughter stopped, blinked, and smiled. She also writes fan fiction . . . about the singers in the K-pop group Girls' Generation. I don't know if that sort of pop music writing would lead to popular writing, particularly since she writes her 'fan-fic' in Korean. If she's going to make millions for my old age, she'll need to write in English.

Time to work her harder on those English lessons . . .

Blaming the Jews: Xin Yishan's 'Analysis'

Crystal Ball of China

(Image from Google Images)

As I've occasionally mentioned, I receive daily emails of the Korea Open Source Digest sent out by USFK J2, and I recently received Volume 4, Issue 114 (Friday, June 17, 2011), which had the following 'intriguing' analysis on the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, "Feeling Pulse of US Recent Actions," by Xin Yishan for the Guangming Wang (original Chinese 6/06/11; translated and released 6/16/11):

The situation in the Middle East is complicated. Many social psychologists in the United States never expected that the "butterfly effect" at the beginning of the incident could lead to such large-scale social unrest. However, the United States is skillful in availing itself of every opportunity. In the evolution of the series of volatile unrest, we can clearly see the black hand of the United States using media reports, political backing, rumors, training of saboteurs, pamphlets for action, and the instigating of discontent behind the scenes. Obviously, the United States "contributed" to the chaos in the Middle East. Although the chaotic situation in the Middle East has been the result of direct US meddling, the strategy is also not significant. Creating problems and fishing in troubled waters has been the advantage of the United Kingdom and the United States, which is also a traditional experience for their successes. The Americans have integrated the habits of the Britons of wishing to see others thrown into confusion whenever possible. When the Middle East was thrown into disorder, fanning flames and creating confusion were the rules of behavior of the Americans. When there was no unrest, the Americans would want to create confusion, to say nothing of the signs of unrest that already existed. Reaping profit amid turmoil was the good experience of the Americans during the First and Second World Wars. Naturally, the Americans are cherishing the dream of the unrest in the Middle East leading to turmoil in Europe.

In other words: I don't know why the US fomented chaos in the Middle East since this isn't really in American interests, though clearly and obviously, the Americans manipulated events, so I assume that they flubbed their multitasking strategy of fishing in troubled waters while fanning flames of confusion and didn't expect their meddling to backfire, but the US will surely attempt to turn the confusion to advantage -- and the Americans probably wanted to harm Europe, too, but I'm not sure why, so maybe it's the Jews since I know that they don't like the Europeans:

The Jews in the United States had enough weight to promote chaos in the Middle East. Jewish strategists believe that unrest in the Middle East will expedite exhaustion within the Arab World and be conducive to the existence of Israel. For this reason, the research institutions controlled by the Jews make use of every opportunity to appropriately propose plans for US economic recovery. With the examples of World War I and World War II, they presented a lot of good sounding ideas, reminding US policymakers to make full use of the Middle East unrest to obtain benefits for the United States, such as attacking the euro to restore the status of the greenback. Naturally, US policymakers who are used to benefiting at the expense of others have acknowledged these selfish tricks. Therefore, we have witnessed the unrest now in the Middle East. The Americans are anxious to see unrest and the more chaotic the better. In light of the current military strength of the United States, it is absolutely capable of protecting a few nations. The United States would like to see great disorder in other regions of the Middle East.

In other words: I realize that the Jews in Israel expressed dismay as the Obama Administration slowly sided with the protesters against Mubarak, but that apparent dismay was just for show because the Jews actually control things in the US and therefore manipulated US policy to turn it against Mubarak, but the Jews are too foolish to see what is obvious, as I shall show, and they will thus be hoist by their own petard when its fuse is lit as they play with the fire fanned by the American fishing expedition:

The policymakers of Jewish origin similarly do not understand the truth that he who plays with fire will eventually burn himself. The chaotic situation in the Middle East will burn Israel in the long run and all the pressure will then focus on Israel. The existence of Israel will then be a big question. Although Israel appears to be very strong, the exhaustion of the protracted wars will wear it down. Wars and huge military spending can bring about a collapse of any big power, to say nothing of Israel which is a small nation.

In other words: Same as what I said earlier, above -- the Jews are manipulating the chaos fanned into flames in the Middle East by the American fishing team -- but I can again restate the point, throwing in a tidbit of Chinese wisdom along with my canny economic analysis on how the Americans want to sabotage the euro:

The unrest in the Middle East will temporarily benefit the United States but it is hard to say whether it will be to the advantage of the United States in the long run. The United States will also be dragged into the wars if it insists on resolutely backing Israel. It will be like lifting a rock to drop on one's own feet. Germany, France, and the Netherlands have benefited from the euro so they will not easily give up the euro. Therefore, the task will be very arduous for the Yankees to adopt any means to crush the euro.

In other words: Rocks dropped to scare fish into nets can splash up and douse flames of chaos, or they can land on one's own foot, too, and there is no need to repeat myself on how the US has so clearly worked to crush the euro as it multitasks among fishing for fracas, fanning furious flames, and flattening fine finance, so let me just note that the US and the Jews are plotting together on this point:

The chaotic situation in the Middle East is created by the US habitual behavior and Jewish plotters for their common interests and the continuous shaping of its evolution and tactical ground is under way. In my opinion, however, the chaotic situation in the Middle East is like a muddy, turbulent current and anyone trying to cross this muddy current is likely to be drowned. The best is yet to come and there will be something good for the Americans and the Israeli Jews. The unrest in the Middle East will drastically change into another wave against Israel.

In other words: These Jewish and American plotters are inadvertently plotting their own destruction . . . I hope.

Commentary: The writer, Xin Yishan, presents a clueless analysis. Or is he being deliberately obtuse? He offers no facts, and he has nearly everything wrong in his analysis. Neither the Americans nor the 'Jews' fomented the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. The US and Israel were both surprised by the unrest, and both fear that Islamists might gain power, especially in Egypt, where they might, for instance, abrogate the Camp David Accords and Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

Is Xin Yishan actually so clueless? Or being deliberately obtuse? Or is he falling prey to antisemitic paranoia and beginning to see Jews as manipulating everything that goes against China's interests.

As if there weren't enough antisemitism in the world . . .

Anna Broadway on "The Cult of the BLEEP," in Christianity Today!

A Vibrant Thingy

(Image from Christianity Today)

Remember the old joke that began with an abrupt outcry:

"Or gas 'em!"

Pause . . . as folks look at you in astonishment. Then:

"Or electrocute 'em! Or shoot 'em! Somethin's gotta be done 'bout criminals these days!"

That was sort of funny back in the days when sex had become just mentionable enough to warrant risking such a risqué joke, but that old joke's probably not funny anymore because open talk about sex is so common these days that Evangelical Christians can now hear entire sermons on what I'll refer to as "Bat Masterson." Even Christianity Today is grabbing hold of this thorny topic:

Cultural mores are changing, The [New York] Times reports; once available mainly in dimly-lit sex shops, vibrators for women are now being sold in national chain drugstores, a supposed sign of women’s empowerment: comfort with discussing and pursuing not just sex but that sometimes-elusive hallmark of "success," an orgasm. The Times credits this shift to many factors, but inevitably certain TV shows are said have played a role in the vibrator boom.

With the ranks of single Christian women unlikely to shrink anytime soon, it's doubtful we have entirely opted out of buying into this trend, since we navigate the same cultural milieu as women outside the church. Aren't we, too, struggling with some measure of sexual disappointment and frustration? Though many of us are likely too shy or conscience-stricken to purchase a vibrator, masturbation has been a topic of debate among evangelicals, with some concluding that it's an acceptable way to wait until marriage for sex (assuming sex requires a partner). How should Christian women respond to the vibrator trend and its broader message of sexual empowerment?

That's from Anna Broadway's recent Christianity Today article on "The Cult of the BLEEP"! Except that she doesn't bleep it out. And she makes the following observation about that device in the image above:

It's not a man, but it's meant to resemble one.

Right. Men look exactly like a wiener. Well, I suppose that Weiner, anyway, looks a lot like one now, given all his recent 'junk' mail, but Broadway doesn't touch that story with even a ten-foot pole. Aside from her observation on what a man putatively looks like, Broadway's article is not especially penetrating -- though the comments that follow certainly are! -- but the fact that such a piece can now appear in a national Christian magazine of conservative stance speaks fascinating volumes about how far American culture has shifted on sexuality since the 1950s.

I suppose that this is a good thing since there's more honesty and understanding among conservative Christians about sexuality these days than there used to be.

But I still can't quite feel comfortable sitting through sermons about Bat Masterson shooting off his six gun in our wild, wild West . . .

Good-Bye, Aunt Kathryn . . .

Ozarks

En-Uk

I asked my little boy, En-Uk, for one more Ozark artwork to send to Aunt Kathryn, and he obliged, as you see. I hope that she saw it before she passed over that river into "Sweet Beulah Land" since she had been requesting some more art by En-Uk, as in this email message from about a month ago:

This message is for En-Uk. I enjoyed his latest art as much as all the others. I have never been able to make a comment on either blog, so have to send E-mail. I have been waiting for drawings of people, places and things that impressed En-Uk on his visits to the Ozarks. A special request from his Great Aunt Kathryn. Bye

En-Uk followed through on that request, as you can click and see: "The Ozarks," "Uncle Cranford," "Uncle Woodrow," "South Fork," "South Fork Restaurant," "Ozark Turtles," "Uncle John," "Granma," and most recently, "Ozarks," as you see above (or maybe this one, too).

As the end approached, Aunt Kathryn sent a different request -- to Uncle Cran, Aunt Virginia, and me -- about what she'd want done at her funeral. Since I can't be there to arrange things, here are the songs that she wants sung:

"Long Black Train"

"I Still Can't Say Goodbye"

"Peace in the Valley"

"Precious Memories"

She added, "If that song list is too long -- leave out the last two." The list doesn't look long to me. Anyway, I hope that I've found the songs that my aunt wanted, and I'm pretty sure about the last three on her list, but less sure about "Long Black Train," which I hadn't known of before. Anyway, Aunt Kathryn's request continues:

Hope you live long enough to carry out my last request for you to do -- No Preachin', Prayin', Bawlin' or Sqwallin'! HAVE A PARTY!

I wish that I could be present to take part in fulfilling my aunt's last wishes on that score, for she always was a lot of fun.

But there was some sadness to her life. Her father -- the grandfather after whom I was named "Horace" -- died from a tree-cutting accident when she was a little girl, and she's always missed him because they were very close, so here's what she requested for her grave:

Bury my ashes in Daddy's grave about where his arms are -- and just say "Kathryn is back where she belongs -- 'in my daddy's arms.'"

No head stone -- if any sign has to be put up -- only say . . . "Kathryn, Mother of Larry, David and Steven." No dates; no last names!!

She also requested the simple poem "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep," by Mary Frye (and I think that I've located the definitive version from 1932 in that link) -- "To be read LOUD and CLEAR" -- at the graveside:

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sun on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.

A few days ago, En-Uk drew that final work of art for Aunt Kathryn, and I sent it to her by way of her eldest son:

Dear Larry,

I don't know if Aunt Kathryn can still enjoy En-Uk's art, but he's made one more work of art for your mother.

I've also attached it, so I hope it'll download. Maybe you could print it out and put in on the wall for Aunt Kathryn to see whenever she's alert.

Tell her that I love her, and that I'll see her on that other shore if I make it there. I'm sure that she will.

Love,

Jeffery

PS I'll make sure Uncle Cranford doesn't forget to bury Aunt Kathryn's ashes near the heart of Grandpa Hodges (if that's also what you three boys want).

I soon received an email from Aunt Virginia, informing me that Kathryn's youngest boy, Steve, had taken her into a hospice for care:

Steve took Kathryn to a Hospice House this afternoon. She is very weak.

After that, I got this from Uncle Cran, who had heard from Virginia and Kathryn's middle boy, David:

I just talked to sister Virginia and nephew David Young.

Sister Kathryn passed away after a lenghty illness. Her kidneys had been failing for a long time. The doctors talked to her about dialysis, but she refused to have it, and said she would just go on without it.

We had a good telephone conversation a few weeks ago. She told me she didn't have long to live, she is going to be cremated, and gave me a list to do for a memorial service when the boys bring her urn.

I promised to do what she told me. Then she sent it via email. I copied it and am going to keep it to remind me everything she wants done.

She wants her ashes to buried with Dad's grave, and just a simple stone with her name, and her three boys's names on it . . . .

Before I joined the navy she & Larry, David and Steve and myself had some good times down on the farm. We got to talk a lot during those days.

Although we didn't get to visit often in later years, we talked occasionally by telephone, and emailed each quite a bit.

Her family needs our prayers at this time.

She'll be foremost in my thoughts, I promise. I told my family that Aunt Kathryn had passed away, and when my daughter asked if I were sad, I suddenly couldn't speak . . .

But if I'd have been able, I'd have said how much Aunt Kathryn meant to me. She was young and pretty, with green eyes that she claimed made her a 'witch' (though she smiled to show that she was joking), and she took care of me in Kansas City when I was five, telling me tall tales of wrestling bears back down on the farm in Arkansas. That was about the only time that I was happy in the city during those days when I had to stay in that place. I remember happy times playing with her three boys -- Larry, David, and Steve -- and listening to them in naive belief as they convinced me that if I'd just eat enough clam chowder, I could be as strong as Popeye!

I tried it and believed myself stronger, but somehow still couldn't defeat them in arm wrestling.

After six months with Kathryn, her husband, and boys, I returned to Arkansas, where I remained until I finished school and again left the Ozarks for the big wide world. I didn't get to see Aunt Kathryn much after those six months in the city, but the time with her and her family remained a precious memory.

She did manage to come to my wedding and meet Sun-Ae. She would have liked to see our children, but the timing never worked out, and she passed away just yesterday, so there are no more opportunities on this earth.

Maybe in Beulah Land . . .

Outsider Art?

Arthur Rimbaud

Illustration by Hugo Guinness

(Image from New York Times)

Lydia Davis has an interesting if rather densely packed NYT review, "Rimbaud's Wise Music" (June 9, 2011), of John Ashbery's translation of Arthur Rimbaud's Illuminations, which I won't attempt to summarize. I'm just curious about the artist as outsider, a role that Rimbaud seems to have taken upon himself quite consciously:

He had announced in a letter written when he was only 16 that he intended to create an entirely new kind of poetry, written in an entirely new language, through a "rational derangement of all the senses," and when, not yet 17, he made his first successful escape to Paris, financed by the older poet Paul Verlaine, he came prepared to change the world, or at least literature. He was immediately a colorful figure: the filthy, lice-infested, intermittently bewitching young rebel with large hands and feet, whose mission required scandalizing the conventional-minded and defying moral codes not only through his verse but through his rude, self-destructive and anarchical behavior; the brilliantly skillful and versatile poet not only of the occasional sentimental subject (orphans receiving gifts on New Year's Day) but also of lovely scatological verse; the child-faced young innovator whose literary development evolved from poem to poem at lightning speed.

His "mission required scandalizing . . . and defying," which he accomplished brilliantly, but one need not do that to be an outsider artist. Consider Ben Wilson, subject of Sarah Lyell's NYT article "Whimsical Works of Art, Found Sticking to the Sidewalk" (June 14, 2011):

Art on Muswell Hill

Ben Wilson

Photograph by Andrew Testa

(Image from The New York Times)

Mr. Wilson paints miniature works of art on gum stuck to sidewalks:

Mr. Wilson, 47, one of Britain's best-known outsider artists, has for the last six years or so immersed himself in a peculiar passion all his own: he paints tiny pictures on flattened blobs of discarded chewing gum on the sidewalks of London. So familiar is he here, painting in any kind of weather, that he has become something of a local celebrity and mascot.

How does he do it? Like this:

He developed a technique in which he softens the gum with a blowtorch, sprays it with lacquer and then applies three coats of acrylic enamel. He uses tiny brushes, quick-drying his work with a lighter as he goes along, and then seals it with clear lacquer. Each painting takes between a few hours and a few days, and can last several years if the conditions are right.

He's not like Rimbaud and doesn't set out to scandalize or defy, for as one admirer notes:

"I have found Ben to be consistently caring, always sympathetic, refreshingly humble and driven by a constant desire to please others."

Such a genial nature doesn't always keep him entirely out of trouble, however, for artists can be misunderstood:

The police often question him, but when he explains that he is not the one who spat the gum on the sidewalk, he said, they come around. He was arrested once and was brought to a local police station for questioning, but the charges were dropped after dozens of people wrote letters of support.

Unlike Rimbaud, he doesn't go looking for trouble, and seems to have supporters in sufficient numbers to keep him clear of it.

I have nothing very profound to say about all this, merely that I found both articles interesting and both artists intriguing. I knew about Rimbaud, of course. Who doesn't? I knew of his definition of art as a rational derangement of the senses -- a friend of mine once used that definition to claim that the US-USSR nuclear war doctrine of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) was clearly a form of art. Rimbaud is perhaps one of those artists who assisted in discarding what Baudelaire had called the artist's lost halo, reputed to have landed in the gutter.

But if so, then perhaps Mr. Wilson -- more of an outsider than that consummate inside-outsider Rimbaud -- has proven himself a saint of the streets, working miracles of transfiguration upon gum discarded and trodden underfoot, thereby retrieving that lost halo, possibly even polishing it a bit . . .