This week’s readings include Borges’ “The Garden of the Forking Paths” (1941), Clarke’s “The Nine Billion Names of God” (1953) and “The Star” (1955), and Gibson’s “The Gernsback Continuum” (1981). A common theme throughout these four stories is that one person’s dream is another’s terror.
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Miracle, Mystery, Authority
Today, my class read Dostoyevsky’s “The Grand Inquisitor,” Ivan’s narrative from The Brothers Karamazov. The premise is simple: Jesus returns to earth in the sixteenth century, to a town in the midst of the Spanish Inquisition. The people flock to him, and he does what the son of God is known for: cures some disease [...]
Cold Day
When will this cold weather end? Spring Break is next week, and it’s still getting into the thirties every night. This Florida boy gets pretty cranky when exposed to the cold for too long. Besides, we want to begin planting our garden. Yesterday, in my New Media seminar, we began talking — perhaps a bit [...]
WCWJU
I’m thinking about starting a religion. Seriously. It seems that only narratives about belief and faith get anywhere in this country these days. Facts are irrelevant — too pedestrian. Loud opinion is king, and my don’t we have plenty of it to go around? Not only do we like opinions, but we seem to relish [...]
God Is a Comedian
From today’s Writer’s Almanac: It’s the birthday of Voltaire, (books by this author) the man who helped spark the Enlightenment in France, born François-Marie Arouet in Paris (1694). He was a well-known playwright and poet. He spent most of his late life in exile, and he wrote most of his work from England. In the [...]
Bukowski on God
For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a dictum. I am my own [...]
Jesus & Norman Mailer
I’m in the process of composing my paper for the Norman Mailer Society’s annual conference. Here’s the proposal: I moved to the American South almost six years ago. About that time, I was introduced to Norman Mailer’s work. Both gave me an interesting perspective on America, its values and its problems (sometimes stemming from said [...]