(no subject)
Someone do me a favor and find a copy of George Meredith's Lines to a Friend Visiting America. Read it over a few times. It's quite good! Is that bit about Wordsworth? Northern? Hmm...
Well anyhow. I couldn't finish the Egotist. I had started reading it my first day as a substitute teacher. I remember that Gore Vidal really like George Meredith's novels. I don't know if that's a good or a bad sign.
The only other thing I knew about him was that he was married at one point to Thomas Love Peacock's daughter, who was about 10 years his elder. It was probably a disaster of a marriage.
Also, my Latin has gotten really bad so I thought I'd practice it a bit with something really easy. The Vulgate. I'm in genesis. Anyone want to read along with me? Wikipedia has got some good stuff on the old test in general.
Now I know the first thing I'll get is a bunch of people asking why they would read the bible when they don't believe in god. My answer, Mark Twain was hardly a believer, but he knew quite a bit of bible - old testament and new. Now, you'll say he was forced to learn it as a child, like everyone else. Hmm...
I think it's fashionable to read the bible only in order to find support for modern academic ideas, like feminist criticism, or something else like that.
And another approach is to treat it as literature plain and simple, just like any other really old and famous book. But I think that approach is misleading because so many people don't believe it.
If you carry around a bible, well - is there anything likely to cause such a wide range of very strong and different opinions?
The thing is simply not dead yet. It's not like Homer. Or some other text that once animated the hearts of multitudes. It still does. That it doesn't for many, especially for us irreligious folk, doesn't seem to matter.
Now you'll think I'm trying to be an apologist. I'm not. I am very irreligious. I'm thoroughly modern and work from a habit of mind that wants evidence and proof for things or I don't believe in them. I don't think that's a habit of mind to be regretted. I suspect anyone who doesn't have that habit of mind is either not being honest with himself, or is simply out of his mind.
There's nothing quite so annoying as a bunch of undergrads who get together to talk about how stupid intolerant and bigoted religious fundamentalists are. As I grow older I see why the old can't stand the young. But generally, I don't like any group that gets together to say the same thing again and again and everyone agrees. First, it's boring. Second, it's frightening. Even if it's a really good opinion. Like a gay-pride rally. Yes, the world is much better off for its acceptance of homosexual men and women. At least, I prefer to live in such a world. But I'm also tempted to start screaming faggot, the rebel in me, mischief maker, deliberately contrary. You generally want to avoid any scene that could turn against you for the uttering of something impolite and inappropriate.
It's hard for me to understand this attitude since I was raised by secular athiest jews who didn't bother much about religion and god except for some family events and the food, which is my preferred approach to religion, or anything really.
Well anyhow. I couldn't finish the Egotist. I had started reading it my first day as a substitute teacher. I remember that Gore Vidal really like George Meredith's novels. I don't know if that's a good or a bad sign.
The only other thing I knew about him was that he was married at one point to Thomas Love Peacock's daughter, who was about 10 years his elder. It was probably a disaster of a marriage.
Also, my Latin has gotten really bad so I thought I'd practice it a bit with something really easy. The Vulgate. I'm in genesis. Anyone want to read along with me? Wikipedia has got some good stuff on the old test in general.
Now I know the first thing I'll get is a bunch of people asking why they would read the bible when they don't believe in god. My answer, Mark Twain was hardly a believer, but he knew quite a bit of bible - old testament and new. Now, you'll say he was forced to learn it as a child, like everyone else. Hmm...
I think it's fashionable to read the bible only in order to find support for modern academic ideas, like feminist criticism, or something else like that.
And another approach is to treat it as literature plain and simple, just like any other really old and famous book. But I think that approach is misleading because so many people don't believe it.
If you carry around a bible, well - is there anything likely to cause such a wide range of very strong and different opinions?
The thing is simply not dead yet. It's not like Homer. Or some other text that once animated the hearts of multitudes. It still does. That it doesn't for many, especially for us irreligious folk, doesn't seem to matter.
Now you'll think I'm trying to be an apologist. I'm not. I am very irreligious. I'm thoroughly modern and work from a habit of mind that wants evidence and proof for things or I don't believe in them. I don't think that's a habit of mind to be regretted. I suspect anyone who doesn't have that habit of mind is either not being honest with himself, or is simply out of his mind.
There's nothing quite so annoying as a bunch of undergrads who get together to talk about how stupid intolerant and bigoted religious fundamentalists are. As I grow older I see why the old can't stand the young. But generally, I don't like any group that gets together to say the same thing again and again and everyone agrees. First, it's boring. Second, it's frightening. Even if it's a really good opinion. Like a gay-pride rally. Yes, the world is much better off for its acceptance of homosexual men and women. At least, I prefer to live in such a world. But I'm also tempted to start screaming faggot, the rebel in me, mischief maker, deliberately contrary. You generally want to avoid any scene that could turn against you for the uttering of something impolite and inappropriate.
It's hard for me to understand this attitude since I was raised by secular athiest jews who didn't bother much about religion and god except for some family events and the food, which is my preferred approach to religion, or anything really.