Second Life and Cloverfield

Here are a couple of new-ish things that have caught my interest lately:
1) Second Life, a 3-D virtual world created by its users, which they "inhabit" via their avatars. I think there must be the opportunity for me to make a lot of money from this somehow, but I haven't figured it out yet.

2) The viral marketing campaign for Cloverfield, a soon-to-be-released movie about a giant monster attacking Manhattan, told from the perspective of recordings made on personal video devices (think 9/11 news coverage meets Godzilla meets Blair Witch Project). "Cloverfield", by the way, may or may not be the actual title, and there is some speculation that it may be a Godzilla remake, though I doubt it. The roar, which I admit is Godzilla-esque, sounds like a foghorn slowed way down. For this reason, I wonder if it is perhaps a remake of, or inspired by, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, which was itself adapted from Ray Bradbury's short story, The Fog Horn (the story is about a huge dinosaur, the last of its species, mistaking the sound of a fog horn for one of its own kind). The movie has one of the most intriguing trailers ever, generating rampant speculation and a whole lot of buzz. Like many others, I hope the movie lives up to its trailer. More on this tomorrow. (Who knew my blog topics would include American kaiju?)

Smart People Talking

There's a radio show on NPR that has a game segment called "Things You Should Have Learned in School But Probably Didn't". Hardly anybody receives a classical education these days, so we have to go out and get the education we should have had for ourselves (plus, we should always be learning. As my grandmother says, "As the years go on you have to fight against the shrinking of your world"). Listening to wise and learned people in conversation is a fun part of this endeavor. Two of the smartest people I've ever met, Bill Bennett and Chuck Colson, converse for our listening pleasure about culture, religion, education, and politics at this link: http://billbennett.townhall.com/talkradio/Show.aspx It's worth listening to. Click on the link for November 13.

The Resolve Note

My friend Jonathan, who perhaps comprises one-third to one-half of my readership, has a blog worthy of consideration by those who have an interest in commentary on the culture and the journaling of life experiences and reflections by a thoughtful Christian man. It's called The Resolve Note (www.theresolvenote.blogspot.com ). (Jonathan, you need to tell me how to post a permanent link, because I've looked around and haven't found the way to do it.)

"Closing of the American Mind" 20 Years Later

I've heard again and again about Allan Bloom's "The Closing of the American Mind" and sort of got the impression that it was a classic not to be missed (I confess that though it is on my reading list, it has never made it to the top). However, Thomas West's review of said book in the Claremont Review of Books takes Professor Bloom to task for several profound errors. Those who have any idea what I'm talking about at all will be interested in the article. Here is the link: http://claremont.org/publications/pubid.664/pub_detail.asp

And speaking of C.S. Lewis and postmodernism...

Here's the classic "Men Without Chests" excerpt from Lewis' Abolition of Man:

"We were told it all long ago by Plato. As the king governs by his executive, so Reason in man must rule the mere appetites by means of the 'spirited element'. The head rules the belly through the chest—the seat, as Alanus tells us, of Magnanimity, of emotions organized by trained habit into stable sentiments. The Chest-Magnanimity-Sentiment—these are the indis­pensable liaison officers between cerebral man and visceral man. It may even be said that it is by this mid­dle element that man is man: for by his intellect he is mere spirit and by his appetite mere animal.The operation of The Green Book and its kind is to produce what may be called Men without Chests. It is an outrage that they should be commonly spo­ken of as Intellectuals. This gives them the chance to say that he who attacks them attacks Intelligence. It is not so. They are not distinguished from other men by any unusual skill in finding truth nor any virginal ardour to pursue her. Indeed it would be strange if they were: a persevering devotion to truth, a nice sense of intellectual honour, cannot be long main­tained without the aid of a sentiment which Gaius and Titius could debunk as easily as any other. It is not excess of thought but defect of fertile and gener­ous emotion that marks them out. Their heads are no bigger than the ordinary: it is the atrophy of the chest beneath that makes them seem so.

And all the time—such is the tragi-comedy of our situation—we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the state­ment that what our civilization needs is more 'drive', or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or 'creativity'. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful."

C. S. Lewis Among the Postmodernists

Here's a nice article on the above from David C. Downing. http://www.leaderu.com/humanities/lewis-postmodernists.html

Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

Abraham Lincoln