Church

I don't see you, Lord. I only see them.

And because I know myself I judge them.

Where is the divine in all that is human?

Cars and Stuff

My apologies for the four month delay. Well, not really. I'll post when I feel like it.

I’d like to share some recent thoughts that come to me when stopping at red lights. Did you ever notice when the light turns green, the car in front always starts a half second or so sooner than the car behind it? This is of course a natural course of events, but it got me thinking…

In my mind I imagine a long and straight dark road stretching to infinity. On the side of the road there is nothing but dirt, gravel, and the occasional tuft of a bush struggling to survive. At the beginning of this road there are two cars. The one in front a black sedan. The one in the back a sort of mauve coupe, an adjective which I only use to sound more sophisticated than I actually am.

The black car is twenty feet or so in front of the mauve. Although they both accelerate at the same speed, (let’s say two feet per second per second) the black car in front will start a half-second sooner. Thus, although they were originally only twenty feet apart, by the end of the first second that distance will have become slightly over twenty-one. By the end of the second second (a funny phrase if there ever was one) that distance would be nearly twenty-four feet.

In my mind, which for some reason is always from the perspective of the second driver, the car in front is slowly getting further and further away. (although “farther” is more grammatically correct, I use the other option purposefully) While at first it is close enough to make out details, in just a short time it will become a speck on the horizon. In time, even that speck will be lost. I find this unbelievably sad. After all, they both had the same acceleration and starting point, one just had the unfortunate quirk of starting only a half-second after.

I hope when you, my twos of readers, come to your next stoplight you recall this story of the mauve car as the car in front gains distance. On that day may you find the experience equally depressing, even if neither of us are sure exactly why.

short story recommendation

"I'd like to be a hunter, sir. You know. Hold a harpoon? Fire a crossbow? I wouldn't mind just reloading for the other hunters until I get the hang of it."

"Don't be silly. You couldn't do that while out in the center of the field, being bait!"

"I wasn't talking about doing that while being bait. I'd rather do it instead of being bait. Sir."

"But nobody else has yer special gift, son."

"I don't think it's all that great . . ."

"Why, sure it is! In all my years hunting dragons, I've never met someone who attracts them like you do. You've got a gift."

"The gift of smelling delicious to dragons? Sir, I never asked for this."

"Just 'cause a gift is unexpected doesn't mean it ain't a gift."

"A knife to the back can be unexpected. That doesn't make it a gift either. Sir."

Alas, of the credit of this rather amusing work goes not to myself but to Brandon Sanderson, a somewhat new and rather brilliant writer. This is an excerpt of an attempt to create a short story based solely on dialogue. The complete story can be seen at:

http://brandonsanderson.com/library/91/Recent-Short-Stories-I-Hate-Dragons

The Great Irony Between the Author and his Readers

The reader exists in a nexus with the writer of fiction. Several theories have been proposed to explain the nature of this nexus. Samuel Coleridge was the first to use the phrase “suspension of disbelief.” The reader temporarily suspends his judgment regarding fantastical or non-realistic elements in order for pleasure or some other non-physical capital. The reader accepts that a wardrobe can really transport children to an alternate world and accepts that ghosts truly can appear to show someone the true meaning of Christmas.

In a radio interview Guillermo Del Toro was asked concerning the difference between directing a film and writing a book. Del Toro replied that there was an inherent difference between the forms. Whereas in film the events will always happen at the same pace and in the same way, a book allows the reader to become a co-director. He follows the guideline provided by the author and in his mind creates the world following the guidelines of his own imagination.

This is similar to the idea of “sub-creation” put forward by J.R.R. Tolkien in his article "On Fairy-Stories." This idea accepts that the writer becomes like a god as he creates the new and the reader as well who forms the same world again in his own mind. The reader chooses to believe the work based on its inner-consistency. Although certain elements may differ from the “primary world,” in the “secondary world” of literature the reader can accept them as true. Of course, the form is not universally appreciated. Tolkien writes,

“Fantasy, of course, starts out with an advantage: arresting strangeness. But that advantage has been turned against it, and has contributed to its disrepute. Many people dislike being “arrested.” They dislike any meddling with the Primary World, or such small glimpses of it as are familiar to them. They, therefore, stupidly and even maliciously confound Fantasy with Dreaming, in which there is no Art; and with mental disorders, in which there is not even control: with delusion and hallucination.”

Still others find a hard time restricting judgment, based on standards of the primary world. This is often seen among fundamentalist Christians who disregard such works as Harry Potter as inherently Satanic merely through its use of magic. This is not to say that the reader should not judge the work based on standards, even moral ones. Instead, there ought to be some amount of charity on the part of the reader who can accept a new world without bringing false standards of mistaken piety, accepting a story on its own definitions, its own merits. They may even find themselves drawn in to something beyond themselves.

In the same article Tolkien mentions that good fantasy (or even science fiction) is hard to create. He writes:

Fantasy has also an essential drawback: it is difficult to achieve. . . “the inner consistency of reality” is more difficult to produce, the more unlike are the images and the rearrangements of primary material to the actual arrangements of the Primary World. It is easier to produce this kind of “reality” with more “sober” material. Fantasy thus, too often, remains undeveloped; it is and has been used frivolously, or only half-seriously, or merely for decoration: it remains merely “fanciful.”

This statement, however, seems to be flawed, even wrong if I wanted to be more forceful. To adopt the language from the first theory, suspension of disbelief is required when the reader encounters something he realizes in inconsistent with the primary world. Works are not judged only by their internal consistency, but also on how well they fit in with the primary world where they are expected to.

Historical fiction often grapples with this problem. No matter how internally consistent the story may be, certain elements are supposed to correspond to the primary world. This is why it requires a great deal of research in order to produce a novel, which though it may be fiction, accurately reflects the world in which it is portrayed. Undoubtedly, certain mistakes will easily be missed by the general reader who cannot spot the discrepancies. The same text, however, when read by one experience in knowledge of the era could easily spot the discrepancies. The more familiar the reader is with the supposed context of the story, the easier the discrepancies are seen.

Tolkien’s statement errs because it mixes these two problems: internal-consistency on the one hand and consistency between the primary and secondary world on the other. Discrepancies found in historical fiction often have nothing to do with the first problem. Yes, spittoons may not have been used in sixteenth century England, but this does not mean the work is internally inconsistent. The writer of any fiction thus grapples with twin beasts.

The same struggle is often seen in science fiction. In a story that takes place in the near-future, authors find themselves struggling to produce a believable secondary world. Actions by various nations are often seen as patently ridiculous by many readers because they differ with how the reader views the world. Again, this does not fail the test of internal consistency, but, it does fail the second test. It fails to match elements in the secondary world which ought to be consistent with the primary world.

Like the scholar of sixteenth-century England reading a book on Queen Elizabeth, inconsistencies between the primary and secondary world are evident based on the amount of knowledge the reader supposes he has of the context. Here is found the great irony of the suspension of disbelief. In general, it is actually easier to suspend judgment as the story becomes more fantastical in nature, more divorced from reality. The further divorced from the reader’s knowledge or experience, the easier the tale becomes to write. Suddenly, the reader stops looking for connections between the primary and secondary world, and instead only focuses, even if merely at a subconscious level, on just the internal consistency of the work. By divorcing the story from reality, the writer encounters only one hobgoblin where before there was two. And, as any adventurer who had made his way through the blood forests of Grishnaw would know, fighting one hobgoblin alone is always easier than facing two.

A Commentary on Life's Possibilities...

Once there was a little bear,

His name was Buffy Bill;

He was furry, full of hair,

He went up on a hill.

When he reached the top of the mound

Oh! The things he spied;

he could see for miles around,

until he fell and died.

A Constructive Conspiracy

What sometimes annoys me is that I know of no site where I can find accurate charts that provide up-to-date numbers and charts detailing the current financial situation. If anyone happens to know a good one, please provide the link below. However, as a result of my own search, I provide you with the charts below. I apologize that they all do not cover the same dates, and I realize I left out many other factors. This is not a comprehensive list, only a few of the important ones all in the same place:

US UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (percentage change) [a little hope at the end here, though it seems to be going back down again]

PERSONAL SAVINGS (in Billions) [It seems that the recession continues to eat away at Americans' savings]

And of course: US NATIONAL DEBT

One final note of personal speculation: (which will also be a dramatic over-simplification of the situation. Deal with it)

It seems that "corporate America" is sitting on around 1.8 trillion dollars in reserve. While many are upset that such institutions are not releasing the money into the American economy, I rather think that these companies are following sound logic. Let me explain. If such institutions did release their capital en masse undoubtedly it would have a positive effect on the economy. However, the only way Republicans will take back the House in 86 days or so is if the economy remains stagnant. Thus, it is in the best interests of the companies to hesitate for several more months in order to secure a Republican victory, thereby ensuring there will be no new major taxes pushed through by the Democratic Party on their institutions. It makes sense that these companies will avoid such "uncertain markets" as they hold off for better prospects.

The politically minded citizen ought to take note of these companies. Your dollar is currently worth more than your vote in November. For those who wish for a Republican takeover, you ought to cease all extraneous spending. It is in your best interests to continue or even worsen the recession for the next several months. Hold off on buying that new dvd or book; instead, keep your money in the bank. As soon as we again have a Republican majority, make a withdraw and go out and buy everything you've been waiting on. The major companies at the same time will start releasing their own capital. Thus, in the immediate months after the election there will be an immediate boost in the economy as Americans leave the recession behind. Such a reversal will be so immediate that it will only be attributable to the Republican takeover, setting the ground for a Presidential victory in 2012.

Fascinating

I have a couple new posts in mind but no time to work on them while I'm at home. So, for now, here's a link I found fascinating:

http://www.skytopia.com/project/fractal/mandelbulb.html