One of the most popular articles on Kansas.com, the website for the Wichita Eagle, is by Jeffrey Weiss of the Dallas Morning News. "Final chapter of 'Harry Potter' clearly Christian" will no doubt add more fuel to the controversy of whether good Catholics and Christians should let their children read Harry Potter (Click on this link to get my and other's viewpoints.)
I will not read Weiss's article until after I read the book: I have an embargo on all reviews of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows until I read it myself. I also have an self imposed embargo on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows itself until I finish some crucial tasks around the Harris household.
Check back!
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Friday, August 03, 2007
Deep-brain stimulation offers hope for minimally conscious patients.
From Nature:
"Brain function has been improved in a patient who was in a minimally conscious state, by electrically stimulating a specific brain region with implanted electrodes. The achievement raises questions about the treatment of other patients who have been in this condition for years, the researchers say.
"Patients in a minimally conscious state, often the result of severe brain trauma, show only intermittent evidence of awareness of the world around them. Typically, they are assumed to have little chance of further recovery if they show no improvement during their initial 12-month rehabilitation programme.
In the latest case study, neuroscientists describe how they implanted electrodes in the brain of a 38-year-old man who had been in a minimally conscious state for more than six years following a serious assault. By electrically stimulating a brain region called the central thalamus, they were able to help him name objects on request, make precise hand gestures, and chew food without the aid of a feeding tube"
"Brain function has been improved in a patient who was in a minimally conscious state, by electrically stimulating a specific brain region with implanted electrodes. The achievement raises questions about the treatment of other patients who have been in this condition for years, the researchers say.
"Patients in a minimally conscious state, often the result of severe brain trauma, show only intermittent evidence of awareness of the world around them. Typically, they are assumed to have little chance of further recovery if they show no improvement during their initial 12-month rehabilitation programme.
In the latest case study, neuroscientists describe how they implanted electrodes in the brain of a 38-year-old man who had been in a minimally conscious state for more than six years following a serious assault. By electrically stimulating a brain region called the central thalamus, they were able to help him name objects on request, make precise hand gestures, and chew food without the aid of a feeding tube"
Monday, July 30, 2007
"Regardless of design, the main altar normally stood in the east of the building, not the center."
Sandra Miesal, debunker of Di Vinci Codes and writer, has a useful and focused article ("Beyond Basilicas") on the early churches that were not build in the rectangular basilica form. She talks about the octagonal San Vitale in my favorite church touring place, Ravenna. I am grateful to Shawn Tribe for the link.
When the reformers renovated the mass after Vatican II, they had a number of assumptions or presumptions. One was that the priest faced the people in the early church. They appear to have been quite innocent of the architectural record. As Miesal says, "Regardless of design, the main altar normally stood in the east of the building, not the center." The liturgical reformers were either ignorant of or ignored this fundamental evidence enfleshed in stone.
When the reformers renovated the mass after Vatican II, they had a number of assumptions or presumptions. One was that the priest faced the people in the early church. They appear to have been quite innocent of the architectural record. As Miesal says, "Regardless of design, the main altar normally stood in the east of the building, not the center." The liturgical reformers were either ignorant of or ignored this fundamental evidence enfleshed in stone.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
The English of the 1965 Missal
Click on the tittle to get the mass after Vatican II before the Bugnini butchery. This link thanks to Shawn Tribe.
What About the Missal of 1965?
Adam Barnette makes some interesting arguments for reviving the Missal of 1965. There is a lot here so it will be a while before I absorb it all. You can read what I was thinking before the motu proprio.
Thanks to Jeffrey Tucker on the New Liturgical Movement for the link.
Thanks to Jeffrey Tucker on the New Liturgical Movement for the link.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Harry Potter is Almost Here!
The hype is outrageous. I agree the publishing industry is too much about blockbusters. Harry Potter and the Death Hallows is the blockbuster of blockbusters. But when it comes to J.K. Rowling's novels, I say just read and enjoy. Just do not start one of the books when you have something due on deadline!
The Harry Potter books are fun to read. The characters are ones any teenager can identify with as can anyone who was once a teenager. They remind me of Robert Heinlein's teen novels. Heinlein, the great science fiction writer, wrote that those novels taught him his craft. He had to have a plot that would keep them reading. He needed to keep his vocabulary direct and straight forward. And in those days sex and violence were not available to make up for a lack of craft.
Some Christians shun Harry Potter books. I will not rework the arguments about whether these books are a threat. There are three excellent essays that do a better job than I would: (1) "An in-depth analysis of the literary use of magic in the works of J. K. Rowling, J. R. R. Tolkien, and C. S. Lewis" by Steven D. Greydanus. (He also reviews the films on his DecentFilms.com website; (2) "Harry Potter's Magic" by Alan Jacobs; and Charles Olson's posting, "If you thought I was anti-Harry Potter..." on Ignatius Insight Scoop.
In the Harry Potter books, the magic is a fiction. Like the devices of science fiction, the reader needs a "willing suspension of disbelief." That is not the same as believing in magic.
Rowling is very clever in the imaginative devices with which she fills her world. After decades of moral relativism and the denial of evil, it has been refreshing to have a wildly popular source of entertainment clearly describe Good and Evil at war with each other. Ditto for Star Wars.
Rowling is also an excellent craftswoman. That is not to claim she is T.S. Elliot or Fyodor M. Dostoevsky. The elite looks down its nose at her, but they look down their noses at J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis too. Rowling and I are fans of both! None of the major publishers would touch her first book. Ironically, they are now the hype masters for number seven!
The Harry Potter books are fun to read. The characters are ones any teenager can identify with as can anyone who was once a teenager. They remind me of Robert Heinlein's teen novels. Heinlein, the great science fiction writer, wrote that those novels taught him his craft. He had to have a plot that would keep them reading. He needed to keep his vocabulary direct and straight forward. And in those days sex and violence were not available to make up for a lack of craft.
Some Christians shun Harry Potter books. I will not rework the arguments about whether these books are a threat. There are three excellent essays that do a better job than I would: (1) "An in-depth analysis of the literary use of magic in the works of J. K. Rowling, J. R. R. Tolkien, and C. S. Lewis" by Steven D. Greydanus. (He also reviews the films on his DecentFilms.com website; (2) "Harry Potter's Magic" by Alan Jacobs; and Charles Olson's posting, "If you thought I was anti-Harry Potter..." on Ignatius Insight Scoop.
In the Harry Potter books, the magic is a fiction. Like the devices of science fiction, the reader needs a "willing suspension of disbelief." That is not the same as believing in magic.
Rowling is very clever in the imaginative devices with which she fills her world. After decades of moral relativism and the denial of evil, it has been refreshing to have a wildly popular source of entertainment clearly describe Good and Evil at war with each other. Ditto for Star Wars.
Rowling is also an excellent craftswoman. That is not to claim she is T.S. Elliot or Fyodor M. Dostoevsky. The elite looks down its nose at her, but they look down their noses at J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis too. Rowling and I are fans of both! None of the major publishers would touch her first book. Ironically, they are now the hype masters for number seven!
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