What I Learned Today: Planet Narnia

Over the past few days I've been pondering the Chronicles of Narnia and the latest finding about them from Dr. Michael Ward.  He is a C.S. Lewis scholar and in his new book Planet Narnia, he "...argues that Lewis secretly constructed the Chronicles of Narnia out of the imagery associated with the seven heavens of the medieval cosmos." 


This is interesting enough to me, but what's really intriguing to me is that for years I recall reading that J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis' good friend, didn't think much of the Narnia books.  He thought they were dashed off too quickly and not well written (probably from Humphrey Carpenter's The Inklings).  So, for all these years, I too thought similar things about the books.  


I'm not suggesting that I would have found the seven heavens motif if I had thought on my own, but I am saying that I allowed someone, other than the author, to influence my thinking in such a way that I never even remotely considered other possibilities.


Gulp: what other unknown unknowns am I unaware I should be aware of?

Bobbie Ann Mason Autograph #3

Bobbie Ann Mason Autograph
Originally uploaded by Kurwin.

Here's my last Bobbie Ann Mason autograph from her short story collection: Love Life: Stories. The book was published in 1989, and contains 15 stories.

I have a British edition, something she noted when signing it. I said I didn't know why I had that, afraid and embarrassed to tell her that I bought it off the remainder table. Probably saw her at the old Hawley Cooke on Shelbyville Road.

Book Author Autographs I have

Bobbie Ann Mason Autograph
Originally uploaded by Kurwin.

I got the weird idea the other day to photograph and upload author autographs I have. Here's one of my first, by Kentucky author Bobbie Ann Mason.


It was in 1982 or 1983 that Shiloh and Other Stories had been out for a short time, and she came to do a reading at Georgetown College, in the Spring semester.

I remember a friendly argument the Shakespeare professor had with our modern fiction professor; basically that nothing good was written after 1620 or so.

I was delighted when I told her that I really liked her story "Still Life With Watermelon," and she read it the next day.

Od Magic

I just finished reading Od Magic, a 2005 book by one of my favorite writers; Patricia McKillip.

Od is a giant of a wizard of saves the kingdom of Keilor from it's enemies. In return, the king allows her to establish a wizards school. Generations pass until Od invites Brenden to be a gardener at the school. Brenden's arrival sets off a series of events which leads to a series of questions around magic, control of education, and expecting the unexpected. There's magic afoot that the wizards know nothing about.

Brief review of Discover Your Inner Economist

Just finished reading Discover your Inner Economist, by Tyler Cowen. Dr. Cowen is an economist (oddly enough), who writes the often intriguing Marginal Revolution blog.

This book is a loosely tied together collection of themes on how we can all improve our inner economists, and learn how to use incentives to succeed in life, and to know when incentives don't work. Cowen is a polymath, and he ranges far and wide in interests and expertise. This book is one of several "pop" econ books trying to bring economics to the non-economist people. Books such as Freakonomics, and The Underground Economist (read the former and recommend it, and haven't yet finished the latter).

I was very interested in the chapter on how to save the world, subtitled "More Christmas Presents won't Work," something dear to the hear of my fellow Jeff St. church members and our annual Reclaiming Christmas project.

Anyway, Cowen suggests we don't give money to beggars, mainly because the more beggars become successful, the more beggars there will be (same argument against buying and freeing sex slaves, because the price will rise and more people will be kidnapped in order to be freed by payments). He suggests giving the money to the poor who don't try very hard (a poor family sleeping on the sidewalk, and not expecting $$, for example). He also has ideas on giving to charities; one of the most interesting being being loyal to a charity and giving to them on a regular basis, so that they won't keep sending you mailings that cost them money (how much does email cost now?)

He has an extensive chapter on how to eat and cook well (tips for while in a foreign country, how to become a better cook), how to become a better art lover (in a museum pretend to have enough $ to buy some paintings and decide what you would choose). Seems like an interesting way to stay focused in a museum.

I took away how important it is to know human nature, tendencies and behavior in order to make the world a safer, healthier place.

Tom Swift

Growing up, one of my favorite series of books to read was about Tom Swift, and his friends. Tom always invented cool gadgets that would get him out of scrapes, was always chasing Communist-sounding bad guys, was hyper patriotic, didn't see much need for girls ("Bye Tom, oh please be careful," they were known to murmur), while they stayed at home.

Nevertheless, they were great fun, and launched me on my science fiction reading interest. I love the internet, for I recently came across a great essay on Tom Swift. Enjoy.