A 40 Year Wish List from the Wall Street Journal is this week’s rant of the week.
Rant of the Week: 2/1/09-2/7/09
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Monthly Archives: February 2009
Essay of the Week: 2/1/09-2/7/09
Letters to Malcolm and the trouble with Narnia: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and their 1949 crisis by Eric Seddon is an exploration of why Tolkien objected so strongly to C.S Lewis’s Narnia series and why their friendship cooled so markedly.
It must be admitted that this essay suffers to a degree from the author’s strong Catholic bias. There is no denying that J.R Tolkien was a committed orthodox Catholic. But interpreting J.R Tolkien’s likes and dislikes and what bothered him solely through the prism of Catholic doctrine is to get a limited view of the man.
In particular, some of us would argue that Mr. Seddon gives too short a shrift to J.R. Tolkien’s strongly held aesthetic views (and in particular, his strong aversion to allegory). Mr. Seddon argues that because J.R Tolkien did not object to all of C.S Lewis books equally, then therefore his aesthetic principles could not have been a large part of what he found so offensive in the Narnia series. We do not find this particular argument convincing.
Using the same method of arguing as Mr. Seddon, we could easily argue that theological objections could not have been what bothered J.R. Tolkien because many of C.S. Lewis’s earlier works did not conform to Catholic doctrine.
Nonetheless, Mr. Seddon’s central argument that J.R Tolkien so strongly objected to the Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe because of way C.S. Lewis’s his type of Christ is not without merit. Only, we would add that The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe was also the penultimate type of what Tolkien objected to aesthetically.
To be sure, the two types of objections were never particularly distinct in Tolkien’s mind. But to fail to understand how the two things intertwined is to not understand why Tolkien should object so strongly to Narnia and not as strongly to other books that transgressed various Catholic doctrines.
Is it going to blow?
Tens of thousands of people living near Japan’s volatile Mount Asama have been told to brace themselves for a major volcanic eruption within 48 hours.
From later in the article…..
According to scientists at an observation station operated by Tokyo University, there was a sharp increase in volcanic earthquakes in the region in January, with their epicentres directly below the peak of the mountain. That volcanic activity accelerated on Sunday morning and was accompanied by crustal change, apparently caused by increased magma movement beneath the peak.
Experts are predicting an eruption is possible in a matter of hours and an initial blast could hurl volcanic rocks up to 2.5 miles.
If this thing blows, next winter will probably be even colder thzn this one already is.
The Battle of Midway
One of the most dangerous things about human nature is its tendency towards complacency. We tend to take what happened yesterday as a guide to what is going to happen tomorrow. As we are one of the most powerful nations in the world, we tend to take that as being the natural order of things. Even those who gleefully predict the ending of American power fail to really understand what that would mean.
But every time I read up on the Battle of Midway, I am always struck by the fact that less than 70 years ago America was fighting for its life. If Japan had hit America carriers at the American carriers at Pearl Harbor, there would have been no battle of Midway. If the American’s had failed to break Japan’s naval code, the Japanese might have succeeded in luring American carriers into a trap at the the battle of Midway. And with both of those facts being true, the Americans still could have easily lost the Battle of Midway.
In some circles is it is common to argue that this would not matter because American industrial power was so great that its victory was bound to happen regardless. But this is an iffy proposition. The war in Europe and the war in the Pacific were closely connected in terms of supplies and materials. If America had faced a series of defeats in the Pacific, they would have been unwilling to send troops and resources over to Europe to the degree that they did. And without American help through opening up a second front and with lead lease who knows if Russia could have held out. And if Russia had fallen who knows what could have happened?
So watch this documentary on Midway and be amazed at the miracles that brought about the peace and security that we know today. And do not be so confident that the western way of life is predestined to always be sustained by those miracles.
I have provided links to the first three parts of the documentary below. But they not really necessary to understanding what a close run thing Midway was. Watching the last three embedded clips is sufficient.
Tough Times Are Good For You
From Tyler Cowen’s op-ed in the New York Times…
Recessions and depressions, of course, are not good for mental health. But it is less widely known that in the United States and other affluent countries, physical health seems to improve, on average, during a downturn. Sure, it’s stressful to miss a paycheck, but eliminating the stresses of a job may have some beneficial effects. Perhaps more important, people may take fewer car trips, thus lowering the risk of accidents, and spend less on alcohol and tobacco. They also have more time for exercise and sleep, and tend to choose home cooking over fast food.
In a 2003 paper, “Healthy Living in Hard Times,” Christopher J. Ruhm, an economist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, found that the death rate falls as unemployment rises. In the United States, he found, a 1 percent increase in the unemployment rate, on average, decreases the death rate by 0.5 percent.