Eric's Blog About Books- Issue #2- Ivanhoe

Ivanhoe is a historical fiction novel by Sir Walter Scott, first published in 1819, and it is freakin' awesome. The plot is relatively straight forward- noble knight loves woman, hacks up a ton of bad guys to rescue her, and is generally a force for good and justice in a troubled land. And there's also a few subplots about a family of Jews getting screwed over constantly, and also about Robin Hood. Incidentally, all stories that connect the Legend of Robin Hood to Richard the Lionheart's return come directly to this book. That includes every movie every made about Robin Hood, including the Disney version. You may thank Sir Walter I'm-a-Kickass-Novelist Scott for all of them.

Ivanhoe takes place in 12th century England, where Norman overlords oppress and insult their Saxon peasants constantly. The divide between the crude yet noble Saxon underdogs and the the refined but despicable Normans drives most of the plot. (Also, this is one of the few historical novels where one could believably portray the English as a people oppressed by another group. See also Ireland, English Presence in, and India, Colonization of.) Ivanhoe, a young Saxon knight, pisses off his ultranationalist father Cedric by spending time in King Richard's court and learning Norman ways, and then pisses him off further by falling in love with his adopted sister, Rowena. They're not related by blood, so it's no problem to us or them, but Cedric plans to marry her off to a fellow Saxon warlord to create an alliance to throw off the Norman yoke. Cedric exiles his own son, who then goes off to the Crusades with Richard the Lionheart. Years later, he returns without arms, armour, a horse or any friends, determined to win Rowena and be restored to his father. Thus the plot begins.

I won't go into the plot here too much, because I want you to read the book, or watch one of the movie versions. But I will say, there's dastardly Templars, evil knights who get righteously shanked, jousting, torture, trial by combat for an innocent woman's life, and a much, much more. You've probably seen all the plot devices before, any time someone references knights or the Middle Ages, but never knew that many of the tropes were popularized by this book. It is a bloody great adventure, and as someone who grew up on Hollywood action flicks, that should tell you something.

It is somewhat hard to get into for the first couple of pages, because writing styles from the early 19th century are somewhat more, ah, opaque than what we in the early 21st century are used to. For instance, in the beginning Scott spends almost two whole pages describing in mind-numbing detail the exact clothes worn by two minor characters. I mean, gah. But once you break through the intial writing style, believe me, it's mustard.

Just one last note. One of the subplots, as I mentioned earlier, is of a Jewish moneylender named Isaac and his daughter Rebecca, and the various ways everyone hates them and can harm them with impunity. In fact, even the Ivanhoe, the Knight in Shining Armor, just after he saves Isaac from robbery and possible death, says this little gem:

" 'Our road,' said [Ivanhoe], 'should here seperate; for it beseems not men of my character and thine to travel together longer than needs be..."

And that's the good guy. Sort of a minor theme throughout the book is just how vulnerable Jews are to the predatations of Christians. One vivid example- Prince John and Cedric the Saxon are sitting in the top booth, about to watch the tourney. Prince John sees Isaac in the crowd below, and, thinking to mock Cedric, commands Isaac to take Cedric's place. Isaac naturally doesn't want to cause a scene that would put him in the spotlight, tries to beg off, but Prince John insists, because Prince John is a douche. Cedric looks like he's about to toss Isaac off the balcony.

Prince John says, "Let me see who dares stop him!"

Well, Cedric certainly looks like he dares. Isaac is screwed; if he goes up to take Cedric's place, he gets curb-stomped and possibly stabbed, as Cedric's temper is legendary, but if he refuses John's command, he gets horse whipped and robbed.

Isaac is saved by the timely intervention of the Court Jester, who jumps out at him and thrusts a chunk of pork in Isaac's face while brandishing a wooden sword at him, which startles Isaac so much he loses his footing and falls down the stairs. This amuses John so much he lets the whole thing drop. I really like the Jester, who later on joins up with Richard and cracks some jokes worthy of a Shakespearian comedy, so I choose to interpret that scene as him successfully saving Isaac and defusing a volatile situation, but, damn. When being humiliated, insulted, and slipping down the stairs is literally the best case scenario, you know you're in bad times.

To his credit, Sir Walter Scott does not portray this horrific antisemitism as being in any way good. Rebecca gets a fairly substantial subplot of her own later on, and all Jews present are shown sympathectically. Not to mention all the clearly bad guys specifically target the Jews.

Considering that antisemitism is still alive today, and was possibly even stronger in 1819 England, I'd say Scott is to be congratulated on his skillful weaving of the troubles that Jews faced into his romantic adventure.

Reminder: Bible Study Location

Bible Study this Thursday is at Susan Flaming's House. 2114 N Greenbrier Rd. We start at 6:30pm sharp. Bring your Bibles and join us as we study Revelation 1!

Eric's Blog About Books- Issue #1- The Black Company

I have decided to start up a sort of miniblog here about the hundreds upon thousands of stories I have read and loved. I firmly belive that God created us to tell stories to each other, and I am conveniently capable of sharing about books.

This first post is about Glen Cook's The Black Company.

Here is a handy little summary, via wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Company_(novel)

The best way to state the premise of The Black Company is to imagine a version of Lord of the Rings from the point of view of a minor soldier of Sauron's army. It is deliberately void of the cliches of the fantasy genre- no elves or dwarves, no clear line between bad guys and good guys, no stalwart hero determined to do right. There are a few stock conventions present, but they all seem to be slightly off- the Evil Empire is actually of benefit to the lower classes, the Wicked Sorcerors come across as oddly human (even while raining thaumaturgic death upon their enemies), the Noble Resistance is just as heartless, cruel and psychotic as the Empire they're fighting. The whole thing plays like what it would look like if your standard fantasy novel was mere propoganda from the side that won.

The plot goes something like this: The Black Company is a mercenary oufit in a quasi-medieval world. They fight for pay and are generally the best, sneakiest, most professional soldiers around. They suscribe firmly to the belief that moral absolutism is a myth, that ultimate good depends on where you stand. They get hired by the aforementioned Evil Empire, headed by an extremely powerful Sorceress known as the Lady, who commands the Ten Who Were Taken, or just the Taken (it helps to think of it as the Lady= Sauron, the Taken= Ringwraiths). While serving against the Rebels, they hear of a prophecy that a messianic figure called the White Rose will be reincarnated and bring down the Lady. Being cynical, world weary soldiers, they don't believe it... until one of their members believes he's found her.

It's a great plot, filled with intrigue, plots within plots, sly humor, and wonderous imagination. But the plot is not what makes me love this series. There is also the distinct and highly realistic characters.

Croaker, the narrator, is the Annalist (a.k.a. historian) and physician of the Black Company. The book's framing device is Croaker writing the current events down as company history. The later books have fun with this device by having later annalists read Croaker's accounts and wonder how much of it was actually accurate and unbiased. Croaker is a closet romantic, in love with history and a complete believer in following Company traditions. He is also a highly trained and usually effective doctor, hence the nickname.

One-Eye and Goblin are two diminuative minor wizards who serve with the Company. They are mischevious, malicious, puckish, and engaged in a century long feud. They appear to hate each other but couldn't live without each other.

Soulcatcher is one of the Taken, and the Company's patron. He is your standard evil sorceror, filled with doom and gloom and unholy power, except he's a pretty reasonable guy who does right for those under him. He has a habit of switching voices every sentence, and it's implied that all the voices are actually him using the souls of the people he's killed. He's also a narcissistic megalomaniac without much long term focus.

Raven is a mysterious man with a mysterious past and mysterious motivations. A badass, cold and hard, doesn't give a crap about anything. He could and does piss off one of the Taken and doesn't even bat an eye. Or so he likes to show people. He's later revealed to be an emotional cripple whose only skill is with a blade, and he is not shown in a positive light at all.

Darling is a deafmute orphan that Raven and the rest of the Company adopt. The fact that the Black Company rescued her is just about the only reason we have to think of them as the good guys.

And there are a hundred more characters in the first book alone. Glen Cook appears to have a gift for making characters come to life.

One final note on the series; Glen Cook has a fascinating technique of zooming up close to minor details of his characters' lives and then zooming out to the world view. For example, Croaker writes about how the Company is ordered to take a critically placed fortress from the Rebels, and then hold it throughout the winter. He mentions in about a paragraph that they succeeded with few casualties. He then spends the next five pages describing a card game the soldiers are playing, and them wondering who's turn it is to go out in the cold and get supplies from the town.

The Black Company is almost a deconstruction of the fantasy genre, in that it asks, "What would the world look like if things like black magic and evil overlords and Tolkienesque worlds and so on actually existed? How would people respond?"

Till next time.

On a Monday???

WOW! So today I finally did it! Well The Dude (Ryan Albright) and I served at Lydia House today! It was really cool, different, tiring, and it seemed calmer than usual!

Really Cool because everyone was shocked to see us! The kids came Running at us, probably because the were tired of sitting in there with the adults listening to the lesson! LOL!!!

Different because IT WAS A MONDAY! Everyone was asking, What are you doing here on a monday?

Tiring because it was just The Dude and I with around 11 or 12! Wowzers!

& Calmer because there weren't a lot of us (even though It would have been really cool if more of us). Actually we were served food today! I was blessed to be the women's presents today!

A woman prayed today and it touched me so! It showed that a lot of these women really just loved the unconditional love of God!

Thank You God!

Camping!!!

So here's the deal. We are going camping June 25th-27th, up in the beautiful Kings Canyon, about 30 miles past Hume Lake.

We're leaving bright and early, at 7am on Friday, June 25th.

Cost: Not sure yet...but not more than $20.

More info to follow...but put the date on your calendar.

Where do I go during Sunday's Second Hour?

Since the college community is not meeting Sunday mornings this summer, many of you are wondering what in the world you should do instead. Here are some suggestions.

#1 Go to church. Some of you have gotten into the bad habit of sleeping in, missing church, and then going to college group. Less than stellar idea. Go to church!

#2 Visit another ABF. Since the college community is age-specific and temporary, view this as a great opportunity to visit another ABF and meet other people at Grace. The Gathering (Room 202), Open Source (Room 206), and Global Engagement (Room 200) would all be great places to visit and get connected to other people at Grace. They don't bite. If they do, let me know and I'll teach you self-defense skills.

#3 Go to lunch. View this summer as a time to take initiative in creating good habits of friendship. Grab a few others and head over to Baja Sonora and discuss the sermon. The key here is that someone, at some point, needs to take initiative and lead out. Be creative!

#4 Wander aimlessly in your own misery. You could spend the time feeling awkward, pacing the hallways, spending extra time in the bathroom. This is a legitimate option. And one that many of you prefer. Sorry, I couldn't help it!