It took me enough attempts… three by my count… but I think I am finally amicably enough oriented toward my own sex that I recognize the satirical style of the novel.

This book was absolutely superb!

My boyfriend, Adam, takes Chinese literature with Professor Jonathon Chaves (not Cháves, but a one-syllable surname). Professor Chaves gave a reading from his book a few months ago which Adam and I had the priveledge to attend. Afterward, I “stole” Adam’s copy.

Chinese poetry is really a fancinating artform. The Chinese have none of the Western mystique about “the poet,” but all properly educated Chinese men are expected to be able to write poetry following a well-defined style. Of course, some men are more talented than others, but this casual element means that some ancient Chinese poems are remarkably funny depictions of funny scenes that happen to the poets in their daily lives. A large number of poems are written about drinking as these men sat around tipsily drinking wine.

I highly recommend this book!

This autobiography isn’t so much the work of apologetics the title seems to promise as the story of a man’s quest for the truth. Newman was a popular leader of the Oxford Movement, a group of high-church Anglicans who emphasised the “catholicity” of the Anglican Church and Anglicanism and the “via media” (middle road) between Catholicism and Protestantism. The more he searched, however, the more he found his church in error and the Catholic Church the true keeper of Apostolic succcession and theological legitimacy. His eventual conversion caused a huge scandal. He was even charged of having secretly infiltrated the Anglican Church to convert its members to Protestantism. He wrote a pain-stakingly thorough (a little too detailed in the longest chapter) account of his story to vindicate himself: even more so, he wrote one of the most-enduring stories of Christian faith in the face of modern pluralism and skepticism.

Please consider reading this book, especially the final chapter.

Note that I was exceedingly happy with Ian Kerr’s editing. The textual notes were thorough and helpful!

This was an absolutely fantastic novel about redemption and the ideas of Christianity put into practice. It is definately worth finishing all 500 pages!

This is the last of the Oscar Wilde plays in the book Laura loaned to me. It was also the strangest by far. The play is a very poetic retelling of the story of Herod’s stepdaughter, Salomé, who asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter as a special favor from the king. The text is lyrical, the play certainly adds nothing to the already-uncertain state of the characters’ motivations.

I continue to be disappointed by Wilde’s “non-Earnest” plays, but he is still an excellent playwright.

This particular play is a critique of the social norm that allows men to avoid consequences for their sins while women are branded for life. Not particularly funny, except in Wilde’s ever-classic discourse between skeptical and bored members of the English upper class.

I believe this was Wilde’s first successful play. It is certainly no where near the brilliance of The Importance of Being Earnest. It seems, though, that I can give no summation without spoiling the whole thing. So, read it for yourself.

This discourse wasn’t anything particularly special. Anselm was a medieval monk in France who later became the Archbishop of Canterburry, back before the Church of England “adopted” Canterburry Cathedral and Diocese. The text is an interesting attempt to prove the logical necessity of the existence of God… even the logical existence of the trinity. I’m not a swift-footed enough logician to find where flaws I feel certain there must be in his argument, but I’m glad to have experienced this important part of Christian history.

Anselm attempts to do more briefly and concisely in the Proslogion that which he did in the Monologion, prove the logical necessity of the existence of God. He develops what has become known as “the ontological argument for the existence of God.”

Man understands that something exists greater than which cannot be thought. But anything thought would be greater if it existed both in thought and in reality. So, that than which a greater cannot be thought must exist in reality or it is not actually that than which a greater cannot be thought. And, you guessed it, God is that than which a greater cannot be thought.

Gaunilo was a fellow Benedictine monk, though no philosopher, who sought to show that philosophy and religion are poor bed fellows. He tries to disprove Anselm’s argument, not because he thinks God doesn’t exist, but because he is skeptical of Anselm’s idea, adopted from Augustine, of faith seeking understanding.

I haven’t read this particular translation or commentary, but I have read the Lysis.

This is truly the most bizzare Platonic dialogue I’ve ever read. Lysis is a young man at a gymnasium that one of Plato’s friends is trying to seduce. So, Plato shows him that the proper way to attract a man is by introducing him to philosophy. The opening sections are quite amusing.

Lowry wrote The Giver and Number the Stars… I’d like to expect more of her. But her pre-Number the Stars young adult novels continue to disappoint. The ending to this book was almost entirely lacking, although it is a good commentary on what makes home and family. I’m glad I spent a Sunday afternoon reading a silly little children’s book, but I won’t encourage you to do the same.