tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226269873507053740.post5767007316032233400..comments2024-03-28T09:47:25.719-04:00Comments on Daffey Thoughts: Not sure what to take from thisDavid Griffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06629314279592541401noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226269873507053740.post-72374429229150208642022-03-17T07:51:28.996-04:002022-03-17T07:51:28.996-04:00I've always enjoyed the Colonial/Napoleonic pe...I've always enjoyed the Colonial/Napoleonic period of history. Medieval studies has been my focus, though I started my history studies because of WWII. That's why I enjoyed Forester's novels. But I've heard O'Brien's is a work that benefits from a certain external knowledge of the context (and some have said, is more accurate than Forester). <br /><br />As for Mark's fandom, that was from another age, when such conversations were as much the rule as anything about politics or social issues. David Griffeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06629314279592541401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226269873507053740.post-59078647798457769052022-03-15T18:04:32.000-04:002022-03-15T18:04:32.000-04:00I'm glad to know that, dispite his many flaws,...I'm glad to know that, dispite his many flaws, somebody in Mark's fandom has good taste in literature. Be warned: if you decide to read O'Brien's whole series, be sure to have a world atlas (or Google maps), as well as all the Wikipedia articles dealing with the Nepoleonic period (Wikipedia tends to have a Left-Leaning bias when it comes to more current events, but their stuff on Napoleon is fairly objective).Donald "Joe" Bidenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17269604927849189077noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226269873507053740.post-80355834476953007762022-03-15T08:29:08.879-04:002022-03-15T08:29:08.879-04:00I've never read the whole series. Years ago, ...I've never read the whole series. Years ago, on Mark Shea's blog, we had a discussion about what books we were reading. At the time I was going through Forester with my sons. Someone recommended O'Brien's books (saying they were actually better). I read Master and Commander, but stopped there. I may pick up the rest someday. <br /><br />That is a quote, by the way, that doesn't seem to apply to me, which makes the one I found all the creepier! David Griffeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06629314279592541401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226269873507053740.post-69934228456582634572022-03-14T21:09:16.031-04:002022-03-14T21:09:16.031-04:00The Surgeon's Mate, by Patrick O'Brien. Pa...The Surgeon's Mate, by Patrick O'Brien. Page 18, line 4: "And most of all he wanted to see Sophie's hand and to hear her voice at one remove: her last letters, dated before the American War, had reached him in Java and he had read them until they cracked at the folds, had read them again and again until they, with almost all his other poses sessions, had been lost at sea."Donald "Joe" Bidenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17269604927849189077noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226269873507053740.post-10013243271720570032022-03-14T18:15:13.497-04:002022-03-14T18:15:13.497-04:00I think that's a good way to see things, and p...I think that's a good way to see things, and perhaps a way we should see things more often than we do. I remember back in the day we used to say coincidence is the faith claim of atheists. I fear sometimes we use it as our own. <br /><br />Oh, and I read the Merchant of Venice ages ago in a college Shakespeare class. I don't think I've read (or watched) it since. I'm looking forward to it. David Griffeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06629314279592541401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226269873507053740.post-89819004943294473922022-03-14T18:12:58.666-04:002022-03-14T18:12:58.666-04:00Thanks! Corrected! I got the makings for a couple...Thanks! Corrected! I got the makings for a couple fine pies. I tell you, this world has ceased to be a joke when so much is going on that I almost forget PIE day.David Griffeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06629314279592541401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226269873507053740.post-68611059742502378152022-03-14T16:31:05.356-04:002022-03-14T16:31:05.356-04:00Don't forget today is PIE day, Dave!Don't forget today is PIE day, Dave!Nate Winchesterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00630873800235819300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6226269873507053740.post-55381155708987823702022-03-14T14:04:35.331-04:002022-03-14T14:04:35.331-04:00Ha! A similar post showed up on my Facebook feed a...Ha! A similar post showed up on my Facebook feed a couple of months ago. In my case, the closest book (besides a first aid book which wouldn't really have worked) was Augustine's Confessions, and when I opened to the page and sentence, it was one of these from his conversation with a wise old man: 'Of whom when I had demanded, how then could many true things be foretold by it, he answered me (as he could) "that the force of chance, diffused throughout the whole order of things, brought this about. For if when a man by haphazard opens the pages of some poet, who sang and thought of something wholly different, a verse oftentimes fell out, wondrously agreeable to the present business: it were not to be wondered at, if out of the soul of man, unconscious what takes place in it, by some higher instinct an answer should be given, by hap, not by art, corresponding to the business and actions of the demander.' Of course I was highly amused, but it's also interesting given that later in his famous conversion experience, he "takes up and reads" the first Bible verse he comes across. So God can use a random verse or sentence, but context and hindsight are probably helpful in these cases. ;)<br />The Merchant of Venice is a good one - my older kids and I read it together a few years ago. I know some make it out to be ant-Semitic, but I think the characters are a lot more complicated. I felt sympathy for Shylock and sometimes thought the "good guys" were being cruel. I'll have to read it again with my younger kids.Annahttp://littledropsofwater.netnoreply@blogger.com