Prince Caspian quickie review

We went to see Prince Caspian yesterday with some Grad Christian Fellowship kakis. It's a pretty good movie...I'd rate it 8/10 all around.

For the most part, it stayed true to the book except:

• There are a few scenes showing discussions between Miraz, Sopespian, Rozelle, and the other Telmarine lords. I don't have a problem with this since their function is explaining Telmarine politics that are narrated in the books in another way.
• During the scene with Nikabrik and his black magic cronies, they actually summon up the White Witch. If I hadn't read the books I would have gotten the impression that she was going to be a recurring villain.
• Before the duel between Peter and Miraz, there's an SAS paratrooper-style raid on the Telmarines' castle which is a lot of fun to watch for the action scenes, but doesn't advance the plot in any way, so I thought it was really weird that the filmmakers wrote it in.

Special effects and action scenes are really good for the most part, except for one really weird bit where the Narnians use a tactic of making the roof fall in on themselves, which I thought was silly.

In terms of characters: Peter is full of testosterone, and himself. One fellow in the group who's a Peter fan commented that after the moral and military mistakes he made, he wasn't given enough time to redeem himself. Susan shows up really well in the action scenes and flirts outrageously with Caspian, much to the younger ones' scorn. ("I'm sure I'll understand when I'm larger." "I'm larger and I'm not sure I want to understand.") Edmund shines - both as a character in this book, and through Skandar Keynes' perfect deadpan delivery of his lines (I dunno where that name is from but it sounds totally Viking). Lucy, as before, is adorable. Caspian is a bit of a nonentity. He sort of reminds me of Hamlet.

As for Reepicheep: holy cow, I'm glad the mice in my lab don't fight like that.

Christus Apollo

[EDIT: Somebody pointed out in the comments (and I would REALLY appreciate your leaving some clue as to who you are or how to contact you, if you're trying to be helpful rather than just snippy) that this poem is under copyright as Bradbury is still alive, so I can't reproduce it here. Given that an awful lot of poetry is available on the internet, I didn't think about copyright - please don't call me a thief as if I'm purposely trying to deprive him of income or attribution. So I'm just going to quote a few of my favourite bits.]

[Originally posted on 26 March] Two days ago on Easter would have been a more appropriate time to post this, but I happened to be listening to Jerry Goldsmith's musification of it tonight.

A couple of years ago when the PhYW were trying to revive the Phases Young Writers community with a new website, Tee Shern Ren and I were doing the science section and I wrote this essay about what implications First Contact would have for Christ-followers. What do people think?

Thanks to Teacher Rowie for originally posting the full text of the poem. (Unfortunately she didn't include the breaks between stanzas and I don't have a copy of I Sing the Body Electric to check...) It's such a great poem that I'm surprised to find it so hardly on the Internet.

In some far universal Deep
Did He tread Space
And visit worlds beyond our blood-warm dreaming?
Did He come down on lonely shore by sea
Not unlike Galilee
And are there Mangers on far worlds that knew His light?
And Virgins?
Sweet Pronouncements?
Annunciations? Visitations from angelic hosts?
And, shivering vast light among ten billion lights,
Was there some Star much like the star at Bethlehem
That struck the sight with awe and revelation
Upon a cold and most strange morn?
On worlds gone wandering and lost from this
Did Wise Men gather in the dawn
In cloudy steams of Beast
Within a place of straw now quickened to a Shrine
To look upon a stranger Child than ours?
How many stars of Bethlehem burnt bright
Beyond Orion or Centauri’s blinding arc?
How many miracles of birth all innocent
Have blessed those worlds?
...
For in this time of Christmas
In the long Day totalling up to Eight,
We see the light, we know the dark;
And creatures lifted, born, thrust free of so much night
No matter what the world or time or circumstance
Must love the light,
So, children of all lost unnumbered suns
Must fear the dark
Which mingles in a shadowing-forth on air.
And swarms the blood.
No matter what the color, shape, or size
Of beings who keep souls like breathing coals
In long midnights,
They must need saving of themselves.
So on far worlds in snowfalls deep and clear
Imagine how the rounding out of some dark year
Might celebrate with birthing one miraculous child!
A child?
Born in Andromeda’s out-swept mysteries?
Then count its hands, its fingers,
Eyes, and most incredible holy limbs!
The sum of each?
No matter. Cease.
Let Child be fire as blue as water under Moon.
Let Child sport free in tides with human-seeming fish.
Let ink of octopi inhabit blood
Let skin take acid rains of chemistry
All falling down in nightmare storms of cleansing burn.
Christ wanders in the Universe
A flesh of stars,
He takes on creature shapes
To suit the mildest elements,
He dresses him in flesh beyond our ken.
...
Yet, still unsure, and all being doubt,
Much frightened man on Earth does cast about
And clothe himself in steel
And borrow fire
And himself in the great glass of the careless Void admire.
...
Christ is not dead
Nor does God sleep
While waking Man
Goes striding on the Deep
To birth ourselves anew
And love rebirth
From fear of straying long
On outworn Earth.
...
New Wise men Descry
Our hosts of machineries
Which write immortal life
And sign it God!
Down, down Alien skies.
And flown and gone, arrived and bedded safe to sleep
Upon some winters morning deep
Ten billion years of light
From where we stand us now and sing,
There will be time to cry eternal gratitudes
Time to know and see and love the Gift of Life itself,
Always diminished,
Always restored,
Out of one hand and into the other
Of the Lord.

Hot tub

Last night we had the Grad Christian Fellowship's women's retreat in New Glarus, which is a cute little fake Swiss town. I'm sure they had real Swiss immigrants back when it started in the 1850s, but now it's a tourist trap.

The two speakers were the Assistant Dean of Diversity and a sociology prof, who'd known each other for about two years professionally, but were each extremely surprised to find out that the other was Christian when we invited them to come and talk. Sociology and Asst. Dean of Diversity...go figure. I think in some fields - surprisingly, not the life sciences - announcing that you belong to an organized religion is like coming out of the closet.

The Chalet Landhaus is really nice but also awfully expensive, which is why the women's retreat is in February (off-season). But it's made of wood, has well-heated rooms, etc., plus a Jacuzzi. Someone commented that "if I had one of these in my house, I would be so relaxed." Well, there's a reason we don't have Jacuzzis in our houses:

Grad students aren't supposed to relax.

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One thing that Dr Turley mentioned was that she'd grown up poor (as had Dr Sanchez) and she'd been taught to hate rich people. (Look at the 5th item on her publication list, by the way.) I definitely didn't grow up poor, but our family was more or less lower-middle-class, and I wasn't taught to hate rich people but to look down on them - not explicitly, obviously, as my dad's a pastor, but you pick up on comments about spoilt kids, corrupt politicians, pampered housewives, nepotism, etc.

It drove me nuts to hear my Bengali friend, whose family in Dhaka had servants and drivers, insist that they weren't rich. It drives me nuts to hear my boyfriend, whose family has 4 cars total and whose parents own their own very nice house, insist that they're not rich. Not by relative neighbourhood or USA standards, maybe, but by the standards I grew up with they look like close to millionaires.

It's becoming very uncomfortable to me to realize that with the level of education I'm going to end up with, and the type of job that I'm probably going to have, I will be joining the ranks of the "rich people". I don't want to have to deal with investments and stocks and all that bullshit, and if there are any children in my future, I have an absolute horror of them growing up to be privileged brats. Maybe I can pull a John Wesley and give most of it away to continue living at the frugal-but-far-from-desperate lower-middle-class level that I'm used to.

Steve won't like it though. He wants his own aeroplane. We'll have to hash something out.

PK drug problem

I'm not a fan of ultraconservative American organizations like Focus on the Family, but there was an article titled "Real Life for Second-Generation Christians" in one of their fliers which I thought was totally relevant and funny:

But there are challenges when faith has always been an assumed part of your life. One second-generation Christian said he had a drug problem growing up--his father was a pastor and he got "drug" to church on Sunday morning and "drug" to church on Sunday night and "drug" to church on Wednesday night.

A while ago I visited the home of the senior pastor at the church I attend, with a bunch of other random churchgoers. At one point a twentysomething woman sneaked into the back of the living area and was getting something out of the fridge when someone turned around and asked "Who's that?" The "Oh Dad don't make me introduce myself" look on her face was painfully familiar and for the first time in my life it wasn't on mine =D

Which early church father are you?

I'm not even sure who Origen is or what his positions were and since I have homework tonight I'm definitely not going to start reading the wiki about him.

You’re Origen! You do nothing by half-measures. If you’re going to read the Bible, you want to read it in the original languages. If you’re going to teach, you’re going to reach as many souls as possible, through a proliferation of lectures and books. If you’re a guy and you’re going to fight for purity … well, you’d better hide the kitchen shears. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

I'm not sure what this has to do with it either, but under the question "Your guilty pleasure:" I picked "Self-mutilation". =D

Science and Christianity seminar last weekend

Posted in my Facebook notes.

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The church I attend in Madison (I don't like to say "my church" ever, because as a pastor's kid I'm a bit allergic to church-specific allegiance) is a bit of an odd case because it's an Evangelical Free Church, but unlike the typical evangelicals in the US, they're pretty neutral politically and even open to what Americans usually consider left-wing issues. Last year there was a sermon on "The Future" and my reaction to the title was Oh groan they're going to talk about Revelation, but instead the pastor invited a UW professor to talk about climate change =D

Anyway, last weekend there was a seminar on science and Christianity which I attended. I ran into a few people I didn't expect, including a kid called Rob in my molecular biology techniques class. Descriptions of the speakers are here here.

The five speakers included three current and one emeritus UW professors, one of whom was Rick Lindroth, the entomology prof who did the "Al Gore" talk mentioned above =D

The other two UW professors are Jeff Hardin, in Zoology, and Stuart Knechtle, a professor of transplantation. Hardin is in developmental biology, which is really cool. Dev bio is also one of the areas that's very much dealing with the "where did life come from" question.

The retired prof, Wayne Becker, is a biochemist. He did a cute little gimmick of literally wearing different hats as he described positions along the creation/evolution continuum: Young Earth Creationists (Henry Morris), Old Earth Creationists (Hugh Ross), Theistic Evolutionists (Francis Collins - the Human Genome Project guy, and me), and Naturalistic Evolutionists (Richard Effing Dawkins).

I was saying something to someone today about Francis Collins and I said Michael Collins by mistake...wait...not the astronaut dude. =D

The one non-UW faculty member is John Walton, a professor of Old Testament at Wheaton, who talked about reading the OT in the light of ancient Middle Eastern thought...comparative literature I guess. I ended up buying one of his books on the subject, message me if you're interested in reading it.

In sum, it was definitely worth getting up early on Saturday (after staying up till 3am reading Terry Pratchett's "Thud" =PPP I needed to catch up on Sam Vimes.)

Ultimately my position as a Christian and a scientist is based on faith. I'm trusting that a) God exists and b) made a world which is systematic and c) gave us rational minds, I'm not going to go into by what mechanism here and d) loves us enough not to mess with our minds too much. If those four assumptions are correct, nothing the Bible says should contradict the findings of reason and observation, and vice versa. There ya go.

To close, a note from St. Augustine:

"Since, then, in those situations where such things are appropriate, some perish to make way for others that are born in their room, and the less succumb to the greater, and the things that are overcome are transformed into the quality of those that have the mastery, this is the appointed order of things transitory. Of this order the beauty does not strike us, because by our mortal frailty we are so involved in a part of it, that we cannot perceive the whole, in which these fragments that offend us are harmonized with the most accurate fitness and beauty." (City of God*, Book XII, Chapter 3.)

I think Augustine would have been a TE =)

ARGH I HAVE HOMEWORK AGAIN. At some point I'll get around to posting the theory I came up with for my last Path 750 assignment. I got fifty out of fifty marks for writing about Devil Facial Tumour Disease (I guess "tumour" ought to be spelt with a u, since it is an Australian animal) and I'm very pleased with it. At the rate I'm going with this second one, it may be somewhat less pleasing.

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*Unfortunately Augustine's books are no longer on Gutenberg.org. They're now in the CCEL, which you can access for free but have to register.

Raptor!

No, not the Jurassic Park kind...although that's where I first learned the word from. That book can scare the crap out of a ten-year-old kid.

Recently my sis FlowerMoonFish who's interning at theSun was assigned to cover Raptor Watch. It's spring migration now, so they're all going back to their breeding grounds in China or Russia or whatever from their winter holiday in M'sia.

Anyway, I was at Blackhawk Church's Science & Christianity seminary today (I'd like to say "more about that later", but more than likely I'll be too lazy to do a proper write-up). Rick Lindroth, who's a UW-Madison professor of entomology, was talking about environmentalism from a Christian perspective (a.k.a. creation care). He noted that one reason we're pretty apathetic about what happens to nature is that we're unfamiliar with it - walk down the street and you'll probably recognize most of the corporate logos you see, but very few trees. (Hinthint, the one that looks like the Canadian flag in autumn is a maple. =)

[Is it just me, or does he look like a less horsey version of John Kerry?]

Also, I've been rereading Joey Slinger's Down and Dirty Birding, which I picked up last year at the Singapore National Library booksale. It's a humorous and accessible guide for the beginning birder, insightful but not heavy, and mentions characteristics of birds you're likely to see in North America. As it's written by a Canadian, the particulars of birds mentioned in the book are pretty unhelpful for Malaysians (except for worldwide invasives like the pigeon...groan).

Also, IT'S EFFING SPRING! You'd have to be blind and deaf to not notice all the birds showing up (blind birders listen for songs and calls).

The cool thing happened later. I'd gone to lab after the seminar around 5pm to check on some cells. As I was unlocking my bike at the side of the building, a crow-sized bird bombed out of the crabapple tree next to the bicycle rack, swooped across the lawn, and ended up in a big tree (yes, I don't know what kind of tree it is) with a chipmunk in its talons. At least, it had something in its talons and a still-twitching chipmunk tail was hanging out.

After it moved to a higher branch to get slightly further away from my kaypoh staring, it began to eat. You could hear the crunchy noises.

It was mostly light brownish-grey, with brown stripes across the tail, and the top of its head was darker. A bit like this fellow. I went home and looked it up on eNature and I think it was either a Cooper's or a Sharp-Shinned Hawk (both the Animal Diversity web pages and Slinger say they're easily confused).

ADW on their feeding habits:

When hunting, Cooper's hawks usually perch in a hidden location and watch for prey. They wait until their prey is unaware of their presence, then quickly swoop down and seize it. Bobwhites, starlings, blackbirds, chipmunks, and squirrels are common prey for Cooper's hawks.

Sharp-shinned hawks are opportunistic hunters. They often hunt from a perch and dart out from hiding to catch prey. Their long, sharp talons help them to grab onto prey and their short bursts of high-speed flight help them to catch their prey.

There ya go.

Blackhawk typo

This is to the last person who commented on my blog and anyone else who goes to Blackhawk Church...there was a typo in their flyer...if anyone's interested in the Science Fiction and Fantasy group, the email address starts with "sfandf", not "fandf"!

Apparently the contact form on Blackhawk's site works okay, but then their emails end up in my spam folder. Sorry guys.

Augustine on Evolution

I've quoted St. Augustine on ecology before. Here's what he might have to say about the current evolution-vs.-creationism flap. I'll let the great man speak for himself. *grin* This is a link to the entire book in plaintext if you want it.

[From Book XII]

Chapter 4.--Of the Nature of Irrational and Lifeless Creatures, Which in Their Own Kind and Order Do Not Mar the Beauty of the Universe.

But it is ridiculous to condemn the faults of beasts and trees, and other such mortal and mutable things as are void of intelligence, sensation, or life, even though these faults should destroy their corruptible nature; for these creatures received, at their Creator's will, an existence fitting them, by passing away and giving place to others, to secure that lowest form of beauty, the beauty of seasons, which in its own place is a requisite part of this world. For things earthly were neither to be made equal to things heavenly, nor were they, though inferior, to be quite omitted from the universe. Since, then, in those situations where such things are appropriate, some perish to make way for others that are born in their room, and the less succumb to the greater, and the things that are overcome are transformed into the quality of those that have the mastery, this is the appointed order of things transitory. Of this order the beauty does not strike us, because by our mortal frailty we are so involved in a part of it, that we cannot perceive the whole, in which these fragments that offend us are harmonized with the most accurate fitness and beauty.

Haha, he said "fitness" =D

... But they forget that this very light which is so pleasant to them, disagrees with and hurts weak eyes; and in that heat which is disagreeable to them, some animals find the most suitable conditions of a healthy life.

He must have been thinking of Strain 121.

InterVarsity last night

Steve and I went to the IV grad Christian Fellowship meeting last night (they're fortnightly). At the end of the meeting we split up into groups by fields of study to pray.

I noticed something really funny: completely contrary to the layman's belief that science and reason have[are] abolished[ing] religion, the engineering and math group had the most people in it, followed by physical sciences, biology, social sciences (a.k.a. "people who think P<0.3 is good"), and last of all, arts and humanities.

Tim, who's the advisor of Lawrence University's CF, commented that he thinks the arts are the most hostile to Christianity. Steven Pinker in How the Mind Works wrote that the reason modern art holds little interest for the lay public is that it's really an esoteric status competition among artists and aficionados that really has little to do with what the human brain tends to find beautiful.

So there we have our explanation, ladies and gentlemen: professional artists are a bunch of wankers. >D