be things
not sure what I'm doing here
Equal Partners
May 13th
I figure that since I posted my Mother’s Day talk from two years ago, I’d better post last year’s right away or I’ll put it off for another year. I’ll save you a long intro to this since I already share getting suckered into it two years in a row right at the beginning of the talk (along with a lot of ad-libbed nonsense, as I recall, but I’ll spare you that as well and just stick with what my notes said).
Here’s my 2011 talk. More >
Mother in Heaven
May 12th
Tomorrow will be the first Mother’s Day since we moved to Washington that I have not been asked to speak in church. Pretty crazy, right?
This is the talk that I gave in church two years ago on Mother’s Day. I’ve wanted to post it online since I first gave it, but I was always too lazy to get my draft synced up with my notes so that I could cite my sources. After enough time passed it started to seem silly to post it, but I thought that reposting it for Mother’s Day this year might make it appropriate again.
Sorry that it’s too late for anyone that’s speaking this year to use my notes, but hopefully that also means that it’s too late for the bishopric to try to spring a last-minute talk on me when they are reminded that they let me off the hook this year.
So, here’s my talk from 2010. More >
Review: The Amber Spyglass
Apr 19th
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Overall “Amber Spyglass” is a fitting but anticlimactic ending to the “His Dark Materials” series. If you’ve read the first two books and enjoyed them, you’ll probably find the third book worthwhile, but disappointing.
The theme of the third book is that an afterlife isn’t necessary for people to have comfort and to be motivated to improve the world that we live in. I think it’s actually pretty brilliant how Pullman takes all of his various plot lines and ties them back to this point. The more I think about it the more I realize how well the ideas of the book fit together into this cohesive message of hope that didn’t depend on an afterlife.
While I personally find my faith in an afterlife very comforting, I don’t begrudge comfort to those that need to find it another way. More importantly for me, I think that the tangential ideas of moving on after a tragedy and of making the world better in this life are things that are moving and meaningful to theist and atheists alike.
Pullman is actually pretty gentle with this message, building it slowly through multiple pieces, instead of throwing it in your face. Of the three books in this series, it’s definitely the second book that has the most potential to be offensive to Christians. If you were able to get through the second book without getting upset, then you won’t be troubled by this final book.
While I don’t think you’ll need to worry about being offended by the book, you may need to worry about being bored.
As the story progresses more characters and fantasy worlds keep being introduced. The new characters and settings just aren’t as engaging as the originals, so there are long sections where I felt bored because I didn’t really care about what was going on in that section. Not only that, but the new worlds and characters are so varied that it starts feeling very incohesive, and to me the previous atmosphere of the setting gets lost in the circus of the new settings.
The pace is also much slower and more dragged out. There were multiple points in the book where I thought “ok, now the story’s resolved”, or “ok, this time it’s really over”, only to find that I wasn’t yet near the end. It was kind of hard to keep going when I felt like the conflict was over and there was nothing left to resolve.
In the end I’m glad to have read the whole thing because of how well all of the pieces fit together when it was done. I do wish it’d been as engaging and entertaining as his other books instead of being a chore to finish.
Review: The Subtle Knife
Apr 14th
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The second book in this series was my favorite. The plot and the world and the characters all got bigger, and Pullman’s storytelling stayed just as immersive and engaging. The second book begins to merge the fantasy world from the first book with our modern world, and as we meet new characters we’re pulled in very thoroughly.
I do feel like I should say something about the ideas in the book, since that’s why this series is famous. This second book introduces the antitheism that’s gotten it so much (negative) attention. Pullman creates a world where God’s existence is an undisputed reality rather than an issue of faith, but he paints God as a tyrant responsible for oppressing and for taking away freedom and happiness. He relies heavily on the symbolism from the Garden of Eden, sympathizing with Eve for being cast out because of her choice. Of course most Christians condemn Adam and Eve for their transgression, so I can understand how people would be shocked by the role-reversal of a praised Eve and a vilified God.
As a Mormon I already revere Adam and Eve for their choice in the Garden, so I agreed when Pullman painted a world where they were right to choose knowledge and choice and happiness even if it meant leaving paradise. It’s just that I believe in a God who also values knowledge and choice and happiness and not in one that restricts those things. For me it was still shocking to read God described as a tyrant, but I recognize that is mostly because Pullman uses names that are sacred to me and describes that person doing things that I don’t believe my God would do. That said, I think that if you’re willing to examine the ideas that the author presents rather than just the names he gives to them, you’ll find that there’s nothing to be offended at.
Unlike a lot of books that push a philosophy, Pullman doesn’t come off as preachy. He tells his story through a lot of realistic and complicated characters. The reader is sometimes just as unsure about who is right and who to trust as the young protagonists are.
All in all the story and the telling of it was excellent. The ideas the story presents are really intriguing and you may have your opinions about them. But regardless of your personal beliefs, at the heart of this book you’ll find what is simply an undeniably well-told fantasy story.
Review: The Golden Compass
Apr 14th
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A few years ago they made a movie out of this book that didn’t seem to go very far. I probably never would have noticed the book or the movie, except that a bunch of over-zealous people online made a stink about it because the series has some atheist themes that they thought were inappropriate. It’s maybe a little ironic that their attempts to ban the movie actually got it more attention than it would have otherwise gathered.
In any case, I remember reading a quote from some religious writer who I didn’t recognize and can’t remember, but I remember the gist of what he/she said. They said that even as a religious person it was a good experience to read the book, and that faith can be strengthened by dialog even with opposing viewpoints. I thought that was a really cool point of view, so I gave the movie a chance. I don’t actually remember much of the movie now (except that I still picture Mrs. Coulter as a black-haired Nicole Kidman), but I do remember thinking that it was a cool fantasy world that it had created.
I never got around to reading the books until recently. I was reminded of them after reading a quote from Philip Pullman praising Terry Brooks for his fantasy writing. I’m a big fan of Brooks’ books, so that got me interested again, so I thought that I’d give this series a try. I wasn’t disappointed.
The fantasy world that Pullman creates is really intriguing and immersive, and his characters are very engaging. Most of all, though, he has a way of writing that really puts the reader into the mind of the character and makes you experience the thoughts and feelings of the character. His writing style is excellent, in my opinion.
As far as the philosophies of the book, it’s really not atheist (at least not in this first volume). The book does paint a Church that is dictatorial, but beyond that there’s nothing to be offended at, and that’s certainly not a new or unique idea.
Not only is it not strictly atheist, but it actually is very spiritual. In fact, the descriptions of Lyra and her alethiometer (which I assume is the basis of the American title of the book, even though it’s never called the “golden compass” in the text) are likely to be familiar to people that have had spiritual experiences. They were familiar to me, and I actually found that reading this book was very uplifting spiritually.
Valentine Rant Memories
Feb 14th
A few years ago my brother wrote this gem for Valentine’s day:
I am so glad its Valentines day again. The one day when all the couples in the world pretend to be in love. I’m pretty sure that love is found only on Valentines day. The other 364 days of the year, we can all just go back to hating our partners, and planning how we can survive till next Valentines day without smothering our partner in their sleep with the decorative pillow that everyone hates. I’m so thankful that Hallmark and Sees invented this great holiday, where couples must buy each other material items in order to show how much they are in love for one day.Because we all know it, when you are in love the only way to show it is with fancy diamonds, and a rolex.
This morning I was thinking about this and remembered how his girlfriend responded. Troy showed her the post, and she laughed and said it was really good. Then she asked who wrote it, and of course got mad when he said that it was him.
Twenty Twelve
Jan 5th
Ok, I’ve been trying to correct this for two years now, but I’m not sure it’s working. People keep saying “two thousand”. Say “twenty” instead. It’s one whole syllable shorter and it makes you sound like a native English speaker. You can do it.
Here’s some encouragement that Russ showed me: http://twentynot2000.com/
Mustachify Everything
Nov 24th
In case you didn’t know, this month is Moustache November, which isn’t even an alliteration so they have to call it Movember. It’s the less hilariously-named but possibly more socially-conscious version of my favorite month, Moustache May. There’s a group at work to support it, and of course I subscribe to the mailing list.
This week someone sent out a link to something truly amazing: Mustachify.Me. Basically you can give the site the URL to any image and it will find the faces in the picture and add moustaches to them.
Question: Could anything possibly be more awesome than being able to put a moustache on any picture you want?
Answer: Of course. Putting a moustache on every picture would be more awesome.
So, that’s what I spent my day on. I made a little program for your browser that will send every picture you use through Mustachify.Me and show you the mustachified version instead of the boring moustache-free version. I know that there are probably better ways for me to spend my time, but today was holiday, so I think it’s allowed.
Go install it: Mustachify Everything.
PS: After you install it, you might want to go look at your friends’ pictures on Facebook or Google Plus or whatever the new hip site is these days. You’ll be entertained.
I’m a Mormon
Oct 30th
I wrote my Mormon.org profile about a year ago when I was starting my new job and I wasn’t sure how open I should be about my religion at work. It turns out that no one really cares much one way or the other, but it was good for me to write it. It turns out that I really like just being able to be open about who I am regardless of the circumstances.
Even though I wrote this a while ago, I don’t really have it posted or linked to anywhere. Since that website seems to be picking up speed, I figure that it’s probably time to share my profile so that people can find me on there if they’re so inclined.
So here it is: I’m Bryant, and I’m a Mormon.
The world is OK again
Oct 15th
Yesterday driving to work I saw a bald eagle on 520 again! I actually yelled out loud, “Yes!” I wasn’t on the bus, so it was alright to yell.
