Gabby Made Me Do It
Jun. 27th, 2005 04:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinWoo! I was tagged! I feel special!
1. How many books do I own: Um ... hmm, well, I'm in the library right now, I'll count the ones that are actually on the shelf where they belong. 118, not counting the ones buried in my room somewhere or the assortment of Nat'l Geos. It would be more, but I have access to some great libraries so I don't have to, for example, go out and buy my own costume books. Which I should anyway.
2. Last book I bought: The DK Birds of Canada Field Guide – I rarely make impulse purchases but I saw this at Costco for super cheap and it's the kind of bird book I would probably have committed minor crimes for as a child. It's got photographic reference and ... well, everything. And it's the US and Canada so I can use it when travelling as well. Right now I read it while waiting for my computer to boot up. So far I've gotten to the American Bittern (it's not alphabetical).
3. Last book I read: Johnny and the Bomb, last part of my handy Johnny omnibus I got off Ebay. By Terry Pratchett, of course. I finished it about an hour ago.
4. Five books that mean a lot to me:
Not in any particular order:
1. Watership Down by Richard Adams
My dad read this to me when I was five and I've read it about once every two years since then. I can attribute a great deal of the course of my life to this book: Because I'd read Watership Down, my Grade 4 teacher recomended Redwall; because of Redwall I loved Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (the connection is tenuous to all but the most die-hard Redwall fans ... it mostly has to do with bells and architecture); because of Hunchback I got interested in animation and discovered that ordinary people could become animators... and here I am now. Whether this would have happened without Watership Down is a question for the Trousers of Time. It also is probably at least partially responsible for the taste I have in fantasy (the more realistic the better; I'm not sure why I ended up liking Harry Potter) and my being a stickler for research and accuracy no matter what the subject is.
Besides which, it's a really really really good book.
2. Redwall and its related series (at least, the ones written from 1986-1993) by Brian Jacques
On the rare occasion I go back and read them now, I realize that really they are just escapist fantasy, but they gave me a world to live in which did not contain my middle school and that, quite possibly, saved my life. No exaggeration. I may possibly have ended up a completely different person if I didn't have my fictional sanctuary which I could run to whenever things got tough (which, in middle school, was most of the time). Perhaps the person I'd have become would have died of a drug overdose by now, or been locked in a mental institution, or been arrested for putting strychnine in the tater tots. Who knows? Haha, or possibly, without my fictional cocoon, I would have learned to actually cope with actual human beings...
3. A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright
Mental fireworks! I was first introduced to this book via the CBC radio program Ideas, which basically consisted of the author reading a slightly abridged version aloud for an hour a day. Brilliant. It's essentially about the history of civilisation, and how civilisations follow a pattern in their rise and fall, and how if we are to prevent our civilisation – which now covers the whole planet – from going the way of the Mesopotamians or Easter Islanders, we have to learn from their mistakes. It is one of the two books I have ever read that has filled me with a burning desire to buy a copy for everyone, the second of which is:
4. I See Satan Fall Like Lightning by René Girard
Also introduced to me by Ideas. If A Short History of Progress was mental fireworks, this is a mental planetary cataclysm. The first time I caught a broadcast of the program, I was cleaning my room, but after five minutes I stopped, sat on the floor, and hardly moved, to make as little sound as possible, in case I missed anything. This book has probably done more for my faith than twelve years of stupid boring CCD (well, eleven stupid boring 'God loves you, you are special' years and one kind of interesting theological year) or any number of sing-songs 'round the harmonium. René Girard is a philosopher and sociologist, and he approaches Christianity from a philosophical and sociological standpoint – a rational, logical, scientific standpoint – which speaks to my soul far more than any fiery sermon or sobbing testimonial could. I'll try to sum it up as briefly as I can: Human conflicts stem from imitative desire (you want what your neighbour has/wants). The frustration and anxiety that all this conflict creates causes tension in the community. This tension arcs around, looking for a place to ground itself, until a scapegoat is selected, either an individual or a group. Then the animosity of the community is all displaced onto this selected victim and the victim is either driven out or killed, which relieves the tension like a lightning bolt discharges static electricity. This effect is only temporary, though, so the cycle keeps happening over and over and over. Every culture in the world has myths, legends, and rituals based on this phenomenon. The Jewish tradition is different from the rest in that it takes the side of the victim, be it Abel, Joseph, Jonah, whoever. Christianity, as an outgrowth of Judaism, has that foundation, and then it has the story of the Passion of Christ, which is a hallmark example of the scapegoat mechanism in action. The one thing that's different about the Passion, though, is that not everyone turns against Christ at the end – not permanently, anyway – and it is his allies, his disciples, that spread the word that everyone ganging up on one innocent person and killing him for no good reason doesn't actually solve any problems. Also, by documenting the Passion and the symptoms of the scapegoat mechanism in such detail, they make it obvious to see the scapegoat mechanisms in action all around us, which had previously been obscure. I am so not doing Mr Girard justice with this; his book is a heck of a lot more insightful and revelatory than my paltry paragraph, but that's the basic gist of it. Go read it. It's really, really dense; the writing is heavy and scholarly and it takes about three times as long to read as a novel of the same length, but it is SO WORTH IT. Aside from any of its other virtues, it is proof that you can be religious and still use your brain ... something most people, it appears, seem to find contradictory.
5. Let's face it ... Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling
It's not much in the way of profound philosophy or a life-changing story, but the Harry Potter obsession that began, for me, in 1999, led to the creation of my website, and gave me (a startlingly un-original person) material to feed my sketchbooks like a madwoman, which led to a rapid escalation of drawing skill, and to where I am today. Never had any book infected my drawing hand as strongly. As soon as I started reading Harry Potter, my drawing output rocketed through the roof, and since practise is the most important thing to improving skill, the incessant drawing got me a spot in an animation program of my choice, and thence a job. On the other hand, my website taught me a lot about computers (I'd only been vaguely interested before), got me online, and introduced me to a whole world of new people, a fair number of whom have become very good friends.
Hmm ... I tried to fit a Pratchett reference in there somewhere, but it just barely didn't squeak onto the list.
5. Tag 5 people and have them fill this out in their LJs:
Ubiquitouspitt
Bananabasket
Romanilily (though I doubt she'll have time)
Salamandersoup
Octaveleap
And anyone else who wants to...
My five dorkish symptoms:
1. One word: clacks. I was never much of a fan of the whole semaphore thing in Discworld until Going Postal and now ... I am obsessed. Anyone who gets an adrenaline rush from checking out The Old Telegraphs is a dork. Anyone who comes up with this idea is definitely a dork.
2. I live in the range of one library system and work in the range of another, and I have both my library card numbers memorized.
3. Complete and utter fashion apathy.
4. I once made my own shoes. They looked like something the Iceman would wear, but I made them!
5. This year, I am being a Pict for Halloween. And will do research. Starting now. It's never too early to start a Halloween costume.
5a. Last year I was Violet Baudelaire.
1. How many books do I own: Um ... hmm, well, I'm in the library right now, I'll count the ones that are actually on the shelf where they belong. 118, not counting the ones buried in my room somewhere or the assortment of Nat'l Geos. It would be more, but I have access to some great libraries so I don't have to, for example, go out and buy my own costume books. Which I should anyway.
2. Last book I bought: The DK Birds of Canada Field Guide – I rarely make impulse purchases but I saw this at Costco for super cheap and it's the kind of bird book I would probably have committed minor crimes for as a child. It's got photographic reference and ... well, everything. And it's the US and Canada so I can use it when travelling as well. Right now I read it while waiting for my computer to boot up. So far I've gotten to the American Bittern (it's not alphabetical).
3. Last book I read: Johnny and the Bomb, last part of my handy Johnny omnibus I got off Ebay. By Terry Pratchett, of course. I finished it about an hour ago.
4. Five books that mean a lot to me:
Not in any particular order:
1. Watership Down by Richard Adams
My dad read this to me when I was five and I've read it about once every two years since then. I can attribute a great deal of the course of my life to this book: Because I'd read Watership Down, my Grade 4 teacher recomended Redwall; because of Redwall I loved Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (the connection is tenuous to all but the most die-hard Redwall fans ... it mostly has to do with bells and architecture); because of Hunchback I got interested in animation and discovered that ordinary people could become animators... and here I am now. Whether this would have happened without Watership Down is a question for the Trousers of Time. It also is probably at least partially responsible for the taste I have in fantasy (the more realistic the better; I'm not sure why I ended up liking Harry Potter) and my being a stickler for research and accuracy no matter what the subject is.
Besides which, it's a really really really good book.
2. Redwall and its related series (at least, the ones written from 1986-1993) by Brian Jacques
On the rare occasion I go back and read them now, I realize that really they are just escapist fantasy, but they gave me a world to live in which did not contain my middle school and that, quite possibly, saved my life. No exaggeration. I may possibly have ended up a completely different person if I didn't have my fictional sanctuary which I could run to whenever things got tough (which, in middle school, was most of the time). Perhaps the person I'd have become would have died of a drug overdose by now, or been locked in a mental institution, or been arrested for putting strychnine in the tater tots. Who knows? Haha, or possibly, without my fictional cocoon, I would have learned to actually cope with actual human beings...
3. A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright
Mental fireworks! I was first introduced to this book via the CBC radio program Ideas, which basically consisted of the author reading a slightly abridged version aloud for an hour a day. Brilliant. It's essentially about the history of civilisation, and how civilisations follow a pattern in their rise and fall, and how if we are to prevent our civilisation – which now covers the whole planet – from going the way of the Mesopotamians or Easter Islanders, we have to learn from their mistakes. It is one of the two books I have ever read that has filled me with a burning desire to buy a copy for everyone, the second of which is:
4. I See Satan Fall Like Lightning by René Girard
Also introduced to me by Ideas. If A Short History of Progress was mental fireworks, this is a mental planetary cataclysm. The first time I caught a broadcast of the program, I was cleaning my room, but after five minutes I stopped, sat on the floor, and hardly moved, to make as little sound as possible, in case I missed anything. This book has probably done more for my faith than twelve years of stupid boring CCD (well, eleven stupid boring 'God loves you, you are special' years and one kind of interesting theological year) or any number of sing-songs 'round the harmonium. René Girard is a philosopher and sociologist, and he approaches Christianity from a philosophical and sociological standpoint – a rational, logical, scientific standpoint – which speaks to my soul far more than any fiery sermon or sobbing testimonial could. I'll try to sum it up as briefly as I can: Human conflicts stem from imitative desire (you want what your neighbour has/wants). The frustration and anxiety that all this conflict creates causes tension in the community. This tension arcs around, looking for a place to ground itself, until a scapegoat is selected, either an individual or a group. Then the animosity of the community is all displaced onto this selected victim and the victim is either driven out or killed, which relieves the tension like a lightning bolt discharges static electricity. This effect is only temporary, though, so the cycle keeps happening over and over and over. Every culture in the world has myths, legends, and rituals based on this phenomenon. The Jewish tradition is different from the rest in that it takes the side of the victim, be it Abel, Joseph, Jonah, whoever. Christianity, as an outgrowth of Judaism, has that foundation, and then it has the story of the Passion of Christ, which is a hallmark example of the scapegoat mechanism in action. The one thing that's different about the Passion, though, is that not everyone turns against Christ at the end – not permanently, anyway – and it is his allies, his disciples, that spread the word that everyone ganging up on one innocent person and killing him for no good reason doesn't actually solve any problems. Also, by documenting the Passion and the symptoms of the scapegoat mechanism in such detail, they make it obvious to see the scapegoat mechanisms in action all around us, which had previously been obscure. I am so not doing Mr Girard justice with this; his book is a heck of a lot more insightful and revelatory than my paltry paragraph, but that's the basic gist of it. Go read it. It's really, really dense; the writing is heavy and scholarly and it takes about three times as long to read as a novel of the same length, but it is SO WORTH IT. Aside from any of its other virtues, it is proof that you can be religious and still use your brain ... something most people, it appears, seem to find contradictory.
5. Let's face it ... Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling
It's not much in the way of profound philosophy or a life-changing story, but the Harry Potter obsession that began, for me, in 1999, led to the creation of my website, and gave me (a startlingly un-original person) material to feed my sketchbooks like a madwoman, which led to a rapid escalation of drawing skill, and to where I am today. Never had any book infected my drawing hand as strongly. As soon as I started reading Harry Potter, my drawing output rocketed through the roof, and since practise is the most important thing to improving skill, the incessant drawing got me a spot in an animation program of my choice, and thence a job. On the other hand, my website taught me a lot about computers (I'd only been vaguely interested before), got me online, and introduced me to a whole world of new people, a fair number of whom have become very good friends.
Hmm ... I tried to fit a Pratchett reference in there somewhere, but it just barely didn't squeak onto the list.
5. Tag 5 people and have them fill this out in their LJs:
Ubiquitouspitt
Bananabasket
Romanilily (though I doubt she'll have time)
Salamandersoup
Octaveleap
And anyone else who wants to...
My five dorkish symptoms:
1. One word: clacks. I was never much of a fan of the whole semaphore thing in Discworld until Going Postal and now ... I am obsessed. Anyone who gets an adrenaline rush from checking out The Old Telegraphs is a dork. Anyone who comes up with this idea is definitely a dork.
2. I live in the range of one library system and work in the range of another, and I have both my library card numbers memorized.
3. Complete and utter fashion apathy.
4. I once made my own shoes. They looked like something the Iceman would wear, but I made them!
5. This year, I am being a Pict for Halloween. And will do research. Starting now. It's never too early to start a Halloween costume.
5a. Last year I was Violet Baudelaire.
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-28 04:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-28 12:30 pm (UTC)It was this nead for continuity that stoped me from reading Discworld for a while so I may try to read the series again.
Books are so much easier to love and to get to know then people and when you have trouble relating to people you often seek refuse in fantasy.
At least that is how it was for me, I started reading my first "adult" fantasy novel aged seven, one of the Xanth series by Peirs Anthony, then i went on to the David Eddings books, which I would still read if I wasn't obsesed with Terry Pratchet.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-29 08:18 am (UTC)Cats take over the forest? Mossflower, I would say, a really great one. There are a few more with those characters in it, if you liked them so much.
I need to read some Terry books, I'm going away for a week and I need some reading material. Any other suggestions, anyone?
no subject
Date: 2005-06-29 03:14 pm (UTC)If you are wanting to read TP books I would recomend the Night Watch ones, rich cast of characters, occasional mysteries, The Great Wahooie...
They are great, books none TP, hmm...How about To Kill A Mocking Bird.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-29 03:24 pm (UTC)Try Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series ... I recommend starting with The Dark is Rising itself rather than Over Sea, Under Stone which is only vaguely connected in theme and atmosphere with the rest of the series. Especially if you're going someplace hot.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-29 03:27 pm (UTC)Night watch does need a bit of back story, getting to know the characters before makes what happens even more intense.
How do they rise up?
no subject
Date: 2005-06-29 03:35 pm (UTC)Over Sea, Under Stone, not Night Watch ... haha, though that would be funny.
Golly, Mr Dickerson, how do they rise? It's a mystery!
no subject
Date: 2005-06-29 08:20 am (UTC)