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The Jevlir Caravansary

Author: jevlir

  • Book: Miracle of the Jacal

    This one is a bit out of my normal territory, but my wife grabbed it for me from the library and thought I’d like it. She’s usually right. So I grabbed it and worked my way through. I even had to add a category of “Western” to this blog to cover it.

    Miracle of the Jacal is not some sort of religious book. It’s a historical novel, sort of, based on the life of Elfego Baca, and built around the story of an interview with Baca late in life. Randisi provides a historical outline, giving the facts to which he attached his collection of tales, and says that the rest is his imagination. He actually appears to take less freedom with history than many historical novels.

    I enjoyed these stories, but wouldn’t put them on the top of my list. I find western history interesting, but western fiction a bit repetitive and often a bit boring. As an occasional break from my normal reading list, however, this book was worthwhile.

  • Book: The Senator and the Priest

    If you’ve been around any of my blogs for long you already know that I love Andrew Greeley, and especially the Father/Bishop Blackie mysteries. I’m a little bit less excited about his more romantic fiction, but his political fiction is also great. It’s entertaining and it makes some excellent points along the way.

    Thus The Senator and the Priest attracted my attention as soon as I first saw it, and soon I took it home to read. I was not disappointed.

    Conservatives and Republicans will be disappointed that the good guys are Democrats, though there is one Republican presented favorably. The media is seen mostly in a negative light. Its faults and failings as portrayed are precisely those I see with the media. It’s not a matter so much of political agenda, as it is of a simple profit agenda, combined with a great deal of stupidity.

    As always, Greeley’s books are permeated with the gospel message of God’s implacable love (his phrase), and the portrayal of God’s passion for us through sexual passion. One shouldn’t get the idea here that we are dealing with a sort of allegory. I really don’t like fiction that is written with the primary aim of conveying a message. Fiction needs to present a story first, and the message rides in on the story, the less obtrusively the better. But having characters of faith, who attend church, are concerned with their relationship to God, and who experience the presence of God is not message–it’s just a portrayal of human characters who exist in the real world yet are often avoided in fiction in order to avoid a “religious” message.

    I would say simply that I wish that the heroic characters of this novel were real people. I suspect there are real people out there like them, and we should be looking for them to serve our nation. Their goals are good. Greeley is a Democrat, and he portrays characters who are Democrats. As an independent myself, I have little faith in either the Democratic or Republican parties at this point, but if one party would clearly embrace a message of civility and campaigns that are issues oriented, I would climb on board quickly. I just suspect such a party would not look much like the current parties, because I believe the combination of issues would change simply by the fact that elections were being fought on issues.

    Good fun, good writing, good message. Can you beat that?

  • Book: Childe Morgan

    It has been sometime since I have read a Deryni book. I find this kind of fantasy that’s informed by history quite enjoyable to read, though you’ll not find it on my “read everything that is published” lists.

    Childe Morgan rates quite high in terms of characterization (excellent), cultural background (excellent), and political intrigue (excellent). I must admit, however, that the pace of events, especially of any form of action is a bit slow for my tastes. I have to admit to a certain love for reading matter that has exciting events at regular intervals. This book builds the threads of a final confrontation throughout the book, moving slowly and painstakingly through details of the lives of the characters setting up their reactions to that final scene.

    Make no mistake, this is a good book, but I have to give it a rating of “3” because I will still read folks like David Weber and David Drake first.

  • DVD: The Lord Peter Wimsey-Harriet Vane Collection – Strong Poison / Have His Carcass / Gaudy Night)

    Dorothy Sayers’s Lord Peter mysteries are among my favorite mystery books, so I was happy to find this collection of videos. I have to confess that I really didn’t like Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey, but Edward Petheridge is much more convincing in the part. Harriet Walter is a convincing Harriet Vane.

    The story follows the books fairly closely. I truly have no major complaints about the videos. Of course the Harriet Vane stories have the fairly odd set of echanges between Wimsey and Vane as Wimsey is determined to marry her, while she is determined not to marry.

    I recommend these DVDs to fans of Dorothy Sayers without reservations.

  • DVD: The Fountainhead

    I have always appreciated The Fountainhead both for its literature and philosophy. As a Christian Bible teacher, there are obviously some differences between my philosophy and that of Ayn Rand, to put it mildly. I have always wondered why her philosophy had to be so strongly opposed to theism. Obviously it was opposed in many ways to Christian theism, but theism, or perhaps deism, can be nothing more than an assertion of ultimate order in the universe in different language.

    I recently discussed some of the particulars of the character of Howard Roark that I like and dislike in my post Can one Like both George Bailey and Howard Roark? I think there is a mistake made both by supporters and opponents of Ayn Rand, and that is that to have absolute and true values one must be on one extreme or the other, that one is either totally selfish or totally unselfish, independent or dependent, has integrity or completely falls apart. Of course, that is part of Rand’s message. She doesn’t believe that “middles” are possible.

    I believe in balance and integrity at the same time, meaning that one finds the correct point, which may or may not be one of the extremes, and then stands for that point. There are things which society may ask of me, and which I should choose to give, but society as such doesn’t own me. I have rights to my creations, but at the same time I may recognize that no matter what I construct I have learned some things from other people.

    In The Fountainhead, Rand has Roark appear almost as if from nowhere. Family doesn’t exist. Early education and nurture doesn’t exist. Roark just appears. This picture is much better in the book than in the movie, in my view. It is something that attracted me to the book in the first place. There is an annoying tendency of families and friends to claim every accomplishment of their relations as their own, to point to every talent and ability as coming from somewhere on the family tree, and giving no individual credit to a child and his or her creativity. That combines with the expectation that the family owns part of that creative product, that the child who succeeds should help the large number of relatives who have failed. The Fountainhead goes to the opposite extreme. Roark comes from nowhere, stands alone, owns everything.

    But are the extremes the only option? I would suggest that some of what I am has come from my parents. Some has come from teachers and friends who have guided me along the way. But some of what I am, and all of what I have made of that comes from me, me in relationship to God, and belongs to me and not to anyone else. Where I lean in Rand’s direction is that I need to be the one to make that choice. That is sometimes going to involve me handing off some of the glory of achievements, or even the ignominy of defeats to others when they are truly responsible. But at the same time it will involve me taking responsibility for both to the extent that is really true.

    Contrary to Howard Roark, I see a positive value in teamwork. This is not the teamwork that wrecked Cortlandt before Roark blew it up. Rather it is teamwork where each makes a known contribution and is acknowledged for that. That is the type of balance that I would look for, and that is the reason that I can appreciate The Fountainhead, while disagreeing in substantial ways with its author.

    After many, many years, and several readings of the book, I finally brought myself to see the movie yesterday. The movie is well done in that it keeps the theme of the book intact, as one might expect of a script written by the book author. Some of the events are changed in order to make it a reasonable length movie. Gary Cooper is wonderful in displaying Roark, and the remainder of the casting is good. I personally still prefer book form for presenting material of this nature. I like time to think about scenes and using my imagination on them. But if one is to present such a book in movie form, this is a good way to do it. If, like me, you’ve resisted getting the movie because you normally don’t like such things, go ahead and get this one and watch it. I found it immediately available via Netflix, and it was a pleasure to watch.

    If you haven’t read the book, consider doing so before you watch the movie. The Fountainhead is a book that should provoke thought, and you should have time to think as you go through it.

  • Audacity Audio Software

    In my continuing quest to find excellent open source or freeware applications that I can recommend I ran across the audio editing program Audacity. Well, actually I needed a program to create some MP3 files for a podast (Running Toward the Goal) and after some searching I chose this one.

    In any case, I have thus far found it to be an excellent tool, and well worth considering before you either pay money for something you haven’t tests or use one of the random quality sound file editors that come with sound cards. I’m not very sophisticated with audio, but this has made it simple for me to do the type of basic editing I do, such as removing portions of a file to clean it up, converting the file from WAV to MP3 or the reverse, and so forth.

    I’ll be adding it to my recommendations for free software.

  • Book Series: Lord Meren Mysteries

    I recently re-read Eater of Souls by Lynda S. Robinson, and as a result remembered that I’d intended to read more. So I immediately found what I could at the local library and I’ve thus far gone backwards to read Murder at the Feast of Rejoicing. I’ve got a couple more sitting on my “to be read” shelf.

    I’m not sure why I didn’t follow up on this series at the time I first read one of the books. Normally when I like a series I head straight to the library and/or bookstore, fill out the list and work right through it. It can’t have been because I didn’t like the books–I love them. With some knowledge of Egypt (I have a year of Middle Egyptian reading from graduate school), I’m able to really appreciate the feel Robinson gives to characters and culture. As she notes, many times she has to settle controversies, and I would assume also fill in gaps in our knowledge, but she has done so consistently and in such a way that the culture seems very realistic.

    I especially like the way that Lord Meren searches for signs of magic and includes killing by magic as one of the possibilities for means in murder cases, as of course an ancient Egyptian would have. But many modern authors would have some difficulties keeping the viewpoint authentic. Robinson does so successfully in my view.

    Family relationships, religion, culture, politics, and ancient warfare all combine to create the background for this exceptional series. The key characters of Lord Meren, his adopted son Kysen, and the remainder of his family would be interesting wherever they were placed, and the mysteries would be interesting no matter what the background.

    This is truly an exceptionally enjoyable series of historical mysteries. I strongly recommend it.

  • Book: Danger in the Shadows

    I tend not to like books that have too blatant of a spiritual purpose. If a book is written to teach a lesson, I don’t like it. If it’s written to entertain, and happens to teach one or more lessons, I’m happy. I don’t mind if the characters are people of faith and that this shows up as part of the story.

    My first introduction to Dee Henderson was in the O’Malley series. Those books seemed to me to fall a little too far into the first category–each one leads up to the conversion of the lead character. The stories are decently interesting, however, so I was still willing to read them. Nonetheless it took a few positive comments from my wife before I was willing to try another. That book is Danger in the Shadows.

    While the characters in this story are people of faith, who live it, talk about it, think about it, and are shaped by it, the story remains the focus. It’s a solid story of suspense. One interesting thing I noticed, however, is that the conflict seems to occur entirely between the good guys and the bad buy. The good guys get together in a most amazing way. There is substantial emotional, spiritual, and romantic conflict, but the major characters seem to manage it with few arguments.

    If you like J. D. Robb, you may be disappointed here as the intensity is somewhat less, at least there is less action and more thinking.

    I rate this a 3.

  • Blog: Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com

    I’m working on locating more interesting writing blogs to include in the blogroll, and here is the first. Cory Doctorow is a professional fiction writer with three novels (that I read about on his blog) and some short stories (including a short story collection). He has another collection coming soon.

    He posts a good deal of news on his blog but also some short fiction, including When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth. The link there is to his announcement that the story is appearing in The Rake, along with links to previous podcast entries. I think one would need to be a bit net savvy to enjoy this story, but other than that it’s good fun.

    His books are:

    I have to say that the first short story didn’t rocket him to the top of my reading list, but it did pique my interest, and I’m definitely going to take a further look at some of the novels and I’ll add his blog to the blogroll.

  • Daniel and the Village Elders

    Note: This is a short story sort of in the style of the apocryphal stories of Daniel. Not all such stories are consistent with the basic Daniel story in the Biblical book, but I have tried to stick with what can be fitted in. I have added references for the two Biblical laws that Daniel cites, though you can be certain he didn’t quote chapter and verse from material that hadn’t been so divided at that time.

    * * * * *

    It was evening as Daniel approached the village, one of the camps occupied by Judean exiles. He was returning from a mission for King Nebuchadnezzar, and as was often his custom, he hoped to stay with his own people for the night before returning to the palace the next day. But tonight was to be different.

    As he approached the entryway to the village–it would be too optimistic to call it a gate–he could see that the elders were gathered. A young man was standing there with head hanging, clothing torn and dirty, and a large bruise on the side of his face. A few paces away toward the gate was a body crumpled, and apparently ignored. Two men, better dressed and uninjured stood next to the young man. One of them was speaking.

    “. . . He struck down our servant, slipped from the tent, and when he saw Azariah here he began to run toward the gate. He’s the murderer, alright, and he should be stoned. He probably raped her as well!”

    Daniel saw a gleam of triumph on the man’s face that didn’t fit with the sorrow that would accompany losing a loved one or even the concern over financial loss that would result from losing a valued slave. There was clearly something wrong here–besides, that is, the shameful treatment of the body. He doubted there was a Levite in the camp to explain the law to the people and help see that it was carried out. He looked at the body. There were specks of blood on the clothing, but he could no sign of the type of blow that would kill someone quickly. The head appeared to be whole, where it was not covered by cloth, and there was no large mass of blood.

    “Pardon me, my lords,” he said. He could see them calculating how to react to him. He was dressed as a Babylonian courtier, but he addressed them in Hebrew. That left them uncertain as to how to react. Exiles were left pretty much to manage their own affairs, and they would see no reason for a Babylonian to interfere. But a Babylonian official who spoke Hebrew might be different.

    “Yes, my son?” said the man in the center who appeared to be the village chief. He looked old enough to Daniel that it was likely he had been an elder back home.

    “Is it permitted for a visitor to ask a question?”

    “He’s an outsider! What does he have to do with our laws?” The witness who had just finished speaking jumped in before the elder could speak. Daniel could see that had been a mistake as the elder reacted to this challenge to his authority.

    “He can speak,” said the elder. “We must hear everything before we condemn someone to death.”

    Daniel turned to the witness. “Do you swear by the God of Israel that you personally saw the things to which you testified just now?”

    The man hesitated. “I saw them,” he said.

    The elder spoke again. “Do you swear that by the God of Israel? That’s what you were asked.” He looked concerned.

    “It’s true,” he said. “But I didn’t see everything with my own eyes.” He looked angrily at his companion. “I’ll take your word, but I won’t swear by the God of Israel and testify falsely.”

    “So you believe what you said is true, but you didn’t see it with your own eyes?” The elder was now angry.

    “Yes.”

    “But we still have two witnesses who say that this young man killed the girl,” said one of the other elders.

    “Only one witness,” said Daniel. “Only one person witnessed the event and can properly swear and give testimony.”

    The second elder spoke again. “But do any of us doubt the veracity of Ehud, our countryman? Surely we still know that this young man is a murderer. We cannot release him!”

    The chief elder hesitated again.

    “My Lord,” Daniel spoke again.

    “You may speak,” said the chief elder. He enjoyed the respect that this young man gave him. He’d been prepared to be angry at the intruder, but now he noticed that this young intruder was the only one giving him the respect he was due.

    “The law says, ‘A single witness shall not be sufficient to convict a person of any crime or wrongdoing. At the word of two or of three witnesses shall the accusation be established’ (Deuteronomy 19:15). Only one person witnessed the crime, and it cannot be established by the testimony of one who did not actually see the crime.”

    “I disagree. We are here in a foreign land. We cannot afford to break trust with our fellow countryman Ehud. I believe his testimony, and I will take the word of his companion in establishing his testimony,” said the second elder.

    “My Lord, may I ask another question of the witnesses?” Daniel’s voice was respectful, and he clearly addressed the chief elder.

    “Go ahead.”

    “With what weapon did the young man strike the girl?”

    “With an axe,” said Ehud quickly, as his companion’s mouth opened and then closed.

    Daniel walked over to the body. He knew that what he was about to do was shocking. He settled in his mind that he would not be staying in these people’s camp that night. Everyone else might forget, but he remembered such of the laws as he’d learned before he was taken into exile. There was no priest and no temple to go to for purification, but he’d do what he could do after he had handled the corpse.

    He reached down and tore the robe from the back of the victim, leaving her back exposed as a gasp went up from the gathered villagers. The gasp was for his audacity in handling the body and in uncovering her in that way. But then there was another gasp as the gathered people saw that the girl’s back was beaten to a pulp, with pieces of her clothing still clinging to the wounds. Everybody could see in a moment that she had not be killed with an axe, but instead had been beaten to death.

    It took only a few moments for the verdict to be given for the accused young man to be released. The girl had no family there, but the elders determined to bury her properly.

    The chief elder turned to Daniel. “Can we not convict this man of the murder of the girl?” he asked, now convinced of Daniel’s wisdom and learning.

    “Not unless there are witnesses that he was the one who beat her. But you can convict him of bringing false testimony. The law also says, ‘You shall do to him as he planned to do to his brother’ (Deuteronomy 19:19). We do not have a temple, but I think it would be right to follow this law even here.”

    Ehud’s face turned white as he heard the village elders, one after another, agree to the verdict based on their own witness to the false testimony.

    All in all, thought Daniel, it was not the restful evening he’d hoped for. But justice was done, however unpleasant.