feb 20th meeting - part iii

john donne (1572-1631)

holy sonnet xiv:
batter my heart, three-person'd God

01 batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
02 as yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
03 that i may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
04 your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
05 i, like an usurp'd town to another due,
06 labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
07 reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
08 but is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
09 yet dearly i love you, and would be lov'd fain,
10 but am betroth'd unto your enemy;
11 divorce me, untie or break that know again,
12 take me to you, imprison me, for i,
13 except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
14 nor ever chaste, expect you ravish me.


there is a debate in iulia's english class over whether this a sacriligious, perverted poem, or a well-written, heart-felt and raw plea to God. (she votes the latter, btw). john donne wrote many "morning after" type of sonnets - he eventually became a minister, but his poetry was still very raw (with some very violent and sensual imagery).

- rather than cliched "everything is wonderful and perfect" and christian-ly religious words, this sonnet is an open and honest cry to God
- things are not so happy or perfect --> it contains very human emotions

- he needs to be broken from his sins --> even his reason (God's viceroy, or representative, in him) is weak and has been held captive, instead of defending him. it's when you end up sticking to your own interpretations and rationalizations instead of listening to God and reason.
- when lucy and co. should have been following aslan in prince caspian, despite a very long and torturous decision-making process where they knew (deep down) that lucy was right, the majority of the group decided against reason and did not follow aslan's path

an ancient greek belief: reason is what elevates man from beast. reason connects us to the Divine.
- if we are slaves to our passions or follow our senses, we drive ourselves further away from God. these whims are also very fleeting as well.
- unfortunately, our society today is very emotions-driven --> do we believe b/c we believe christianity/God is the truth? or b/c we have a feeling about it? we need to be seeking God.

come in, come in!

"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, and magic bean buyer...
If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin,
Come in, come in!"

~ Shell Silverstein


welcome to our new blog members. :)

feb 20th meeting - part ii

prince caspian

- main theme of revival/restoration of faith after backsliding
- like our own modern-day "civilized" world --> no one believes in aslan, magical creatures


"someone is pulling me. oh- oh- oh- stop it!"
"i felt just the same," said edmund in a breathless voice. "as if i were being dragged along. a most frightful pulling- ugh! it's beginning again... look sharp!" shouted edmund. "all catch hands and keep together. this is magic - i can tell by the feeling. quick!"
- susan's horn - it gave the children an insistent tugging/pulling feeling into narnia
- it's like that nagging, calling feeling that God sometimes gives us (often in response to someone else's prayers). it's similar to those times when you're feeling down and someone gives you call out-of-the-blue -- it's God prompting the ppl in your life to help.
- God pulls and calls us to help other ppl, we just need to respond to His urgings



"will the others see you too?" asked lucy.
"certainly not at first," said aslan. "later on, it depends."
"but they won't believe me!" said lucy.
"it doesn't matter," said aslan... "i will wait here. go and wake the others and tell them to follow. if they will not, then you at least must folow me alone."

[later on]
"look!"[edmund] said in great excitement. "look! what's that shadow crawling down in front of us?"
"it's his shadow," said lucy.
"i do believe you're right, lu," said edmund. "i can't think how i didn't see it before. but where is he?"
"with his shadow, of course. can't you see him?"
"well, i almost thought i did - for a moment. it's such a rum light."

in a few minutes they were at the bottom and the roaring of water filled their ears. treading delicately, like a cat, aslan stepped from stone to stone across the stream... this time edmund saw him. "oh, aslan!" he cried, darting forward... "peter, peter," cried edmund. "did you see?"
- the idea of faith --> it's not that they see aslan first and then they believe and follow. it was, the more they followed, the more they saw.
- the idea of obedience --> regardless of what other ppl said/did or how little she understood, lucy still had to obey and follow aslan.


"you are my king. i know the difference between giving advice and taking orders. you've had my advice, and now it's time for orders."
- even though trumpkin did not believe in the horn, he still obeyed caspian because he was loyal and he respected him. loyalty isn't really loyalty if you're just doing what you want.


"there were things he wanted to say to su and me because we're not coming back to narnia... he says we're getting too old."
- this idea about being too old for narnia is rather sad - representing the loss of childlike faith?

next meeting?

hey guys, just wanted to ask when you were all free next. iulia's suggested that we meet in around 3 weeks, so around mid-march. she's also graciously opened up her place for future meetings, so everybody give her a big hug the next time you see her! this past meeting was fun, full of yummy snacks, interesting, and chock full of talk of michael vartan and celine dion (strangely enough). let's keep it up, ppl!

i'm not sure if i'll have exams around that time, but i'll let you guys know asap. is mid-march good for you guys? or no? any preference for days of the week?

book club meeting notes - part i

notes from our monday, february 20th meeting:

the horse and his boy:


"then it was you who wounded aravis?"
"it was I."
"but what for?"
"child," said the Voice, "I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own." (chapter 11)
- this theme of only being told your own "story" is repeated several times by aslan throughout the books (aravis regarding her slave girl; lucy regarding her schoolmate in the dawntreader) and parallels peter's discussion with jesus in john 21:21-22. "When Peter saw him, he asked, "Lord, what about him?" Jesus answered, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me."


- aslan's "touch me. smell me. here are my paws, here is my tail, these are my wishkers. i am a true Beast." is reminiscent of jesus' assurances to doubting thomas


- the theme of pride is found many times in the book: aravis, bree, and even rabadash the ridiculous. it's funny that bree finds it so difficult to get past his vanity that "he looked more like a horse going to a funeral than a long-lost captive returning to home and freedom" even though he had laboured so hard reach narnia. when he had left shasta/cor behind with the lions, he felt completely disgraced and felt as if he had lost everything, but the hermit points out that he's lost nothing but his self-conceit. he hasn't humiliated himself, he's just been humbled and that is a good thing. (one of the book's chapters is titled "how bree became a wiser horse"... NOT "how bree embarassed himself") --> this is similar to namaan's humbling: the end result was good.



After warning king lune and lost in the woods en route to narnia, shasta realised that "someone or somebody was walking beside him. it was pitch dark and he could see nothing... at last he could bear it no longer."

"who are you?" he said, scarcely above a whisper.
"One who has waited long for you to speak," said the Thing. its voice was not loud, but very large and deep.

after convincing shasta he's not a giant or ghost, the Thing says, "tell me your sorrows." and shasta, reassured, "told about the heat and thirst or their desert journey, and how they were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded aravis. and also, how very long it was since he had had anything to eat."

"i do not call you unfortunate," said the Large Voice.
"don't you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?" said shasta.
"there was only one lion," said the Voice... I was the lion." And as shasta gaped from open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued. "I was the lion who forced you to join with aravis...i was the lion who gave the horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach king lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you."
- i love how, even if we don't see him, aslan is at the center of all things. he's the driving force of our lives all throughout our lives. you can just see the love and longing that aslan has for shasta - he's initiated change, responding to shasta's prayers or needs, and he's just been waiting patiently for shasta to respond back. i read this somewhere online and it perfectly encapsulates the scene: "Too many times we Christians picture Jesus as The Lamb, and though He is, we forget the Lord part of Lord and Saviour. He's also the Lion. Through Shasta's life everything had been influenced by this Lion. This Lion was the force of change in Shasta's life. Many times this force of change was looked upon with fear as a monstrous threat to life itself. C.S. Lewis painted a wonderful picture of our blindness and God's love and patience. While we focus on the immediate discomfort and even pain, God has laid out a purpose and a path."



- i also read somewhere that the main theme of the horse and his boy is "the calling and converting of nonbelievers". wikipedia also said something about moses, but besides the wandering-through-the-desert thing, i'm not sure what they meant.


part ii (prince caspian) and iii (john donne's holy sonnet xiv) of our book club meeting will be posted later this week.


miscellaneous:
- debate: mr. tumnus: friendly faun? or mean molester? there was a deadlock with this issue - three ppl (tiff, iulia, mary) believe he is friendly, three ppl (harmony, debbie, janet) believe he was up to no good. ames? dave? hm? what are your thoughts?