Three good books
Lit by Mary Karr — I hadn’t read any of Karr’s previous memoirs, but after reading Lit her two previous books have jumped to the top of my list (on Springpad and Amazon). Karr is a splendid writer, but it’s her life story that amazes most. The challenges she’s endured are astounded for sheltered me — abuse, alcoholism, wacko parents, destructive relationships (and that’s before college). The jacket calls it “learning to write by learning to live;” an apt description. I totally recommend Karr’s unvarnished (and at times quite funny) third memoir to anyone who’s up for a heart-wrenching story well told.
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen — Yeah, ok, I was a skeptic on this one. I mean, it was just getting so much press a few months ago. Franzen was on every talk show on earth, even before he made up with Oprah. And I’m always uneasy about a book being read by more than three people on the same airplane. But, thanks to my kind Pittsburgh friend Susan Rothenberg (thanks Susan!), I was sent a copy of Freedom so I could free my skeptical conscience from the Freedom media frenzy. And, yes, it’s a damn good book.
Character development: A. Gripping story: B+. Believable characters: A-. Epic cynicism: B+. Holds your attention for 500+ pages: A. Amazingly skilled look at contemporary America’s beautiful and contradictory freedom: A+. You should read it, even if it’s just to be like everyone else.
Feed by M.T. Anderson — My friend Kristin recommended this Young Adult novel and I ate it up for it’s dystopian look at cyberculture (plus, it’s a stellar YA story). Set some time in the future, the book imagines a “feed” that is implanted into wealthy people’s brains that connects them constantly to an Internet-like stream of constant contact and commerce. The feed is both exhilarating in its helpfulness and paralyzing in its ubiquity. I wasn’t drawn in the by the characters, really, but the treatment of technology, choice, freedom, free market, environmental disaster, and teen relationships is pretty amazing. This book is a must read for Internet and social media advocates as it pushes back vehemently on an overly utopian view of technology. If the “feed” is the direction in which the Internet is headed, we should be very scared.
Three good books. Now what should I (and readers of this blog) read next? Comment away…
Three awesome tech tools that changed my life
Prezi — I recently learned about a newish presentation web-based program called Prezi. Move over PowerPoint–Prezi will soon be king. Well, not likely, but it’s awesome. Posted below is an example for a presentation I’m giving today on Technology and the Church for a group of Lutheran pastors in the area. It’s my first using Prezi (and it shows) but the possibilities are amazing for more conversational presentations, for more experiential work than PowerPoint allows, and just for thinking in helpful non-linear ways. Check out the Prezi.com/explore site for more work (it’s easy to share and collaborate). You have to see this tool to understand. It will blow your mind.
Jumpcut – Jumpcut is so simple it’s silly, one of those why-isn’t-this-normal programs I use dozens of a times a day. You know when you copy and paste something, and then copy something else, but you actually end up wanting to paste the thing you copied two times back? Well, Jumpcut allows this with a simple keystroke. In fact, it archives all your control-c commands up to 40 or something. No joke: I use this program at least once every hour I’m on my MacBook.
Techy Advent Calendar – there’s plenty of these out there, but Trinity Wall Street may have the best.
Blogging: Subculture or mainstream?
also posted at the CENTURY Blog
Yes, blogging about blogging can be the ultimate navel-gazing, but hear me out; I mean to intrigue.
In a well-written book on cyberculture theory, Pramod K. Nayar claims that blogs “have become a folk cultural form.” So far so good. But most of Nayar’s other descriptions of blogging seem a bit dated: it’s life-writing or autobiography, it’s an online diary, it’s inherently personal, it’s subcultural. All this may have been true once, but most of the blogs I read have grown up and taken on new form and function.
Nayar grants that “blogs are perhaps no longer subcultural considering their heterogeneity, numbers, and expanding use on the World Wide Web.” But he doesn’t elaborate on developments such as
- Newspaper sites that sponsor and host bloggers (see Bruce Reyes-Chow’s connection with the San Francisco Chronicle)
- Blogs such as Time magazine’s Swampland, which is updated multiple times daily by well-known reporters with off-the-cuff thoughts and developing stories
- Networks of independent bloggers, such as the Century‘s CCblogs network, of which my blog is a member
Many pastors are now blogging on church websites, and columnists publish more formal content in print and more casual stuff on blogs (though the distinction isn’t always so clear). Blogs have grown out of their subcultural status, moving from a form of journaling or life-casting to a powerful mainstream tool for expression and dialogue.
Nayar suggests that blogs are “filling in the gaps” in public discourse. While he doesn’t elaborate, the phrase is spot on. Blogging fills the gaps that existed ten years ago between professional journalism and thoughtful personal journaling. As the gaps are filled, the distinctions are becoming less clear. Subculture has become mainstream, and a new folk cultural form evolves.
More than a movie about Facebook
(also posted at CENTURY Blog)
Rarely do I see a film when it first comes out, but I’m very glad I chose to see The Social Network on its box-office-dominating opening weekend. It was brilliant — a fantastic script by Aaron Sorkin, skillfully directed by David Fincher. It tells the story of Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and his friends and Facebook cofounders, but the film isn’t just about Facebook. It even features several significant religious themes.
Mark is depicted as searching not for money or fame but for life’s elusive joys like friends, respect, self-worth and social acceptance. One of the films main conflicts-and there are many-is between Zuckerberg and his best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). As Eduardo becomes more popular and connected to the social scene at Harvard, Mark searches for online notoriety to rival his friend’s real-world success. From the opening scene, Mark is tireless in his search to find his place in the dog-eat-dog Harvard world. His question is almost a religious one, an obsession for something greater than himself. Eventually it yields material results, but not true friendships, social acceptance or respect.
In several scenes, Mark and the other computer programmers write code for hours on end while wearing headphones and refusing to interact with anyone or anything outside the computer. While the point is to connect Facebook friends to one another, the coding becomes an ecstatic experience that disconnects the programmers almost totally from the corporeal world. They can make meaning in cyberspace, but the return to the less ordered real world can be wrenching.
One of the film’s main themes is community-how it is made and how it is torn apart. Mark successfully constructs a billion-dollar platform to bolster a community online, but he dismantles the community he enjoys in day-to-day life. The building up and breaking down of community is, of course, a major religious theme as well.
The Social Network really isn’t about Facebook per se. It’s about meaning and relationships, about friend denials and broader searches for meaning that’s more than just virtual.
Review: “Putting Away Childish Things” by Marcus Borg
I have never read a novel as didactic and self-conscious as Marcus J. Borg’s Putting Away Childish Things (May 2010, HarperOne), but I thoroughly enjoyed the book and whole-heartedly recommend it. I’ve read many of Marcus Borg’s books, as assignments at St. Olaf College and for fun, and admire his work (even if I don’t always agree with him). Putting Away Childish Things is Borg’s first venture into fiction, and he admits in the preface that the work is a “teaching novel.” Also, quite interestingly, he notes that if he were not already an established author, the novel might not have been published. That would have been a shame, though, because many a book group will enjoy discussing Putting Away Childish Things, and many a questioning Christian’s faith will be sustained by the story.
The novel follows Kate Riley, a youngish popular religion professor and a liberal arts college in a small midwestern town. Kate’s career is coming along swimmingly — she’s published two book and a year away from tenure — when Kate faces unexpected challenges from several angles. From one corner, her recent book on Jesus’ birth narratives in the Gospels makes her a punching bag of the religious right. From the other, those in the secular academy feel her work is becoming too popular. As Kate fends off attacks from the religious right and secular left, she receives a surprise letter asking her to apply for a yearlong teaching appointment at an Episcopal seminary. Her inner struggle deepens — should she apply for the position? Would she enjoy teaching in a Christian setting? Where is God calling her? Are her choices motivated by fear or faith?
That’s the story, but the function of the novel is to teach. Through Kate’s lectures and her encounters with students and professors, the reader engages significant questions about the nature of faith, how to read the Bible, the historical Jesus, the morality of homosexuality, and the study and practice of religion. The reader also enjoys a view of Kate’s own faith, her journey to become a liberal Episcopalian, and the challenge of discerning her vocation.
If you’re looking for a natural novel, this is not it. The book feels even more staged than Brian McLaren’s didactic novels in the A New Kind of Christian trilogy. But even so, I enjoyed Borg’s work more. Borg’s character development is richer, and besides a few loose ends (and some pretty awful dialog), the story is plenty believable. So much so, in fact, that one wise professor character sounds remarkably like Borg himself (he’s a fiction writing rookie so we can cut him some slack). And, ok, I loved the positive mention of midwestern Lutheran college choirs — Borg, himself, is a Concordia College grad but I’ve had lunch with him at St. Olaf, so surely he’s seen the light.
Not too many bestselling authors grew up in North Dakota (purely because of the small population, mind you). But Borg did, so when I received my review copy, I was a bit biased towards giving Putting Away Childish Things a favorable review. But, truly, it’s a good read and a helpful one. If I were teaching an introduction to Christianity class or an adult confirmation course, it might be my primary text. The novel won’t win any awards for literature, but it’s not really trying to either. Instead, Borg uses the novel form to do what religion professors do — teach about religion — and I’m glad he accomplishes this task so well.
Sandal Showdown: Chaco or Keen?
Background update: I wrote this sandal review post last summer, but it’s still pertinent this summer and getting plenty of hits. So I’m bringing it back to the front page. Quite a feat, I know.
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I bought my go-to pair of Chaco sandals in 2003 when preparing for the Global Semester at St. Olaf College. I wasn’t the only one. Most of the students on the trip had Chacos so our matching footwear would cause quite the stir in Egyptian markets or Thai beaches. Some were even brave enough to sport their Chacos in winter with Smartwool socks. (Being from Florida and knowing sandals and socks is the ultimate faux pas, I remained pure.) But this is all to say: I literally traveled around the world in my Chacos and still wear them consistently six years later. Chaco makes some quality sandals.
But, after much hemming and hawing, I recently purchased not another pair of (brown) Chacos, but Keen Newport H2 sandals. And I have to say, I’m smitten. Though I have been a strong advocate for Chacos for many years, I may be switching my allegiance to Keen. Yes, I know. What will the world come to next!
I, though, am not a quick decision-maker. I am a thinker. An analyzer to the extreme. So, scroll down to check out my Chaco/Keen showdown.
Chaco Z2
Pros:
- very comfortable (high arch)
- feet feel secure but not claustrophobic
- washable (dishwasher and clothes washer)
- come in a fair variety of colors
- great for hiking (I even know folks who run in them)
- replaceable soles/treads (though I liked my lighter tread before I replaced it)
- no back heel bump to bother you
- rocks easily slip out
Cons:
- not the best for ugly feet (lots of foot showing)
- the new soles are too heavy
- they do get smelly quicker than they used to a few years back
- toes are vulnerable to mean rocks when hiking
- not good for rock-hopping in Montreat (toe banging issue)
- straps sometimes move a little
- dangerous on the beach (can get sand in the canvas straps)
- tan lines
Keen Newport H2
Pros:
- cushier than Chacos, more comfortable even
- snug secure feel
- washable/waterproof
- good (more) color choices than Chaco
- toe protection (this is huge)
- good for slightly uglier feet (mine included)
- easy to dress up a bit
Cons:
- feet feel a little hot sometimes
- rocks get stuck inside and must stop to pop them out
- more mainstream? everyone and their mother and law has Keens (I love you LouAnn)
- tread perhaps tracks more mud than Chacos
- smelly possiblities
- the elastic cords may wear out one day
- even crazier tan lines (not sure about this yet)
After hashing that out, I’m still not sure if I have a favorite. My Chacos will always have a special place in my heart, but I have to admit I’m wearing my Keens more this summer. If you’re looking to purchase a pair, you can’t go wrong, but maybe this is my advice: for free spirits with a variety of footwear needs and wants, the Chaco might fit your personality best. For those who like things a little more ordered and comfortable, perhaps the Keens are up your alley. Or…. just buy whatever is on sale.
Review: Brian McLaren’s “A New Kind of Christianity”
I’m a Brian McLaren fan. Not quite a fan boy, but an eager reader and admirer. So I when I got his newest book A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions that are Transforming the Faith (site here) I read it hoping to lead a book group discussion in my congregation. Though I enjoyed the book and recommend it overall, it didn’t fit the small church book group niche. And the more I think about it, I’m not actually sure it really breaks much new ground for me. McLaren is eloquent as usual (though a bit verbose at times), and I appreciate his perspective. Perhaps this is a case of unfair expectations — Minnesotans might call it “Joe Mauer syndrome” — but while I enjoyed the work, I finished wanting more.
The book is in ten parts, or ten questions. A few examples: What is the overarching story line of the Bible? Is God violent? What do we do about the church? Can we find a way to address human sexuality? How can we translate our quest into action?
McLaren believes the Christian faith is in the midst of a major overhaul. Perhaps every generation believes this, but I agree with McLaren that we are in a particularly transformative time. McLaren approaches his ten questions with a mix of his own intense and impressive Biblical exegesis and a grounding in what I would call the mainline progressive Biblical scholars. McLaren is one of these great authors that defies easy description. He’s a scholar for sure, but also an anti-establishment guy, an Evangelical who is excoriated by the right, a teacher and a pastor. Mostly, though, I think of McLaren as a communicator. He’s skilled at cutting through the rhetoric and getting his point across.
For instance, his chapter on the questions of the overarching storyline of the Bible does a splendid job of describing the problems of reading the Bible through the eyes of the Roman Empire and overly-simplified protestant theology. McLaren discusses the “six-line narrative” of Eden, Fall, Condemnation, Heaven, Salvation or Hell/Damnation and blows it out of the water as a faithful way to read the Bible. Quite right. But, to be honest, McLaren’s next chapter basically on what’s next, could basically be described as what I took from a center left Presbyterian seminary — the challenge to read the Bible on its own terms, the challenge to appreciate the non-literal intent of many of the writers and take them even more seriously “because they distill time-tested, multilayered wisdom — though deep mythic language — about how our world came to be what it has become (48). McLaren does a great job of expanding the Biblical approach he took as a young man, but to be honest, I don’t read his current approach as anything hugely new. Perhaps that’s because I’m only 27, so what McLaren is writing about is just sort of the water I’ve always drank.
Here’s a good snippet of what McLaren’s about:
Although few of us today are tempted to freeze our understanding of God in graven images, we may too quickly freeze our understanding in printed images, rigid conceptual ideals not chiseled in wood or stone but printed on paper in books, housed not in temples but in seminaries and denominational headquarters, worshiped not through ancient ceremonies and rituals but through contemporary sermons and songs (111).
McLaren’s big metaphors for the Bible that he uses in the work are the Bible as not a constitution, set and rigid with one meaning, but the Bible as community library where the community gathers its wisdom, discusses its future, centers its soul. Though I think some lawyers would quibble with his understanding of the constitution, the point is taken. The Bible is not and never has been about rigidity and simple “yes” and “no” directives, but it’s a book of books around which we gather, in which we rest and play, from which we live and serve.
McLaren concludes the book with a call to a final quest, the “quest to heal what we have so disastrously broken, the quest to unify and liberate what we’ve tragically divided and conquered, the quest to rediscover a larger more beautiful whole rather than pit part against part in deadly conflict” (232). This is not a small ball work, but a big honking call for a new kind of Christianity, heck a new kind of living and being with one another in creation. I’m all for it. I hope McLaren keeps the conversation going, for its the conversation on-going for practically all of my young adult life.
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