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Showing posts from August, 2017

Book Review: Walden

I remember reading Walden quickly in high school because it seemed like a good thing to do. I decided to listen to the audio book via Librivox because it seemed like an enjoyable thing to do. I was very pleased with certain parts of Walden. Thoreau's descriptions of his days, of the landscape, etc, are most enjoyable. Many of his critiques of modern man still apply with equal accuracy today. But as to his positive philosophiziing, his transcendentalism just doesn't cut the mustard. And he spends far too much time on it. He also is not quite the poet he apparently finds himself to be. On the whole, I think it's a book worth reading, and I in no way regret listening to it. Gordon Mackenzie is, I believe, the fellow who read the version I listened to, and his reading style was thoroughly enjoyable.

Christianity and Transgenderism

Rod Dreher has a very worth-reading interview with Andrew T. Walker, author of the new book, God and the Transgender Debate. One especially provocative and insightful quote from Walker: Children who express gender confusion are now encouraged to explore it. Think about that for a second: We are putting decisions that have a lifetime of consequence into the hands of children unable to do algebra let alone understand the ramifications of their gender.

Book Review: Black Elk Speaks

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Black Elk Speaks by Black Elk My rating: 4 of 5 stars I started this book a long time ago. I slowly poked my way through, and thoroughly benefitted from evey step of my pokey way. The extensive footnotes and endnotes, as well as the 10 appendecies, are helpful in pulling apart Neihardt's poetry from Black Elk's actual narrative. As a Christian, I have a lot of questions about the origin of Black Elk's visions. And how reliable one man's memory of events occuring some thirty to sixty years earlier can be thought to be is, well, questionable. That said, this is a book worth reading. The penetrating criticism of modern life (circa 1930) provided in places by Neihardt and in oter by Black Elk himself, is worthy of pondering. The poetry of what Neihardt writes is simply haunting in places. And one does become more familiar with the story of the Lakota and their dealings with the U.S. Government. I plan to revisit this book in the future. View all my reviews

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