Monday 16 November 2015

Blog Maintenance And Future Reading

Despite the mysterious disappearance of some posts from the Blog Archive, I have been in my opinion improving the blog by scanning earlier posts not only to make minor corrections but also to link to still earlier posts, where I had previously only referred to them, if I am able to locate the post in question. Sometimes, a link is not to a single post but to a search result which thus can include later posts.

Such "blog maintenance" does not increase the number of posts. However, I will:

continue to reread at least some passages of SM Stirling's The Peshawar Lancers;
reread The Demon Of Scattery by Poul Anderson and Mildred Downey Broxon;
read for the first time Stirling's The Stone Dogs when I at last receive a copy of this novel.

This reading and rereading will in due course generate material for new posts.

Meanwhile, is anyone able to identify the ten volumes by Poul Anderson whose covers are shown in the attached image? (Perhaps three of the titles are legible.) Also, the fifteen covers on the "Disappearing Posts" post. See link above.

19 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

As regards the illustration, I'm listing only the ones I can figure out. Top row, left to right: THE REBEL WORLDS, THE HIGH CRUSADE, WAR OF THE WING MEN, THE BYWORLDER. Second row, left to right: HROLF KRAKI'S SAGA, VIRGIN PLANET, THE DANCER FROM ATLANTIS, THE BROKEN SWORD, THE WORLDS OF POUL ANDERSON. I can't make out the title of the book in the upper left hand corner. Nor do I recognize the cover.

As for your missing blog pieces, I do have a suggestion: print out everything you have written, not all at once, but little by little. Yes, I known, it would end with you having a vast pile of paper, but at least you would have saved most of your PA commentary. I have printed out most of my, admittedly far fewer, essays to your blog.

I can imagine scholars and researchers of the future being DELIGHTED to find your blog pieces as they search for contemporary or near contemporary commentaries on the works of PA!

And I will be very interested in what you say about THE DEMON OF SCATTERY, by Anderson/Broxon. Esp. as you try to determine which author wrote what in the book.

And I'm very IMPATIENT for Stirling's THE STONE DOGS to finally reach you!

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
Can you identify covers on the "Disappearing Posts" post?
But we have to find the posts in order to print them! I am hoping that we can get this technical problem fixed.
Since I regard the blog as a very long term project, I am more patient about when THE STONE DOGS arrives - as long as it does. I never expected to be diverted back onto THE PESHAWAR LANCERS so soon.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Covers in your "Disappearing Posts" piece, I'll try!

Understood, about the technical point. But I think any good university library open to admitting SF can be good would be glad to get your PA commentaries.

And I'm reading your additional comments about THE PESHAWAR LANCERS with interest!

St, Jude, patron of lost objects, please help Paul's copy of THE STONE DOGS to soon reach him. Amen!

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
Or maybe I am showing my ignorance of technicalities. "That's not my department," says Werner von Braun. Maybe the computer can be told to print out all posts from a particular month even if not all of those posts are listed on the Blog Archive.
THE STONE DOGS should arrive by 8 Dec, apparently. It has been suggested that this is a ploy to make us pay more for quick delivery.
Today, I am redrafting a talk to be delivered on Thurs evening so that will take a bit of time.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Interesting, about you being possibly able to print out "lost" blog pieces. Worth a try!

I'm disgusted! You won't get THE STONE DOGS till at least December 8??????? I don't understand why it takes so long for you to get books you ordered via Amazon. I don't think I ever had that kind of delay getting books I ordered online. Something is definitely wrong!

Is this talk about your Latin studies and what you have been reading in Caesar's GALLIC WAR?

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
The posts are not quite lost because I found one on a search but they have disappeared from the Blog Archive.
We have read about Caesar's two invasions of Britain and about a revolt in Gaul.
My talk is on "Militant Atheism, Marxism and Religion." My point will be that Marxists present a subtle critique of religion and should not be "militant atheists."
Paul.

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
The top left hand cover is THE CORRIDORS OF TIME.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Well, I hope you find the other missing blog pieces!

What's next after Caesar? The letters of Cicero?

Then you might be interested by what John Wright says about atheism: he says there are two kinds of atheists, the rational atheist or the angry atheist. You can find it on his own blog.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
We are using a Reader that has extracts from Caesar, Cicero, Catullus, Virgil, Livy and Ovid. So, if we read through the book in that order, then Cicero will be next.
I hope that I am rational! (And transrational when meditating.)
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Good. I hope you are having fun studying Latin. I'm reminded of how Manse Everard, in STAR OF THE SEA, thought to himself that he would never be fond of Romans--BUT, the Romans were also more and better things than slave traffickers, tax farmers, and fans of sadistic games.

I'm a bit uneasy about being "transrational." As a Catholic I believe God is the author of natural law, reason, and logic. In fact, the First Vatican Council authoritatively insisted that we can come to some real knowledge of God by reason alone.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
there is a distinction between "trans-" and "sub-." I discuss it on the blog somewhere in relation to THE NIGHT FACE. In an aesthetic experience, we look and see rather than think and decide. Thus, we are not exercising reason but nor have we become sub-rational or irrational either.
Paul.

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
See the post, "The Gwydiona Experience," dated 4 May 2014.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I had to use the search box to find the blog piece you named. Alas, that too has disappeared from the archive list.

I do see now what you meant about contemplation of God NOT necessarily being sub-rational but TRANS-rational. I think we can see examples of that in the Bible itself, such as the strange images used by Ezekiel as he struggled to make sense of the visions he saw.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
Exactly. An inspired poet or prophet is neither reasoning nor descending into irrationality but transcending ordinary experience. CS Lewis said that one of those OT prophetic visions involves moving wheels and sounds like a dynamo!
Paul.

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
If you scroll down the Blog Archive on the right of the screen and click on the arrow beside 2014, a list of months will appear. If you scroll down this list to May and click on it, the posts for that month will appear, including "The Gwydiona Experience."
Paul.

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
I have also just found "The Gwydiona Experience" by searching for it in the box near the top left of the screen.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Inspired poets and prophets? I immediately thought of Dante's DIVINE COMEDY and the vision of Isaiah in Chapter 6 of the book of that name.

Almost certainly CS Lewis had the Prophet Ezekiel in mind!

Sean

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I did as you suggested, clicking the arrow next to 2014 and then arrow for May of that year. And I did find "The Gwydiona Experience."

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
Maybe, when you used the search box, you entered "The Gwydiona Experience 4 May 2014"? You just needed to enter "The Gwydiona Experience." Anyway, you found it by the other route.
Paul.