Tuesday 30 May 2017

Wreathed Horn

Today we had coffee in the Midland Hotel which reminds us of Hercule Poirot (see the link) who reminds me of Poul Anderson's Trygve Yamamura, an interesting character but a very junior member of the fictional detectives' fraternity, especially since he is only a supporting character in one of his three novels, Murder In Black Letter, where the concluding chapter comprises merely gunfire and fisticuffs between the viewpoint character, Robert Kintyre, and the villainous gang. (How's that for a long sentence?)

Tomorrow, I hope that my technical assistant, Ketlan, will publish on the blog an article by our regular guest writer, Sean M. Brooks. Ketlan should date
the article 7 June so that it will remain at the top of the blog for a week. That makes this current post the 160th and also the last for May. I will be back next month although my posts will appear under Sean's for a week. Please read his illuminating exposition of a very difficult Poul Anderson short story.

On the ceiling above a circular staircase, the Midland Hotel has a mural (see image) surrounded by the concluding line of the above sonnet by William Wordsworth, which is appropriate to our frequent discussions of monotheism versus polytheism.

Onward, Earthlings!

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Thanks for the nice mention of me and my latest article. I can only hope my comments about Poul Anderson's "Night Piece" interests some readers. That Anderson story was VERY hard to understand and write about!

I admit to not really understanding why some say they prefer polytheism to monotheism. To think of God as the Infinitely Transcendent Other would seem to make Him look remote and distant from us. But, by becoming Incarnate as Man in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ, I would argue God bridged the impassable distance separating man from Him.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
In meditative experience, expressed in Hindu scriptures, the transcendent is immanent; the One is here and now. Myths of gods and incarnations express such realizations.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Granted. But where Catholics and Nicene Protestants differ from Hinduism is that the former believe God literally and truly became Incarnate. If that is granted, then every thing CHANGES (to use a frequently utilized word!).

Sean