Michael Flynn's Blog, page 43
January 17, 2012
January 15, 2012
Humanism under attack!!
Tristan and IseultA Novel IdeaAmong the gifts of the Middle Ages was the roman of the langue d'oil. Stories like Tristan and Iseult were different from the chansons de geste of the langue d'oc. Those had featured stereotypes -- brave hero, cowardly traitor, et al. -- performing iconic deeds symbolizing eternal verities. Not only were the chansons symbolic; symbolism was very nearly the point of it all. The roman was something different; something novel. The central love intrigue of the roman leads to various invented episodes (which is why these were called "inventions" back in the day) and the characters evolve through interior conflicts, psychological situations, or invented circumstances, as did Tristan and Iseult, Lancelot and Guinevere, Parzifal, et al. This kind of story had no roots in the fables and tales of the literature of antiquity. For one thing, the subordination of the knight to his lady would have been unimaginable.
All of literature as we know it -- we might even say all of humanism -- stems from this idea of the character-who-changes through a series of events and encounters. But it all hinges on the notion that there actually are interior conflicts, psychological situations, and the like. It hinges, in short, on the freedom of the will.
BUT DANGER LOOMS!
(More here)
January 13, 2012
The Autumn of Science
The World of the Spiral Arm
Buy early and oftenIn The January Dancer, Up Jim River, and soon In the Lion's Mouth, the world is shown as no longer having science. Some have wondered how they can have advanced technology without science; but medieval China is a case in point. China never did have what we could call natural science; but during Ming times she certainly had a high technology. The planets of the Periphery and the Central Worlds likewise have a black-box technology. They know which Xs produce which Ys. They just have no idea why. Ancient gods like Einstein have bestowed these things on them and they work. What more do they need?
But how did matters come to such a pass?
READ MORE HERE
January 12, 2012
Flynn Sighting
Litstack has decided that I am a Featured Author for January. Hoo-ah.
They review January Dancer (appropriately enough) here:
http://litstack.com/?p=4060
And Up Jim River here:
http://litstack.com/?p=4242
January 11, 2012
January 10, 2012
m_francis @ 2012-01-10T17:39:00
In an article on the National Public Radio web site:
Can anyone spot the logic error?[Rob] Boston [at Americans United for the Separation of Church and State] says of course religious believers want to impose their views on the world — witness the fight against same-sex marriage.
Comments
On the need to regulate everything
From The Atlantic magazine, a short piece on Josef Skvorecky, a refugee to Canada from the Prague Spring of 1968. In the intro to his book The Bass Saxophone, he lists a set of regulations that had "engraved themselves deeply on my mind," issued during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. They were binding on all local dance orchestras.
So what were the regulations, you ask?
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January 8, 2012
THREE HUNDRED YEARS
In his fascinating book Oral Tradition as History, Jan Vansina describes something he calls the floating gap. The book is replete with examples of oral traditions, such as in Africa, among the Hopi, and other people. He even mentions some oral traditions regarding local or family events among the modern English, et al. His purpose is to investigate under which conditions such traditions can be used as reliable history.Especially interesting in this regard is the origin of a certain tradition among the Hopi recounted on pp 19-20.
What is Flynn nattering on about now?
January 6, 2012
IT'S OFFICIAL
Sing, O harper, the anger of Donovan buigh,That graced us all with boundless grief,
And left brave men a prey to dogs and kites
As we foresaw upon that fateful day
When Donovan buigh and Those of Name
First fell out.
When his wrath at first arose ’twas I he fixed it on.
Oh, yes. ’Twas I who hauled him from his happiness
Off those same Jehovan streets where once he walked,
And had he not his eye upon more distant joys affixed,
We’d twain lie dead in those same gutters, gutted
By each other’s skills. But he foreknew, and so forbore to fight
And did submit him to my plea. But know this now, O harper.
It was to thee that he was bound when I untimely snatched him up.
Attend my tale and learn
Why once-great cities burn.
Prize of a Hearty Handshake to the first who spots the allusion and guesses the theme of the book.
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