Another intrests meme

[tree_and_leaf]

Gacked from fernwithy, though they're not the ones I'd have chosen to write about.

LJ Interests meme results

1. auden:
   I got into Auden by an idiosyncratic route, namely his experiments with alliterative verse which came up in a class on Beowulf (see for example: 'The Age of Anxiety' - it seems to work particulalry well, given the content of Anglo-Saxon literature, with verse about war). I also admire his ability to be heartbreakingly beautiful and matter-of-fact about human frailty and imperfection at the same time ('Lay your sleeping head, my love/ human on my faithless arm' and all that)
2. camping:
   Bona to varda your dolly old eek, heartface...
   
   No, seriously, I very much enjoy spending time in the outdoors - and while you can make camping very comfortable with a little effort (though admittedly thermarest mats help), the real attraction is the chance to take off your watch, turn off your phone, and head off into the forest for a few days to run your day by the sun and the stars. It also helps if you can take along a few people who can sing. Real fires, please, not camping gaz or tranjas (though it's not a bad idea to have one to fall back on....). Petrol or oil lamps are acceptable, though.
3. cs lewis:
   Lewis has had a good deal of influence on me, in more than one way. As a child I remember sobbing over the end of Dawn Treader -surely the most purely beautiful of Lewis' books (bits of Perelandra run it close, but there are some rather disguisting bits in it too - anything involving the Unman, really) though the Narnia book I find most encouraging is The Silver Chair. It's most like my experience of trying to follow Christ, certainly.
   
   Lewis is also repsonsible for my interest in theology; he may not be an academic theologian, but he is intellectually robust and intelligent (not that that's the same as saying that I think all his positions are unflawed, thought!) and came as a great relief after the slip-shod, lazy stuff I had previously been exposed to in the guise of Christian teaching.
   
   Lewis, along with Tolkien, also made me a mediaevalist. And I heartily commend his 'Discarde Image' to anyone who wants an introduction to how the mediaevals imagined their world. It's an eye-opening book, and still the best thing of its kind out there. Based on a series of lectures given at Cambridge. Lucky, lucky Tabs.
4. folk music:
   Hm. I like it, particularly the Scottish variety - though I have very belatedly discovered Kate Rusby, not having known much about music outside the Celtic scene.
   
   I have a particular fondness for ballads (the Border sort, not the 'I will always love you' kind). For some reason, the last stanza of 'The twa corbies' (which is well performed by The Old Blind Dogs) just gets me: 'Mony's the ane for him maks mane/ but none sall ken whaur he is gane/ ower his white bones, whan they be bare/ the wind sall blow for evermair')
   
   I also like the Islandic band Islandica - though it's not the most imaginative of names....
5. hermione granger:
   One of my nicknames is Hermione. It's not something I'm totally proud of - but I can't deny its accuracy.
   
   Hermione's not perfect - but I have to like anyone as fond of libraries as that.
6. liturgy:
   The result of a Presbyterian upbringing?
   
   But it's fascinating and important. I love the BCP's orders for Morning and Evening Prayer (though I think Cramner and co were having a bad day when they did the Communion rite), but am not opposed to modern liturgy: it can be excellent. Some of the things produced by the Iona Community are very good (there's a wonderful Celtic-influenced communion service in the Kirk's 'Common Order', but no-one apart from Iain Bradley seems to use it).
   
   The oddest prayerbook I own is the 'Soldatengesangbuch' issued by the German Lutheran church to army recruits. It contains an order of service of sorts for performing baptism in cases of life and death (top tip: try to have a competent witness who can certify you said all the necessary words); I'm glad it's in, but I hope I never have to use it...
   
   I am also devoted to Compline - the form they use at Cuddesdon is particularly fine, apart from the omission of 'sad' in 'Who at the sad hour of Compline did rest in the Sepulchre'. But life involves compromise.
7. oxford:
   Well, it's Oxford. A wonderful, if sometimes rather cruel, place.
   
   Particularly nice in the spring and early summer. Splendid colleges. Wonderful libraries. Punting. Formal hall. Lots of interesting people. Port. Excellent services in many college chapels. Music. Fascinating history. Mary Mags.
   
   Please don't start me on the climate, though. From that point of view, I'd much rather be back in St Andrews. Also, we're too far from the sea here.
8. romantic music:
   I really can't think of a thing to write here, other than to clarify that I mean romantic in the 'classical' sense. Hurrah for Beethoven et all.
   
   (Hey, it's tough to say something interesting and witty about a sublime genius off the cuff...)
9. sherlock holmes:
   Object of an early obsession.
   
   Should always be played by Clive Merrison. If you haven't heard the BBC Radio 4 dramatisations yet, what are you waiting for? They are often repeated on BBC 7.
10. theology:
    See comments under CS Lewis - who I seem to remember said that he found reading works of theology a better aid to devotion than reading devotional works. Quite agree, though Meister Eckhart tends to just give me a headache (but ther are moments when he's very illuminating).
    
    Martin Luther may be my favourite theologian, though that's an odd thing for someone with Anglo-Catholic leanings to say - but though he did say some insane things, I feel he had a fundamentally very sound outlook on life. Also, he was a fantastic writer.

Enter your LJ user name, and 10 interests will be selected from your interest list.

I got id-ed buying beer in Sainsburys. I'd have thought that at very nearly 25 (cue embarrasment as I couldn't remember my age when challenged) I'd be olde enough to buy beer, for crying out loud, but no matter. It always seems to happen when I'm tired and just want to get home, too. Wonder if I look younger when I'm tired? That seems somehow counterinuitive.

Comments

[aervir.livejournal.com]

I got id-ed buying beer in Sainsburys. I'd have thought that at very nearly 25 (cue embarrasment as I couldn't remember my age when challenged) I'd be olde enough to buy beer, for crying out loud, but no matter.

Believe me, as soon as you're going on 50, you'll be grateful for your youthful looks. :) Well, I think it's rather strange, too. You certainly don't look like underage to me.

But as for myself, people often think I'm older than I actually am (like those ickle firsties who took me for a lecturer (!) last autumn), and that's a bit annoying, too, because you tend to start worrying about lines, grey hair and haggard looks.

[tree_and_leaf]

This is about the third time it has happened, too. The previous occasion I had no ID, but then they belived my companion - who is a year younger than me - was legal. I'm not sure which of us was more bemused....

Believe me, as soon as you're going on 50, you'll be grateful for your youthful looks. :)

If only I thought it would last!

Well, cheer up about being taken for a lecturer - I mean, I'm a lecturer of sorts, so it doesn't necesarily mean you look ancient - which you certainly don't!

[aervir.livejournal.com]

The previous occasion I had no ID, but then they belived my companion - who is a year younger than me - was legal. I'm not sure which of us was more bemused....

Oh dear. Yes, I can certainly imagine your bewilderment!

If only I thought it would last!

I'm sure it will. You'll be a perfectly preserved fiftyish medievalist...

Well, cheer up about being taken for a lecturer - I mean, I'm a lecturer of sorts, so it doesn't necesarily mean you look ancient - which you certainly don't!

But, as you've just said, at least you are a lecturer! I'm not even one. And most German lecturers are well past 25, so when I heard that question I was simply like, "no, I don't teach here, I'm only the resident Langzeitstudent". :)