That Fifteen Books Meme

[tree_and_leaf]

Fifteen books which will stay with you:

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien.
2. The Silver Chair, CS Lewis. Oddly enough, despite the fact that as someone interested in mystics, you'd think I'd go for Voyage of the Dawn Treader, this is the Narnia I really identify with. Or maybe it's not odd: it's the one that seems to relate most closely to what life is like most of the time.
3. Gaudy Night, Dorothy L Sayers. In so many ways....
4. Revelations of Divine Love, Julian of Norwich. Julian is such a fantastic theologian.
5. The Way of Paradox, Cyprian Smith. Secondary literature on Eckhart (I haven't picked any Eckhart because picking 'a book' for him is problematic). But this is a wonderful book on Eckhart as a guide to life, by a wise man, and I wish I'd read it years ago.
6. Possession, AS Byatt. Recently I've been reflecting a lot on the idea of the things that matter being the ones that 'survived our education'...
7. Witch Wood, John Buchan.
8. Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson. Both this and Witch Wood are seminal books about the Scottish identity (though WW is unjustly neglected these days); they're both also evocative and very exciting.
9. The Daisy Chain, CM Yonge
10. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott.
11. The Allegory of Love, CS Lewis. Actually I think this book is one of the reasons I became a mediaevalist, and I still think it's a very good study, even though there are lots of places where Lewis' thinking on allegory has been overtaken (in part, of course, because of the questions he opened up).
12. The Christian Priest Today, Michael Ramsey. "Today" is in this case the late sixties (I think), but it's still a beautiful and inspiring book.
13. "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics". Seminal article on Beowulf criticism by Tolkien. I tend to think New Testament scholarship needs something similar. You can't recover the lost sources or even reconstruct the archetype, so stop trying to reconstruct the stock, and eat the soup!
14. The Mind of the Maker, Dorothy L Sayers. This was the point at which I realised that Trinitarian theology is both interesting and important.
15. Christianity Rediscovered, Vincent J Donovan.

I'd also kind of like to do the "Ask My OCs" meme, I don't actually have that many. I made a list:

From The Blue Flower Philip von Schwartzerde. Prussian official and future Jesuit.

From Push we have:
Amy Smith, evangelical Christian and unhappy teenage witch; Sabine Pusey, obnoxious teenage Anglo-Catholic (how could he not be, given the name?); Fr. David Smethwick, the rector of S. Dunstan's Hogsmeade; Terry (no last name), the SU leader.

Finally, from And After Darkness, Light: James Williams, Anglican ordinand; Fr Hall ("His idea of relaxation is writing rude things in the margins of liberal theology. In Greek").

I think I might be a bit obsessed. Though, of course, there's also Dominic the Vampire Killer and co...




Your result for Which fantasy writer are you?...

Susan Cooper (b. 1935)

7 High-Brow, -11 Violent, -5 Experimental and -19 Cynical!

Congratulations! You are High-Brow, Peaceful, Traditional and Romantic! These concepts are defined below.

Though born in England, Susan Cooper currently lives in the United States. She is most well-known for her The Dark Is Rising sequence, which has received substantial critical acclaim, the second book (also called The Dark Is Rising) in the series winning a Newbury Honor and the fourth book (The Grey King) being awarded the Newbury Medal, one of the world's most prestigious awards for children's literature. The series is one of the finest examples of contemporary fantasy: the kind of fantasy where magic happens in an actually existing place. The Dark Is Rising is set in Britain, where two common themes of fantasy are combined; that of a magic world parallel to ours, which later became so popular with the Harry Potter books and that of ordinary British school-children playing a role in the struggle between Good and Evil, which had earlier been explored by C S Lewis.

Cooper manages to use the idiom of traditional children books to tell a tale of epic proportions, as evil beings from Celtic legends appear on Earth to do battle with the Old Ones, a secret society of people with magic powers. She is also able to combine this rather romantic vision with important messages, the compassion of one of the children being vital to the cause of Good at one point in the story. In Cooper's world, what you think and do matters on a grand scale, a message children and adults alike should take to their hearts.

You are also a lot like Ursula K Le Guin.

If you want some action, try China Miéville.

If you'd like a challenge, try your exact opposite, Lian Hearn.

Your score

This is how to interpret your score: Your attitudes have been measured on four different scales, called 1) High-Brow vs. Low-Brow, 2) Violent vs. Peaceful, 3) Experimental vs. Traditional and 4) Cynical vs. Romantic. Imagine that when you were born, you were in a state of innocence, a tabula rasa who would have scored zero on each scale. Since then, a number of circumstances (including genetical, cultural and environmental factors) have pushed you towards either end of these scales. If you're at 45 or -45 you would be almost entirely cynical, low-brow or whatever. The closer to zero you are, the less extreme your attitude. However, you should always be more of either (eg more romantic than cynical). Please note that even though High-Brow, Violent, Experimental and Cynical have positive numbers (1 through 45) and their opposites negative numbers (-1 through -45), this doesn't mean that either quality is better. All attitudes have their positive and negative sides, as explained below.

High-Brow vs. Low-Brow

You received 7 points, making you more High-Brow than Low-Brow. Being high-browed in this context refers to being more fascinated with the sort of art that critics and scholars tend to favour, rather than the best-selling kind. At their best, high-brows are cultured, able to appreciate the finer nuances of literature and not content with simplifications. At their worst they are, well, snobs.

Violent vs. Peaceful

You received -11 points, making you more Peaceful than Violent. This scale is a measurement of a) if you are tolerant to violence in fiction and b) whether you see violence as a means that can be used to achieve a good end. If you aren't, and you don't, then you are peaceful as defined here. At their best, peaceful people are the ones who encourage dialogue and understanding as a means of solving conflicts. At their worst, they are standing passively by as they or third parties are hurt by less scrupulous individuals.

Experimental vs. Traditional

You received -5 points, making you more Traditional than Experimental. Your position on this scale indicates if you're more likely to seek out the new and unexpected or if you are more comfortable with the familiar, especially in regards to culture. Note that traditional as defined here does not equal conservative, in the political sense. At their best, traditional people don't change winning concepts, favouring storytelling over empty poses. At their worst, they are somewhat narrow-minded.

Cynical vs. Romantic

You received -19 points, making you more Romantic than Cynical. Your position on this scale indicates if you are more likely to be wary, suspicious and skeptical to people around you and the world at large, or if you are more likely to believe in grand schemes, happy endings and the basic goodness of humankind. It is by far the most vaguely defined scale, which is why you'll find the sentence "you are also a lot like x" above. If you feel that your position on this scale is wrong, then you are probably more like author x. At their best, romantic people are optimistic, willing to work for a good cause and an inspiration to their peers. At their worst, they are easily fooled and too easily lead.

Take Which fantasy writer are you? at HelloQuizzy