Mark's #7 - The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein

Before Frodo, their was Bilbo Baggins; A home loving hobbit from Bag end.

For the past couple of weeks I read this book to my daughters before bedtime. They loved it, and I did too.  Each chapter of this epic fantasy novel is an episodic story within the grand adventure.

This is the second time I've read The Hobbit, and once again I realized why I like the story so much more than the Lord of The Rings trilogy.  The story is fun, engaging, fast-paced,  with many twists and turns in the plot.

The characters too are fun and engaging.  In Bilbo, you have an unassuming little hobbit who always manages to do something unexpected and just right to save the day for himself, his fellowship of dwarves, or even for all the men of Dale and elves of Mirkwood.  By the end of the adventure, Bilbo has been deeply changed.  Other hobbits do not think too highly of him and his adventures, but it doesn't matter to Bilbo, he's a legend among elves and dwarves.

The themes of courage, self-sacrifice, and heroism are clear, and provided a context to discuss such things with my daughters.  Also, the themes of sovereignty and predestination are present as well.  Throughout the story, many characters sing songs of old which are prophecies of what is to come.  In Bilbo and his adventure with Gandalf and the dwarves, these prophecies come true.

At the end, Gandalf addresses this issue of prophecy and sovereignty in speaking with Bilbo,

"Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? ...you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!"

If you're a fan of The Lord of the Rings movies, and you plan on seeing The Hobbit when it comes out later this year, do yourself a favor and read the book first, you won't be disappointed.

Mark's #6 - The Prophets Speak of Him: Encountering Jesus in the Minor Prophets by Anthony Selvaggio

I picked up this book as a study aid for a recent sermon series through the twelve books of the Old Testament known as the minor prophets.  The book and my sermon series shared the same goal: to display the prophetic glimpses of Christ contained in each book.

            To be sure, on the surface, the Minor Prophets are often difficult and confounding to understand.  Of the Prophets, Martin Luther once remarked, "The prophets have a queer way of talking… like people who instead of proceeding in an orderly way ramble off from one thing to the next so that you cannot make head or tail of them."  This book served to clarify some of this confusion.  It is an easily accessible read for most people, and a helpful tool for digging deeper in a section of God's Word that often get's neglected in our spiritual lives.

Mark's #5 - Animal Farm by George Orwell

On my reading adventures, sometimes I wonder how I managed to make it to 36 years of age without reading certain books. George Orwell's 1984 and Animal farm fall into this category.  Long before my days studying the political transitions of the Czech Republic from communism to democracy, I had a interest, or rather a hatred for communism (I am a child of the Cold War). In reading Animal Farm (originally published in 1945), I felt like I was reading the political policy handbook for nations like communist North Korea.

Animal Farm is an allegory  of a farm full of animals who overthrow their human oppressors to establish an animal utopia based on equality, shared responsibility, and collectivism (i.e., communism).   The story starts with an old boar named Old Manor, who probably represents Karl Marx, imploring the animals of the farm to rise up and throw off the heavy shackles of slavery forced on them by their oppressive owner, the drunkard Mr. Jones who neglects to feed the animals and mistreats them.

Shortly after Old Manor's death, an opportunity arises for an uprising by the animals to drive Mr. and Mrs. Jones from the farm.  At this point the animals celebrate their new freedom, and the pigs take over the 'intellectual' leadership of the commune.  The animals all agree upon and are guided by these seven principles:

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.

As the story progresses, the pigs assume more and more power using manipulation and historical revisionism, as well as the ignorances of the masses to get their way.  Eventually all of the guiding principles are either erased completely or changed to fit the desires of the pigs, as the pigs become more and more like their previous tormentors - the dreaded human beings.  For example, notice these changes:

1. No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets. (after the pigs take over the farm house and begin using the beds)
2. No animal shall drink alcohol to excess. (yet the pigs are often seen drinking to excess with their wild parties that keep them in bed until late the next day)
3. No animal shall kill any other animal without cause. (Whenever it became politically necessary to do away with any of the other animals, this became their justification).

Ominously, the book ends with the line, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

Orwell was clearly no fan of communism, or more specifically of Stalin.  As a philosopher, political theorist, and author, he wrote Animal Farm and 1984 to both expose Stalin and warn the world  of what would come under communist oppression.  He saw the threat and opposed it.

Today there is a clear and present threat to the future welfare of America and the world - The expansion of Islam.  Yet, instead of heroes like Orwell rising up to raise an alarm, it seems Hollywood and mainstream authors today are not only giving a pass to this threat, but instead they increasingly villianize America, democracy, capitalism, and freedom.

Will a George Orwell arise in our generation?  I hope so.

A Return to the English Language: The Three Little Pigs (funny)

Mark's #4 - 1984 by George Orwell

First published in 1949, George Orwell's dystopian novel increasingly seems less like a work of fiction and more like a prophetic vision.  This book was disturbing to read on many levels.  Thankfully society as a whole has not yet reached the level of totalitarianism that the book's 'Big Brother' oligarchy has imposed on Oceania (think present day U.K. and the Americas), yet there have been pockets in history and in modern life that do come eerily close to the vision.

For instance, Stalin's communist Russia, or China's Mao Tse Tung's gangs of youth lynch mobs, or Pol Pot's systematic annihilation of the urban and educated classes of Cambodia, in North Korea, every person is property and is owned by a small and mad family with hereditary power, all of which mimic elements of 1984's IngSoc (English Socialism).   Or, for example, when I went to school in Prague after the fall of communism and stayed in a dorm room with a built in speaker (for disseminating information/propaganda) and microphone (for listening in conversations).  Even today there is the ubiquitous 'tele' which controls and 'watches over' the people, or the gross infringement of privacy at the local airport with full body scans, all in name of 'security'.

This is a story about the direction of human society apart from the restraining grace of God on evil.  Imagine a society without God, where sinful human nature is let loose to do it's worst... that society is Oceania.

It is a story about a common, middle-aged protagonist, who works for the outer party, and who secretly desires to fight the system and spark a revolution for freedom, individuality, and joy... While reading the book, I longed for and waited for this to happen.  After all, isn't this what happens in all the great dystopia movies which ultimately turn back for the good of mankind? Perhaps more realistically, this is not the case with 1984.  Instead of a revolution, our protagonist is betrayed, imprisoned, tortured, forced into false confessions, and ruthlessly brainwashed so that, in the end 'Big Brother' wins.

The last lines of the book grimly portray the victory and cruel march of 'Big Brother' on into an indefinite future:

But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.

Finally, one small example of historical revisionism similar to the scenes described in 1984:

Mark's #3 - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

In my continuing pursuit to recapture the english education I intentionally ignored growing up, I decided it was time to read this paragon of American literature.

As I see it, The Great Gatsby is a novel about the vacuous life of the social, political, and financially elite citizens of New York during the 'roaring twenties'.  It was a time of peace (after world war I) and prosperity.  With the right connections in the underground world of bootlegging (this was the time of prohibition) Penniless nobodies like Jay Gatsby could reinvent themselves to become socialite millionaires.  Yet, in spite his lavish parties,  grand mansion, and overly smooth demeanor (he calls everyone 'old sport'),  there is evident angst, loneliness, and unrequited love stirring in his soul.

No doubt Fitzgerald's ability to paint vivid word pictures, coupled with his keen insights into the human condition are, like other great works, the leading factors which have led to the appropriate description of 'classic literature'.  It's paragraphs and sentences like this one which made this book thoroughly enjoyable:

"This is a valley of ashes--a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight."

or this one:

"With every word she was drawing further and further into herself, so he gave that up, and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room."

In sum, as I read this book and now have read several other classics I should have read back in the day, I am realizing that there really is some life-enriching value to these classics.  They help me see the world, and the world's problems through different eyes.  As a pastor, I think these new insights can only help me in my understanding others and my attempts to point them to Christ.

But perhaps, like me, you spent your time playing video games instead of doing your english homework... well, I found something for you as well.  You can now play The Great Gatsby video game for NES here: http://greatgatsbygame.com/

Who needs a book when you can throw boomerangs at the waiters and party guests at Gatsby's mansion?