A Parallel Universe,

Book Review:

         When I first heard about Karen Hancock’s novel Arena, it was because of a reading contest in my sophomore year of high-school. Upon reading the description what appealed to me most was the fact that it was a fantasy and it had, what seemed to be a more original sci-fi-ish story-line. Wow, did I underestimate this book.

        The novel by Karen Hancock beautifully tells the story of how a young woman, Callie Hays becomes trapped in an alien world where she has limited resources and there are dangers everywhere. Of the traps is the alien world, the other humans trapped with her provide one of the most dangerous snares in Callie’s effort to survive.

         As the tale progresses, Callie discovers that she has been brought to the alien world along with the other humans to be witnesses to goodness and love of the Lord ruler alien, Elhanu. There is also a tempter in this story whose name is Prince Cephelus. This antagonist is a fallen prince who seeks to lure the human’s love and loyalty away from Elhanu and through his deception many humans find temporary pleasure and happiness, however, it is a trap and some humans who fully embrace these temptations are turned into trogs who are evil creatures that seek to harm individuals who maintain their humanity.

          Does this sound familiar yet? It took me two times reading this book to fully understand that this book reflects the Bible and brilliantly portrays the truth of Jesus and his love for all individuals.         

           The true identity of Elhanu is identified in chapter 25:

                   “Elhanu grinned---…’And you were wondering why in the world I play this little

           game, aren’t you?’

                     They glanced at one another uncertainly.

                     The Aggillon leader sobered. ‘It’s not a game. You need to trust me. This’ ---he

           Gestured at himself--- ‘seems to help.’

                     Again his words met silence. Then Whit shook his head. ‘But that isn’t really

            you, is it sir? I mean, you look like somebody’s father, when you’re anything but.’

                     ‘Here, I am your father,’ Elhanu said quietly. ‘In more ways than you know. And   

           there is nothing false in this image I present to you.’

                     ‘Except that it isn’t real.’

                      Elhanu smiled. ‘It may not be all that I am, but it is very real. And certainly it is

           the most comfortable for you right now.’

           ‘Will we ever see you as you really are, sir?’ Callie asked.

           ‘Eventually’” (302-303)

           This quote is so important to the purpose of the book, it is amazing. Elhanu is revealing to the humans, who have made it to a certain point in their pilgrimage, that he is their father. In a beautiful way Karen Hancock has paralleled Elhanu, the ruler to the alien race, Aggillon, to Jesus, who is my savior.

         With the help of some symbolism, this book also could be interpreted as an allegory for John Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress. Callie, who portrays Christian, has a friend with her in the beginning, who decides, when troubles arise, that she would be better off going a different way. When Callie is teleported into the alien arena, she is instructed to stay on the white road and she will be able to make it out of the arena safely. Only when she diverges from the white road on to a ‘suckers path’ does she end up in trouble. “’Look back the way you’ve come.’ He gestured over his shoulder. ‘It isn’t white, it’s pink. You’re on a sucker path’” (39). It is only much later that Callie, like Christian, realizes her mistake and returns to the path. Another parallel with Pilgrims Progress is that when Callie finds herself in the arena, she has been given a few supplies and among them, is that is referred to as the Manual throughout the book. The Manual is a book that has pretty much all the information that Callie needs to make it through the arena. The Manual is quite obviously a parallel of the Bible, which aids a Christian through the trials of his faith.   

          Karen Hancock’s novel Arena, helps me understand some of the massages the Bible presents. The setting of the book is in modern times and use many phrases that I am familiar with, thus I was able to relate more closely to the story. The text put into perspective, for me, the journey experienced by Christians and brought the challenges and difficulties closer to home for me.

         Every time I read this novel I notice new messages or new subtleties that I did not notice in the previous times I read it. One part of this book that I find somewhat challenging is picturing in my mind some of the descriptions of the scenery, creatures and actions moments. Particularly, the action scenes were a bit difficult to follow, though I could follow the results easily enough, however, it was a bit trying to comprehend what was happening during, say, a very violent battle scene.

         Especially, when Callie is defending her new faith to her best friend, I find that, as a Christian, I can relate to the difficulty and pain sometimes created by defending what I believe in. Also, I understand the amazing feeling when I stick to my principles and beliefs, and not back down.   

         This text means a lot to me because of the understanding that it helps me gain and the hope that it gives me. You should definitely read this novel.

Citation:

Hancock, Karen. Arena. Bloomington: Bethany House Publishers, 2002

Fear, Anticipation, Mystery, Finality: The Hour of Death

The Oxford Book of Death

by

D.J. Enright

"Death does not leave us body enough to occupy any space, and only the tombs there preserve some shape;..."

~ Bossuet (1670) (as cited in Enright 44)

           When we die, death strips us of everything. Our body is still there, however it is reduced to merely anatomy. Someone could look at the body; they will find a cardiovascular system, a nervous system, a muscle system, a reproductive system, and a digestive system, but the "thing." the part of the organism that makes us different, that makes us truly unique, the essence of the individual is gone. Personally, I can take the word tombs, in this case, to define two different things. The first definition is the the tomb is the body and even in death, the body maintains some semblance of the individual who formally resided within it. Tomb could also literally mean tomb or grave where the remaining semblance of a person is preserved. 

"Because I could not stop for Death--

He kindly stopped for me--

The Carriage held but just Ourselves--

And Immortality.

We slowly drove-- He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labour and my leisure too,

For his civility--

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess-- in the Ring--

We passed Fields of Gazing Grain--

We passed the Setting Sun--

Or rather-- He passed Us--

The Dews drew quivering and chill--

For only Gossamer, my Gown--

My Tippet-- only Tulle--

We pauses before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground--

The Roof was scarcely visible--

The Cornice--in the Ground--

Since then--'tis Centuries-- and yet

Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horses' Heads 

Were towards Eternity--"

~Emily Dickinson (1830-86) (as cited in Enright 50-51).

               Without getting extremely personal, it is imposable to convey how much and why this poem means so much to me, however, I will say that Emily is one of my favorite poets largely due to this poem. These words encourage me to ponder on my own brush with death and not only that it helps me cope with the memories.

"I have come to the boarder of sleep,

The unfathomable deep

Forest, where all must lose

Their way, however straight

Or winding, soon or late;

They can not choose"

~Edward Thomas (1878-1917) (as cited in Enright).

               I positively love the forest. My whole family does. I grew up going camping, hiking and exploring within the shadows of tall trees, crunching leaves, identifying flowers and plants and generally inhaling joy from the life growing around me. When this poem refers to Death as a forest, it soothes me, and comforts me because, after all I have been there before.   

Attitudes Provoked by Death

Oxford Book of Death

by

D. J. Enright

"He who pretends to look on death without fear lies. All men are afraid of dying, this is the great law of sentient beings, without which the entire human species would soon be destroyed."

~Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712- 78) (as cited in Enright 22)

                So apparently, we have to thank death for keeping us alive, because it is our fear of death that drives us away from it, towards self-preservation. Thus, anyone who is alive and says that they do not fear death, is an oxymoron; being in contradiction with what they believe, and the very fact that they are alive. 

"Through all the East did quake to hear

Of Alexander's dreadful name,

And all the West likewise did fear

To hear of Julius Caesar's fame,

Yet both by death in dust now lie.

Who then can 'scape, but he must die?"

~Robert Southwell
(1561-95) (as cited in Enright 25)

                Wealth, fame, luck, power or might will not keep death from coming. You cannot pay out death, nor can you bargain with him, nor out smart him, nor defeat him with power or might. No matter who you are, no matter what your standing in the world, death will come for you. Truthfully, the only thing you can really do about it is to keep healthy and not do anything too risky; this is really just a method that tries to prevent a meeting with death before a person's "time". Death comes to everyone eventually, and equalizes the pauper with the king, the warrior with his enemy, and the weak with the mighty. 

"Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a dept of gratitude we owe to Adam, first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world.

All say, 'How hard it is that we have to die' ---a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live."

Mark Twain (1835-1910) (as cited in Enright 30)

               You might not agree with all of Twains ideas, however, you must admit that he was an amazing philosopher. Life, for everyone, at some point or another is difficult and, well, hard to live with. Twain is saying that we should not feel that death is a catastrophe or a inevitable tragedy; rather we should look upon it as a blessing and a relief from all the difficulties we are faced with in life.    

Perceptions on Death in India

 The Sacred Art of Dying

by

Kenneth Kramer

"...when we look beneath the outer surface of India and into her sacred texts and stories, we find a preoccupation with death and what happens after death."(as cited in Kramer 28)

              With everything that India has to deal with, it is little wonder that it is preoccupied with death. India's perspective on death, however, gives her people hope. It is interesting to compare India who excepts death to the United Stated who tries to pretend that death does not exist. 

"What is the purpose of life given the certainty of death" (28)? 

              What indeed? In India the purpose of life seems to be to become one with Brahman and in order to do that one must know "the Supreme Self hidden in the heart" (30). Only by realizing the Supreme Self is one able to escape the repeating cycle of "samsara (the endless round of birth, death, and rebirth)" (30) and is liberated from karma. 


             The two stories presented in this chapter leave the reader with some of the key principles held sacred in the beautiful country of India.


From the story of Nachiketas and Yama:


"1.   that death is ever-present within the body and in the world at every moment;


2.    that while the gross and the subtle bodies change and die, the True Self of each person is undying; 


3.    that in order to realize the True Self one must die to fears about living and dying;


4.    that the only teacher about death is Death itself;


5.    that through the art of wholehearted and disciplined surrender, one attains immortality while yet alive"    
       (31).


From the story Arjuna and Krishna:


"1.   the death of one's physical body is inevitable and is not to cause prolonged grief;


2.    the subtle dimension of the person (jiva) does not die at death, rather takes on a new body;


3.    the Eternal Self (Atman) is birthless and deathless, and cannot be destroyed;


4.    one who realizes the Eternal Self while yet alive, will not be reborn but, at death, will merge with Brahman" (33).

How Love Defines Life

Success Built to Last

by

Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery, and Mark Thompson

"The only place where you find success before work is in the dictionary."

~Mary V. Smith

(as cited in Porras 35)

                  This Quote can be proven time and time again all throughout history, as well as in present day. A person cannot inherit success, they have to achieve it for them-selves. Some of the benefits of success such as money, property and even power can be inherited, however, the heirs are not typically the ones who worked for it, nor are they the ones who reap the full benefit of the work and toil. Truly, one of the best examples of this is displayed in the movie The Ultimate Gift. In the movie the patriarch of a extremely wealthy family has died. During the funeral, and later when the family meets at the law firm, it becomes clear that the children (middle age adults now) and grandchildren (most of which are teenagers, except for the main character, Jason who is about 23) are all spoiled rotten by the wealth earned by the patriarch. It is clear that the only reason that the relatives are there is to try to get as much from the patriarch's wealth as they can. The head lawyer distributes some of the wealth to the relations; they are all highly disappointed with their inheritance despite all of them having received land, stocks, etc worth hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. Then comes Jason; who finds that his grandfather left him to a series of videos that lead to a series of gifts. These gifts include: the gift of Family, the gift of Money, the gift of Work and many more. Throughout the movie, Jason accomplishes dozens of difficult tasks and by the end is a changed person who proceeds to do what he feels strongly about for other people.

               I realize that I am terrible at movie reviews, however, I believe that this film expresses exactly how I feel about working for your own success.

"It's dangerous not to do what you love. The harsh truth is that if you don't love what you're doing, you'll lose to someone who does! For every person who is half-hearted about their work or relationships, there is someone else who loves what they're half-hearted about" (35). 

             How much more blunt can it be? If you do not have the passion, enthusiasm and positive motivation for something---- a job, relationship, or other--- then you will only go so far before you smack your nose on a brick wall; whether the wall be layoffs, grades, or in some cases, survival. A perfect example of this is the nursing field; it is extremely competitive and you have to have a love for it to succeed. If you do not have the love to motivate you then you will sink and someone else with more passion will take your place. 

"Celebrating what's right with the world is an excruciatingly unhip and uncool thing to do. We are carefully trained by safety-conscious parents, in-laws, institutions of higher learning, and the evening news to ignore or ridicule optimistic people" (43)

              This fact is depressingly true. From birth we are trained that optimism is bad and that people who are optimistic will come to a disastrous end. I myself encounter this with my schooling. I hold learning very close to my heart and sometimes find it difficult to get around the fact that many people do not care about education and they proceed to ridicule those who do. Simply finding a good study partner can be a discouraging and degrading process.        

reading response 1: first impressions cont.II

                                                            Book Three:
                                                   The Oxford Book of Death
                                                                        by
                                                                   D. J. Enright

              Personally, books of quotes are one of my passions so I was ecstatic to find that I had a book of quotes as a text book. I will try to post entire quotes, however, many are so long the it would be unreasonable to publish them in their entirety; I will, however, dispatch every effort to post excerpts from some of my particular favorites so that others may enjoy them.
            
             "In this way the instinct came into being: the instinct to return to the inanimate state."
                                                                          ~Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

             This quote I found appealing because of its blunt interpretation of the obvious and, well, its Sigmund Freud. It simply establishes that the moment that we come into existence, we are drawn by something in the very fiber of our being to return to nonexistence or rather death.

            "O' little Cloud,' the virgin said, 'I charge thee tell to me
             Why thou complainst not, when in one hour thou fad'st away:
             Then we shall seek thee, but not find. Ah! Thel is like to thee---
             I pass away; yet I complain, and no one hears my voice."
                                                          ~William Blake (1757-1827)

The cloud then replies that he, upon passing, will proceed on to a greater existence and during his life he accomplished his purpose to feed the flowers. The maiden, at the conclusion of this reasoning, continues to whine that she has no purpose and will fade away being only food for worms. Here is the clouds response:

             "The cloud reclined upon his airy throne, and answered thus:
             'Then if thou art food of worms, O virgin of the skies,
             How great thy use, how great thy blessing! Everything that lives
            Lives not alone, nor for itself...."  
                                                          ~" "

Dispite the morbidity of this quote it efficently professes that we all have a purpose in life and/or in death. This quote also encourages me to want to make something of my life so that worms are not the only things that benefit from me.

reading response 1: first impressions cont.

                                                     Book Two:
                                                        Success Built to Last
                                                                      by Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery, and Mark Thompson

              This insightful of this book I found to be truly refreshing, and it cleared up some issues that I have with the "toxic" interpretations that are so commonly matched with the word "success." Personally, prior to reading this material I believed, "Why be successful? Money and power cannot bring happiness except in a temporary unsatisfying form, so why bother? I would much rather work hard and achieve my long time goals for my education and then proceed to use all the resources I possessed towards what matters deeply to me. (I will not share exactly what that is, as this is the internet and this can be viewed by anyone.) I must say that I was thrilled to find that the authors of this book shared my view. Success is not about money and/or power but in its true form coincides with the Mandela Effect:-- "when you create enduring success not because you are perfect or lucky but because you have the courage to do what matters to you." This text I interpret to be most uplifting because it lets me realize that I am indeed still on what I feel to be the right path not just flowing around lost in a shallow oblivion.
             I love the fact that builders (or truly successful people) are simply ordinary people who commit to and strive towards extraordinary things that they personally believe in. True success is working towards and perhaps accomplishing a goal that matters to an individual at a personal level and is not typically something that will impact just them but the people and world around them. Marva Collins is quoted in the book, "when you create a life that matters ---then 'the world would be a darker place without you'."
             The most beautiful thing that I identify within this book thus far is that the "true success" concept is achieved be people who are not perfect, lucky, or genetically set up for it, rather they are ordinary people who have their own flaws, disappointments and failures.

reading response 1: first impressions

            In response to the reading selections this week I find myself at a loss as to where I should began; there was so much material that I enjoyed or that stirred my emotions that I find myself very nearly overwhelmed with thoughts, my own and others, that are more than worthy to write about extensively. This, I suppose, is the lot of those of us who love to learn, there is so much knowledge and we want to share and spread to all those around us. I digress, however, and I will share with you, to the best of my ability, my pondering from this week. For simplicity sake I will try to express my opinion in categories according to book. [there are three]


                                            Book 1: The Sacred Art of Dying
                                                                              by Kenneth Kramer


         I was impressed with the goal of this book, being to relieve the fears of students, particularly, those who harbor fears in regards to their own death and the death of a loved one. Specifically, the text promises to address such questions as: "What Happens at Death? What happens after death? And how should I prepare for my own death?" Many individuals profess that these questions do not occur to them or do not "bother" them or something to that effect. When people casually brush off these questions it really is difficult for me to understand. Death is a part of life, such a huge part, in fact, that it is impossible to successfully ignore and disregard.
        I believe that this passive outlook at death must have a vital root in our culture and was thrilled to find that the text supported this belief. "In our culture, individuals fear physical death because it is not understood and because it appears to be a final termination of life." I would like to expand on this and really relate it to the culture of the United Stated. In the USA, life is hugely influenced by the American dream which stated that you can obtain everything if you work hard and have lots of money; this is important to American's perception of death, because in death you have nothing, there is nothing. In the America Dream there is no room for nothing; it does not fit well with the philosophy. This brought me to the question: Is death harder on Western culture than on other cultures?  


I will have to stop here as my presents is required else where; however I will continue in due course. :)     

does anyone read me?

Hello,
this is the first entry on my first blog ever so bear with me while I figure this out. On this blog I will be publishing my thoughts and opinions mostly in relation to the readings and activities of my really cool... thriving with life and death class. I will try to keep the posts interesting and thought provoking; however if the posts fail to hold your attention please feel free to comment with your own opinions on the subject matter.