We don’t deserve nice things.

Posted on March 26, 2023 by JC

There is a fairly well-known meme with the phrase “This is why we can’t have nice things.” which I have seen around frequently enough though I wasn’t previously familiar with its origins. It is usually posted with a picture of someone doing something really stupid or inappropriate. There is also another similar meme, “Remember what they took from you.” which is either accompanied by a photograph of happier times or more ironically accompanying something like images of cheaper petroleum or 1980s action figures. Both of these served as inspiration for this post. What follows applies across the Western world but will mainly be focused on Australia as it is my homeland.

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What am I doing wrong?

Posted on March 19, 2023 by JC

Money has been tight for the last few months and it has got me thinking again about how I manage my finances in general. The period between December and January are usually more expensive for me but this year it has gone on longer due to a variety of other expenses that have come up. Thankfully, I also received an unexpected pay rise but this too has been consumed with new expenses. More than management, I am wondering what I am still doing wrong? What unnecessary spending am I still doing? What could I be doing differently? You get the idea. Continue reading →

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Further thoughts on Brideshead Revisted

Posted on March 12, 2023 by JC

This is a follow-up to my previous post as I felt it was different enough to warrant its own. This will focus on the characters of Rex Mottram and Celia Ryder. I didn’t mention either at all by name in the previous post — though they are important characters. Rex was the fiancée and then husband (at least legally) of Charles’ ultimate paramour Julia Flyte. Lady Celia Ryder as can be guessed, was the wife of Charles.  Unlike the Flyte family, the operation of Divine Grace is not (at least visibly) working with these two characters.

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Thoughts on Brideshead Revisited

Posted on March 8, 2023 by JC

I mentioned a few years ago in a post that I had been intending to re-read Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited along with Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. After finishing the former late last week, I decided I needed to write something about it. Not least because I had wondered why it was so popular with Catholics given some of the subject matter. To be specific, I remember an acquaintance once wondering aloud why it was considered the “quintessential Catholic novel” — while clearly not agreeing with such a claim. As I wrote this, I thought I’d do a quick search through Catholic booklists online and it certainly does show up frequently. As I first read the novel before I was Catholic and have just re-read it having been one for almost six years; I think I am in a better position to address this.

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How do I get out of this?

Posted on February 26, 2023 by JC

Something that I noticed after converting to Catholicism is the zeal I suddenly felt to bring others into the Church with me. Especially my close family and friends. I had found something good and wanted to share it. This feeling is replicated on a far more trivial scale with other experiences and discoveries from new interesting restaurants, to books and hobbies. While these smaller examples don’t require much sacrifice for potential converts — changing, renewing or embracing religion certainly does. Indeed, it took a long time for me to remember the rough path I took and the many stumbles upon the way and yet, I was expecting others to skip along the same path just behind me which was more than a little unreasonable. This is not just me either as I’ve heard and witnessed the same from other converts and it has long been observed in Christian history as well as in other religions.

In the years since my conversion, I have seen those around me making progress and heard many positive stories as the world declines further and more visibly into evil. But I have realised that people will mostly come to the Faith the way I did and not through my or anyone else’s encouragement alone. 

Something I’ve been given cause to think about more recently is a barrier that often comes up when speaking to someone who is curious and open to the Faith but reluctant to make the great leap. Although not ever said in such terms, they are essentially asking, “How do I get out of this?”

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A Most Interesting Man

Posted on February 19, 2023 by JC

Simon Leys: Navigator between Worlds by Philippe Paquet (translated by Julie Rose), La Trobe University Press, September 18th, 2017

The name of Simon Leys has appeared a couple of times on this blog. The first quoting portions of his fascinating essay on Don Quixote and the second time in reviewing his translation of the Analects of Confucius last month. Since finishing his essay anthology titled The Halls of Uselessness, his only novel The Death of Napoleon and a number of other pieces of writing, I’ve only become more interested in the man behind the pen. His real name being Pierre Ryckmans, a Belgian sinologist and writer — though you could easily add many more titles than these initial two. 

I was first introduced to Leys before he died in 2014 by John Derbyshire, one of the few living writers on politics and society who I have followed for a long time (since mid-2008). Leys and Derbyshire share many similarities. They both spent some time in China including Hong Kong and Taiwan and both have Chinese spouses with whom they had children. They are (or were) both successful writers on eclectic topics. Leys writing on China, literature, art, language and the sea. Derbyshire a political commentator who has also written two novels as well as two non-fiction books on mathematics (both the latter, I have yet to read). Derbyshire was pleased to discover that Leys had enjoyed his novel Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream about a Chinese family that had emigrated to the United States. The novel incorporates the protagonists painful experiences during Mao’s Cultural Revolution after encountering an old flame from the old country. Although I have high respect for both, I think Derbyshire would readily agree that Leys edges him out in personal accomplishments though the latter would be very reluctant to accept such praise.

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The New Age of Discovery

Posted on February 12, 2023 by JC

I don’t like Star Trek but I know enough about it to remember the tagline, “Space: The Final Frontier.” These words began each episode of the original series (as far as I know) and at the optimistic time the series was born into; anyone could be forgiven for believing the truth of such a statement. This optimistic belief about human progress is still generally held; that all the secrets of the Earth had been discovered and only in worlds beyond the black void surrounding it is there anything left to discover. All the religions of the world are therefore no longer relevant at best and a hinderance to scientific progress at worst. The former view was one I remember comedian Bill Hicks stating and the latter characterised the “new atheists” that had brief but significant influence in the years after the collapse of a couple of prominent buildings in New York. The view that “science” is the answer for the problems of the world and that the only mysteries left to discover lie beyond earth has been the dominant view for most of my life but this has perceptibly began to crumble in recent years. 

I’ve dwelt on this subject in a number of ways over the years but here I will offer more optimism than cynicism because the world we live in is actually a lot more exciting than anything found in Star Trek and it is only going to get more so.

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Fantastic Phil’s Time Adventure

Posted on February 5, 2023 by JC

Groundhog Day had its theatrical release in the United States thirty years ago as I write. It stars Bill Murray, Andy MacDowell and was directed by Harold Ramis. It was the last time Ramis and Murray worked together on a film after many collaborations and also marked a change in career direction for both. Although in my review of Lost in Translation I suggested that Wes Anderson’s Rushmore marked the dramatic turn for Murray’s career, it can also be seen within this film. Upon re-watching it recently, it is certainly something of a hybrid and although filmed and released in the early 1990s, it could still almost pass as one from the late 1980s. It was a commercial and critical hit upon release but has since endured and remained a popular film and I consider it the best film both Murray and Ramis have ever done. Considering both began their film careers with crass comedies like Caddyshack and Stripes — this perhaps isn’t so impressive in hindsight.

The film has been endlessly discussed and studied since and as with Blade Runner, I don’t expect to be very original in what follows. It has also been influential in what is known as the time-loop genre and I’ve previously discussed Edge of Tomorrow which has a similar premise though it is a sci-fi/action film.

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Entering at the Margins of Classic Chinese Literature

Posted on January 31, 2023 by JC

The Water Margin (Shuihu Zhuan) is one of what are known as the ‘Four Great Novels of China’ and was originally written by Shi Naian during the Ming Dynasty and published in 1368 AD. Though there is scholarly dispute on dates and authorship, I will go with what is generally accepted as I do not know better and probably never will. It is set during the Song Dynasty in the 1120s and concerns the historical Song Jiang, the leader of the 108 bandits of Liangshan Marsh. It is one of the most famous of the Chinese Classics and is well-known in China, Japan and I assume Korea and other surrounding Asian nations. 

It was first translated into English in the 1930s and the edition above (which I read) was translated by J.H. Jackson in 1937. The first translator was Pearl S. Buck in 1933 who changed the title to All Men Are Brothers but the Jackson’s version is considered superior. Complicating this is that the work has been edited in Chinese since it was first written and both these translations are based on the shorter 70 chapter version by Jin Shintang in the 1640s. The original is 120 chapters and has since been translated to English though it doesn’t seem to be as widely available. While the edition is mostly the Jackson translation, the editor Edwin Lowe has made a number of changes which included restoring violence and vulgarity found in the original Chinese that Jackson opted not to include. These re-inclusions are infrequent and relatively mild in comparison to many modern novels today. After reading it through, I wouldn’t say their inclusion adds anything to the text other than making the translation more accurate. It is likely Jackson was a Christian missionary so it is unsurprising he decided to smooth these rough edges out.

As I mentioned in my post on the Analects last month, I received this and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms for Christmas and rapidly read through this in the first three weeks of January. What follows will be a mixture of thoughts on the book which I really enjoyed as can be inferred from the pace with which I read it.

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A Picture of Petty Tyranny

Posted on January 22, 2023 by JC

Office Space is a 1999 film directed by Mike Judge and loosely based on his Milton animated shorts. I previously reviewed Idiocracy and intended to come back and cover this at some stage which I am now doing. Though I love the film, the first time I saw it I didn’t really enjoy it. In hindsight I think that is because I had no frame of reference as I’d never been in full-time work and the work I did do was not in an office environment. As said, it was only on re-watching the film a few years ago — many years after my first viewing — that I really “got it”.

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