The Foreshadowing by Marcus Sedgewick

Sep28

The Foreshadowing tells the story of a girl, Alexandra, who is a sort of Cassandra: she can foresee the imminent death of people with whom she comes into contact. But of course, no one wants to hear her predictions, and no one believes her.

I just read the following article at the BBC website, before reading Marcus Sedgewick’s story of World War One horror and supernatural intervention. And the essay definitely colored my reading of the book.

First the article: World War One: Misrepresentation of a Conflict by Dr Dan Todman. Dr. Todman asks the question: “Is the traditional tale of ‘stupid generals, pointless attacks and universal death’ a fair representation of a war celebrated in 1918 as a great national deliverance?”
His answer: “Sassoon and Wilfred Owen could be used to evoke an emotional reaction against war which engaged students and satisfied teachers, but which utterly misrepresented the feelings of most Britons who lived through the war years.”

If Dr. Todman is right, then Marcus Sedgewick’s book, The Foreshadowing, totally buys into that misrepresentation, as does most of the fiction I’ve read about World War One and its aftermath. The protagonist, Alexandra, who has disguised herself as a nurse in order to rescue her brother from her vatic vision of his impending death in battle, speculates about a Tommy she meets along the way: “Presumably he had killed at least one man. Maybe several. He was a friendly man, he seemed very ordinary, kind even, but he didn’t seem to be bothered by what he’s done. And when he got to the German trenches he must have met German soldiers, who would have killed him too, if they could. I wondered if either Englishman or German had the slightest idea what they were killing each other for.”

All of the characters in the book seem to have little or no motivation for going to war other than honor and the desire to “do my bit”. Alexandra’s father tells her brothers Edgar and Tom that they must”do their bit”. And Tom later tells Alexandra that he came to war to die, no purpose at all except slow suicide.

Alexandra is the only one with a purpose: to change the future that she has already seen in a vision and to save Tom’s life. She pursues that purpose with single-minded determination and with the help of a friend, Jack, who hares her gift/curse of prophetic vision. The picture of what World War One was really about and how the soldiers who fought there really experienced it may be flawed—apparently one can re-write the past–but the story about whether one can or should try to change the future is suspenseful and intriguing with a surprise ending that made me gasp and appreciate.

Recommended, but the pace is slow at first. And the chapters are very short, a page and a half or two, a device I found annoying. Others probably won’t notice. I did become impatient with Alexandra way before she became impatient with herself.

Banned Books Week–Again

Sep28

I haven’t had much to say about Banned Books Week this year, mostly because I’ve said it before and I fear I would only repeat myself.

However, I do have a few links to share on the subject and related topics:

Banned books? How about banned posters? Shouldn’t professors have the right to put whatever poster they want in their own office?

Or banned statues? Actually, these yard sculptures haven’t been banned at all, but under the current popular terminology for Banned Books Week, they have been “challenged”—the neighbors are complaining. I think it’s a delightful collection, and I certainly wouldn’t mind having it in my neighborhood.

On a more serious and thoughtful note, Emily and Janie are doing a series of posts related to Banned Books Week at Redeemed Reader. These are well worth your reading time:

Light Your Library! Win Stuff, Love People, and Think Deeply by Emily Whitten, former children’s book editor and current homeschool mom.
Interview with Meghan Cox Gurdon, author of a controversial article in the Wall Street Journal that called the YA literature world to task for the increasing darkness and pessimism of young adult literature.
The Use and Abuse of Youth Literature by Janie B. Cheaney, young adult and middle grade fiction author and WORLD magazine columnist.
What Gets a Book “Banned”? by Janie B. Cheaney.

While you’re at Redeemed Reader, explore a bit. Janie’s and Emily’s blog has become a new favorite of mine.

Wednesday’s Word of the Week: Vatic

Sep28

Vatic: describing or predicting what will happen in the future; prophetic.

No, it doesn’t come from the same root word as “Vatican.” Vatican is from the latin, vaticanus, referring to Vatican Hill in Rome. Vatic comes from the Latin, vÄt Ä“s or seer + -ic. At least, I think those are separate source words. Correct me if I’m wrong, ye Latin scholars.

Anyway, vatic. As in, the candidate’s vatic speeches were received by the crowd with great awe and credulity. Or, her vatic trance ended abruptly when the dog bit her behind. Or, How vatic L’Enfant was when he laid out Washington as a city that goes around in circles! (I replaced the word “prophetic” with “vatic” in that last sentence, a quotation from author John Mason Brown.)

Oh, and don’t even believe my non-vatic utterances. I just looked at A Word a Day, and found this etymology for vatic:

From Latin vates (prophet). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wet- (to blow or inspire) which is also the source of fan, atmosphere, Vatican

Lord of the Nutcracker Men by Iain Lawrence

Sep27

Yep. It’s all twentieth century history all the time here at Semicolon this year—except when it isn’t. Actually, I have so many irons in the fire with Texas Tuesday, and Wednesday’s Word of the Week and the Saturday Review and other stuff that just catches my interest that I think I should call myself an ADD reader—Attention Distracted Disorderly reader. Yes, there is method in my madness, but it’s sometimes buried deep in the chaos of what passes for an orderly mind.

And all of that verbiage was my introduction to Mr. Lawrence’s Lord of the Nutcracker Men, a young adult or middle grade fiction book set in the first year of World War One, 1914, in England. Ten year old Johnny has a set of “thirty soldiers carved from wood, dressed in helmets and tall black boots. They carried rifles tipped with silver bayonets. They had enormous mouths full of grinning teeth that sparkled in the sun.” Johnny’s dad made the soldiers and gave them to Johnny for his ninth birthday.

Now the world is at war, and Johnny’s toy soldiers look just like the German Kaiser’s army that is now storming through Belgium. And Johnny asks his father, “Can you make me some Frenchmen? Can you make me some Tommies” (British soldiers)? So Johnny’s dad makes him a little French soldier with a blue coat.

Soon, Johnny’s father volunteers for the army. He’s sent to the front, to the trenches, but he promises to be back by Christmas. And Johnny is sent to the country to live with his aunt since rumors of German Zeppelins flying over London are frightening his mother into sending him away for his own safety, “just until Christmas, of course. Just until the war is over.”

Most of the story takes place with Johnny in the country, playing with his toy soldiers,including the new ones that his dad sends him from the war front. And, then, there are letters in which dad tells Johnny what is happening in the war and what the front is like for him. The letters are quite graphic in describing the violence and the degradation that the soldiers endure, and although they’re realistic as far as I can tell, I think it’s highly unlikely that a father would send a ten year old letters that described war in such explicit terms. Nor do I believe Aunt Ivy would read them aloud without editing if dad did write them.

But this breakdown in the logic of the narrative can be ignored, especially if you decide that the book is a better fit for young adult readers rather than ten and eleven year olds. Johnny at first glorifies war and the military with his wooden toys and his imagination, but as his father’s letters become darker and full of gloom and discouragement, Johnny becomes fearful. He begins to imagine that the battles he stages with his toy armies are determining the outcome of real battles at the front and even the fate of his father, personified by one of the carved soldiers.

It’s a good story, and it ends on a hopeful note with a letter from Johnny’s dad at Christmas about the informal and undeclared Christmas truce of 1914, in which many soldiers on both sides of the war stopped fighting to celebrate Christmas together in no-man’s land.

1917: Books and Literature

Sep27

The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in 1917. One of the first prizes awarded was for editorial writing, and the first winner was an editorial about the war and the anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania.

This editorial by Frank J. Simonds appeared in the New York Tribune on the first anniversary of the torpedoing of the Lusitania cruise liner. Read the entire editorial and see if it reminds you of anything nowadays. Could you not have substituted the words “Islamic extremist” for “German” and “Germany” in this editorial and published it, almost unchanged except for a few references to contemporary events and specifics, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11?

“This war ~~in Europe~~ on terrorism is going on until ~~the German~~ the Islamic terrorist idea is crushed or conquers. The world cannot now exist half civilized and half ~~German~~ Islamic extremist. Only one of two conceptions of life, of humanity, can subsist. One of the conceptions was written in the ~~Lusitania~~ 9/11 Massacre, written clear beyond all mistaking. It is this writing that we should study on this anniversary; it is this fact that we should grasp today, not in anger, not in any spirit that clamors for vengeance, but as the citizens of a nation which has inherited noble ideals and gallant traditions, which has inherited liberty and light from those who died to serve them, and now stands face to face with that which seeks to extinguish both throughout the world.”

While We’re Far Apart by Lynn Austin

Sep27

I read this book because it’s one of the many novels that has been nominated for the INSPY Award in the category of General Fiction. Also, I like historical fiction,and this book set during Word War II sounded interesting. In fact, I gave it to my mom to read first, thinking she might like the time period setting; she actually remembers the end of World War II. She says she remembers marching around her front yard banging with a spoon on an old pan to celebrate VE Day or VJ Day, one of the two.

However, for my mom the book was a non-starter. She read a few chapters, but since the main characters, or at least one of the main characters, is a twelve year old girl, the book felt too juvenile to her. She suggested I give it to Betsy-Bee who is also twelve years old.

However, since it’s classified as adult fiction, I thought I should read it myself. I’m glad I did. There’s not much in there that a mature 13 or 14 year old wouldn’t understand and appreciate, but the book, especially the pacing, is probably more suited to adults. It doesn’t move too quickly, but rather it’s what I would call a character-centered story. Esther, the twelve year old, is a love-starved little girl who’s just on the edge of adolescence and growing into adulthood. Her mother has died in a car accident, and her father is so absorbed in his grief that he has little or no emotional strength to give to his children. Esther’s brother, Peter, is just as confused and needy as Esther, but he expresses his suffering by becoming mute. The two children are further traumatized when their father decides to volunteer to go to war in order to escape from his memories and from the pain of his wife’s death.

Then, the most interesting character enters the story. Penny Goodrich is the girl next door who’s always, unbeknownst to him, had a crush on the children’s father. When their grandmother refuses to care for the children (she’s a hoarder and has her own issues), Penny steps up, hoping to make Eddie Shaffer, the dad, fall in love with her as she cares for his children. I thought at first Penny was going to be border-line mentally impaired, but as the story progresses, Penny is only very sheltered and a bit slow on the uptake because of her peculiar background and discouraging and over-protective parents who have always told her that she is as “dumb as a green bean.”

I liked figuring out Penny, and then the Jewish characters who show up in the story are also intriguing. Mr. Mendel, the Shaffers’ friend, neighbor, and landlord, is waiting to hear from his son who was trapped in Hungary at the beginning of the war. Mr. Mendel also lost his wife in the same accident that killed Esther’s mother, and he is quite bitter towards “Hashem” the name he uses to speak of God. The book includes lots of questioning about the goodness of God and His role in suffering and evil. “If God is good, why does He let bad things happen?” No easy answers are given, but Mr. Mendel eventually realizes that he cannot leave his faith, or else his faith in God and community will not leave him.

I liked it. If the setting and characters sound like somewhere you would like to visit and people you would like to get to know, if only briefly, check it out.

1916: Art and Entertainment

Sep26

On May 20, 1916, artist Norman Rockwell publishes his first cover for the magazine Saturday Evening Post. The picture was called Boy With Baby Carriage., and it shows a boy who is having to push a baby in her carriage while his friends go off to play baseball.

Also, during 1916 and until his death in 1926, Claude Monet continues to paint his murals of water lilies even though he develops cataracts on his eyes and is unable to see as clearly or paint in such detail as he was in his earlier work.

Christina Bjork (b. 1938) is author of the beautiful book, Linnea in Monet’s Garden. In the book, Linnea, a young girl, and her neighbor, Mr. Blom, get to visit Paris and Giverny and see the places where Monet created his paintings. The book is a wonderful introduction to impressionist art and to the work and life of Claude Monet.

1916: Books and Literature

Sep26

Seventeen A Tale of Youth and Summer Time and the Baxter Family, Especially William by Booth Tarkington; illustrated by Arthur William Brown, published by Harper and Brothers, 1916, is a humorous novel about a seventeen year old boy’s first love. Mr. Tarkington’s novels were very popular in the first part of the twentieth century.

Listen to W.B. Yeats’ poem, Easter, 1916 about the Irish Uprising that occurred in Dublin, Ireland on Easter Monday of that year. The rebels proclaimed Irish independence and an Irish republic, but they were forced to surrender to superior British forces on April 29, 1916. Over 300 Irish died, and over 2000 were imprisoned by the British.

Here’s the last verse of the poem which celebrates those Irish heroes who died in the Easter Uprising:

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven’s part, our part
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?
For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse –
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

1916: Events and Inventions

Sep26

January, 1915. Austro-Hungarian forces overrun and take the small country of Montenegro.

February 21, 1916. German guns fire on the French positions near the fort of Verdun in the beginning of a major assault on the French line. The French, who have concentrated their armies elsewhere along the front, retreat before the German onslaught.

March, 1916. The Austrian War Dog Institute and the German Association for Serving Dogs begin training dogs as guides for the blind.

March 15, 1916. 4000 U.S. troops under the command of General John Pershing cross the border into Mexico in pursuit of Mexican rebel leader Pancho Villa. Villa and his Villistas have been raiding towns along the border in Arizona and New Mexico. Some say he is purposely trying to draw the Americans into the continued civil war in Mexico. The picture on the right is Pancho Villa and some of his men in 1914.

April 24, 1916. The Easter Rising. Irish nationalists in Dublin stage an uprising against British rule on the Monday after Easter Sunday. The Irish Republican Brotherhood and Sinn Fein, two nationalist organizations, lead the rebellion and attempt to declare Ireland to be an independent republic. The British government sends reinforcements to the army in Dublin to fight and capture the rebels.

May 31, 1916. British and German Dreadnoughts clash at Jutland off the coast of Denmark. Called the battle of Jutland, the fight ends in a German retreat but greater losses of men and ships for the British.

July 1, 1916. The Allies launch an attack on the German lines near the Somme River in northern France. Over 57,000 Allied soldiers and 800 Germans die in the first day of the offensive. The Battle of the Somme will end in November after more than a million deaths on both sides.

August, 1916. Romania, neutral until now, joins the Allies and invades Austria-Hungary.

September 15, 1916. Great Britain’s army reveals its new secret weapon: the tank. 32 tanks are deployed on the Somme, and German machine gunners scatter in their path. 2000 Germans are taken prisoner.

December, 1916. Cutex, the first liquid nail polish, is introduced in the U.S. by Northam Warren.

December, 1916. The â€˜turnip winterâ€™ in Germany and Austria sees food shortages caused by the Allied naval blockade and a high mortality rate among the civilian population.

The Five Love Languages of Teenagers by Gary Chapman

Sep26

I have a low tolerance for psycho-babble. Although I don’t think this book is complete psycho-babble, there is an (un)healthy portion of it that just reads like psychological speculation and filler. I’ve read about the “five love languages” before, and there is a core of useful information there. I just think it can be explained in a simple way and in far fewer words than are in the several books that have been written and published on the subject.

So, the five love languages are:
1) words of affirmation
2) quality time
3) touch/physical expression of affection
4) gifts
5) acts of service

It is Mr. Chapman’s contention that everyone uses one of these five love languages as his or her primary way to express and receive love. The point of knowing your own primary love language and the primary love language of significant others in your life is to be able to express your love to them in a way that most plainly communicates love to that person. For example, if my primary love language is quality time, I will feel most loved by my husband, by my friends, and by my family when they decide to spend quality time with me. I will also tend to assume that that’s how they feel most loved by me. However, each of those people may have a different primary love language, and my husband or my teenage son may feel more loved and affirmed if I simply give them a a hug or a sincere compliment or a small gift or if I do something for them.

That’s it in a nutshell. The book takes a lot more words to say not much more than the preceding paragraph. If you want the concepts fleshed out with stories and lots of explanation and a few disclaimers and qualifications, read the book. Otherwise, just try to figure out how the people around you most readily receive and give love, and then try learning to give your affection to each one in a way that suits that person’s personality and “love language.” Not a bad idea at all, just too many words.