orthogeeks

From St. Katherine’s College Forum: ‘Civilizing the Heart: C.S. Lewis on Education‘ is well worth listening to. It should come as no surprise that we’re down with the idea here, that the actions that people repeat form their deeply felt affections towards various things. Indeed, also that the things we experience become impressed upon our souls. For many of us, video games, popular music, science fiction and fantasy literature, movies and T.V. shows and Anime form a great deal of that ‘inform-ation’ (in the sense Aristotle punned it) – and the times we re-read, hit the repeat button, pressed rewind, or started up that favorite game again? They trained the dispositions of our hearts, certainly. Not always for the better, perhaps, but if one wants to know what people actually feel about the world, these are the places one must start.

As an aside, This is another reason to be cautious for what you watch, read or play both in terms of quality and content; this formation does not cease but continues in us as long as we live (at least on this side of the grave, to my knowledge). To this end, we hope that this discussion here will aid in that process. We are not children here, so I think Father Chris will agree that we’re not here to instruct so much as to inform and discuss, to give opinions based on our beliefs and experiences, and to see what others convictions are and why they hold them.

Along with this Lewis argues for a ‘proper affection towards’ something, which is a way of defining an objective morality. The speaker talks not so much of ‘a one particular proper way’ to feel or think about something, but rather ways which are ‘right’ and other ways which are ‘wrong’. As a programmer, I’m much familiar with the ‘many wrongs, many rights’ approach.

Thoughts? Ideas?

I know what you’re thinking. But the answer may be yes.

Was Merlin Irish? Yes, I think he must have been. [NO BIAS I SWEAR].

Of course, I’m not a believer in the Arthurian mythos, I much prefer, along with Chesterton, to accept the factual and far more awesome St. Alfred. It may just be that I’m not French enough.

There are new memes to be made. Great meme makers of the west, I call upon thee! Ride!

Check out Hallowe’en: An Orthodox approach. While this is not entirely geek related (though it certainly is Orthodoxy related!) it kind of relates to our general approach to cultural ephemera. On a similar vein, at OCF we recently talked about the Orthodox approach to culture (especially as it is aimed towards evangelism) which is one of analysis and ‘reclaiming’. Instead of reacting against the negative elements, you sideline them and isolate the positive elements. Granted, Orthodox have not had much involvement in the ‘culture war’ and if anything our representation during the era of ‘the Moral Majority’ was certainly sparse. This is another way to say that a key point is not take a side in the culture war while at the same time not acquiescing to unacceptable things. To take one side or another draws you into what can only be called at this point a State of Reaction, made most visible in the actions of the Tea Party and the Wall Street Occupiers.

In my view, and I suppose Fr. Chris may back me up on this, the Christian’s role is not to seal themselves in a scripture-cell (though if you’re a monk a cellular existence is viable) but to ‘plunder Egypt’ as our Father among the Saints Gregory of Nyssa put it. The reclaiming of positive elements is much like the reclaiming of persons through baptism; in essence the whole person comes through unharmed, but all that is evil must pass away from them.

And in this, even the bad examples (and isn’t all literature rife with them) serve a purpose.

Thoughts on this concept?

About that classic game from the turn of the millennium; Sacrifice!

If William Blake made a Real Time Strategy game…

Bonus Sudden Death Overtime Watchmen discussion. And a lot of words about RTS playing and multiplayer in general.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

We think this was accidental.

The one from Tintin does look more like a giant, reddish mutant Morel.

Less pointy, I guess. But the spot pattern looks like the fold pattern in the real Morel.

I remember them fondly. Though wiki mentions that they have a somewhat star-crossed history, nonetheless, they were one of my major introductions to Science Fiction. Additionally, they were rather short in length (comparatively) and had these amazing covers:

Painted by Hugo Award winning artist Kelly Freas.

To be honest, sometimes I’d just look at the covers instead of reading them!

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If there is any series of comics (they would be regarded probably as ‘graphic novels’ these days) that stands to be absolutely awesome if adapted for movies, it would have to be Tintin. Featuring our courageous reporter and his adorable dog, Snowy, Tintin was what I wished all adventure comics could be. On the one hand it was clearly not bowdlerized for ‘dem chillin’s’ but it also didn’t base its appeal around shock value or ‘adultness’. I wonder how many writers and creators these days were inspired by these great comics!

It was originally created by the Belgian artist Georges Rémi, who wrote under the pen name of Hergé. He only lived until 1983, which means that Tintin was decidedly old school even by the time I read every one I could find at the public library!

More awesome Tintin covers after the break!

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“I believe the world will be saved by beauty. I am a believer because Christianity is that beauty.”

- Prince Myshkin, The Idiot

Often the idea of aesthetics comes up in our discussions, and I think, for good reason. Merely the phrase ‘Beauty will save the world’ is far too universalist for anything but common taste; but from the pen of Dostoyevsky, this phrase takes on a different meaning. If it is true, as I have heard, that the fear of the Lord is a result of an experience of the beauty of holiness, then even the hardy and variegated ‘tools of every trade’ (as Hopkins would say) participate once you understand, once you have have the eyes to see. This holiness, obviously, is none other than God himself, inasmuch as we may know him.

I don’t know much about these things – I’m somewhat of a charlatan and an amateur at everything, but I have noticed an uptick in Dostoyevsky-reading among people I’ve known. It may be that most will never know the Christianity of which the Prince spoke, which was to him the beauty of holiness that saves the world; It may be that his words will be taken as a cultural expression among many and filed away among ‘the world religions’; it may be that his words will be lost in a litany of his own personal difficulties; it indeed may be counted as an expression of ‘Existentialism’ instead; but if it is a truly universal, and not universalist sentiment, in the long run it does not matter. As the Master himself once said,

“One man sows, and another reaps.”

And that’s why I’m a geek.

(That silly comic is taken from a cracked.com article that’s so bad, in my opinion, that you can read it only if you want to search for it.)

Related: The same topic in Orthodox America’s Archives.