A Letter to Cyrus

We’ll get back to Harry Potter next week.  As of right now, I’m one chapter away from finishing Half-Blood Prince, and instead of what I’ve been doing, examining each book separately, I want to explore the commonalities in each installment, and I can’t do a good job of that until I’ve finished the last book.

Besides, Harry Potter is old.  Miley Cyrus is much more recent.

I haven’t seen her recent video with Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and I’m not all that interested in watching it, partly because I just found out what twerking was two weeks ago (and it still strikes me as an appropriately stupid name for a comparably stupid dance move), but mostly because I hate that song.  It seems to be played every half-hour on the radio and it strikes the ear like a mosquito buzzing there, ready to suck the blood from you, one drop at a time.

It’s not fair that Miley Cyrus is taking most of the heat while Robin Thicke seems to be getting less attention, but I understand why it is.  Cyrus had been a role model for children for several years and she has since been flushing that reputation down the toilet.  So, although I doubt she will ever read this, I’m going to write this letter to her anyways, and hopefully somebody can lovingly deliver the same type of message to her in person:

Dear Ms. Cyrus,

You happen to be a very attractive and talented young woman.  You were given an opportunity to make connections and have a career at a very young age.  People were paying you to use a talent that you had, and there was a lot of support behind the scenes to help you develop your skills and attract more people to you.

I understand that you wanted to move on from your childhood beginnings.  Hannah Montana was fun but you surely didn’t want to be part of that forever.  You do have to grow up and take part in the adult world.

Flaunting your sexuality in public, especially as part of an entertainment, is not the way to go about it.  Yes, there are women in your field who have been doing that their whole careers and are very successful.  In fact, much of what’s popular can be even more risqué than anything you will come up with.  So why does it seem that so many of your fans are picking on you?

Because although these other women remain popular and successful, and they do please a significant number of people, one thing they lack among their audiences is respect.  And this is why the decisions you’ve been making in the past year are so damaging, because you had respect.  Children looked up to you, parents appreciated you, your peers either wanted to be your friend, and even those who didn’t care for your work could offer no criticism worse than it just wasn’t their thing.  Because of your decisions, though, that respect is being put to rest.

But this isn’t the part that concerns me the most.  Sure, you were a role model.  There are many, I’m sure, that worry your new style is going to do damage to your fans, but I disagree.  What’s actually going to happen is that those who looked up to you are going to find a new person to admire, somebody who represents who you used to be.  I don’t think you’ve done any lasting damage to others; I just think you’ve lost your chance to inspire them.

What worries is actually your health.  I hope I am wrong, but with your new open, blithe, partying attitude that you’ve adopted, I’m concerned about the potential alcoholism and drug abuse that could threaten to take over your life.  I’ve had friends with the same attitude you seem to possess now, and substance abuse was not traveling far away from them.  Most of these friends are still stuck in that pernicious trap.

And besides the damage that the substances do to their bodies, worse is the effects they have on their mental health and social relationships.  It disconnects them from reality and makes it so that they are often fearful, angry, and stressed, not always in that order.  And it’s very hard for them to straighten their lives after walking down that road.

So please, please, take a look at your life and ask if this is what you really want.  If the fans were gone, if your friends were gone, in short, if you were to start over, are these the kind of things that you would want to do?  Is this whom you really are?  If not, make those changes now.  Because if I’m right (and I hope I’m not) your life is on the line.  Don’t waste it.

Prisoner of Azkaban

In talks with friends and reading various lists, this is a popular favorite as being the best in the series, and I find that completely understandable.  I would argue a big part of that is because the first three books function as a trilogy.  All three books followed a set pattern, and promises that were made in Sorcerer’s Stone were fulfilled in a delightful measure in Prisoner of Azkaban.

There are some minor examples of this, like the popular wizard sport, Quidditch.  Quidditch was introduced as a way to give Harry a genuine talent in the magical world from the get-go.  Being on a sports team gave him an identity at the school and foreshadowed a solution he would later use to pass one of the obstacles to reach the Sorcerer’s Stone.  Yet, in the earlier novels, only one game was written in each, and this got a little frustrating.  After all, I liked Oliver Wood, Harry’s captain, and his fellow teammates as well, and I was starting to wonder why this game was introduced if the heroes never got to accomplish anything in it.

Prisoner of Azkaban gave us an entire season of Quidditch, actually further the plot and Harry’s character development along, and expanded Harry’s sphere of friends.  (I’ll admit, I had nurtured some hope that in the final novel, Harry’s old Quidditch team would play a greater role in helping his fight against Voldemort.  But, oh well.)  And as an added bonus, which has nothing to do with this being part of a trilogy, Quidditch is where we were introduced to Cho Chang and Cedric Diggory, both of whom played a much bigger role later in the series.

Another promise fulfilled was Harry’s conquering of the Dursleys.  Their abuse of Harry is such a downer at the beginning of every book and even though Harry always has some hope he’ll overcome them (in Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry is banking on the fact they don’t know he’s can’t do magic over vacation) but it always bites him hard by the next installment.  With Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry finally has leverage over the Dursleys and can expect no more physical abuse anymore.

But the real reason it works as the final installment of the trilogy is that we learn more about Harry’s past than in any other novel.  Details would be filled in later, but this is the book where we get our foundation on who Harry’s dad was, who his friends were, what happened the night his parents died, and why Snape hates Harry so much.  The revelations are stunning and the mystery is once again fun (I can see Rowling writing detective novels; she follows the formula from the Mystery genre more than she does any Fantasy formulas.)

And then there are the things I thought Rowling did especially well, and they’re a little odd but brilliant.

Rowling does an exceptionally good job with pets.  Most authors don’t touch this aspect of life, and those who do either make them too shallow or go so far as to make the animals heroes of the story.  Rowling, though, gives the pets personality while keeping the focus firmly on the kids.  We love the animals for themselves.  Hedwig is very dignified and stern; Crookshanks determined, impulsive, yet always doing the right thing; and Pigwidgeon is way too energetic and full of himself to the point it gets annoying.

Remus Lupin was my favorite character for a long time, and he’s still my No. 2.  What I love about him besides the fact that he was the most competent teacher the series had, he is the only person who has ever managed to discipline Harry.  And I mean the only one.

One of the things I realized in this novel is that Harry has no concept of what the rules are or why he should follow them.  You can’t blame him much; the Dursleys were abusive and their rules arbitrary that he never learned much about right and wrong from them; he just reached personal concepts about what was fair and unfair.  So as the series progresses, Harry does what he wants unchecked; his heart is in the right place (mostly) but he’s as stupid as he is brave and doesn’t often learn from the consequences of his actions.

Nobody really guides him.  Professor McGonagall is strict, but she treats him the same as she does any other student; no personal relationship to vouch for there.  Professor Dumbledore is Harry’s hero, but Dumbledore is a distant mentor rather than parent and he encourages Harry’s bad behavior more often than not.  The Weasleys are Harry’s family and they love him, but Molly and Arthur will not discipline him.  When Harry and Ron crash the car in Chamber of Secrets, Ron is the one who got the Howler.  Harry felt bad, but the discipline was never directed at him.  Sirius Black might be his godfather, but they barely know each other in this book, or really, for the rest of the series.

When Harry sneaks out to Hogsmeade and gets caught, Lupin crushes his childishness with just a couple sentences: “You parents gave their lives to keep you alive, Harry.  A poor way to repay them—gambling their sacrifice for a bag of magic tricks.”  This is the first time that anything a grownup says that sinks into Harry’s soul.  Lupin should have been the one to raise Harry.

And lastly, poor Hermione.  Even when she joined Ron and Harry in the circle of friends, she was a pretty flat character until this novel, and it took breaking up the friendship briefly to do it.  We know she’s smart and cares about keeping the rules, but it’s in this book where we see how much she cares.  When Harry gets a Firebolt for Christmas from an anonymous giver, Hermione worries that it might be a cursed in order to secretly kill Harry.  Given the circumstances in this novel, that’s not an unfair call.  She knows doing the right thing and getting a teacher to take it away from Harry for inspection will make the boys angry at her, but she does it anyway.  Like Neville in Sorcerer’s Stone, Hermione proved it takes more bravery to stand up to your friends rather than your enemies, and she paid a heavier cost for it.  Just this act alone and everything that followed after, she proved to be the best person of the three of them.

It also made me want to slap both Ron and Harry.  You can tell they’re hitting puberty at this point, because all the adults are grateful that they aren’t their kids.

Harry Potter!

I’m showing my age a bit, but I practically grew up with Harry Potter.  I was 13 when I first read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and I read all but the last chapter in one night.  My neighbor had all three books in the series (this should tell you about when I started the books) and I borrowed them constantly.  Over three months, I had read and reread them so often and everywhere that I had to buy new copies for my neighbor because the originals were trashed.

In high school, before the movies came out, I had many, many people tell me I looked exactly like Harry Potter.  Truth is, I don’t think anybody on my bus knew my real name; they always called me Harry.  I felt honored.

Because I’d read the books so much, I had too many things memorized.  A friend of mine would often do a trivia game with me, and he tried for months to trip me up.  It was difficult, because I was such a nerd with this series that I had Harry’s list of textbooks and their respective authors memorized.  He only got me twice or thrice, and one of the questions was what kind of images Dumbledore had on his pocket watch (the answer was planets.  I had no clue and I was so mad about that.)

In anticipation of Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, I read all the books from the start just so that I could read the series in sequence, and that was pretty special.

And then something weird happened:  I stopped rereading them.  I only read the fourth and fifth books two or three times total, as compared to the dozens that I’d read the first three installments.  To this day, I’ve only read the last two books once.  Now, I was present for the midnight release of Half-Blood Prince and read the whole thing overnight (dawn came when I finished, and I couldn’t stop crying over Dumbledore’s death.  That sucked.)  I nearly did the same thing with Deathly Hallows.

Since the morning after I finished Deathly Hallows, I’ve never been back to the books.  I just set them aside and called life good.  I kept watching the movies because they were brilliant, especially once David Yates took over as director.  Order of the Phoenix isn’t just the best Harry Potter movie, it just may be one of the best movies to have come out from that decade, and I was very impressed with Deathly Hallows: Part 1.

I was pretty satisfied with how things were.  Rowling was a major influence in my teenage years and I’ll be forever grateful for how they helped make me a better reader, writer, critic, and even a better person.  This was just a wonderful, wonderful series, but I set it aside and moved onto other interests, both in literature and other pursuits.

Until this past week.  I got a beautiful set of Harry Potter novels for a very reasonable deal a couple years back and I looked at them and said to myself, Today’s the day.  At the point of writing this, I am already halfway through Prisoner of Azkaban, and it is so difficult not to skip this post and just keep reading.  But I obligated myself, and though I am majorly procrastinating on it, here are some of my impressions on the first two Harry Potter novels:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

This was a delight.  I felt like I was visiting an old friend and had forgotten all their good stories.  Of course I remembered the main story, but there were things that I had completely forgotten: like how Vernon Dursley worked for a company that sold drills, or that Ginny was present in this book as in all the others, or even that Peeves was a character.  Who made the decision to leave him out of the movies?  I know he doesn’t play any significant role in the movies, but he is a delightful part of the atmosphere.

Around the time Goblet of Fire came out, many people were going up in arms how Harry Potter was too dark, and this took Rowling by surprise because she started the series out with a double murder and brought a villain who drank blood somewhere in the middle.  Those were dark content, sure, but it honestly never left as big an impression on me, even when I first read them.

What did strike me as extreme was the child abuse, and this seems to be more noticeable as an adult than it was for me as a kid.  When I first read Harry, I hated the Dursleys, but injustice is such a common aspect of childhood that the full significance of their torture washed over me.  This time I read it, I wanted to reach down and punch Petunia and Vernon before setting Child Protective Services on their butts.  It seems amazing to me that nobody in the magical community did anything to observe that he at least had a bedroom.  I know there is some explanation later in the books on why it’s for Harry’s good to live with them, but the answer does not feel satisfying after all the physical, verbal, and mental suffering he’s put through all his life until now.  It’s kind of amazing how socially adept he is at school considering how little practice he had in his formative years.

As plots go, the story is better-than-average, but it’s not the strongest point.  Sorcerer’s Stone was a bit like visiting Narnia.  There is this whole world to explore, and even though it’s limited to just the school (I include Diagon Alley as part of the school, because it’s only function in this book is to pick up Harry’s supplies) there is incredible depth, from the living portraits and moving staircases, to the trolls and ghosts, teachers and their classes, and on to the Hogwarts Houses and the Forbidden Forest.

The setting is great, the characters pop out of the page and demand to be noticed, known, and loved or hated as the case may be, but the plot… as technique goes, it’s very well-crafted.  Rowling has a gift for telling the mystery novel.  She knows how to leave clues in plain sight and yet decorate them so that you don’t realize their true significance.  Having Nicolas Flamel’s first introduction as part of a note in a trading card was nothing short of genius, and the series of trials to get to the Sorcerer’s Stone were just breathtaking and clever, from getting past Fluffy to riddle of the poisons (something that I just had to figure out on my own before I read Hermione’s answer, even this time around.)

It’s all brilliant, up until Harry meets Voldemort at the Mirror of Erised, and there’s a thick irony (I don’t want to say conceit, although it kind of is) about the whole story up until now.  Voldemort was stuck at the mirror and couldn’t figure out how to get the Stone.  Harry comes in and gets the Stone from the Mirror.  In the last chapter, we learn the reason for that is because Dumbledore set things up so that the Mirror would never give the Stone to anybody who wanted to use it, only to somebody who wanted it for the sake of the Stone itself, or to preserve and protect it.

The Stone was safe from Voldemort the entire time!  He would have stared at the mirror until whatever was left of his life was up and he still would have never gotten it.  It was only because Harry “rescued” the Stone from the Mirror that made it possible for Voldemort to capture it.  In short, Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s journey to save the Stone was really not their business, and in the long run, had the potential to make things so much worse.  In the final chapter, Neville is the only one who earned his points because he’s the only one of the four who did the right thing:  he tried to stop them.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione were brilliant and brave, but they were all heart and no brains in their endeavor.

But what can you expect?  They’re 11.

The reason why Sorcerer’s Stone still works for me and goes from good to great is actually also the Mirror of Erised.  I had forgotten a lot over the years about what was in this book, but the one part of the story that’s never left me is the chapter when Harry first found the Mirror.  I went back one time just for that chapter alone, without reading anything before or after.

There’s an inscription on the mirror that seems like a foreign language, but if you read it backwards, it says, “I show not your face but your heart’s desire.”  I’ve thought often about Harry and Ron’s desires.  Harry sees a family he’s never had.  Ron (who is no side character; he is as much the hero of this story as Harry is) who feels overshadowed sees himself as being the greatest of all his family.  Neither one has a bad desire, and it’s so interesting to me that in both cases their desires are tied to their families.  In each case, what’s missing in their lives is that they don’t feel loved.  Harry bemoans how he’s never had a chance at that kind of love.  Ron feels outcast and unappreciated in his own family, and he sees himself as being the best because that’s the only way he sees that he could meet that need.

Harry shows tremendous growth at the end of the book, when his greatest desire is no longer for his family.  He’s sacrificed that dream for a nobler purpose, to keep an evil from harming all the other innocent families in the world.

When I think of the Mirror of Erised, I’ve asked myself many times, What would I see?  What is the thing I desire more than anything in the world?

I’m not going to share my answer now, but I will say that it’s not all that far from the desires of Harry or Ron, because in the end, family does tend to reach the core of whom we are.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

This is the stronger book.  There is some sequel-itis going on here and it’s kind of annoying, especially in the first couple chapters, where Rowling felt she had to explain everything from the first book.  It was a bit like reading a book report on Sorcerer’s Stone when I wanted to see some magic happen.  But these are minor annoyances, because the rest was amazing.

Chamber of Secrets was actually my favorite book for several years.  The plot is much stronger this time around, and this time, instead of Harry, Ron, and Hermione seeking out trouble, there is a very real danger attacking them that forces them to take action.  And their actions are pretty smart… well, no.  I should not go that far.  They’re still 12.  The Polyjuice Potion is a perfect example of how they put so much time and effort on a dangerous task all on a misguided hunch—okay, prejudice—that Draco Malfoy is behind it all.  Boy, do they look stupid after that.

But the mystery is once again brilliant.  Rowling is a master of hiding clues in plain sight, such as:  Harry’s being a Parselmouth, Moaning Myrtle, Ginny’s melancholy, the dead roosters, and all the way down to Dobby.

Oh, Dobby.  Poor Dobby.  They totally ruined you in the movies.  Chris Columbus made some incredible casting decisions, but blew it in giving us this cartoony, shrill, miniature-sized Jar-Jar Binks.

It was so needless, too.  Dobby is an honestly pitiable character.  In a way, he is a marvelous foil for Harry.  Both come from an abusive home (and in this book, it is especially bad for Harry.  Considering his starvation and confinement with the Dursleys, I am frankly amazed that he could joke about seeing them next year.  I would be fighting with my school to let me stay over the summer after that nightmare.)  They both face danger constantly and are no strangers to pain.  But the difference between them is that Harry will fight for freedom even if it puts his life at risk, and Dobby will believes the keeping your life intact is worth sacrificing your freedom.  This theme, this battle between their two philosophies, underlies everything that happens in the story, and it was completely missed by the filmmakers when they adapted this story.  Such a pity.

One last note I have to make is on the Weasleys and the Malfoys.  This is the book where the Weasleys are secured as major players for the rest of the series.  In fact, I like the Weasleys more than I like Harry.  I forgot how much personality Percy had in the stories.  He’s very pompous and selfish, but I also see how hard he works and he does strive to be the best he can possibly be.

And Ginny, with the limited space that she has, she is just adorable.  She sticks up for Harry in unexpected moments, e.g. when Lockhart first appears and forces Harry to stand in a picture with him (and on that note, she’s the only girl I know who wasn’t swooning over Lockhart.)  I felt really bad for her when her Valentine for Harry went very badly and Malfoy mocked her for it.  But her overall part in the Chamber of Secrets gives you a taste for how strong a player she ends up being throughout the rest of the series.

And as for Ron:  it’s not as easy to say whether Hermione liked him at this point, but it is so obvious that Ron has a crush on her.

But I digress.  I started this off by wanting to compare the Weasleys to the Malfoys.  There’s a lot of play about setting Harry and Draco up as archenemies for the books, but the truth is that the Malfoys and Weasleys are perfect foils for each other.  On the one hand, there is the Malfoys.  They’re rich, well-connected, and Draco is an only child.  Their obligations don’t stretch far beyond that and they’re able to give him anything he wants, even and especially when he doesn’t deserve them.  This makes Draco pretty arrogant, but it also makes to be quite shallow and a real coward when it comes down to it.

The Weasleys, on the other hand, are always barely scraping by, they have connections but tend to keep to themselves, and they have a lot more children than it seems they can afford.  When I read this, I get the impression that the Weasleys could have been as well-off, if not richer than, the Malfoys, if they had had fewer children.  Molly is a very smart, determined, and strong woman, and Arthur actually has a pretty good job.  It doesn’t get him as many accolades, but he is very competent and enthusiastic in his work, and despite some pretty heavy setbacks in this story, he has a surprising amount of influence in the Ministry.  If he didn’t have so many mouths to feed and backs to clothe, his salary could actually carry them a long way.

And yet, wealth was not the most important thing to the Weasleys.  What mattered most was their children, as large and crazy though they may be.  And unlike Draco, all of the Weasleys have earned great distinction in school and in their professional careers.

It was very fun for me to see how these relationships played out.

I can’t wait to see what else I notice as I continue these wonderful books.

On Oil Changes...

So last week I went to get an oil change (I’m not saying where in this blog, so don’t ask), and when I took off, I received a phone call about a minute later saying that the mechanic had forgotten to put the oil cap back on.  I head back, hear the vehicle make a truly awful noise, check the gauges, and knew that they had not forgotten to put the oil cap back on.  They’d forgotten to put any oil back in the vehicle.

The vehicle died in the middle of a traffic intersection, and though they were able to tow it back to the shop, it was too late for the engine.  It was totally killed.

The reason I’m not calling out the company who did this is that this was entirely the fault of one mechanic, who was suspended as soon as they found out what he did and has likely been fired by now (this is not something I asked for; it was entirely their decision.)  The company has been very good to me since this mechanic’s negligence.  They’ve paid for a rental, we’re working on a settlement now, and they’re doing as much as they can to make this right.  I’ve been very impressed by their willingness to take responsibility.

Still, I won’t lie and say that this has been an easy week.  Being without a car is a real kick in the nuts, and being a fulltime student living entirely off of school loans is no picnic.  I’ve had to face some ugly truths, the largest one being that I’ve never bought a car of my own before.  I’ve always had hand-me-downs from my folks, and for once, they don’t have an extra one lying around.  On top of being broke, I’m also clueless, and that’s a bad combination when you’re just passing your mid-twenties.

The second realization was that I want to get out of school and onto a career… right now.  I was already staying over an hour after school ended for practice, but ever since Friday, I’ve decided that I’m going to be practicing at home every day, at least an extra hour.  And weekends, five hours minimum.  I will have no life, no energy, and no soul by the time I reach my qualifiers, but dang it, I will have endurance like none other on that machine by the time this is over.

I do have to say a word about the rental:  the Yaris is not a bad little car.  Gas is great, the radio is amazing, the acceleration is awesome, and the seats are amazingly comfortable.  The only real problem I have with driving it is the placement of the rearview mirror.  I’m used to having that mirror above eye level, and this one is set parallel with my eyeballs.  It leaves me with the irksome feeling that my sight has been obstructed and that does not comfort me on the road.  Otherwise, I have no complaint with the vehicle.

And that is the story of my life right now.  I would have talked about something more interesting (to me) but after my late post last week, I felt I owed some sort of explanation for procrastinating and breaking my own self-imposed deadline.  I’ve had a lot on my mind.  I hope things are saner.  And why shouldn’t I be?  My free newspaper’s astrology chart promised a great personal victory this coming week, so that has to mean that—yeah, I’m probably screwed.

No Excuse Today

I actually have a good excuse for why my post is a day late, and also why when it comes, it ends up completely lame.  But I’m not going to tell you why.  You’ll just have to wait until Tuesday, when my life makes more sense.

But here are some quick thoughts on the less crazy, random stuff I did this week:

The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures by Dave Stevens is, if possible, even more ridiculous than the movie, with the least likeable hero and love interest I could possibly picture.

I’m always a week behind on Masterchef because I don’t watch television and  I refuse to pay for Hulu+—seriously, why am I paying to still watch advertisements?  Besides, Netflix is enough.  So although I haven’t seen the latest episode, I did get to watch the episode where they brought back three contestants to try out for a second chance, and I’m really happy that it was Bri who won her apron back for a shot at the title.  I hope she takes Krissi down.

I’m trying to eat out less, especially with money coming up very tight.  But after volunteering to help clean the Sacramento Temple last night, I was hungry and a couple friends invited me along to Old Spaghetti Factory.  Never been, I’ve been led to understand that it’s a chain, and frankly, I was very impressed.  Twelve dollars got me a three-course meal, from a delicious minestrone soup, a beautiful chicken parmigiana and spaghetti, and a small serving of vanilla ice cream.  And we got to eat in a trolley.  How awesome is that?  This brings the number of restaurants I would want to bring a date to up to two.

Yes, I am that fussy.  No apologies for it, either.

Bradbuy's "Farewell Summer"

My first experience with Ray Bradbury was Dandelion Wine.  It was the first book we had to read in my Freshman Honors English class.  The funny part was that we didn’t even read the entire book; our teacher just picked random chapters and had us read those.  We jumped from one short story to another with barely any connection between these young brats to these silly old ladies.  Our teacher tried to explain at one point why two old ladies running a guy over was funny, but really, if you have to explain a joke, the funny is gone.

It was a pretty horrible experience, and I wanted nothing to do with Bradbury after that.  I kept away from him fairly well until graduation.  There might have been another book or short story in between then, but they didn’t leave a very strong impression.  It wasn’t until college when I picked up a copy of The Illustrated Man that I was blown away.

Bradbury has a very musical narration as he tells his stories, and each tale is vivid and evokes a very specific emotion with childlike wonder, even in, or especially with, the horror tales.

Since The Illustrated Man, I have loved everything I’ve read by him, from well-known books like Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Martian Chronicles, to more obscure titles like The Halloween Tree.  I just reread Fahrenheit 451 for my book club, and this time around, perhaps because I’ve had a few years to mature, I was deeply moved and this has become one of the most important books I’ve ever read in my life.  It’s essentially perfect as a story, wonderful milieu, and the most prophetic dystopian novel ever told.  Except for the fire department, every horrible aspect in that vision of the future has come to pass.

Bradbury is incredible and will go down as one of the most important authors of the Twentieth Century.

The catalyst for focusing this post on him is because of his novel Farewell Summer, which title was the inspiration for last Friday’s poem.  The story and my poem have nothing in common beyond the words “farewell” and “summer.”

Farewell Summer is the sequel to Dandelion Wine.  It’s October and Doug, who is turning into a teenager, realizes that he’s growing up and does not take the news well.  In fact, he rebels against the thought of growing up, ever.  So much so that he goes to war with the senior citizens of his town.

He gathers the boys to attack the old men’s houses, steals their chess pieces, and even attempt to stop the city clock in a futile effort to halt time.  It’s a simple, ridiculous premise that feels magical and completely encapsulated how I felt about growing up at that age.

This story is so good that I want to go back and read Dandelion Wine again, just so I’ll appreciate what my teacher failed to instill back when I was 14.  The older I get, the more impossible it is for me not to be in love with any of Bradbury’s work.

Mahan

A couple weeks back, I decided it was time to read the Bible again, especially the Old Testament because that is my favorite book of scripture.  I’ve read Genesis and Exodus more times than I can count since I was eight-years-old.  A lot of that was because I kept trying to read the Bible cover-to-cover since that age, and the first two books of the Bible have the coolest stories and the most memorable people.  Abraham and Joseph and Moses were my favorite prophets, and I was an especial fan and Rachel and Leah, for reasons I can’t explain beyond the fact that their family dynamic fascinated and continues to fascinate me to this day.

I rarely made it through Leviticus.  So much of the priesthood ordinances and procedures went so far over my head and were just flat out boring, it was so hard to get past.  At my young age, it was so much easier to skip ahead to Joshua where the stories picked up again.  I liked the Psalms, because even though there were a lot of them, they were short.  I’ve read a lot of Isaiah, partly through the Bible and partly from the dozens upon dozens of times he is quoted in the Book of Mormon, I couldn’t help but absorb his stuff (I know most Latter-day Saints have a hard time understanding him, which I think is a shame because his teachings are beautiful.)

As I grew older, 1 Samuel through 2 Kings have been so instrumental in my present thinking about kingdoms and leadership, the great necessity of obeying the Lord and keeping his commandments, as well as the need to heed the prophets.  Samuel and King David had an influence on Israel that reached for generations.  The stories of Ruth, David’s great-grandmother, and of Jonah were short tales, but ones with a lot of heart.  Jonah especially grabs a hold on my head and heart.  I’m not sure what it is, but I always learn something new from those four chapters every time I read his story (and it is a shame how little anybody pays attention to him after the fish spits him out.)

I finally read the Bible cover-to-cover just before I turned 22, and I did it again a year later.  Some changes occurred and part of that has to do with age and maturity.  I appreciate books like Leviticus and Deuteronomy now more than I ever could at age eight.  The doctrines and laws that bored me to tears then are fascinating to me now.

But it has been a while since I did a read through of the Bible and I figured it was high time to go over it again.  And I figured it would be fun for my monthly Sunday blog to pick a particular story or important figure from scriptures, talk about them and give my impressions.  Why?

First of all, because I want to.  That’s all my blog is:  what I want.

But also, the Bible isn’t read enough, not in the world but especially among members of my own church.  They’ll know the Book of Mormon… well enough, and be passably familiar with modern-day revelation and the New Testament, but the whole Bible?  No.

I understand it.  The Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion; without it, we don’t have a church and if the members don’t know the Book of Mormon, they’re going to look pretty stupid talking about it in front of other people.  Also, the Book of Mormon is shorter… and easier to read… and it’s awesome.  But they should know the Bible just as well as all the other scriptures we have!

So, as much as this is for me and my personal gratification, I’m really hoping to encourage at least one person to go read the Bible and enjoy it for themselves (more than one would be better, but I’ll settle for one.)

So I started off my Bible reading in Genesis (of course.)  I once had this whole book memorized, I went over it so often.  I got excited about who my first subject would be.  Adam and Eve, maybe Noah, or Abraham, who you can never go wrong talking about.  You know who I ended up picking?  The first murderer, Cain.

The story of Cain and Abel is a very simple one.  The Bible covers him entirely in Genesis 4.  First he, then his brother Abel, is born to Adam and Eve.

“And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.  And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.  And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.  And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:  But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.  And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.  And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.  And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.” (Genesis 4:2-7)

It’s a very simple story that has influenced humankind for millennia.  And it’s set an interesting pattern that follows through many scriptures.  There is the older brother who is rejected by the Lord in favor of the younger: Isaac is chosen above Ishmael, Jacob before Esau, Joseph above all the other sons of Israel, Moses over Aaron, David above his six older brothers, and Nephi before Laman and Lemuel (if you were looking for a Book of Mormon example; that one is a way too obvious pick.)

We know that Cain’s offering was not accepted of the Lord, but there really isn’t any mention of why.  Was God being arbitrary?  Was sacrificing meat better than offering fruit, and if so, why?  And why shouldn’t Cain feel angry that the Lord rejected him and his labor?  I know how it feels to work hard for somebody over me, to put in my labor and give my best, and then to say it was no good.  That’s a rotten feeling.  And why is the sacrifice part of the story?  What does it mean?

This is where I do step outside just the Bible and look at other scriptures, in this case, the Pearl of Great Price (these are further revelations and writings from Joseph Smith; short collection but very powerful stuff.)  The Book of Moses contains a fuller account of the first 6 chapters of Genesis, and where I’ll turn to explore more about what I’ve learned about Cain.

Starting in Moses 5, before Cain and Abel were born, Adam and Eve were cast from the Garden of Eden, and from there had sons and daughters.  Many years passed and Adam and Eve’s children had children of their own.  Adam and Eve prayed and the Lord spoke to them, “And he gave them commandments, that they should worship the Lord their God, and should offer the firstlings of their flocks, for an offering unto the Lord.  And Adam was obedient unto the commandments of the Lord.  And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord?  And Adam said unto him:  I know not, save the Lord commanded me.  And then the angel spake, saying:  This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth.” (Moses 5:5-7)

If you accept this scripture as truth, we learn that sacrifice began before Cain and Abel came into the picture (we also learn that they were not Adam and Eve’s first children, merely the first ones worth keep tracking of.)  Sacrifice was commanded by the Lord, and like all sacred ordinances, it was there to remind the children of the earth of Christ and his Atonement.  It also brings me comfort to know that the coming of the Son of God was planned from the beginning.  Adam and Eve themselves were taught that the Savior would come and give his life for all that we might return to live with God.

Christ has been referred to in other scriptures as the Lamb of God, and when the scriptures talk about the firstlings of the flocks, I think of the firstborn lambs being offered as sacrifice also as a reminder of the Lord.

Adam and Eve, being good parents went to their children and shared with them all the Lord had taught them, but sadly, their children didn’t believe them, but chose their own path away from the gospel and this was a great cause of sorrow to Adam and Eve.

“And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said:  I have gotten a man from the Lord; wherefore he may not reject his words.  But behold, Cain hearkened not, saying:  Who is the Lord that I should know him?  And she again conceived and bare his brother Abel.  And Abel hearkened unto the voice of the Lord.  And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.  And Cain loved Satan more than God.  And Satan commanded him, saying:  Make an offering unto the Lord.  And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.  And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.  And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering; But unto Cain, and to his offering, he had not respect.  Now Satan knew this, and it pleased him.  And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.  And the Lord said unto Cain:  Why are thou wroth?  Why is thy countenance fallen?  If though doest well, thou shalt be accepted.  And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and Satan desireth to have thee; and except thou shalt hearken unto my commandments, I will deliver thee up, and it shall be according to his desire.  And thou shalt rule over him; For from this time forth thou shalt be the father of his lies; thou shalt be called Perdition; for thou wast also before the world.  And it shall be said in time to come—That these abominations were had from Cain; for he rejected the greater counsel which was had from God; and this is a cursing which I will put upon thee, except thou repent.” (Moses 5:16-25; emphasis added)

In this way, I’m very grateful to the Pearl of Great Price for elaborating on this story.  It makes the Lord’s decisions clear and not arbitrary at all, but instead shows the grand drama that has gone since the beginning of time.  There are two masters which we can choose: the Lord or Satan, and both of them command that we follow them.

From the beginning of the tale, Cain asked, “Who is the Lord that I should follow him?” and he loved Satan more than God.  In fact, what’s taught here is that the reason he made an offering to the Lord at all was because Satan commanded him to.  Satan, that crafty liar and manipulator, knew what would happen when Cain made the offering.  The Lord didn’t respect Cain’s offering because Cain didn’t do it out of love for the Savior.  He loved Satan and followed him.  The Lord warned him to repent, because if not, he would be delivered up and become the father of Satan’s lies.

Cain, of course, refused to listen anymore to the Lord, which was a great sorrow to his parents, and he grew ever nearer to Satan, so close that he made a covenant with the devil.

“And Satan said unto Cain:  Swear unto me by thy throat, and if thou tell it thou shalt die; and swear thy brethren by their heads, and by the living God, that they tell it not; for if they tell it, they shall surely die; and this that thy father may not know it; and this day I will deliver thy brother Abel into thine hands.  And Satan sware unto Cain that he would do according to his commands.  And all these things were done in secret.”  (Moses 5:29-30)

Just this taught me several things.  First, Satan wants to bind us to him as the Lord desires us to be bound to him.  And why not?  He is a great imitator, and seems to delight in taking things that are holy, such as our covenants, and twisting them to suit his own purposes.  Desecration is the name of his game.

Also, he does like to keep his secrets and will threaten you with death in order to keep them.  After Cain swore, he was to bring his other brethren into the secret, and were threatened with death should they ever reveal the promise.  But what was the secret?

“And Cain said:  Truly I am Mahan, the master of this great secret, that I may murder and get gain.  Wherefore Cain was called Master Mahan, and he gloried in his wickedness.”  (Moses 5:31, emphasis added)

I emphasized earlier that verse, “That these abominations were had from Cain.”  This was his curse, that it should be known that this terrible evil came from him.  How many lives have been taken because somebody had something to gain from it?  How many wicked kings have lived through history that brought war and bloodshed so that they would a bigger kingdom than they then possessed?  How many crimes have been committed to take what another possessed?  Later scriptures reveal that Cain was not the only one to claim the title Master Mahan, or possessor of the great secret.  Through the generations of time, we see men embracing the doctrine that they murder and get gain.  And it all stemmed from Cain.

“And Cain talked with Abel his brother:  and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.” (Genesis 4:8)

“And Cain gloried in that which he had done, saying:  I am free; surely the flocks of my brother falleth into my hands.” (Moses 5:33)

In a book I read recently by Hugh Nibley, it was brought to my attention that the murder of Abel was not wrought in a sudden heat of passion.  This was a cold and calculated move by Cain.  Abel possessed flocks, and when Abel was out of the picture, those flocks fell to Cain.  He murdered and got gain from it.  That he hated his brother Abel, because Abel’s offering was accepted while his wasn’t, added a delicious dish of vengeance to the heinous crime.

“And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?  And he said, I know not:  Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9)

What a difference in attitude from when the Lord came to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.  When the Lord called to Adam and said, “Where art thou?” Adam said, “I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:9-10)

People can say what they want about Adam and Eve, but when the Lord asked them a question, they didn’t dodge it.  They made no excuses.  Adam told the simple truth:  I was afraid and I hid.  It’s not like he could have fooled God, and neither can any of us.  What we do isn’t hidden from God.  When he asked Adam and Eve where they were, he already knew.  The purpose of the question was to hold them accountable for their actions.  And they gave an honest accounting for their actions, even though it made them look bad and they undoubtedly felt ashamed for it.

Cain?  No accountability at all, and no remorse.  “I know not.”  What a bald-faced lie!  “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  Perhaps not.  Nobody ever said he was Abel’s keeper.  But does that mean he shouldn’t care for his brother, be jealous of his well-being, or at the very least, not killing them?  What a moron.

“And [the Lord] said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:10)

And everything afterwards lists the cursing of Cain, and the generations that followed.  Cain went on to have children and grandchildren and a growing number of great-grandchildren.  One of his descendants was a wicked man named Lamech, who killed a man and boasted of it to his two wives.  The Book of Moses has an interesting expansion of this story as well, but the only part I care to mention about that here is that Lamech also became Master Mahan, and was very jealous of his oath to Satan.

And this never went away.  I don’t often wish to dwell on the subject of evil and those who perpetrate it, but I think it would be a great disservice to any student of scripture to avoid the matter entirely.  Cain and his following Satan set humankind down a road and created a conflict that still hasn’t ended yet.  The title of Mahan and its secret has been passed down, and Cain is the father of that lie.

Several examples come to my mind of this in scripture.  In the Book of Ether, when Jared lost his kingdom and desired it back, the daughter of Jared danced before Akish.  When Akish told Jared he wanted to marry the daughter, Jared said:  “I will give her unto you, if ye will bring unto me the head of my father, the king.” (Ether 8:12)

Akish gathered all his kin, “And it came to pass that they all sware unto him, by the God of heaven, and also by the heavens, and also by the earth, and by their heads, that whoso should vary from the assistance which Akish desired should lose his head; and whoso should divulge whatsoever thing Akish made known unto them, the same should lose his life.  And it came to pass that thus they did agree with Akish.  And Akish did administer unto them the oaths which were given by them of old who also sought power, which had been handed down even from Cain, who was a murderer from the beginning.” (Ether 8:14-15)

The Gadianton robbers, the most infamous villains in all the Book of Mormon, were known for making secret oaths and covenants, and I fully believe those oaths to be the same that Cain made.  It is part of Satan’s plan of misery, to lead the human race to destruction.  It is in direct opposition to the Lord’s own great plan of happiness, for the salvation of us all.

This drama went on through the Savior’s own time.  Look at the great crime of Judas Iscariot, who sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.  Did not Judas make a secret covenant whereby he would allow Jesus to be murdered and he gain from it?

I only write a religious post once a month.  Granted, it’s strictly my religion, but my intent when I started doing this was to have an uplifting message for all to profit.  Two weeks ago, though, I knew Cain was going to be my focus this month, and I knew that uplifting was not going to be the theme of this essay.  Yet I couldn’t and still cannot deny the feeling that this was what I was supposed to write about.  I don’t have the great words myself, but perhaps I may be forgiven for borrowing Moroni’s.  I have written about the wicked today in the hopes that “evil may be done away, and that the time may come that Satan may have no power upon the hearts of the children of men, but that they may be persuaded to do good continually, that they may come unto the fountain of all righteousness and be saved.” (Ether 8:26)

When we shine light on the darkness, the darkness disappears.  When we thrust truth on the lies, the lies vanish into the air.  Evil, when it is no longer secret, gives way to the good.  I believe this with all my heart.

Fond Farewell

Farewell to the beaches and the cloudless skies,
To the barbecue, snow cones, and cherry pies,
To late night parties and girls in bikinis,
Road trips, camp trips, and folks going crazy.
Goodbye to the kites flying in the wind,
Children spending all week with their friends,
To the fireworks bursting on the Fourth of July
With the fried foods, fruit salad, and cotton candy.
Going away are the favored county fairs:
Their exhibits and talents and all exotic wares,
The auctions, the prizes, the great hullaballoo
For the horses, sheep, cows, pigs… and llamas, too.
No more merry-go-rounds to capture the eye,
Nor Ferris wheel spinning lovers so high,
Up to the moon, smiling in their newfound love
Knowing they’ve been led to each other from above.
So long to the reunions our grandparents planned,
Goodbye dances till midnight to the new country band.
To outdoor weddings while the evenings are warm,
I must bid adieu to the week at the farm.
Goodbye to freedoms, vacations, and the laughs,
Trips to the zoo to see lions and giraffes.
And to this great season, I say clear as a bell:
I’ll miss my friend.  Sweet Summer, farewell!

Freaking YouTube

I was doing so well.  So well.  My TV watching time was down, I haven’t played video games in over a year (because I so maturely and despondently sold my gaming system), and limited some of the excesses of social life to keep productive and studious until I get out of school and in a real job.

My weekends were also devoted to either church responsibilities or further practice and the like.  And this weekend, I blew it with YouTube.

Freaking YouTube!

Okay, it’s not all I did.  I went to a dance, I attended a fun church conference for single adults, got to meet new people, but Saturday afternoon, I felt under the weather, so I went home to rest.  Like, actually take a nap and make myself feel better.

I got no rest at all.  Instead, I’ve been watching those videos and some over and over and over, and while I felt better afterwards, I haven’t wanted to do anything else.  It was so hard to focus in class yesterday because of the overload.  I feel like I’m playing Minesweeper or FreeCell again; they serve no purpose but to kill time and months later, after beating your own high score ten times, you realize the world has passed you by.

And you know what?  This time, it was totally worth it.

Search for these videos:

“After Ever After” by Paint, which is the greatest parody of Disney’s princesses, all about what happened after Ariel, Jasmine, Belle, and Pocahontas had their “happily ever after.”

The Fine Bros. do a series called YouTubers React, which is a fun show of making popular YouTubers watch a series of viral videos and watching them react to it.  Videos I would normally never care about have made me laugh till I cry.  I’ve watched the “Rick Roll” and “Knife Song” videos over thirty times and I feel no shame.

Their Teens React isn’t as good but I can’t rag on them too hard because they’re the reason I discovered the good one.

And to top it off, I’ve actually seen a bit of Game of Thrones on here.  I have no desire to watch the series from the beginning (I have several reasons for that.)  But I have been curious to see how good a job they’re doing, and having just caught all the current clips of Jaime and Brienne (I watched the hour long “Supercut”) I am convinced that the creators have done a great job.  The bath scene was as emotional and intense as the storytelling scene in Jaws.  I can’t think of any better comparison and I think it speaks highly for the work of the actors and the crew that have put the show together.