11.29.05
Posted in Politics, Books at 3:59 pm by Leopoldo
I just read the fascinating and well written short book Galileo’s Daughter, a historical account of the life, work and trial of Galileo Galilei during the early 1600s told mostly through the letters sent to the renown scientist by his cloistered daughter translated for the first from the original Italian. The book is worth reading in part for the concise yet thorough account of Galileo’s life as well as for the quality and poetry of the language, both in the modern text and in the transcription of the antiquated correspondence. What struck me as particularly poignant though is the similarity of language used by the Catholic church that opposed Galileo’s support for the Copernican view of celestial manners and the arguments being currently made for ‘Intelligent Design’ as a method of opposing evolution and promoting creationism in US schools. Galileo’s design and manufacture of early telescopes allowed him to see a level of detail that convinced him Copernicus was right in supposing the earth revolves around the sun, an observation that was vehemently opposed by the Catholic Church on the grounds it contradicts the literal interpretation of the Bible and considered heretical. At the time scientific findings were subject to religious oversight and censorship and Galileo, a devout Catholic, worried the holy church he held with absolute love and respect would be humiliated if it continued to uphold an order of the universe he believed would come to be disproven. Progressive elements in the church softened their stance by allowing scientists to theorize under the strict requirement they admonish non-endorsed opinions as being ‘only theories’ and ‘unproven’, much as the ‘intelligent design’ cadre is attempting to force doubt over scientific knowledge by legislating doubt over evolution. Compromising a position as this may seem it is little more than a desperate attempt to force an unlikely myth based belief over a logical scientific based one in an attempt to maintain control and a semblance of infallibility over an increasingly sophisticated public. In the case of the motion of the planets, the mounting evidence that the universe did not revolve around the earth on celestial spheres continued to be subdued by the Catholic Church until 1822 when Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems and other scientific texts were finally removed from the list of banned books. It amazes me how little people today seem to have learned from the mistakes that have been made for centuries.
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01.13.04
Posted in Books at 11:01 am by Leopoldo
My friend Michael lent me his copy of the BBC Radio Dramatization of The Lord of the Rings on CD. The set consisted of 13 CDs each with an hour’s worth of radio drama which proved perfect company for my daily work commute as well as the long drives through Northwest winter weather to and from Seattle. I was mostly happy to be reminded of bits of the books that I had forgotten (the last time I read the trilogy was about five years ago) and were either not present or changed in the Peter Jackson trillogy. There were a couple of irritants in the radio production though, the BBC version of Aragorn had a haughty British accent that was probably meant to sound regal but to me came across as pompous, there were inescapable moments of ‘Look Mr Frodo there are Orcs coming towards us’ (how else do you describe action without constantly relying on a Narrator?) and then there was the singing. To describe the singing as irritating is a deep understatement. The hobbits seemed to know only one tune to which any and all lyrics could be sung, the Minstrel of Gondor made me want to strangle him (Monty Python style) and the regular intervals of unexplained and chorus suddenly breaking into song were disjointing. That aside the production was a pleasure.
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01.05.04
Posted in Books at 2:40 pm by Leopoldo
After reading the Philip K. Dick book Martian Time-Slip I decided to see what else my Local Library had by him and was happy to find the short story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale available as part of the Caedmon Short Story Collection book on CD. I have not gotten to the Dick story yet (on CD #2 of 6 as of this morning) but have been delighted by the four stories that have been read thus far (The Diamond Necklace by Guy De Maupaussant, An Occurrence At owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce, Tobermory by Saki and A Painful Case by James Joyce). So delighted that I decided to see what other collected short stories the library might have. I followed a link from the Caedmon title for a by-subject search for ‘Talking book collection – Fiction’ thinking I might get a few more titles to choose from. What I found to my surprise was a treasure of 4,508 titles! This far exceeds the (at the time) 1,500 DVD titles referenced in Film Roar: 1,447 DVDs in the Multnomah County Library Collection and Film Roar: 37% Libary DVD Titles Watched. For the DVD titles I took the time to copy, screen-by-screen, each screen full of titles into an excel spreadsheet for later sorting. I am not sure how to best approach the audio books (I have tried browsing for favorite authors but found that few of the authors I know and like have audio books in the stacks) but am definitely motivated to tap into this resource.
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