Rubilacxe

As with Constantine, I am awed by this chapter. This chapter, as with so many of Scrolls of Icaria, emphasizes the incredible merging of so many arts into one amalgam. Thank you, Jamie, for such a wonderous and moving chapter. I await tremulously for the next chapter!

I'm not sure that this forum is the correct one, but I thought this 'TED' talk by Carter Emmart was worthy of viewing. To check this out see TED talk on 3-D Atlas of the Universe

While I usually don't wax effusively about a story, Scrolls is so delightful, artistic, and epic that it is hard not to. Chapter 30 is another example of Jamie's skill at weaving plot and imagery together in a very magical way. When I finished this chapter, I stared at the last line for a moment or two still seeing Jamie's fingers begin to spark as he was tricked into answering the real question.

This a finely wrought tale so far and I await the next chapter to learn more. I particularly like the way Todd's perspective has been developed. I have met people like his dad before. I'll be curious at hearing how he developed as well.

Thanks to recent posts by Desdownunder and Cole Parker, I have spent the past few days listening to several stimulating lectures. Some were held at the Chautauqua Conference Center in western New York this past summer while others were from the Aspen Institute in Colorado, All are worthy of investigation I believe. Des already spoke eloquently on Karen Armstrong?s Charter for Compassion. To that I add George Kembel, co-founder and executive director of the d.school, whose talk explores ways to tap the latent human capacity for creativity and innovation: Awakening Creativity Kembel?s new approach to problem solving is really a paradigm shift as it looks for what is not obvious to find other solutions to problems. Of parallel interest is a lecture at the Aspen Institute given by Tod Machover, composer, inventor, and professor of music and media at MIT, discusses the many ways in which technology is transforming music: Transforming Music Machover?s talk celebrates out-of-the-box creativity involving music in innovative ways.

Cole, The lecture was given in the outdoor ampitheatre, the crowd was definitely gray haired (as I am) but the questioners were most in their 30's. These younger individuals tended to be more 'partisan' to me. I expected these type of questions with a harder edge--I am just saddened that after an hour lecture delineating the parallel ways the world's religions have come to the same point would have been heard clearer by some of those posers. It is they who will have to be reached along with the naysayers for this admirable wish to be granted. By the way, of you go to www.fora.tv and register (it's free), you can download the lecture (250Mb) in wmv format.

Des, I'm with Karen and you. I listened to her talk and the several questions/answers that followed. I found her talk fascinating, stimulating and very thought provoking. I was disheartened by some of the agressiveness by a few questioners. I wondered if they heard the same lecture that I did as confrontation rather than compassion seemed to be their modus operandi. Karen was very good at staying in a compassionate mode. However, that being said I despair that there are too many negative purveyors of thought in this world to allow such a compassionate world to exist effectively.

Thank goodness for such camps. Thanks so much for posting this!

According to everything.com:

Somehow I do not see Americans lowering their noses long enough to be able to read let alone act on such a proposal any time in the next millenium.

Interesting article from the BBC, Bruin. At least the sources of the BBC's statements are verifiable from the various censuses which are online via multiple genealogical resources. Of course, as the article points out, data has not consistently recorded the religion of the people identified that makes such statements difficult to completely verify. However, the numbers of the populations and at least some of the most recent censuses seem to corroborate the assertions of this article. As Morris pointed out in his two-part article on lying and deceit [see my previous post], deceit's role is to let the listener make the leap to the conclusion, a much more insidious way to spread mistruths.

An excellent delving into lying vs. deceit is in an op-ed piece by Erroll Morris in yesterdays and todays NY Times. Seven Lies About Lying, Part 1 and Part 2. I found his dialogue with magician Rick Jay and his thoughtful use of scripture, art and film to be insightful.

Bruin, Wonderfully wry and poignant tale. I especially liked the way you transitioned from the gossiping women to the bus attendant.

Incredible! Talk about over the top and excessive, I am beside myself that anyone would do such a thing to anyone, least of all to a 15 yr-old youth or to any youth.

Des, Thank you for your very reasoned and thoughtful essay on sexuality and youth. I found it enlightening and thought provoking on a number of planes.

Bruin, well done! A sad, but all to common tale of unrequited everything...

Cole, while I agree in large part I think you have to view this through multiple cultural windows. See Edward T. Hall's books: The Hidden Dimension, The Silent Language, and Beyond Culture. These works on intercultural anthropolgy reflects Hall's many years studying various cultures around the world. This is not an attempt by me to lessen these heinous acts but gently to point out how the Liberian father may not be able to view this act as an Westener might. Nor do we know the cultural milieu that these boys came from that empowered them to act this way. I can't see how emprisoning them without some form of re-education or re-sensitizing their cultural perspective will change them for the better.

Wonderfully put, TalonRider. The dance scene was truly magical and The Screen was a real surprise but so many interesting posibilities arise from the awareness of its existence.

Chapter 28 was recently posted and as usual, Jamie has published another winner! I love the textures that can create between all the characters, their locations and especially their mind sets. From the last page of this chapter:

Truly marvelous writing - thank you James!

Not only was it amazing but it also had the stuff that grand legends are made of--this chapter was magnificent!

I have communicated very recently with Grasshopper enough to know that he is recuperating and having difficulties in physically writing and typing. Please be patient, he knows he needs to finish "Starfish" but needs some more time.

What a wonderfully written story, Cole. While I can understand an editor suggesting changes in grammar when it's clear that it is needed, this story "needed" to be written as you wrote it. I edit for several authors and I would never change dialect or grammar locally spoken. And, what a horse!

Pure and sorrowful poety -- thanks for this elegy.

Frank Lloyd Wright, famed architect, left his Wisconsin school to found a western branch named Taliesin West in the outskirts of Phoenix, AZ. He chose wood and canvas as two major compoents of this Taliesin West. Both choices proved the difficulty in adhering to the "rule" of his school by implementing a wood that deteriorated rapidly in the southwestern heat and canvas for his roofing material which deteriorated rapidly as well. Both components had to be replaced within a few years of the construction of his building. My point is similar to Richard's in that we can adhere religiously to our tenets or we can be flexible where it makes creative sense. Writing is something that at least can be improved by editing as opposed to building construction where decisions made during planning can have consequential physical and fiscal results for the outcome.