Coronavirus Log: Day 3

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Well, watching The Walking Dead tonight was a slightly different viewing experience in the context of an actual global pandemic.

As more and more widespread closures are announced, and for longer durations than originally planned, the reality of a partial national lock-down is starting to set in. We treated this mostly like a normal weekend at home, minus the usual hubbub of youth sports and activities, but tonight we also talked as a family to lay out what the first full “school week” might look like without school. We’re all in this, figuring it out together. The kiddos have a great attitude so far.

Stuff that got done

  • Sorted and boxed books for the near-future move we’re planning. There are many, many books. Should society fall, we’re doing our part to preserve our collective human knowledge. Between my psychologist wife and I, we’ve pretty much got covered the areas of statistics, social psychology, education, modern sci-fi and fantasy, the nearly complete works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and a healthy portion of the traditional Western and American literary and canon, including some in the original Latin and Greek. My kids will primarily be preserving Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, Harry Potter, and the works of Mo Willems for posterity.
  • I installed two drawer catches on two kitchen drawers that never stay closed. In typical fashion, I made a simple project more complicated than it probably needed to be, but I still finished the job before the frozen lasagna was ready for dinner, so I call it a success. And now the drawers stay closed, which I have to admit is nicer than expected.
  • Nebula reading: Continued making my way through the novelettes, and I have to say, they’re really enjoyable so far.

Keep well, keep distant!

Pullman, Tolkien, and the Absurd Antithesis

Look, I don’t have anything against Philip Pullman. A lot of people whose reading tastes I share and respect have adored his books; I just have yet to read any of them. The Golden Compass is one of those titles that’s perennially on my “to read” pile, and one day it will fight its way to the top, after which I can decide if I have any bones to pick with C.S. Lewis’s self-proclaimed adversary, or if I want to pick up the next book. Maybe I’ll even do both.

I know it’s not in vogue in these days to grant the validity of a position you don’t share, but I understand Pullman’s critique of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books, and I respect the heck out of the fact that his chosen method of rebuttal was to write his own novels (which, again, I have yet to read, but one day will, really). This is how art facilitates great cultural conversations. (Although it is a shame that Lewis (1898-1963) and Pullman (b. 1946) were never contemporary enough to directly exchange a few characteristic, sharp-witted and sharper-penned intellectual ripostes.)

What I just can’t wrap my head around is Pullman’s much more puzzling comments about J.R.R. Tolkien, as expressed in his recent interview in The New Yorker. Here’s the relevant portion, excerpted in full:

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