#not because of how literarily profound it is

[hazel-callahan]

O, Beautiful

Whenever I find myself sitting in an area, allowing myself to simply observe the surroundings, I sometimes end up wanting to cry. But for what reason? I end up asking myself.

Be it a park — not quite a luscious vibrant color as perhaps other countries that I have had the privilege of visiting, but just green enough for it to still be worthy of relaxing in — or be it a cathedral in Europe — an architectural marvel that puts all of the United States buildings to absolute shame, inside and out — or be it the driveway of my own home — so incredibly mundane and hardly a peaceful quiet, from the dead leaves brushing along the stained pavement to the sounds of my neighbors partying two houses away on a Sunday night. In the stillness of my being, I find myself tearing up.

I look at the life around me, and it is just…beautiful.

Sitting alone, I people-watch, I car-watch, I nature-watch, and I simply admire.

How lucky am I to get this moment to myself to be able to watch? Why do I find this moment so beautiful?

I know not the answer to these. I only know that I am lucky, that I do find it all so beautiful.

And it is these moments that I want — no, I must remember that life is worth living. If for nothing else, it is for this: to look around me, at the mundane and the marvelous, and to find it beautiful. I sometimes do not believe that everyone is put on this earth for a purpose. But I do believe that we all have an opportunity to just look around and think to ourselves, Oh… How beautiful.

And that in itself is enough for me to continue on. For what else will my eyes land on for me to find so very beautiful?

If I can’t find answers to any other question, I wish to be able to answer that single one.

#i wrote this because i needed to elaborate on what that strange feeling was #and upon hearing it my therapist wanted me to share it or post it or publish it somehow #not because of how literarily profound it is #but simply because he was proud that i found (however minuscule it may be) a reason to keep living #writers #writers on tumblr #writeblr #*text #i've been writing so much recently #it's a solace that i will never tire of

[marquis-teren-kiden]

This is supposed to be to your muse, but I wanted to give you a kind word out of character. This will be in parts, because limited writing space. 1. You are incredibly different. I say this, and it is the highest compliment that I could ever gift to you. I have been away for quite sometime, but I check in on you ever so often. To read your writings, and love each interaction you have. I adore all of you, I must say.

2. You, whom I have never met, or had the honor of role-playing with. Why you may ask, does this complete and total stranger check in on me? I shall answer in my most simplistic ways. Thank you for noticing me, thank you for taking the time to read my humble writings.

3. So when someone says to you, “You are wonderful, you’ve made a difference in my day, you’ve made a difference in my week, you’ve changed my life, thank you for noticing!” Really breathe that in and experience that, because there is something really amazing about you. You are incredibly different, you are valuable, worthy and cherished. Thank you.

[OOC: 

I received the above ask in three parts quite some time ago, and have kept them for several reasons; not the least of which was inspiration on days when I had none. 

Because Sunday, April 07, 2019 will be my last day on Tumblr, I want to make certain that whomever took the time to share these deeply held and appreciated thoughts and feelings with me will know and understand how cherished they have been from the time they were sent until today.

I am quite at peace with my decision to depart from Tumblr. I have always said it is important to stand on one’s morals and take root. To not allow another’s morality to supercede our own. For me, absenting myself from Tumblr is in keeping with a long-standing tradition I have held to put my money and my integrity on the line, even - perhaps especially - when it hurts to do so.

To that end, I use Credit Unions instead of banks. I shop local stores and produce rather than Wal-Mart. And, it is why I am leaving Tumblr. Even thought it means leaving family, friends, and fans. I cannot in good conscience continue to invest in a platform I do not, myself, endorse the product of. 

Unfortunately, that means I have no other opportunities before me to communicate with this wonderful Anon. So, I am communicating here, now with this reply. 

Thank you. I have a profoundly warm place in my heart born entirely of the time and consideration you shared with me on a random day with no greater meaning than that you chose to inspire me.

You’ve done that, Anon. You’ve inspired me often, deeply, and very well. To seek after new Muses and mysteries. To discover the secrets in the worlds they walk in, and to continue to create new opportunities for improvement - personally and literarily. My appreciation for you is profound and I hope that every kindness and opportunity for joy meet you in return. 

Warmest regards and best wishes, my mysterious friend, 

Teren-Mun.]

[antiquery]

yuletide letter

hi! first of all, i want to thank you! i’ve been writing fic for years and watching yuletide from the sidelines (often being v impressed), and this is both my first yuletide and my first exchange, period. i’m really excited! 

general likes & dislikes

i’ll read just about anything if it’s well-written. some things i like, in general terms: power imbalances (healthy and not), complicated and ambiguous family (found or otherwise) dynamics, anything classically or literarily inspired, anything with religious overtones of any kind, unconventional governing metaphors (i once wrote 8k of lovecraft fic guided by the premise of thomas hobbes’ leviathan, ok), worldbuilding, negotiations of personhood, unexpected humanism, sharp interrogations of the world of the source material where necessary or interesting. things i dislike, in general: aus, unless very specific and near & dear to your heart, modern aus in particular, and almost nothing else? sex is fine, if it makes sense in the context of the story, just nothing too out there (though i have nothing against emotional and/or physical awfulness). rating isn’t an issue.

really i don’t have many hard & fast rules! i encourage you to be as out-of-the-box weird and creative as you like.

lovecraft mythos

characters requested: randolph carter, nyarlathotep

it is unfortunate but true that when i was 13 i saw the phantom of the opera in nyc, and it was profoundly formative, and ever since then the daemon lover has been one of my absolute favorite tropes. what can i say, i’m a sucker for the gothic. and this is a...very gothic ship, in the sense that it’s mostly about being pursued by the strange and terrifying, but also being drawn to that, against your better judgement and sometimes against your will. what i would love to see is a resolution of the problem the end of dream-quest poses in the context of the mythos: namely, why doesn’t carter end up dead? it’s kind of silly to propose that it’s really the thought of home that saves him, when you look at the fates of lovecraft’s other protagonists who run up against gods; ruthanna emrys argues in her article on the story that the end is nyarlathotep testing him, deliberately playing with him just for the fun of it. in that case, what is it about carter that draws nyarlathotep to him? why is this human in particular interesting enough to let live? and is that interest genuine curiosity, or bored cruelty, or something in between? for carter’s part, how does he feel about being pretty much completely at the mercy of something that thinks of him (from what he can tell) as a toy, and how does he reconcile the fact that he’s drawn to nyarlathotep in the sense that he’s been drawn to the otherworldly all his life with the very real possibility that he might meet a horrible fate at his hands? established relationship fic could be fun too, with both of them trying to deal with a. the massive power imbalance and b. the moral disparity, in that one party has morals and the other very much does not.

also, worldbuilding, if you like! the dreamlands are such a rich setting, at once very standard Portal-Fantasy-Land and incredibly not, strange and alien and wonderful in the way that only a place crafted out of dreams could be. how does that work, by the way— are certain regions representative of the dreams of certain people? what are the lives of the inhabitants like, the people who exist in a world created by the dreams of other people? how do they feel about gods, or dreamers, or both? how does magic work? government? society? technology? religion?

jonathan strange & mr norrell

characters requested: john childermass, john uskglass/the raven king, john segundus

this is less of a universe that i feel needs interrogating and expansion in the way that the dream cycle does, because clarke is so thorough, and there’s already such a developed world. instead, remember what i said about the gothic? yeah. jsamn has in common with the dream cycle that element and also a sense of profound individual insignificance— the scene at the end, with strange & norrell experiencing the effects of stephen’s and the king’s magic, sent chills down my spine. i’d love an exploration of who/what the raven king actually is, how he came to be as this strange embodiment of the fundamentally alien and wild element of both the northern english landscape and national character, and how childermass & segundus respectively relate to him. i could for sure go for a weird love triangle and/or triad— segundus and his wide-eyed fascination with magic, uncompromisingly wondering, that draws him to the king; childermass, who has to reconcile his almost feudal devotion to uskglass as king with the bone-deep terror that comes from being his harbinger. also, if you give me childermass/uskglass or segundus/uskglass or both at once as a kind of cathy/heathcliff type thing, with each in love with the other as a representation of the landscape, i will cry with joy.

the magnus archives

characters requested: jonathan sims, elias bouchard, “michael”

one of my absolute favorite things about this past season has been jon slowly becoming less and less human and more and more an avatar of the beholding, this terrified and unwilling vessel for something he doesn’t understand. i’d love to see a dissection of that fear in the context of his relationship with elias, or michael (yes i know he’s “dead” shut up), or both. how does jon feel about elias now— elias who got him into this in the first place, elias who represents the thing that’s slowly leaching away jon’s personhood and filling the space with something totally alien? how does elias feel about what’s happening to jon— how does elias feel about jon, more generally? and michael— does jon ever consider running to him, giving himself to the spiral instead of the beholding? (i’d love a fic where this actually happens, especially if it includes elias’s reaction.) how does michael think of jon, jon the human instead of jon the avatar? (see the lovecraft section above, actually.) what about him merits interest? and jon, how much of his being drawn to michael is a function of curiosity, how much a function of michael’s manipulation, how much the beholding pushing him to learn & experience & experiment? mostly, i just adore the complications of humanity that develop when a person is thrown to the eldritch wolves like jon’s been, and how the pushes & pulls of elias’s influence and michael’s influence act on him. 

(also, i’m not saying i’d love a terrified jon at the center of a weird incomprehensible eldritch love triangle, but i’m not saying i would not want that.)

that’s about it, i think! please feel free to drop by my inbox (on anon ofc, just tell me you’re my writer in the message) and ask if you need any clarification on anything. thank you again! i’m really excited to see what you write! 

#yuletide 2018 #bookshelf blogging #sorta

[kabane52]

Books for Learning Biblical Theology

I’m sometimes asked what I would recommend for learning the basics of biblical theology.

1. Through New Eyes by James B. Jordan.

This book changed my life. This is the meat and potatoes for interpreting the Bible. Most people when approaching the Bible skip over most of the Torah- the problem is that the Torah sets forth the foundational categories within which the rest of the Bible operates. So Jordan digs down into the details. Why are these animals unclean, and not others? Why does this make you unclean, and not that? Is there a difference between uncleanness and impurity? How does sin relate? Why does the high priest wear twelve stones, and why these twelve stones? How does all of this symbolize Christ?

You’ll learn the meaning of the sun, moon, and stars, gems and gold, birds and beasts, the five offerings of Israel, and the trajectory of history.

Jordan then surveys every stage of the covenant, from Adam to the Church, noting how each stage foreshadows the next in specific and remarkable ways (typology). This is where you get to know symbolism and typology. Everything I have stated or thought for the past three years has some relation to this book.

2. A House for My Name by Peter J. Leithart. 

Called Through New Eyes For Dummies, Leithart’s book takes the method and principles of Through New Eyes and applies them to understand the shape of biblical history. It’s essentially a more detailed version of the last part of Jordan’s book, surveying the shape of history. This is a great read both with and without Through New Eyes and will get you more used to the language and imagery of the Bible.

3. Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord? by Michael Morales

Morales has read Jordan and Leithart even as he works within the academy. This is the best print introduction to the Levitical system, period. Doesn’t skirt the details for quick and easy pictures of Christ, but gets deep into the rituals and symbolism in order to show how the picture of Christ that results is that much more profound.

4. Images of the Spirit by Meredith Kline

Much of what Kline writes elsewhere is downright bizarre and marred by his deformed covenant theology. But this is Kline at his best. This book is all about the appearance of the Divine Glory in the Bible. He notes how the Glory has a specific appearance, and the Glory-Cloud has a specific formation. The formation of the Glory is essential for biblical symbolism and imagery, both ritual and in the prophets.

5. Adam as Israel by Seth Postell.

This short book takes a good look at the literary and theological connections between the story of Genesis 2-3 and the story of Israel writ large. While I would have preferred it to be called “Israel as Adam”, this is a very good look at how this connection influences the rest of Scripture. Noting literary features suggesting the unity of the Pentateuch is also helpful.

6. The Meaning of the Pentateuch by John Sailhamer

I debated on whether to include this or not, because I think a large part of Sailhamer’s thesis (that the sacrifices and priesthood were given in response to Israel’s sin) is simply dead wrong. But I decided to include it because Sailhamer is good at noticing intertextual links within the Old Testament itself and applying them to achieve an integrated biblical theology. He also is very helpful on pointing out how the Pentateuch is designed not merely as law, but as messianic prophecy, literarily stitched around four poems with King Messiah as the theme.

7. The Unseen Realm by Michael Heiser

Heiser is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible whose studies focus on the concept of a divine or heavenly council. He notes the deep connections that the Serpent of Genesis 3 has with the council, and how the curse on the Serpent draws on language of the divine council which is also developed by the prophets (Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, especially). He then threads all of this into the New Testament to reveal a coherent and critical thread of the biblical story, one missed by most commentators. The Nephilim play a critical role and shed great light on the demonology of the Old Testament. I strongly disagree, however, with Heiser’s emphasis on the necessity of Near Eastern sources for biblical theology. 

8. Paul and the Faithfulness of God (or Paul in Fresh Perspective) by N.T. Wright

I cut my biblical-theological teeth on Wright, and I still return to his writings. Like Jordan, Wright has a gift for looking at a text and forcing himself to pay attention to each detail, not resting until he has developed an interpretation that makes sense of each and every little turn of text. Wright’s work on Paul is unparalleled, even though I think he errs in one respect when it comes to justification (see below). Jordan taught me to read the whole Bible the way Wright taught me to read Paul. The focus here is on Paul’s understanding of Jesus’ story as the climax of Israel’s story, ending the exile and bringing back the Glory to Mt. Zion. I’d recommend reading the big book (Paul and the Faithfulness of God), but if 1600 pages is too much for you (ch. 9-11, however, are by far the most important), you can get the cliffnotes with Paul in Fresh Perspective.

9. Jesus and the Victory of God (or Simply Jesus) by N.T. Wright

Strictly speaking, these are books about the historical Jesus, but Wright’s analysis of how Jesus related to Israel’s story are very helpful when it comes to reading the Gospels against the backdrop of the Old Testament. These are two parts of one story.

10. The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israel’s Scripture by Richard Hays

A collection of wonderful essays looking at how Paul subtly weaves allusions to the Old Testament throughout his epistles, and looking at how these allusions are important for properly interpreting Paul.

11. Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels by Richard Hays

Does the same thing for the Gospels. Hays looks at the allusive strategies of each Evangelist, noting how each reflects their own distinctive theology and angle on the work of Jesus Christ.

12. Inhabiting the Cruciform God by Michael J. Gorman

Should be read after one reads Wright on Paul. Gorman looks at Paul’s language of justification and argues that it’s all about theosis: the divine presence indwelling human persons in the Spirit, enabled by the incarnation of God the Logos, Jesus Christ. The best biblical case for theosis in print.