Modern Mythology - Niel Gaiman

Mood: Bored / Irritated
Music: Invisible Scratch Pickles [Q-Bert, Disk, Shortkut]

I just finished Neil Gaiman's book Anansi Boys the other night. I actually tore through it. I love fiction for that! Niel Gaiman came to me by way of a children's picture book illustrated by Dave McKean which was given to me for my birthday by my sister-in-law (thanks Brooke.) The book was The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish and I was instantly drawn to the artwork of Dave McKean:



This was followed by a second children's book by Niel and Dave, called The Wolves in the Walls. Again the artwork had my full attention:



Then while perusing the previews at the end of Kung Fu Hustle, I came across a trailer for a movie called Mirrormask... written by Niel Gaiman, directed by Dave McKean and brought to us by the Jim Henson company. This time it was more than the artwork that had my attention. Gaiman's story telling and humor got me... while his children's books had hinted at his writing talents, Mirrormask made it clear there was more to him than picture book stories. So, I started looking for more of his books... looking mostly in the children's sections of bookstores (because that's where I had discovered him of course.) Ashley and I came across a very clever book titled Coraline (not Caroline.) This thriller (for young readers) boasted a cover and only a few illustrations by Dave McKean. Ashley and I began reading it out-load to Owen before bedtime in small chunks... however, it quickly snagged us both and we had to each admit that we had been reading ahead on our own.

For my birthday a few weeks back, I was surprised with Anansi Boys. An adult novel that tells the story of Fat Charlie and his estranged brother as they come to terms with their father's death. Sounds pretty run-of-the-mill huh? Well, their father was a god... a spider god. Mix in some West African folk mythology and a modern setting and Gaiman's flare for humor, which reminds me so much of Douglas Adams, and you have a page turner. Havign recently finished Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces, I am pretty aware of mythological themes at the moment. Gaiman's longer work is filled with them... the hero's quest, the tasks, redeaming the father, becoming an adult, saving the world, etc. Gaiman does a masterfull job of recasting mythical themes into modern fiction. I gave it 4 stars at amazon.com.

Next on my list for fiction is... American Gods.

APOSTASY?

Mood: trying to not think about politics
Music: Bite the Hand That Feeds, Pt. 2 - Agent Orange

Yep, apostasy, I can't belive it either. I mean I can't belive that term still has some meaning in the world today! What an anachronism.

According to several newspapers including the New York Times (In Kabul, a Test for Shariah,) Abdul Rahman faces a death sentence in Afganistan for converting from Islam to Christianity. It's continually amazing to me just how antiquated a modern religion can be. While George Bush is compared to Hitler in the U.S., we have a major religion (over one BILLION muslims) who's followers make George Bush look as liberal-minded as Ted Kennedy. Seriously, I'm stunned that the freedom loving left in America has taken to propping this religion up.

I may or may not have written somethng previously about Shariah a year or two ago when a woman in Sudan (?) was going to be stoned to death for adultery. She wasn't even a muslim! Now this? Mr. Rahman is not even an isolated case... NYT reports that at least four others have been put to death for apostasy in the last decade. The offending nations? Sudan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. I remember that shortly after the September 11th attacks a very astute commentator noted that people were clammoring for the U.S. to bomb Afganistan back into the stone age. He pointed out that Afganistan wouldn't even notice because they already live in the stone age. It was true from a physical standpoint, but also from a social standpoint.

Bernard Lewis's book What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response details the Muslim resistance to modernity brilliantly. While Islam was THE cultural force to be reconned with in the world, the Islamic world advanced. Former Christian nations were overrun and converted across Africa and the Middle East. Then something lit Europe's fuse in the 1300s. The insignificant European peoples started pushing back when the Muslims pushed... and they started winning. The basic problem for muslims is that Islam forbids the adoption of infadel customs. So, while Europeans were experimenting with secular governments, freedom of speach, freedom of religion, emancipation, universal sufferage, Islam took these social advancements as affronts to Islamic beliefs. The Muslim believes that if Muslims are defeated it is because they are not being good enough Muslims. Because Islam was victorious prior to the 1300s, the Islamic world firmly believes that to get back in Allah's good graces, they must return the world to it's former condition and resist all modern ideas.

This is the foundation of classical Shariah. Shariah is the system of laws put in place in the first millenium. They are cruel and absolute (think of the Christian Inquisition of 1184... same time period.) Shariah is popular in Islamic countries because it puts Muslims there firmly in the Islamic tradition and therefor on the path to regaining Islam's lost glory.

While modern America has a few nuts out there like Pat Robertson who think that America's vulnerability to terrorism was due to homosexuality and generally declining morality. Now Mr. Robertson is just one crazy guy with a TV show... but Shariah is like giving Pat Robertson free reign to put America back in God's good graces. Just try to imagine it...

I'll wait...

Pretty scary huh?

Well, just remember that 1/5 of the world is muslim and at least ten countries describe themselves as musilm nations with provisions for the use of Shariah. Given a choice... hell, I think I'd take Pat Robertson.

A Close CAll?

The new anti-abortion law in South Dakota is getting a lot of press and the speculation about a run to have the Roe vs. Wade decision of 1973 overturned...

Wait a minute... 1973? It dawns on me tonight that my very existence is more closely tied to this thing than I have yet realized. Somewhere in February of 1971 a woman was having a baby boy somewhere in Deleware. This happened prior to the Roe vs. Wade decision that made abortions legal in the U.S. For whatever reasons, this woman (and the father, I like to imagine) had decided to give up her baby... for adoption. About an hour away another young couple, unable to have children of their own, were beginning to look into adoption.

This portion of my life, is understandably blurry... or perhaps lost. I was born, moved to a couple of foster homes and in April my soon-to-be-parents were notified that I was in need of a loving family. My dad tells me that the notice of my arrival was short. There was a general scramble to prepare for me. But I managed to arrive safe and sound and the rest is history. Within two years of my birth, my biological parents "options" would be broadened considerably. I have elected to learn nothing about those two people so, I do not know under what circumstances I was "given up." It is very likely that, had the option existed a few years earlier, I would not be sitting here typing this post as my beautiful baby boy sleeps soundly in the next room.

Its an odd sensation. A few minutes ago, I simply assumed with some amount of abstract pride that my biological parents possessed an honorable respect for innocent, human life and a sense of responsibility for their actions. Two things I have tried to cultivate in myself based on the example that I believed gave me life. I'm not saying that I no longer believe this... My mind is simply set spinning by the realization that my precarious existence pre-dates legalized abortion. There was no choice. This adds a deep new wrinkle to my feelings about abortion and its legality.

Abortion is a "hot-button" issue in the U.S. People have strong opinions about it. Usually, their opinions are pretty one dimensional. It comes down to a woman's right to control her body or whether murdering babies ought to be legal. This kind of thinking is pretty pathetic. The abortion issue is not a black or white decision. Many of my friends like to assert their belief that abortion should be 100% legal and there is no other option that is morally acceptable in a free society.

To those of you who like to think you are taking the enlightened path with that, try to remember how close Kell came to being aborted... long before Kell would be able to defend Kell's right to exist like this... Maybe these arguments aren't as black and white as the activists like to pretend?