The Aspie Diaries 2: Return of the Aspie Diaries

Hey everybody, I'm back. Let's hope I can get back in the swing of things.

So, new news. Exam season is but a few days away. I have two take homes (both in RS), and one regular (my English Lit class). I feel very good about myself concerning these and feel that I can take at least one day off after that. Once the weekend is done I'm going to have to sit down and get to work on my Kabbalah take-home. I have to write three papers all of which should be three pages. I won't go into that anymore on this though. Mom, if your reading this and we haven't talked we will.
This was an alright term as Religious Studies go. Both were fields that I was interested in and I enjoyed the teachers. The English class was so so. It was necessary for an English major, but a bit dull. It was kind of like my trip to Italy, were we basically had to rush everywhere so we could see all the spots. Survey of British Literature Part 1 was like that. I sense Survey of British Literature 2 will be like that as well. At least we'll be getting into the Romantics and Modernism in that one. Medieval Literature was kind of interesting, and I think that may be my favorite part of the class, except for maybe John Donne and most stuff dealing with Courtly Love. I read a bit about Courtly Love, or some form of it, in an R.U. Sirius book on Counterculture before I even knew who R.U. Sirius was. I found the aesthetic kind of cool. Seems kind of artificial in the course material, especially stuff about Philip Sydney. But I'm rambling on in English major talk so I'll stop. Maybe I'll go into it again at some point.
As some of you may notice, I have grown a beard. I have officially decided to let my hair grow out again and this time I'm doing my beard as well. I'm going to try this look out for awhile while I'm at University. I may need to loose it to get a job, or maybe I can try the starving artist thing for awhile and see where that gets me.
Spiritually I'm no farther then I thought I'd started out at, or maybe I'm not. I've officially read all the gospels, in some cases twice and plan on going over them again. I also feel that I have a much better foot on Kaballah, particularly Jewish Kabbalah. I also know that most Jewish Kabbalists are probably damn pissed off at Gentiles such as myself and Pico della Mirandola and Eliphas Levi messing around with it. I also know they probably aren't going to do anything because A) It's been going on since the Reinsurance and B) the Jewish people basically want to be left alone and will return the favor, especially if there Hasidim. (This is what my Professor said and he's Jewish and a Jewish Studies Professor so he would know). I still wouldn't go as far to call myself a Kabbalist of any stripe, and I may not be. I still plan on doing a lot of reading on Kabbalah.
Finally, Alan Moore has an independent zine. Yes, that's right, Alan "Greatest-Comic-Book-Writer-Alive-Today-Who-Is-Also-A-Wizard" Moore is running an independent zine. It's called Dodgem Logic and they gave me a free CD, which they will give to you as well. I can't make a link on this page, but if you go to www.dodgemlogic.com, you can see all the stuff Alan Moore and his friends are up to. You have to buy a copy of the magazine though, which I will probably do at some point. I don't think it's the kind of thing I'd ask my parents to buy for me for Christmas. Besides, it's only...okay I'm not sure. But I'll probably buy an issue after Christmas, or try too. My job options aren't looking pretty good at this point.
Well, that's basically part of what's happening. I'll update you on some other things as time goes buy.

The Brothers Carrotmazov

For some reason I was thinking of Veggie Tales. For those of you who aren't Christian, Veggie Tales is basically one of those cartoons made for Christians to help express the intricacies of the faith to the little kiddies in ways that are more interesting then reading the Bible, which can be something of a boring read, or even worse reading Aquinas or some. Instead, you get little funny cartoons about vegitables that very from Biblical Retellings, to retellings of the classics with a Christian message.

I was thinking about how they'd redo classics like this. The ones that came to mind are "The Grapes of Wrath,"(done with actual grapes), and "Madame Bovarry,"(renamed Madame Blueberry). These are both books I have yet to read, but I figure I am going to get around to them at somepoint. Still, stuff like Madame Blueberry is different from Madame Bovary. Instead of the Madame Bovary character having a series of affairs, she goes on a shopping spree. This is because the show is supposed to be for kids. It also occured to me, why aren't they doing works by Christian writers? I mean, Flaubert and Steinbeck are Christians, at least I'm pretty sure they are, but why aren't they doing classics by writers who were open about their faith, say Dostoyevsky.

Which brings me to the brunt of todays post, what if Veggie Tales did an episode based on a Dostoyevsky novel.

Now, this can get pretty dark, because the two novels by Dostoyevsky I have read are Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. Crime and Punishment is about a guy who kills a pawn broker in cold blood, and the rest of the novel is basically him being sick, guilty and the reader and him trying to put all this in persepctive. And plot of the Brothers Karamazov is basically driven by sex, lies and murder. Despite this, both novels have what I see as fundamentally a Christian meaning, and both speak much of redemption. Would the folks down at Big Ideas, the guys who make Veggie Tales, be open to a retelling of a Dostoyevsky novel and if so, how would they do it.

The one I'm thinking is The Brothers Karamazov, if only because it is the hardest to actually put into terms of a children's show since the major event of the novel revolves around patricide (alleged patricide in some cases but still). As in Madame Blueberry, they would have to find something that won't shoke the kids and more importantly the parents. What this could possibly be. Which also reminds me that what lead up to the patricide was the fact that the father was trying to seduce a woman that one of the brothers was interested in and who he had left for his wife. This would also be hard to work in. Actually, Dostoyevsky is probubly not a good example for this because of all that is going on in the book. Fyodor's writing is just to complex to make into a Veggie Tales episode.

But the point is, I have this image of the cast of Veggie Tales as characters in a darker and edgier episode based on Dostoyevsky. It's not exactly a bad thing either, since it is still in the same basic format but we're doing the kind of things that I'm experiencing now as a Christian. The nature of faith, the seeming cruelty of the universe. Why is it that they only make Christian cartoons for kids and when they do it can be so optomistic? Maybe I should develop something like Veggie Tales for people my age who are more open to the idea of questioning the nature of there faith. I'll have to make a follow up to this at somepoint.

Looking into Various Fields of Interest

We went to Toronto yesterday, my family and I. The Dead Sea Scrolls are being shown at the Royal Ontario Museum, and since I'm into the places where Christianity and Judaism meet I figured it would be a fun trip. After that the family split up into two groups, the girls going to see taxidermey animals and my dad and I looking at the antiquities of the Far East. I liked the Buddhas and the big pictures they had of various Chinese religious figures. Oh, and the rubbings of signs on Synagoges, Mosques and Christian Churches found in China. Yeah, they have Jews and Muslims and Christians there, and I'm talking before the Jesuits.

Then we went to Ikea and I began to feel sad because I don't have my own place. I know I'm 19, and very few 19 year-olds have there own place, but damn it I want to have my own apartement. It didn't help that we found a very nice walk in room that Mom said she could see me living in. So I began to feel nervous about my independence, which I'm also feeling a bit off about because I have had some recent confusion with my bi-monthly twenty dollars. Thankfully I got some of the coffee drop-off which can last me through the rest of the day. This lead to all kinds of frustration about how I'm not as independent as I'd like to be.

Also, finally I am beginning to read more on Aspergers Syndrome. I'm currently reading "The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome," by Tony Atwood. Now I have to go because I'm talking to a friend.

Constantine's Sword: Thoughts

I kind of wonder what this movie has to say about my faith. I don't talk about my faith a lot, or my relationship with God. I admit we don't talk much, I don't know if that is a bad thing. The last time I can remember writing to God was when I wrote a poem about the fears I had about not being a good writer. I think that is a perfectly acceptable thing to ask God. You don't see many great Satanic novelists.

Anyways, I'm woolgathering. I just watched a movie called Constantine's Sword, which is largely about the history of Anti-Semitism in the Catholic Church, but also talked a lot about the life of James Carroll, who wrote the book on which this movie was based and is also the main character if you have those in documentaries, and Evangelism in America. The Evangelism ties nicely into the Anti-Semitism, because it talked a lot about Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ movie and a MegaChurch in Colorado Springs that was Evangelising to the Air Force. There was a scene where a pastor that acted kind of like some pop musician did some prayer service for a bunch of kids that had very militaristic overtones. This made me feel a bit uncomfortable.

Anyways, I've been thinking about my identity as a Christian. As much as I don't like to show it, I'm a Christian more then anything, but I feel at odds with mainstream Chirtianity. As far as I'm concerned, Chirstianity sold out to The Man and I feel a great deal of contempt for that, especially after watching this movie. The treatment of the Jews alone by the Church, and the fact that most Christian leaders have done little or nothing to apologize makes me want to tear the first cross from whatever wall or necklace it's on, and stamp it into the dust.

Anyway, know I bring up my issue. How does this movie affect me? I'm pretty sure that it does affect me, even though I could concievably hide behind my Mennonite sect. Odds are, while Mennonites are largelly free of starting any wars (at least none that I know off), they did stand by for wars and a couple may have been anti-semites. But to be honest, while I am a Christian, I don't think of myself as a pracitsing Mennonite.

Ah, I'm tired. It's late. I'm going to bed. I'll write more tomorrow.