I have just had a black out.

Please could someone explain this:

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/salem.htm

And this?

This is NOT funny.

http://nathanz.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/egg-brown.jpg

I bid you farewell for now.  I found this in my hand.  Going for a shower.

This is the most spectacular site based in Oxford.  Let me remind you, that this country is amazing.  We may have lost our sovereignty, to the Lisbon Treaty but we are well aware that matters of measured approaches in finding a resolution which is the European Parliament and our right to a referendum on every count.  Every count would be nice.

There is nothing like England, once your here, you never want to go.  Retire in Barbados – I think not.  I have a duty to keep this country going, until I longer am.  Till I win the battle of words, with fair minded justice.  I just need to keep going.

[embed]http://www.visitvale.com/dbimgs/white%20horse%202.JPG[/embed]

Amore, more, ore, re – an ode to Dr C – – Found on You Tube.

The finished Dawn Treader ship for the movie, due out Christmas 2010!

HT:Ray Fowler and  Narniaweb

“Snow Queen”

What is better than patent leather white boots with that dangerous stiletto heel?

Not much if you are a female superhero, disco diva, an ice princess, or Narnia’s White Witch. Wouldn’t she be fantastic in these? Or you could just be Jane who really likes to make an entrance now and then.

My imagination is running away with me again – but I do love the irridescent white, the simple shape and the great curves of boots.

10. The Chronicles of Amber
Roger Zelazny

With the Amber novels, Zelazny created a very detailed and intricate fantasy universe. Fantasy fans have called this one of the most engrossing fantasy worlds they have ever read and remains a classic of modern fantasy.

9. The King of Elfland’s Daughter
Lord Dunsany

One of the most influential works of fantasy writing, Lord Dunsany’s 1924 novel of elves, kingdoms and magic laid out the groundwork for much of modern fantasy today. This is truly a pioneering work in the genre which laid out the groundwork for the writers who would come after.

8. A Song of Ice and Fire
George R. R. Martin

George Martin’s series is a richly constructed world grounded in both reality and fantasy. These unconventional plots keep the story fresh. The action is realistic while the events are unpredictable, adding a certain suspense around the characters, as you truly don’t know what will happen to them. The four books of the series thus far have grabbed the attention of high fantasy fans everywhere as they have proven to be some of the best there is.

7. A Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L’Engle

This richly layered children’s fantasy has become a favourite to many readers over the years. Its deep themes may remind you of C.S. Lewis, with a hard look at what it means to be a child, as well as just being a great adventure. A Wrinkle in Time is a book which will stand the test of time.

6. The Harry Potter Series
J.K. Rowling

Sure, it may be bold of me to include a series which is so recent as high as #5. However, this is no ordinary fantasy series. This is the series which created a worldwide reading phenomenon, grabbing the attention of both kids and adults everywhere. Yet Harry Potter is not just hype; these are wonderfully crafted stories set in a fully realized magical world. The characters feel real, and even more so since we follow them through their growing years throughout the seven books. There are twists and very interesting plot devices all leading up to a final conclusion which does not disappoint. This series is one of the powerhouses of modern fantasy, and will remain so more a long, long time.

5. The Chronicles of Narnia
C.S. Lewis

Its interesting that most of this list is comprised of stories written for children. Perhaps it says something about the child-like need for discovery in fantasy tales, and none sums it up better than the Narnia books. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has reached instant classic status, and the wardrobe in the title has become an icon for all portals into new and fantastic worlds. Lewis’ Christianity allegories also give this series an intellectual edge which doesn’t distract from the story. These seven books are some of the most beloved fantasy stories of all time.

4. His Dark Materials
Philip Pullman

Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy tells the story of two kids who are able to journey through the different dimensions which exist in the universe. These two children have a great destiny in the future of all the worlds which will affect the very nature of existence and spirituality. Pullman reaches for some pretty big goals here, but does not disappoint. He tackles the domination of organized religion while championing the freedoms of human thought and expression.

3. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass
Lewis Carroll

Carroll’s fantasy tale of Alice’s trip down the rabbit hole has captured the imagination of youth all over the world. This exercise in nonsensical logic, language and situations has become a book not only to enjoy, bu also to study. The metaphors in these two tales run deep and are often referenced by many other media. Alice and her crazy adventures simply make no sense; and that’s why we love them.

2. A Midsummer’s Night Dream
William Shakespeare

Let’s face it;  Shakespeare is the master.  Many of Shakespeare’s plays have an element of fantasy in them, but with Dream the bard went all out.  Shakespeare mostly played upon the idea of the fairy world and the mischievous creatures’ intrusions upon the lives of us regular humans.  Midsummer night’s dream is perhaps Shakespeare’s most beloved comedy, and its whimsy will live on for many centuries to come.

1. The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien

Choosing the greatest work of literary fiction was an easy task. It is, of course, the Lord of the Rings; the epic high fantasy of one hobbits journey to defeat the powers of evil. No fantasy world is as rich or detailed as Tolkien’s Middle Earth. It is as if he himself believed it to be a real place, complete with a full, fleshed out history and wonderfully detailed geography. And set in this world is a strong, heartfelt story which has proven to be ageless. This is a bold tale of massive proportions which also works on the simplest emotional level. A masterpiece in every way.

Last Saturday, the Brooks celebrated another successful Family Day!

Kids and parents came from all over the city to particpate in FREE art activities including a gallery scavenger hunt, personalized passport-making, frame building and more!

Everyone also enjoyed a complimentary performance of Narnia presented by Playhouse on the Square! You should have seen the kids’ faces as the actors and actresses entered the museum, in full costume, right though the front door!

We were honored to have great and enthusiastic volunteers from Central High School and we thank them a thousand times for all of their help!

For more information about the Education Department or family events at the Brooks, email emily.greenberg@brooksmuseum.org!

To see if we took your picture, check out our Flickr roll on the right!

you look like narnia.

… fant Gino ut idag. Ikke noe stort sjokk for noen altså, men jeg klarte å snuble inn i en tornebusk i dag. Det var ikke glatt, jeg snubla ikke i noe. Jeg bare snubla. Gino er fortsatt imponert.

Nå kan mormor også lese bloggen min: ‘Morro å kjenne deg på den måten” sa mormor…

‘Will you contain yourself, or must Trufflehunter and I sit on your head?’ Å, seriøst, nytt yndlingssitat =) Kanskje jeg skal begynne med det? Hmmm..Jeg har altså begynt å lese Narnia på nytt. Fineste serien =)

Igår hadde jeg vært her i tre måneder. Det er sært det. Det virker utrooolig lenge siden jeg hadde vært her i to måneder.

‘Will you be executed if you rape the pope?’ – Sa Rhihannon i studietimen idag, og innså at hun sa det litt høyt akkurat i det det ble litt stille i studierommet. Dette og ett ark med mange fine kombinasjoner av forskjellige dyr, som Pows og mye annet rart, med forskjellige morsomme navn Og det var studietimen =)

Liker denne sangen, I do.

“Most of us know what we should expect to find in a dragon’s lair but, as I said before, Eustace had read only the wrong books. They had a lot to say about exports and imports and governments and drains, but they were weak on dragons.”

- C.S. Lewis (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader)

Note: Read the right books – the ones that teach you about the important stuff.

Esse post vai ser complicado, porque gosto é que nem cu – cada um tem o seu e o de bêbado não tem dono. O fato é que volto a escrever neste empoeirado blog após fazer algo bizarro: ouvir os audiobooks da série Crepúsculo, de Stephanie Meyer.

Você, caro nerd, lembra do seu primeiro livro lido (sendo obrigado ou não) que realmente gostou, despertando seu gosto à literatura? Eu comecei com Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, do glorioso Machadão, e desde então tenho devorado livros regularmente.

Eu sei que sou meio bizarro, mas a maioria dos livros que são a porta da literatura para as pessoas são aqueles de temática infanto-juvenil. Quantos nerds não começaram com os livros de Pedro Bandeira? A Droga da Obediência, Brincadeira Mortal, Um Crime Mais Que Perfeito e por aí vai. Mas isso foi pra uma geração, e as coisas mudam bem rápido.

Um exemplo mais recente é a série da J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter, que ainda teve o mérito de amadurecer a temática dos livros e os próprios personagens no mesmo ritmo do público, construindo uma legião de fãs totalmente alucinados e fiéis à autora.

O meu ponto é: esses livros, se bem analisados, não apresentam nada surpreendente. Suas histórias são simples, comuns e com uma linguagem que segue a mesma linha. Porém, é uma leitura fácil.

Minha irmã leu toda a série da Stephanie; logo depois, começou a ler As Crônicas de Nárnia, de C.S. Lewis, amigão do Tolkien. É por isso que eu digo, literatura “porca” pode servir ao lado bom da força, desde que o leitor queira essa evolução. Já os nerds pasteurizados, que se acham megaboga cultos por ler os clássicos hypados e cult, poderiam muito bem se lembrar de que livros medianos podem render uma leitura prazeirosa e despojada, para dar uma “respirada” no cérebro entre Isaac Asimov e Arthur C. Clarke.

Pense nisso.

“So, Narnia is no more,” cried King Tirian from the novel The Last Battle by Christian allegory author C.S. Lewis.  Just like Narnia, as Lewis rightly stated, the world man lives in will soon be destroyed.  The end has the mark of the antichrist.  In the books Revelation and Mark, it is written that there will be many antichrists, but one will finally rule the hearts of many, and turn man towards evil.  “This calls for wisdom.  If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number.  His number is 666,” (Revelation 13:18).  But it does not take the antichrist’s number for to calculate when he will come.  It is soon.  So, as followers of the LORD, his people must be careful, because in this dark and sinful world, there are false prophets, who are sent by Satan to tempt both believers and non-believers.  He will try to lead them astray.

In The Last Battle, Shift the ape is portrayed well as the horrid antichrist.  In the beginning of the book, the ape lies to his “followers”, or Puzzle the donkey, and takes command of one heart already (Lewis 14).  As the reader learns later, Shift has soon taken over the hearts of Calormenes, talking beasts and dumb beasts, everyone except the last of those who follow the real Aslan (Lewis 27).  But, in the end, Tirian throws him in the stable, the symbol of the lake of fire or, in many people’s eyes, hell.  Basically immediately following his death, Narnia and all things in it are destroyed.  So the Lewis’s book says that following the antichrist’s death, the earth will be destroyed.

But not only does it say that in the book, but it says that in the Bible.  It says in Revelation 13:11-18, the devil will finally use the antichrist to gain power and authority over those who do not stand strong in their faith in Jesus Christ; so the people of today must stand ready for that time.  Later in the book of Revelation, in chapter 14, it says that the antichrist will be thrown into the lake of fire on judgment day with the rest of the non-believers.  And, as many believe, Judgment day is the end of the earth.  So, from this book people can take out the fact that Lewis hit it almost right on the nose when it came to the antichrist.
Furthermore, the Bible is very descriptive when it comes to the antichrist.  John writes in 1John 2:18, “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard, the antichrist is coming; even now many have already come.  This is how we know it is the last hour,” (Life application Bible).  He later writes this: “But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.  This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard is coming and even now is in the world.”  This verse teaches that he who does not accept the LORD as their savior has the spirit of the antichrist.  The verse before that told that it is in fact the “First Hour”.  And, this verse was written hundreds of years ago.  So the coming of the antichrist is even nearer than before.  So, along with Lewis’s allegory, people know that the antichrist will mark the end of this fallen world.

To conclude, the LORD will protect his people and guide them during this last hour.  They cannot do it themselves, but they can fight using Jesus Christ.

Tripp W

7th Grade

I foundz yarnia!

wheerz teh prize?

Picture by: dunno source Caption by: splittycat via Our LOL Builder

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Last week my apartment got the weekend cleaning. On Saturday I had to rise at 8 am, so that I would be ready to leave when the cleaning lady arrived, usually she comes at 9 am. Lucky me, she did not come before after I left at 11. Me and one of my roomates went to a café on Grove Street (Jersey City) and had breakfast/lunch. Afterwards I went into Manhatten just to walk around, and ended up in Central Park. I have never had a nicer day of fall in my life! Leaves all over, all the different colors, and nice weather. The sun was shining all day. This is one of the New York moments I’m going to miss when I go back home.

A random woman who walked through my shot (This photo reminds me of Narnia)

The Call

Today’s breakdown invokes a choice between science and religion.

Rats giggle and now my fears of rats nibbling on my toes have an added component: they’re secretly laughing at me. Our world is becoming more like Narnia, which in all honesty, is awesome:

Inspired by the voice of the above rodent, Reepicheep:

Which brings me to another comedian’s take on Religion and Desserts:

Believing in science combines fear of nibbling rats and ridicule, but religion is an arbitrary choice between desserts that could result in death. Since I enjoy most desserts, I’m going to go with religion on this one. Damn, I’ve enjoyed being an atheist.

-Kate Holloway

Eu já vi paisagens… que, sob uma certa luz, me fazem sentir que a qualquer momento um gigante pode levantar a cabeça por cima do próximo cume.

É um pouco confuso quando se está acostumado a encontrar um autor em uma prateleira, ele aparecer em outra muito distante. Não só porque Narnia agora tem cinco mil edições, mas por me avisarem da afinidade dele com William Blake e Tolkien e John Milton. Ando à caça de mais textos (grátis!) dele, já que esse fragmentozinho (lido por Martin Evans, no podcast “Literature of Crisis”) me ajudou bastante com o termo “compaixão”, e porque ela cai bem num jogo em que você se melhora se desenvolvendo em bases que não são as suas costumeiras.

Eu continuo assumindo que, se você remover das pessoas as coisas que as fazem diferentes, o que sobra é o mesmo. E que o coração humano certamente parecerá constante e universal e permanente se você ignorar suas mudanças. Mas chego a duvidar se o estudo desse mero denominador comum é o melhor que um estudante pode colocar à frente de si. Felizmente existe uma maneira melhor. Em vez de tirar do cavaleiro sua armadura, você pode tentar vestí-la em você mesmo (…). Eu gostaria muito mais de saber como eu me sentiria adotando as crenças do filósofo romano Lucrécio do que como Lucrécio se sentiria se ele nunca as tivesse. O Lucrécio possível em mim me interessa mais do que o possível C.S. Lewis em Lucrécio.

Para desfrutar de nossa humanidade temos que conter em nós todos os modos de sentir e pensar pelos quais a raça humana já passou. E o que te torna capaz disso é o estudo das humanidades.”

Mais, só no relatório!

***

“I have seen landscapes … which, under a particular light, make me feel that at any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge.”

“I continue to admit that if you remove from people the things that make them different, what is left would be the same.
And that the human heart will certainly appear as unchanging and universal and permanent if you ignore its changes.
But I have come to doubt whether the study of this mere lowest common denominator is the best end a student can set before him of herself. Fortunately there is a better way. Instead of stripping the knight off his armor, you can try to put his armor on yourself (…). I would much rather know what I should feel like if I adopted the beliefs of the roman philosopher Lucretius than how Lucretius would have felt if he’d never entertained them. Th e possible Lucretius in me interests me more than the possible C.S. Lewis in Lucretius.
To enjoy our humanity we ought to contain within us all the modes of feeling and thinking through which the human
race has past. And what allows you to do that is the study of the humanities.”

What is the only thing worth living for?  This is a decision all people have to make.  We choose the Lord, or we chose the devil; there is no in between.  Choosing God or Satan is a life or death situation, and being undecided on this decision is not an option.

In the book The Last Battle the dwarves are for the dwarves, which shows the real life situation of choosing life or death in the make believe world of Narnia.  One example of this is when one of the dwarves said, “I have heard all I want to hear about Aslan for all my life.” (Lewis 93)  In real life some people know all about God and what Jesus did for them; they just choose not to believe or serve him.  Also, when Aslan’s followers fought for him in the Last battle they were thrown into the stable on stable hill.  Everyone in the battle thought that Tash was in the stable, who could kill anyone in an instant.  When the followers of Aslan were in the stable they were greatly surprised that they didn’t find a dreadful creature. They were pleasantly astonished with a beautiful field on a sunny day.  The dwarves, however, were in a filthy dark stable.  Aslan’s followers had an amazing experience because they believed in what was true and real, but the dwarfs decided to believe in neither Aslan nor Tash. (Lewis 181)  The last example was when one of the dwarves said to one of Aslan’s followers, “Your wonderful lion didn’t come and help you did he?” (Lewis 182)  This shows that the dwarves had completely lost faith in Aslan.  These are just a few examples of how the dwarves depending on themselves ended them up with Tash for eternity, which symbolizes being with Satan for eternity.

Deciding not to follow God is selecting to live with Satan for eternity; this is shown in the Last Battle and is also shown in the Bible.  In 2nd Chronicles 36:13b this is seen by showing how one person was hard hearted and decided to turn away from the Lord. (Life Application Bible)  This choice decided that person’s eternity.  He/she had to live with Satan forever.  In Proverbs 28:14 it says that someone who fears the Lord will be blessed, but someone who hardens his heart falls into trouble. (Life Application Bible)  This mainly means that someone who respects the Lord is blessed by going to heaven, but someone who has a hard heart falls into the trap of hell.  Finally, in Revelation 3:15 the Bible says “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.  I wish you were either one or the other!”  (Life Application Bible)  God wants his children to love and follow him. He doesn’t want us to just linger in the middle.   These are just a few of the many examples from the Bible about choosing to serve either God or Satan, and not lingering in the middle of the two.

In the book the Last Battle the dwarves are for themselves, which means that they didn’t fight for Aslan or Tash.  In real life choosing God or Satan is necessary, and we can’t be on the fence about who we will life for.

Sarah B.

7th Grade