From 52fa1333901d2bfde1f29888e4949eb27489c9ad Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Matěj Cepl Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2022 12:28:54 +0200 Subject: Couple of new posts: - Broken Dumbledore - Reconciliation with tradition - Soul Bonds and Arranged Marraiges --- faith/breakfast_in_new_york_02.rst | 14 +++--- faith/broken_dumbledore.rst | 53 +++++++++++++++++++ faith/nezlorec-krali.rst | 8 +-- faith/reconcile-tradition.rst | 71 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ faith/soul-bonds-arranged-marriage.rst | 81 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ faith/thou_shalt_not_suffer_witch_live.rst | 2 +- 6 files changed, 217 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-) create mode 100644 faith/broken_dumbledore.rst create mode 100644 faith/reconcile-tradition.rst create mode 100644 faith/soul-bonds-arranged-marriage.rst diff --git a/faith/breakfast_in_new_york_02.rst b/faith/breakfast_in_new_york_02.rst index cb94c82..781dc0f 100644 --- a/faith/breakfast_in_new_york_02.rst +++ b/faith/breakfast_in_new_york_02.rst @@ -40,13 +40,13 @@ with Hermione and Harry forgetting themselves and having a one-night stand. Of course, not happy meaning I would support their behaviour, but it made their story interesting. -Explanation, why not-that-girl did this is exactly the main point -of any literature! See the awesome short film “`The Saga Of -Biorn`_” by The Animation Workshop. It starts with this line: -“Some might ask: who is this Viking and what made him throw -a dwarf off a cliff?” Many good stories exactly with this: why -somebody did something very strange, against their character or -against what we would expect from a person like him. Why this +Explanation, why not-that-girl did this is exactly the main +point of any literature! See the awesome short film “`The Saga +Of Biorn`_” by The Animation Workshop. It starts with this line: +“Some might ask: who is this Viking and what made him throw a +dwarf off a cliff?” Many good stories start exactly with this: +why somebody did something very strange, against their character +or against what we would expect from a person like him? Why this not-that-girl does things which she shouldn’t do is exactly this question that made me interested in the story. diff --git a/faith/broken_dumbledore.rst b/faith/broken_dumbledore.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..51ed0df --- /dev/null +++ b/faith/broken_dumbledore.rst @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +Broken Dumbledore +################# + +:date: 2022-07-30T11:52:30 +:category: faith +:tags: review, harryPotter, blogComment + +(my comments on “`Anger and Albus Dumbledore`_” by u/HorseLaw14) + +I think he doesn’t understand emotions at all. Yes, I will say, +he knows nothing about love. And, no, I don’t care whether he is +gay or straight, there is absolutely no evidence anywhere for +Dumbledore/Minerva (or Dumbledore/Snape, if you wish) ships +anywhere close to the neighbourhood of the canon. + +As a married man for more than a quarter of a century, I know +that love is much more than shagging, and we have no evidence +that Dumbledore truly loved anybody after the age of fifteen. And +without regard to whether they loved each other (we don’t know +it, really) or whether they did the deed, they certainly had no +time for love to develop into something real. And, as I said, +love is much more than that, when thinking about it love is +sharing of life most of all. I don’t know if I have ever read it +somewhere, but the unit of love for measurement of it is one bit, +unit of information. And yes, I understand operational security, +but absolute isolation from everybody else, and complete secrecy +about his thoughts is not only stupid (because a bus factor of +the Order of Phoenix was essentially one) but it also testifies +to quite a dysfunctional personality. So, yes, for all his talks +about love being the biggest magic in the world, he was saying it +as somebody who knows love only from afar, not from his personal +experience. + +Also, if you are telling me that he couldn’t be in love with +anybody because he was carrying a torch for Grindelwald all that +time, in the same manner, Snape was carrying the torch for Lily, +I don’t believe you. I don’t trust that one either (it seems +quite obsessive and unhealthy not to be able to grieve through +that loss in eleven years at least to the level that one is not +bullying a son of your former lover), but at least Snape’s love +I can rationalize. Carrying a torch for the equivalent of Hitler +or Putin for ninety years is a sign of a seriously disturbed +personality, in my opinion. Love is not sickness, and when your +crush turns out to be a horrible monster, a normal person grieves +for a while mostly for the lost hope and goes on with his life. +Not keeping flame for another **ninety** years. + +So, I am not into evil!Dumbledore or the manipulative!Dumbledore, +just into his rather a flawed personality. Not morally, but +psychologically. + +.. _`Anger and Albus Dumbledore`: + https://www.reddit.com/r/HPfanfiction/comments/wbpd47/comment/ii8f6ec/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 diff --git a/faith/nezlorec-krali.rst b/faith/nezlorec-krali.rst index 4e39006..3e2c295 100644 --- a/faith/nezlorec-krali.rst +++ b/faith/nezlorec-krali.rst @@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ křesťanů k politice. křesťany důvodem, proč se raději tváří, že lidi v moci postavení (od pana prezidenta až po poslední úřednici na místním úřadě) jsou monarchové z Boží milosti, a oni si mohou - zakrýt oči před tím co takový člověk dělá a před svou + zakrýt oči před tím, co takový člověk dělá, a před svou odpovědností. #. Prezident České republiky není absolutní monarcha. Biblický @@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ křesťanů k politice. povinností. To je v případě českého prezidenta překvapivě málo (čl. 62 Ústavy). Jedná se o různá jmenování (profesoři, velvyslanci, vláda), amnestie a aktivity - v rámci zákonodárného procesu. Můžu si o nic mnohé myslet + v rámci zákonodárného procesu. Můžu si o nich mnohé myslet (a třeba o amnestii pana prezidenta Klause nebo o různých vyznamenáních udělených panem prezidentem Zemanem si myslím mnohé), ale v zásadě je nám nezbývá než je respektovat @@ -197,7 +197,7 @@ křesťanů k politice. jak si ulevuje, tak ho nezavraždím, maximálně mu ustřihnu kus pláště (1Sa 24). Používám tohoto absurdního příkladu, abych ukázal, že úcta biblických postav ke králům byla - velice omezena. Rozhodně co se týče kritiky izraelských + velice omezena. Rozhodně, co se týče kritiky izraelských a judských králů se toho můžeš dočíst velice mnoho a rozhodně bych se neodvažoval tvrdit, že všichni ti, kteří kritizovali někdy často katastrofální vládu biblických @@ -270,7 +270,7 @@ křesťanů k politice. v její válce na Ukrajině (i proti vlastnímu ministerstvu zahraničních věcí a ministerstvu národní obrany tvrdil, že na Ukrajině a Krymu nejsou žádná ruská vojska; teď tuto lež - přiznala i Moskva, pan prezident se za tyto lži nikdy + přiznala i Moskva, náš pan prezident se za tyto lži nikdy neomluvil, i když poté co se svým podílem na okupaci Krymu vytahoval i pan Putin, tak tuto skutečnost musel také připustit). Máme v PCF několik lidí z Ukrajiny a tak se mi diff --git a/faith/reconcile-tradition.rst b/faith/reconcile-tradition.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..642450a --- /dev/null +++ b/faith/reconcile-tradition.rst @@ -0,0 +1,71 @@ +Reconciliation with tradition +############################# + +:date: 2022-07-07T09:59:56 +:status: draft +:category: faith +:tags: KChO, PCF, + +One of many surprises I have experienced after 1989 was how +different was trajectory of development of different +post-Communist nations. And what was even more shocking was how +much these trajectories followed their previous history and +tradition. It is widely accepted by historians that pre-War +Czechoslovakia was truly exceptional island of democracy in the +Central Europe (with serious problems in its policy towards +national minorities). Polish regime of general Pilsudski was more or +less democratic, but it has some very unpleasant characteristics: +part of the opposition was quite violently and probably +unlawfully persecuted, it was quite militaristic, but overall it +was more or less democratic free regime, and its glory is shining +lot on the background of the following horrible regimes, Nazi +occupation and Communist regime. Hungary regime of admiral Horty +was not even pretending to be democracy. In 1989 we started from +quite similar starting places, all of us coming fresh from the +oppression of Communism, and it was shocking how twenty years +later we are in quite similar places. Czechia is still more or +less functional democracy, which so far managed to resist all +attempt to destroy it (and we have still problems with our only +remaining national minority … Roma), Poland is again democracy +with serious problems in the division of powers, rule of law and +freedom of press (opposition is not violently oppressed, +thankfully), and Hungary is an authoritarian regime which doesn’t +even pretend much. + +My teenage daughter came to me couple of weeks ago and shared +with me her constant feeling of unease with her classmates. She +felt weird how she was exceptional among her peers as not having +divorced parents and not being separated from them. I could just +affirm her observation, because I was in her age exactly in the +same position. And marriage of my parents was not always rosy, +exactly in that age my parents were struggling through strong +conflicts with one another. My father wanted to buy a house and +move to another part of Prague, while my Mum wanted to stay. +Their arguments were sometimes so loud that I couldn’t stay in +our home, and I have to run away. However, somehow they managed +to stay together, and I could never be enough thankful to them +for this example. Yes, our marriage with Markéta is sometime +a bit loud and we have sometimes struggled with our arguments, +but so far from God’s mercy we are still together, twenty-five +years later. + +Czech nation has to be one of the biggest specialists in starting +from scratch again. After the renewal of the very existence of +our nation, language, etc. our ancestors started from the middle of the +nineteenth century rebuild Czech industry, Czech politics started +on the municipal and regional level and since then until the +early twentieth century they managed to get Czech lands to the +level of that mentioned pre-War democracy and economically +Czechoslovakia was among ten most developed industrial nations in +the world. And then the First World War came and lot of what was +build was destroyed together with security and business +environment of the Austrian empire. Czechs (and Slovaks, where +the situation was even more complicated, because they were +largely missing on the development of the second half of the +nineteenth century. It took twenty years to reestablish economy, +bringing up new leaders of both nation and industry, and then it +was destroyed by even worse Second World Wars. And we can +continue: starting again in 1945, 1968, and after 1989, fifth +time in hundred and fifty years. No wonder there is a lot of +hopelessness and collecting enthusiasm to start again is +complicated and painful process. diff --git a/faith/soul-bonds-arranged-marriage.rst b/faith/soul-bonds-arranged-marriage.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..75deec2 --- /dev/null +++ b/faith/soul-bonds-arranged-marriage.rst @@ -0,0 +1,81 @@ +Soul bonds and arranged marriages +################################# + +:date: 2022-06-16 +:category: faith +:tags: review, harryPotter, blogComment + +Comment on the Reddit thread “`Soul bonding fics with depth?`_” +by ZappyFence discussing “`Error of Soul`_” by Materia-Blade) + +> Can you elaborate? As someone who read it, I'm still not sure +> what people mean when they say this. + +In the end every soul-bond fanfiction story is a story of +imposed/unintended relationship. + +We, here in Europe (and consequently in America, and from that +via Hollywood to the whole world), are persuaded under the +influence of our individualism (and perhaps the Romantic movement +of the early 19th century) that the best reason why to build +a life-long marriage is mutual infatuation with each other, and +that the best spouse anybody can find is the one which we find on +our own in strict isolation from anybody else. + +The often quoted claim (which certainly originally was `not by +Albert Einstein`_) “The definition of insanity is doing the same +thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” (or +I like the alternative formulation of the same thought: “If you +always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve +always gotten.”). Insisting on this individualistic romantic love +as a foundation of marriage, despite almost half of marriages +ending in divorce, says something about the collective insanity +of our civilization. + +It wasn’t always so and what’s even more interesting, not +everybody hated it. I am a Czech (a man, if it matters), and +I live in Prague, but I attend an English-speaking international +church here, so I have friends from all over the world. I have +been haunted for long time by talk I had with a slightly +distraught and sad lady in her twenties, who was from India +(somewhere around Pune). She was sharing how sad and depressed +she was: not only from the general homesickness and insecurities +of life abroad, but also, how she put it, that she would like to +find a boyfriend and she misses help of her parents in looking +for him. That actually stunned me: it doesn’t have to be either +the fight with a marriage arranged by Lady Catherine de Bourgh +and her total domination, or clear individualism and everybody +only for themselves, it could be cooperation and family helping +one of its members. + +I think better soul-bond stories could investigate this issue. +The book by the Christian missionary Walter Trobisch “`I loved +a girl`_” (highly recommended) cites an African wife who said +“You, Europeans, put a hot pot with a stew on cold table and hope +it will stay hot as long as possible; we put a cold pot on stove +and it will heat up”. And that’s the perennial question about +what makes a good marriage: compatibility of spouses or their +willingness to work on their relationship? What’s more important? +I have been married for over quarter of century, and I still +don’t know the answer to this question. + +Could Harry and Hermione in this situation just sit down and +decide, that they didn’t want to be together, but now when they +have to be, could they make their marriage work? Could they be +happy together nevertheless? + +I think it would make a great story, but I am not able to write +it and I would prefer if it was written by somebody from +a culture where arranged marriages are still common. + +.. _`Soul bonding fics with depth?`: + https://www.reddit.com/r/HPfanfiction/comments/vcwxmc/soul_bonding_fics_with_depth/ + +.. _`Error of Soul`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8490518/2/Error-of-Soul + +.. _`not by Albert Einstein`: + https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same/ + +.. _`I loved a girl`: + https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1931475016 diff --git a/faith/thou_shalt_not_suffer_witch_live.rst b/faith/thou_shalt_not_suffer_witch_live.rst index fdb65ee..eb2af64 100644 --- a/faith/thou_shalt_not_suffer_witch_live.rst +++ b/faith/thou_shalt_not_suffer_witch_live.rst @@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ although we are not completely certain how exactly it was done. *menakhesh* has very complicated meaning. According to some it is just a generic term for any divination by observing signs and omens (Strong’s Dictionary). According to other (Czech Bible -commentary, Wikipedia) this word derives from the word for snake, +commentary and Wikipedia) this word derives from the word for snake, and as a verb it literally translates to hissing. It could mean either some kind of whispering or murmuring incantation, or it may signifies a snake charmer. -- cgit