Sunday, November 27, 2011

Recommendation

No, don't read this book it's much to far in depth and gets confusing at parts. Unless you enjoy a challenging read and want to have your mind blown about the things about God in this book. There is one positive reason and that would be if you like philosophy. Other than that the rest are negative, you have to reread a sentence a couple of times to just catch the meaning of it and its a 66 paged book, but it took me four hours to read through it. It has long thought out questions and makes you search for what is true in life, it is not a fun book to read, confusing and bewildering.

Book summary

This book would take forgive to summarize it goes so far in depth and it makes you look deep inside what and who God really is. It starts out talking about in nature what God is and how it is connected, her house and who lives with her and what happens in it. Her camping trip watching a moth be engulfed in flames and reading all the time everywhere.  Looking out the window wondering what is real or just an imagination. A plane crash burning a little girls faceand wanting to know why God did this to this girl and not having anyone else suffer. Making apple cider watching the girl play with her cat and trying to whistle, but still enjoying life having a good life laughing when people stare at her sometimes like shes hiding something. The church service and the minister giving a prayer about God's grace and stopping during it saying "Lord, we bring you these same petitions every week." Women bringing flowers to the altar. Wondering what would happen is God didn't like a service what would happen. Watching a baptism and how the water on the mans back weigh like planets and have worlds in each one of them showing color and people inside. Finally goes on and talks about how god is connected to the earth through prayerand belief. There is more that happens, but to put it into words would take forever to explain they are so in depth and you have to read into it, its all about Gods presence and what he does for us and how he is.

Best section of the book

Newborn and Salted
This section out of the three was the best because of it was much more down to earth and a lot less confusing then the other two.  She wakes up and describes what everything is from God.  His fingers are firs, islands on his shoulders, eyes are in the clouds, arms are like rainbows, body and skin the sky.  What is in her house and the spider that lives in the bathroom catching and eating everything she traps. Her camping trip in the mountains and watching a moth being consumed by the candle flame and finds a new island in the distance and doesnt know what to name them so she decides Newborn and Salted.  The others are more about the essence of God and its hard to follow and understand you have to really read deeply into them.

author's tone

page 42
She starts out talking about the joke of the world is like a rake in a grass waiting for one to step on it making a right angle which accomplishes all philosophy. How stepping on it makes it mind under matter again, saying all these bizarre things ranting. The tone first starts as being comical and then works it way over to being really serious and with a hint of hidden anger.

Significant events that happened in the book

Not much happens in the book most of it is in her head or looking at nature. there are five specific events she talks about, but the rest is an out of body expercience of thought in describing God and how He belongs playing a part in this world.
1. A moth being consumed by a flame, She watched as a golden female moth gets stuck in the melted wax and her wings ignite like paper, legs and antennae burn away,  mouth parts crackled and head gone.  She wondered if the moth completed her life and done her work by laying eggs and for 2 hours her body burned like another wick.
2. An airplane crash burning a girls face, An engine failure caused a plane to go across the strip and crash the girls father was pulling her out with fuel on her face and an ignition source came shooting out and hit the vapors on her face burning it leaving scars and less skin on her face. She wanted to know why that girl was the only one hurt during it and way God was doing this
3. Making apple cider with her neighbors, They were bringing apples from everywhere in bushels and mashed them up then putting the mash in a pillowcase filtering. But that little girl was there playing with her cat dressing it up as Annie watched her.
4. Going to church, The minister who was a Congregationalistgiving a prayer about God's grace to all and women bringing large arrangements of flowers to the altar.  Then going on and talking about the higher churches and how it more authority and God is held to a higher place than lower ones that could expect Him blasting in any minute ripping a service to bits and this is the beginning of wisdom.
5. Watching a baptism, Two men are bare to the waist walk into the cold beach water and holds one under and he comes back up the beads of water on him make her think of them as worlds alive and apparent seeing people and color inside.

Places in "Holy the Firm"

The first place would be her house bare and not much to it. From the book it sounds like its one room with a bathroom with just a toilet and mirror. The room has a bed with a quilt on it a chair and a desk with a candle on it where she does her reading, and a window with curtains where she looks out and wonders about the earth and what is truly real.

The second is the Blue Ridge Mountains where she went camping to read. Sitting everyday under a tree reading warblers singing and worms at her feet and at night read by candlelight and listened to the barred owls and moths flying around the open flame getting smited by it. She had her tent and cooking gear, but without description.

The most important entity in the "Holy the Firm"

Annie Dillard my be the person writing it, but her part in it is very small describing the world around her and God. She mentions few people only the ones that live near her like Julie Norwich in the most detail.  But the one that stands out the most is the description of God  through out the book she mentions Him in many forms and that he changes everyday with different emotions and figures to Him. "the god of today is a boy, pagan and fernfoot" and "The god of today is rampant and drenched." He has no true form it is always changing and having different effects on the weather, he is nature will and strength.

Why the name "Holy the Firm"

This book deals in depth about the presence of God in the world. That the world is a base, the form of God in turn meaning the firm while the holy is the religious part that is He is all powerful. That He is connected to both worlds through the pray and worship, for as long as there is something that believes in Him and can come in many forms even appear in nature.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Who the author behind the book is

Annie Dillard the author of Holy the Firm and many others like ,Living by Fiction, Teaching a Stone to Talk, Encounters with Chinese Writers, An American Childhood, The Writing Life, 
The Living, Mornings Like This For the Time Being, The Maytrees, Tickets for a Prayer Wheel, and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.  Pulitzer Prize winner for the book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.  She is best known for ecotheological, or ecospiritual, essays.  Her writing have appeared in a number of magazines and loves nature.  She explored a wide range of spiritual traditions, incorporating concepts from Buddhism, Sufism, Judaism, Christianity, and native Eskimo belief systems into her own eclectic outlook.  Went into a woodsy seclusion after a near-fatal bout of pneumonia in 1971 and recovered starting her writing. She worships all gods and beliefs.

Thursday, November 17, 2011