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Mark R DeLong's avatar

You don't see That Hideous Strength mentioned very much, but it does have a resonance now. I used to teach that one in an Arthurian legend class. Lots of echoes with the long-surviving Arthurian tradition. It's the last of the "Space Trilogy" (Out of the Silent Planet & Perelandra being the first two), and the bad guys get their comeuppance in the end. As you'd expect, Lewis mixes up Christian and medieval stories as he built the story.

Great quote from Tom Hanks. Makes me feel that there is some reason somewhere.

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Derrick Jeter's avatar

First off, thank you for the recommendation. I ghost for a prominent television and radio pastor, so I spend my office hours pouring over commentaries and steeped in Greek and Hebrew. Y'allogy is a fun outlet for me, giving me a chance to speak (or at least write) in my native tongue—Texan.

To the point of your post, however: I appreciated your take on Portis. Though as an Arkansan he skewered my Texas sensibilities, True Grit remains a favorite for its simplicity of plot, complexity of character, and stripped down wit. The dialogue is filed to an edge sharper than an Arkansas toothpick, just as good country folk in the 19th century spoke. As a practitioner of dialogue, he ranks up there with two other masters I admire: Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy.

I also appreciated the quote from Bradford, especially the use of the phrase, "stupidity and bullying." His comment reminded me of something Christian philosopher Peter Kreeft, who in his preface to his commentary on Pascal's Pensées, Christianity for Modern Pagans, said in a footnote, no doubt because an editor redlined his text. Kreeft wrote, "Note on 'sexist' language: Those who insist on changing the centuries-old convention by which 'he' is shorthand for 'he or she' are invited to pay their dues to the newly neutered grammar god and add a 'she' to each 'he' in the following sentence, then read it aloud. If he (or she) does not have a tin ear for language, he (or she) will change his (or her) mind about his (or her) linguistic 'improvements,' I (or we) think."

The book was published with the universal "he."

Blessings.

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