Reading Journal

Yaaaay!! I finally finished Twelve Ordinary Men and started The Bluest Eye. I forgot that I read it in college, so it's also a reread. And I was surprised to find I finished it (there are my markings on the last page), since I think I read it winter term freshman year, for one of Jim's classes. And I thought the only assignments I finished reading for him were the ones I got paid to do.



That's right, kids, I got paid to not only read, but I got paid to do my homework! I was doing workstudy for him (copying handouts, that sort of thing) and he wanted to make a handout for our Chekov assignments. See, classic Russian authors like to give their characters a name and then 5 or 6 pet names that may or may not be closely related to their given name. Jim asked me to make a handout with the alternate names for each of the stories.



But that's all tangental.



Final thoughts on Twelve Ordinary Men:

The third quarter of the book was the driest. The chapter on Judas Iscariot was interesting at first, but it got repetitive. I don't think this was MacArthur's intention, but his words really only invoked my pity for Judas I. Yeah, what the guy did was tragic, but necessary. I found myself paralleling him to Eve. But what I really think got my heart to bleed for J.I. was all the bashing he got from MacArthur. Just because the guy's a historical figure, doesn't mean you can judge his heart any more than you can judge your neighbor's.

On page 215, MacArthur quotes Charles H. Spurgeon trying to reconcile free will/agency with foreordination. And I've come to this conclusion: God knows us so well, He knows what we will choose. Our choices can please or disappoint God, but they will never surprise Him.

p. 230
"Would that Judas were the only hypocrite who ever betrayed the Lord, but that is not so."
It always makes me sad when people who (seem to) have a close relationship with the Godhead (or any member thereof) sever ties. Nearly paralyzing.

From the first few pages of the Bluest Eye...

Toni Morrison has the most captivating descriptions of settings.
p. 6 (Just before the "Autumn" section.)
"But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how."

p. 23
"I learned much later to worship her, just as I learned to delight in cleanliness, knowing, even as I learned, that the change was adjustment without improvement."
I like that idea: change being adjustment without improvement.