Category Archives: humour
Generation A in his own words
Our book group is discussing Douglas Coupland’s Generation A tonight (which I have reviewed). I just found this question and answer session about it. Some weird questions but he does give us an insight into how his brain works and what was behind the book. Some of what he says about story remind me of what Donald Miller wrote in ‘A million miles in a thousand years‘ about our lives needing to be story. Perhaps this is what Coupland thinks we have lost.
Simon Cowell on TV talent shows
Great quote from Simon Cowell about the importance of shows like X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent:
“The great thing about it is when you start seeing it in places like China and Afghanistan. It’s democracy. We’ve kinda given democracy back to the world.”
via BBC NEWS | Scotland | Edinburgh, East and Fife | Oprah show subtitles Susan Boyle.
I didn’t realise talent shows were going to save the world
Yabadabadoo
At our church we use a kids song which has the same tune as the theme to the Flintstones. This goes one better:
Slam (Nick Hornby) – a book review
Slam is another novel from Nick Hornby, one of my favourite authors. Whilst not up to his previous highs of A Long Way Down, or High Fidelity, the book has some good things going for it. It is written in Hornby’s usual light and witty style. And again, he deals with some serious issues.
Sam is a teenage boy who loves skateboarding. He’s been brought up by his mum, who was a teenage parent when she had him, and doesn’t he know it! He almost carries around the guilt that he ruined her life and he is determined not to fall into the same trap. But generally has a good relationship with his mum. He is a fairly typical teenager – one who is bored by school and who ends relationships simply by stopping calling.
However, by accident (of course), he gets Alicia, his girlfriend, pregnant. His initial reaction is to run away to Hastings, get a job, start a new life, and forget about everything. Of course, that doesn’t work and he comes home and faces up to what has happened. The rest of the book is about how Sam deals with it and comes to some maturity. Near the end, once the baby is born, the book starts to drag a little, but as I said, there are a few good points worth looking at.
Firstly, the book shows quite clearly that sex can make babies, even when you try to be careful. Current society has divorced sex from family in a way that often hides this. At no point in the book is the pregnancy a ‘problem’ that just needs to be ‘dealt with’. The pregnancy is always a baby. Abortion is mentioned but Sam and Alicia never seriously consider it (although it might have been interesting to see in the book how this conversation might have gone). Their priority is to get through the next nine months and afterwards.
Secondly, Hornby employs an interesting way for Sam to think through his feelings. Sam, being a skateboarder is a huge fan of skateboarding legend Tony Hawk (who is actually a real person). Sam has a poster of Tony on his bedroom wall and knows the words to Tony Hawk’s autobiography by heart. As a result, Sam seems to talk to Tony through the poster, and Tony talks back through the words of his book, Tony acts as a sort of interactive god to Sam, giving advice and thoughts. This reminded me a little of the Orthodox use of icons in order to commune with God, except that Tony isn’t God. It shows Sam’s need for a spiritual ‘other’ – a higher power to aspire to and to guide.
The end of the book starts to drag a little, especially once the baby is born. And it gets a little predictable. Not Nick Hornby’s best book by any means, but it’s a short read, has some funny moments, and some thoughtful ones.
Two Caravans – a book review.
In Two Caravans (sometimes sold under the title Strawberry Fields) Marina Lewycka has written a wonderful, funny, and thought provoking novel. Her first book was A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.
Two Caravans examines the life of immigrant workers to the UK who are recruited to work legally and illegally picking fruit and vegetables each summer. It follows Irina, a politically western leaning Ukrainian from Kiev who has come for an adventure, and Andriy, from the industrial and mining east of Ukraine which politically looks to Russia. Irina joins a team of strawberry pickers from Poland, Ukraine, Malawi, China, and Malaysia, working on a farm in Kent. They live in two caravans by the side of the field, their food is basic, and their pay is virtually nothing. But what are they to do?
However, things start to go wrong. Irina is not very good at picking strawberries. And Vulk, the burly ‘recruitment officer’ thinks he will get better money for her by putting her to work on the streets at night. Irina runs away. Together, the rest of them hitch up one of the caravans to the farmer’s Land Rover and escape to find Irina. Some get new work in slaughter houses for chickens. This section is described so vividly that it really makes you want to eat organic. Their work takes them from restaurants in London, care homes near Peterborough, to Sheffield – the city that Andriy has been dreaming of since childhood. All the time on the run from Vulk. And there is a surprising hero.
At the heart of the story is a story of love and protection – how a western leaning city girl can fall for an eastern leaning pro-Russian former miner. Their love deals with things that are far more important than politics, loyalty, friendship and protection. These things are also portrayed as more important than trying to climb up the prosperity ladder whilst leaving their morals behind, as some characters do. Lewycka writes about some quite horrific things – how prostitution can be seen as a step to the better life, the constant fear of escape from that life, the poor conditions for immigrant workers, and the conditions in the chicken-houses for workers and chickens! But all along she makes the narrative bounce along with lightness and humour.
Well worth reading.
The Lambeth Conference on the Colbert Report
There’s a suprisingly informative and very funny video report on the Colbert Report about the Lambeth Conference and the current crisis in the Anglican communion. I love his sense of Catholic superiority.
Sadly I could get the vieo to embedd, so you’ll have to follow the link.
http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=177674
Weekly roundup – evangelism
Scott McKnight makes some good points on evangelism in post modern society, from two books he’s read including James Choung, who I wrote about earlier.
Time magazine has an article about what evanglicals beleive in America at the moment. They claim that increasing numbers no longer beleive that Christianity is the only way to God.
There is lots of stuff going on in the Anglican Communion at the moment, with the GAFCON meeting in Jerusalem and the lead up to the 10-yearly Lambeth conference. One blogger sums it up clearly and humourously here.
An over-zealous Christian out on the streets misses the point of the gospel
