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I thought at first this was some form of horrid April Fool's

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6267680.stm

I'm not sure if I'll be able to watch the 4th series now...

Religion In China De Groot

Religion in China: Universism: a key to the study of Taoism and Confucianism by J. J. M. De Groot.

I found this book in the second hand shop across from the British Museum. I read it a few months ago, and I’m afraid my memories of it are already a bit hazy. This book is a series of lectures De Groot, a Sinologist and former missionary, gave in America as part of a series looking at world religions. I had rather low expectations for this book. De Groot was writing in 1912 and most works written at this time tend to have a very low and often confused opinion on Chinese religion. However, this book pleasantly surprised me. De Groot previously wrote a series of books on Chinese religion and rites, these books are based on the (questionable in my opinion) idea that Chinese religion is simply animistic in outlook. However, the series contains a lot of first hand information and Qing sources that are unavailable elsewhere. De Groot gives his own translation as well as the original Chinese, and references where he is quoting. They contain wonderful stories of ghosts and supernatural. This book didn’t contain nearly as many nice stories but rather focused on the philosophy, religious practices and beliefs. What was remarkable for the time was the equal attention given to Taoism and Confucianism. At this time Taoism was largely ignored as the superstitions of the ignorant and given very little serious attention by Westerners. However, De Groot does a decent job of linking together Taoist and Confucian beliefs. He looks briefly at the influence of Buddhism on Chinese belief, but mostly is concerned with the two indigenous systems of belief, which he claims are really the same.

De Groot first looks at the unifying nature of the Tao as the nature of the universe and then as the Tao of man. He looks at the virtues associated with Confucianism, and then looks at the history of the search for immortality. He goes on to look at not just the religion of the Emperor and the elite but also of the people, he discusses Filial piety, the creation of the Taoist church, exorcism, magic, and the religious duty of the Emperor. The fact that he doesn’t limit himself to “high” or “low” religion, but looks at all religion equally helps him to see the unifying principals behind them. He ends the book with a look at Feng Shui, relating the principles that he has noted in the study of religion to the workings of geomancy. While I would caution people to not take everything in this book as accurate, it is still quite interesting and a very enjoyable read.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

We read this book for bibliogoth a month ago and I have to say I was rather disappointed. I normally love Victorian ghost stories but this one just didn’t do it for me. Part of the problem may have been that it was an American author and I’m not a fan of 90 percent of American fiction. I am also not a big fan of children. While there are several ghost stories where they can be suitably creepy I didn’t think that it was the case in this one. For me the creepiest thing about the book was the woman’s obsession with the children. Her motivation didn’t make sense, and she just came across as totally bonkers.

The ghosts were rather disappointing, it sounded like there might have been an interesting story behind their deaths, but the way they were presented, doing nothing besides just appearing, seemed very dull. At the meeting there was a lot of discussion about whether or not they were actually real, most people seemed to think that they were a figment of the woman’s imagination, especially those who were reading it for the second time.

I tried reading a couple of the other short stories in the collection, The romance of certain old clothes also seemed to have women carrying out negative stereotypes, in this case obsessed with clothes and wealth. And again the supernatural element was at a minimum. In the end I just couldn’t be bothered to read any more of the stories as there are much more enjoyable Victorian ghost stories out there.

Daughter of Earth by Agnes Smedley

Agnes Smedley wrote only one novel, she wrote this in the late 1920s before going to China while living in Germany. The book is described as “autobiographical” and most people seem to agree that the events in the book mirror her own life. The book tells the story of a young girl growing up very poor in America at the turn of the century. Normally I’m not a big fan of books about poor Americans, I can’t stand Steinbeck, but I found I really enjoyed this one. I think part of the reason was that the characters came across as real people, they were flawed and complicated and not just there to be archetypes.

The main character, Marie, was horrified by the way women were treated in her life and community. One of the most surprising things in this book was her open discussion of having two abortions and her tremendous fear of childbirth and control by men. It was heartbreaking to read of her trying to commit suicide when she discovered that she was pregnant. It made me really appreciate how much birth control has changed the lives of women, before we really didn’t have much of a choice about how to live.

It was a book about struggle, a struggle to survive and a struggle to grow. I felt that Smedley’s writing reflected the life journey of her main character and that the style improved as the character grew up and matured. What was interesting was her move towards helping the Indians in their struggle for independence from the British. It was interesting to see an underground movement in America for a change. The rape and subsequent imprisonment of Marie was just terribly sad and hard to believe that this was 20th century America.

When reading Agnes Smedley’s report of life in China during the Second World War and the civil war, I was always amazed at what she was able to endure and how strongly she was able to sympathise with the suffering around her. Having read this book I think I start to realise that there really wasn’t that much of a difference between her lives. I also think I may have to give up my idea of her being a lesbian. She definitely seemed to have a few close women friends, but I find it hard to believe that she could have been as open as honest about her relationship with men, and her attitudes towards everything else, and not be able to admit any of that. But an incredible read. One I would definitely recommend to anyone interested in gender issues or women’s history.

Wimbeldon

Monday in what is rapidly turning into a family tradition my mum and I went to Wimbeldon for the second time in two years. Last year was incredibly hot this year wasn't...

The most post-modern picture I could imagine, a giant screen showing courts covered in the rain.


( more pictures and rather un-gothic discussion of sports )

All told we saw 4 sets of Tennis in 9 hours! And my nose still got sunburned!!!