Dromocracy

Far from allowing us to take the time to do things properly, much of modern life (even the academic life) is conducted at breakneck speed dictated by others. You know you’re not in control when someone hands you a tight deadline; or that hospital appointment you’ve been waiting for turns up and forces you to rearrange your week; or you are forced to queue for hours to go through passport control or speak to a bureaucrat; or someone cancels your train/plane.

In our society, the ones with the power are the ones who can force you to slow down or speed up. More generally, power belongs to those who control the speed at which things happen. And here is a quotation from Paul Virilio that suggests ’twas ever thus:

Every society is founded on a relation of speed. Every society is dromocratic. If you take Athenian society, you’ll notice that at the top there’s the hierarch, in other words the one who can charter a trireme. Then there’s the horseman—the one who can charter a horse, to use naval language. After that, there’s the hoplite, who can get ready for war, “arm himself”—in the odd sense that the word armament has both a naval and a martial connotation—with his spears and his shield as a vector of combat. And finally, there’s the free man and the slave who only have the possibilities of hiring themselves out or being enlisted as energy in the war-machine—the rowers. In this system (which also existed in Rome with the cavalry), he who has the speed has the power. And he has the power because he is able to acquire the means, the money. The Roman horsemen were the bankers of Roman society. The one who goes the fastest possesses the ability to collect taxes, the ability to conquer, and through that to inherit the right of exploiting society. (Virilio and Lotringer, Pure War. Translated by M. Polizzotti. New York: Semiotext(e). 1997, pp. 49-50)

Alexandria restores Order of Deaconesses

About seven years ago the Patriarchate of Alexandria decided that it needed to revive the ancient order of deaconesses within the Orthodox Church in order to better serve the pastoral needs of the Church in Africa. There is a parody of an Anglican hymn that runs ‘Like a might tortoise moves the Church of God’. That may be so, but the Church does move slowly and surely in response to the needs it faces. And just last week Metropolitan Seraphim of Zimbabwe ordained Angelic Molen to serve as a deaconess in the Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa. 

It is good to see a Church of the Global South taking the lead in revisiting our ancient traditions and adapting them for use in the present. Of course, this move has already generated a good deal of heat among the more conservative elements of the Orthodox Church. For example, one critic dismisses Metropolitan Seraphim as ‘Yet another white man teaching the natives modern Western ways’. Whatever one might think about the re-emergence of deaconesses, this is a grossly unfair characterization. As I understand it, the initiative came not from the Greek hierarchy of the Church but from African priests concerned about an influx of women converts and the pastoral needs of widows (both aspects of the life of the Church that were traditionally within the remit of deaconesses).

Pascha: all are welcome at the feast

The ‘Paschal Homily of St John Chrysostom’:

If any be pious and a lover of God, let him partake of this fair and radiant festival. 

If any be a faithful servant, let him come in rejoicing in the joy of his Lord. 

If any have wearied himself with fasting, let him now enjoy his reward. 

If any have laboured from the first hour, let him today receive his rightful due. If any have come at the third, let him feast with thankfulness. If any have arrived at the sixth, let him in no wise be in doubt, for in nothing shall he suffer loss. If any be as late as the ninth, let him draw near, let him in no wise hesitate. If any arrive only at the eleventh, let him not be fearful on account of his slowness. 

For the Master is bountiful and receives the last even as the first. He gives rest to him of the eleventh hour even as to him who has laboured from the first. He is merciful to the last and provides for the first. To one He gives, and to another He shows kindness. He receives the works and welcomes the intention. He honours the act and commends the purpose. 

Enter ye all, therefore, into the joy of our Lord, and let both the first and those who come after partake of the reward. Rich and poor, dance one with another. Ye who fast and ye who fast not, rejoice today. The table is full-laden: do ye all fare sumptuously. The calf is ample: let none go forth hungry. 

Let all partake of the banquet of faith. Let all partake of the riches of goodness. 

Let none lament his poverty; for the Kingdom is manifested for all. 

Let none bewail his transgressions; for pardon has dawned from the tomb. 

Let none fear death; for the death of the Saviour has set us free. 

He has quenched death, who was subdued by it. 

He has despoiled Hades, who descended into Hades. 

Hades was embittered when it tasted of His flesh, and Isaiah, anticipating this, cried out saying: Hades was embittered when it met Thee face to face below. It was embittered, for it was rendered void. It was embittered, for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was embittered, for it was despoiled. It was embittered, for it was fettered. 

It received a body, and it encountered God. It received earth and came face to face with Heaven. It received that which it saw and fell whence it saw not. 

O Death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where is thy victory? 

Christ is risen and thou art cast down. 

Christ is risen and the demons have fallen. 

Christ is risen and the angels rejoice. 

Christ is risen and life is made free. 

Christ is risen and there is none dead in the tomb. For Christ is raised from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept. To Him be glory and dominion from all ages to all ages. Amen.

Going dark

I have decided not to post anything to this blog for the duration of Lent, so don’t expect to see anything new here until at least Bright Week (week beginning 6 May). To be honest, I may not start up again then – of late, I have been wondering whether this blog actually serves any useful purpose or is in reality nothing more than a vanity project (a way of scribbling ‘Lawrence was here’ on the virtual wall of the Internet). So, one of the things I will be doing during Lent is asking myself whether posting here is a good use of my time.

The real meaning of fasting

Great Lent begins in less than a week, so here is St John Chrysostom on the real meaning of fasting:

For the value of fasting consists not in abstinence from food, but in withdrawing from sinful practices; since he who limits his fasting only to an abstinence from meats, is one who especially disparages it. Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your works! Is it said by what kind of works? If you see a poor man, take pity on him! If you see in enemy, be reconciled to him! If you see a friend gaining honour, envy him not! If you see a handsome woman, pass her by! For let not the mouth only fast, but also the eye, and the ear, and the feet, and the hands, and all the members of our bodies.

Let the hands fast, by being pure from rapine and avarice. Let the feet fast, by ceasing from running to the unlawful spectacles. Let the eyes fast, being taught never to fix themselves rudely upon handsome countenances, or to busy themselves with strange beauties. For looking is the food of the eyes, but if this be such as is unlawful or forbidden, it mars the fast; and upsets the whole safety of the soul; but if it be lawful and safe, it adorns fasting. For it would be among things the most absurd to abstain from lawful food because of the fast, but with the eyes to touch even what is forbidden.

Do you not eat flesh? Feed not upon lasciviousness by means of the eyes. Let the ear fast also. The fasting of the ear consists in refusing to receive evil speakings and calumnies. ‘You shall not receive a false report,’ it says. Let the mouth too fast from disgraceful speeches and railing. For what does it profit if we abstain from birds and fishes; and yet bite and devour our brethren? The evil speaker eats the flesh of his brother, and bites the body of his neighbour. Because of this Paul utters the fearful saying, ‘If you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another.’ [Galatians 5:15] (John Chrysostom, On the Statues, Homily 3)

Sunshine: a review

All of us have pet hates. Writers are no exception. In fact, they may be the paradigm example of people with pet hates. One writer friend of mine cannot bear vampire stories or stories written in the first person. I must admit I’m not wild about vampire stories myself (too many of them are simply an excuse for the author to indulge in soft porn). As for first-person narrative, it is very effective when it is done well, but it is very hard to do well, and the bad stuff can be really cringe-making.

Having said that, I have found the exception that may or may not prove the rule. Robin McKinley’s 2003 novel Sunshine is a (sort of) vampire story and it is unquestionably written (very well) in the first person. I picked the book up from a second-hand book stall simply on the strength of the author’s name: she has written some seriously good fantasy of a fairly traditional kind.

The novel is set in . . . well, at first, I thought it was a post-apocalyptic America, but after a few pages I realized that it couldn’t be our world at all. For a start, magic is openly used. And the world is populated by other sentient beings besides humankind: the Others include various kinds of demon and, of course, vampires. The human race appears to be recovering from a catastrophic conflict known as the Voodoo Wars. However, as one of the characters reveals midway through the book, there is an ongoing conflict between vampires and humankind, and the vampires are winning.

The central character of the novel is a young woman called Rae (‘Sunshine’ to her friends). At the beginning of the novel, she wants nothing more than to continue enjoying her quiet life, working in her step-father’s coffee shop alongside her boyfriend, an ex-biker called Mel. The idyll is shattered when she is captured by a band of vampires. Remarkably they don’t kill her immediately: she is intended as food for a vampire they are holding captive. Even more remarkably she manages to escape (and release the captive vampire) by tapping into the magical power she has inherited from her long-vanished biological father. The novel follows her as she tries to come to terms with her dubious gift and forges an unlikely alliance with the vampire she freed.

There are hints of Buffy the Vampire Slayer here – but only hints. Yes, there is action and adventure but there is also really good characterization and excellent description. In particular, the magical systems that operate in this alternate earth are well thought out and lovingly described. Likewise with the vampires: instead of being just another take on an increasingly clichéd monster, McKinley’s vampires are unhuman in a number of new ways (not least their spatial perception and the way they move from place to place).

Neil Gaiman thinks very highly of it; so, I’m in good company:

I woke up too early, so started reading Robin McKinley's forthcoming novel “SUNSHINE” in the bath. It’s an astonishing piece of work. A gripping, funny, page-turning pretty much perfect work of magical literature that exists more or less at the unlikely crossroads of Chocolat, Interview With a Vampire, Misery and the tale of Beauty and the Beast. It’s not quite SF, and it’s not really horror, and only kind of a love story, and it’s all three while still being solidly Fantastique. It also does that nice thing where the author assumes the readers are smart, and she treats us like we’re smart, and we purr and get smarter and work harder for all that. It’ll be nominated for awards, and win them; in the meantime I really hope, when it’s published, it finds its audience, which is, potentially, huge. (https://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2003/07/well-what-i-say-is-dear-whatever-gets.asp)

Learning to see in black and white

I’ve just embarked on a course on Developing Your Mono Vision led by Simon Ellingworth.

Why? Because I really like the simplicity and degree of abstraction that black and white brings to a photograph. It is no coincidence that one of my photographic heroes is the great landscape photographer Ansel Adams.

But actually working out what might make a good black and white image is not straightforward when we see the world in ‘glorious technicolor’. So, I’ve come across a couple of tricks that might help train my eye for monochrome:

1. Using my smartphone: I have discovered that the Lightroom Camera app allows you to set the screen so that it displays in monochrome simply by choosing one of the two black and white presets that are available in the app. (As long as you are shooting in raw this  won’t affect the final image.)
2. Using my DSLR: The same thing can be done using Live View. On my Nikon, it is simply a matter of setting Picture Control to monochrome.