Backward Mutters

  • The Short Days are Numbered.

    Fall has fallen. Bare trees and leaf covered trails make the ride around Salem Lake completely different. Favorite lines are now hidden, and incidentally, so are the rocks. Great day for riding, though. It’s getting dark at 5 and lights are on by 5:30. The solstice is coming, boys. Traveled…

  • BBC’s The Office: A 21st Century Pilgrim’s Progress

    David Brent: A Modern PilgrimDavid Brent battles a bevy of enemies: corporate, boorish friends, redundancy, and a comedy-less world. Eventually, Brent leaves the city of destruction, Wernham and Hogg and sets out on his own to find redemption. His journey ends in being able to put Finchy in his place…

  • BBC’s The Office: A 21st Century Pilgrim’s Progress

    The Slough of Despond, uh, Trading Estates“Now I saw in my dream, that just as they had ended this talk, they drew nigh to a very miry slough that was in the midst of the plain: and they being heedless, did both fall suddenly into the bog. The name of…

  • Pullman and the Gospel: Kingdom or Republic

    “Firstly, a sense that this world where we live is our home. Our home is not somewhere else. There is no elsewhere. This is a physical universe and we are physical beings made of material stuff. This is where we live. Secondly, a sense of belonging, a sense of being…

  • Pullman and Lewis: Space Trilogy not Narnia

    It would seem to me that all the comparisons with Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy and The Chronicles of Narnia are actually flawed. Rather than Narnia, the better comparison both in thought and plot would be Lewis’ Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Peralandra, and That Hideous Strength. Central…