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These things have been dividing my brain between them
Executive summary: My view of history is radically affected by the haphazard reading I've done.
I'm really excited to see The King's English when it comes out. It looks like it's going to be a really good movie.
But I have this issue with Edward VIII's abdication where I didn't actually know that it had happened until I read about it in Half a Crown, so any time I hear about it in this world I get a startling flash of being in that world. I get nervous and yell at history books "ENGLAND! Hitler is ON THE MARCH. Could you pick ANOTHER YEAR to have TWO CORONATIONS?"
But ultimately it didn't matter, which speaks fascinatingly to the relative level of importance of English Kings in the global political sphere. As does, I suspect, the fact that I've known forever that Churchill followed Chamberlain as PM, but not who any of the Kings between Victoria and Elizabeth were.
So I'm fascinated that all the ads for The King's English are about the vital role of the King as a spokesperson for his country, and the need for him to overcome his stutter so he can become a good orator. It looks really good, and yet it's striking that one of the best orators of the twentieth century became PM four years later. So I guess in the long run George VI's oratory became less significant.
I am trying once again to conquer Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, this time via audiobook. I am still in the all Daniel Waterhouse all the time section, and I am reminded once again how very fond of the Puritans I am. Stephenson doesn't write them nearly as charmingly as Sarah Vowell does, but I still want to draw pink sparkly hearts around their sectarian debates.
Speaking of which, the Pew survey about religious knowledge has been going around. They've released a subset of the questions as an online quiz, but they've also got the full survey available as a PDF. My grandmother had a copy printed out when I visited on Friday, and we spent a while talking about it.
The questions were mostly obvious, but there was one that took me a really long time to puzzle out (it's not in the quiz version):
45. Which of these religious groups traditionally teaches that salvation comes through faith
alone?
1 Only Protestants
2 Only Catholics
3 Both (Protestants) and (Catholics)
4 Neither (Protestants) nor (Catholics)
Since it turns out I have a vastly better grasp of Protestant religious views than any other branch of Christianity, my first thought was "Isn't that what Anne Hutchinson was excommunicated for? Clearly it can't be Protestants." And yet, apparently the answer is (1).
It is funny reading about Puritans at the same time as Wolf Hall. Thomas and Oliver Cromwell are very different fellows! But it definitely makes it feel like there is a distinct march of progress down through Martin Luther, Henry VIII, to the Puritans. What happens after that in Christianity I don't know, but I just keep reading about these two religious revolutions in England.
The above subjects, cross-referenced:
- Compare and Contrast Edward VIII abdicating the thrown to marry a divorcee with Henry VIII starting a new church to get a divorce.
- Were Thomas and Oliver Cromwell related? (spoilers: The answer includes Kat and Morgan, Wolf Hall readers!)
I'm really excited to see The King's English when it comes out. It looks like it's going to be a really good movie.
But I have this issue with Edward VIII's abdication where I didn't actually know that it had happened until I read about it in Half a Crown, so any time I hear about it in this world I get a startling flash of being in that world. I get nervous and yell at history books "ENGLAND! Hitler is ON THE MARCH. Could you pick ANOTHER YEAR to have TWO CORONATIONS?"
But ultimately it didn't matter, which speaks fascinatingly to the relative level of importance of English Kings in the global political sphere. As does, I suspect, the fact that I've known forever that Churchill followed Chamberlain as PM, but not who any of the Kings between Victoria and Elizabeth were.
So I'm fascinated that all the ads for The King's English are about the vital role of the King as a spokesperson for his country, and the need for him to overcome his stutter so he can become a good orator. It looks really good, and yet it's striking that one of the best orators of the twentieth century became PM four years later. So I guess in the long run George VI's oratory became less significant.
I am trying once again to conquer Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, this time via audiobook. I am still in the all Daniel Waterhouse all the time section, and I am reminded once again how very fond of the Puritans I am. Stephenson doesn't write them nearly as charmingly as Sarah Vowell does, but I still want to draw pink sparkly hearts around their sectarian debates.
Speaking of which, the Pew survey about religious knowledge has been going around. They've released a subset of the questions as an online quiz, but they've also got the full survey available as a PDF. My grandmother had a copy printed out when I visited on Friday, and we spent a while talking about it.
The questions were mostly obvious, but there was one that took me a really long time to puzzle out (it's not in the quiz version):
45. Which of these religious groups traditionally teaches that salvation comes through faith
alone?
1 Only Protestants
2 Only Catholics
3 Both (Protestants) and (Catholics)
4 Neither (Protestants) nor (Catholics)
Since it turns out I have a vastly better grasp of Protestant religious views than any other branch of Christianity, my first thought was "Isn't that what Anne Hutchinson was excommunicated for? Clearly it can't be Protestants." And yet, apparently the answer is (1).
It is funny reading about Puritans at the same time as Wolf Hall. Thomas and Oliver Cromwell are very different fellows! But it definitely makes it feel like there is a distinct march of progress down through Martin Luther, Henry VIII, to the Puritans. What happens after that in Christianity I don't know, but I just keep reading about these two religious revolutions in England.
The above subjects, cross-referenced:
- Compare and Contrast Edward VIII abdicating the thrown to marry a divorcee with Henry VIII starting a new church to get a divorce.
- Were Thomas and Oliver Cromwell related? (spoilers: The answer includes Kat and Morgan, Wolf Hall readers!)