My first thought about the tragedy comment yesterday was King Lear (well, Ran, to be honest, but it's the same thing). Shakespearean tragedies tend to have one tragic flaw or decision that dooms the character. I think Greek tragedies tended the same way.
Strange Company so far seems to be more true (I'm only about 30% through it) in that Orion says that the Company has many times made "compromises" to ensure victory or at least survival and getting to the next world. There may be some huge tragic failure later in the book (or in a later book that we haven't gotten yet, of course), but these compromises Orion talks about seem like the Company is trading away something important for a momentary advantage, and then the Company is left worse off in the end--with the effect of making it easier for them to make those trade-offs every time.
Thank you for addressing my question! Your discussion, as well as everyone else's input, helped to clear up this distinction for me. I think I was confusing"tragedy" with "hopelessness." A tragic story is not inherently nihilistic. Thank you for the reminder! And for all of the great stories! I am really looking forward to Strange Company!!!
32:56-"How can a Christian properly participate creatively in tragedy?"
Write thousands of bad jokes just like I do, and the beautiful part is that no religious preference is even necessary, the tragedy eventually just sort of writes itself.
It also helps to think of it as a sort-of literary Hindenburg, in that only the swiftest will be able to escape the quickly accelerating flame front of groans that will explode from the crowd once they hear something that I might have thought was funny.
25:16-"Concerning the podcast, it's a casual, hip, groovy, relaxed, coffee cafe conversation, up until the point where that one odd 'Larry' guy walks in and sits down, and then of course we all uncomfortably get out of our chairs and shift to other tables as far away as possible while struggling to avoid eye contact, because of course he's going to try to say something funny."
I'm glad someone does, because I sure as heck don't want a thing to do with him, anyone with a motorcycle helmet over the size of XXXL probably doesn't have anything intelligent to add to a conversation anyway.
I think the thing that will really change people's minds about the vaccine push is going to be the suppression of information on alternative treatments and the huge amount of government money that is likely being slushed around but our remarkably incurious journalist class can't be bothered to note. Probably won't be allowed to happen for at least a year though. I feel confident a lot of legislators and their families have invested appropriately to ensure the wellbeing of their personal financial portfolios.
Russian tea cakes are a Christmas thing in my family. One of my brothers is good at those. I took over making the kifli* and kalacs* (Magyar baked goods) from my maternal grandma about 20 or so years ago.
Kifli: little cookies made with cream cheese dough and various fillings such as apricot, raspberry, ground walnut, and lekvar (prune butter). Poppyseed is a popular filling too, but I never cared much for it so I don't use it myself.
Kalacs: Raised-dough cake rolls with the same variety of fillings as kifli. Both five stars, highly recommended.
The Book of Job is pretty much entirely tragedy.
My first thought about the tragedy comment yesterday was King Lear (well, Ran, to be honest, but it's the same thing). Shakespearean tragedies tend to have one tragic flaw or decision that dooms the character. I think Greek tragedies tended the same way.
Strange Company so far seems to be more true (I'm only about 30% through it) in that Orion says that the Company has many times made "compromises" to ensure victory or at least survival and getting to the next world. There may be some huge tragic failure later in the book (or in a later book that we haven't gotten yet, of course), but these compromises Orion talks about seem like the Company is trading away something important for a momentary advantage, and then the Company is left worse off in the end--with the effect of making it easier for them to make those trade-offs every time.
"I think Greek tragedies tended the same way."
Greek tragedies are also almost nearly indistinguishable from their comedies.
Thank you for addressing my question! Your discussion, as well as everyone else's input, helped to clear up this distinction for me. I think I was confusing"tragedy" with "hopelessness." A tragic story is not inherently nihilistic. Thank you for the reminder! And for all of the great stories! I am really looking forward to Strange Company!!!
"...as well as everyone else's input..."
I think that all my commentary is good for is "well, now I know how NOT to look at this!".
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
32:56-"How can a Christian properly participate creatively in tragedy?"
Write thousands of bad jokes just like I do, and the beautiful part is that no religious preference is even necessary, the tragedy eventually just sort of writes itself.
It also helps to think of it as a sort-of literary Hindenburg, in that only the swiftest will be able to escape the quickly accelerating flame front of groans that will explode from the crowd once they hear something that I might have thought was funny.
25:16-"Concerning the podcast, it's a casual, hip, groovy, relaxed, coffee cafe conversation, up until the point where that one odd 'Larry' guy walks in and sits down, and then of course we all uncomfortably get out of our chairs and shift to other tables as far away as possible while struggling to avoid eye contact, because of course he's going to try to say something funny."
We love Larry!
I'm glad someone does, because I sure as heck don't want a thing to do with him, anyone with a motorcycle helmet over the size of XXXL probably doesn't have anything intelligent to add to a conversation anyway.
I think the thing that will really change people's minds about the vaccine push is going to be the suppression of information on alternative treatments and the huge amount of government money that is likely being slushed around but our remarkably incurious journalist class can't be bothered to note. Probably won't be allowed to happen for at least a year though. I feel confident a lot of legislators and their families have invested appropriately to ensure the wellbeing of their personal financial portfolios.
Russian tea cakes are a Christmas thing in my family. One of my brothers is good at those. I took over making the kifli* and kalacs* (Magyar baked goods) from my maternal grandma about 20 or so years ago.
Kifli: little cookies made with cream cheese dough and various fillings such as apricot, raspberry, ground walnut, and lekvar (prune butter). Poppyseed is a popular filling too, but I never cared much for it so I don't use it myself.
Kalacs: Raised-dough cake rolls with the same variety of fillings as kifli. Both five stars, highly recommended.