Paradise Lost

Gustave Dore's illustration of Lucifer in John Milton's Paradise Lost.

Sweeney Todd

Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd.
His skin was pale and his eye was odd.
He shaved the faces of gentlemen
who never thereafter were heard of again.
He trod a path that few have trod
did Sweeney Todd
the demon barber of fleet street.
He kept a shop in London town.
Of fancy clients and good renown
and what if none of their souls were saved
they went to their maker impecably shaved.
By Sweeney,
by Sweeney Todd
the demon barber of fleet street.

"The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" by Stephen Sondheim

The wallpaper was composed by sajwest.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Science-fiction Cradlesong

Most people know C.S Lewis by his magnus opus "The Chronicles of Narnia". Some more interessted may also know that he's was part of the literary discussion group The Inklings (together with J.R.R. Tolkien).

But I never thought that C.S. Lewis would write something like this poem:

By and by Man will try
To get out into the sky,
Sailing far beyond the air
From Down and Here to Up and There.
Stars and sky, sky and stars
Make us feel the prison bars.

Suppose it done. Now we ride
Closed in steel, up there, outside
Through our port-holes see the vast
Heaven-scape go rushing past.
Shall we? All that meets the eye
Is sky and stars, stars and sky.

Points of light with black between
Hang like a painted scene
Motionless, no nearer there
Than on Earth, everywhere
Equidistant from our ship.
Heaven has given us the slip.

Hush, be still. Outer space
Is a concept, not a place.
Try no more. Where we are
Never can be sky or star.
From prison, in a prison, we fly;
There's no way into the sky.

"Science-fiction Cradlesong" by C.S Lewis

The Belgariad

Currently I am reading all five volumes of the Belgariad epic by David Eddings. As of now I am in the middle of the second book ("Queen of Sorcery"), but as of now I am not too impressed by the books. I am not very fond of several aspects like:

• the story is from an adolescent's point of view, who is mostly ignorant of the major background story. No cute robots, or little children, please!
• there are a lot of Deus-Ex-Machinas in the story.
• the races described in the book are often quite stereotypical.

But on the other hand the adult characters are quite enjoyable, so I will stick to reading it a little bit longer ..