There comes a time when a blogger must take a break–when blogging becomes a chore instead of a joy. I’ve reached that point, and have even felt the stirrings of animus towards anime. Last season, I only finished three shows. This season in particular strikes me as odiously mediocre, though I’ll heartily endorse Aho Girl. The series occasionally pushes the envelop too far in regard to the humor driven off sex, but it’s genuinely funny.
The winter anime season is practically upon us, and I’ve yet to wrap up Izetta, Trickster, and Flip Flappers. But, these shows ought to be finished and reviewed with the other fall anime choices of mine on or before January 7th, which appears to be the new season’s official start. And, I’ll have to reveal my favorite anime of last year!
Many upcoming shows caught my eye:
Here we are at the end of National Blog Posting Month. I tell you frankly, my dear readers, that I feel rather burned out on blogging. Ich brauche eine Pause! (I’m presently studying German in my free time.) It doesn’t help that I have been feeling this way since the beginning of this month. But, I intend to give my time to study and creative writing and should return refreshed in a couple of months. And, you’ll still see one post from me within that time for Beneath the Tangles’ Twelve Days of Christmas series on the penultimate day before Christmas (December 23rd).
Happy blogging to you all!
My dear readers know that I occasionally take breaks from blogging. Essentially, I have a millions hobbies and pursuits, many of which suffer neglect. At present, reading and fiction writing have been given too little attention. To myself, my writing style appears to have ossified of late, and I feel like my articles draw on fewer authors. Reading itself often helps me remember what I have read, which helps me add more substance to what I write. Now, reading books, it pains me to relate, often feels like a chore–a sure-fire sign that I have been watching too much anime!
The worst thing about watching too much television lies in that it is designed to appeal to sentiment more than reason, as Russell Kirk, a 20th century American Conservative thinker known especially well by Hillsdale College graduates, writes in Redeeming the Time. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily: there exist noble and moral sentiments which are good to exercise. For example, we would think a man a poor American who never becomes moved by the Star-Spangled Banner. The danger comes in relying upon sentiment to dictate all our actions. It is possible for the mental muscle of reason to become so weakened that we are unable to judge our sentiments and emotions objectively–just think back to the final episodes of Gokukoku no Brynhildr.
My first day of vacation starts tomorrow. I put pilgrimage in the title because Montreal includes part of this vacation, and I cannot imagine that we shall visit that fascinating city without stopping by St. Joseph’s Oratory. This oratory was made famous by the miracles produced there and its association with St. Andre Bessette, who might have called himself St. Joseph’s doorkeeper. He was famous for thousands of miraculous cures, which he attributed to the intercession of St. Joseph.
Since it is late, and I do not want to spend too much time writing (I wake at 3 AM on the morrow–four hours from now!), I decided to briefly list some highlights of my anime hobby and spiritual life. I hope you find some of them interesting.
Only in a perfect world!
Aoi losing her gun has to count as one of the saddest moments in the show thus far.
That sums it up for my anime watching. I still owe you guys some manga reviews, so expect that around St. Edith Stein’s feastday (Aug. 9th). Speaking of saints, I find St. Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea a constant source of inspiration. There are almost four hundred pages of commentary on Matthew before I can move to the Gospel of Mark, but St. Thomas Aquinas’ ability to draw so many relevant Church Fathers on each passage of Scripture is nothing short of amazing. Also, I’m reading George MacDonald’s The Seaside Parish. George MacDonald is a genius of the spiritual life and every page contains something quotable. Why don’t people read him anymore!!? I’ll be right alongside C. S. Lewis in thanking George MacDonald for his works when I get to paradise.
Until August 9th, you’ll be seeing no more articles unless I am so lucky as to find a wi-fi hotspot. But, I should be able to respond to commentary.
Well, dear readers, as you can see from the title, I have decided to place this blog on hiatus until the 151st anniversary of the start of the Battle of Gettysburg. (To write more succinctly, July 1, 2014) My posts feel belabored of late. This means I need to perfect my hurricane before I can serve some refreshing articles to you. After all, my best articles require me to make connections between anime, literature, and religion. This leads me to the conclusion that I must use my leisure to study these things more; but, I want to leave you all with a final ramble.
While reading St. Thomas Aquinas’ On Prayer and the Contemplative Life, I discovered the three etymologies he offered for religion. He draws the first from Cicero, who gives relegere, “to read again,” as the basis for the word religion, since the religious man reads things pertaining to worship repeatedly. The next two come from the hand of St. Augustine, who claims that religion either derives from religere, “to choose again,” or—the most famous derivation–religandum, “binding again.” The religious man chooses again those things which he has lost by his negligence–prayer, charity, virtue, holiness, etc.–and binds himself once more to the divine. The three words above recall that religion is about perseverance. If someone could be virtuous and follow all the precepts of the Church without effort, would we call them religious? Maybe, but the man who falls and continues to turn back to Christ and metanoiein–to have a change of heart–every day strikes me as more religious. Even Our Lord and Lady struggled in the maintenance of their spotless characters.
People mess up, but God is always ready for our repentance–yet another important religious concept beginning with the prefix re-. Let us use the month of June, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, to once again study His life, choose again the virtue, wisdom, knowledge, and grace contained therein, and bind ourselves yet again to the Fire of Divine Love emanating from this Heart. We have already celebrated the feasts of Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. Let us now prepare ourselves to remember Corpus Christi (June 22) and the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (June 24). Then, this month will end with the feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (June 27), Immaculate Heart of Mary (June 28), and Sts. Peter and Paul (June 29). Let us remember the two hearts which love us best and the Church through which the fruits of Christ’s Sacred Passion purify and make fervent the hearts of believers daily.
Besides my wish to study more some literature and religion, I hope to do away with my need for watching anime with subtitles by the end of the month. In my last experiment, I found Manga-san to Assistant-san to easy to understand, Nisemonogatari ranging from average to impossible, and, at the beginning of Soredemo Sekai ga Utsukushii episode 9, I just caught the word tabi, “journey,” and realized that it was too hard. May that give you an idea of my present listening skills! To the end of improving them, I’ll study my kanji learner’s dictionary and read Busou Renkin and Slayers. (I read only the finest literature, you see. 🙂 ) If I want to add something hard, Kinoko Nasu’s Kara no Kyoukai or Natsume Soseki’s Within My Glass Doors will find their way on my reading list.
You’ll still see me posting about literature and poetry on Aquila et Infans or American history and politics on Aquilon’s Eyrie. Hopefully, these efforts will generate more interesting things to read by July 1st. Should some kind individual claim that my articles are still interesting, I must also confess to wanting a break from this blog–even if just for about a fortnight.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus bless and keep you all!
Medieval Otaku 