Christmas Morning -- December 25, 2015

Breaking news:

• Islamic State releases 25 Assyrian Christians in Syria, Assyrian Human Rights Network says. 

If accurate, that may be good news in the short term; but extremely bad news in the long term. I doubt ISIS is doing this under coercion or fear. My concern is that ISIL is on its way to becoming a recognized political entity like Hamas.

By the way, I think I read yesterday that Syria is negotiating with various parties in the region. I don't recall the specifics, but I got the feeling that the course of events in that part of the world might be moving into a different direction.

Fatwas: it appears ISIL and Planned Parenthood share at least one thing in common -- harvesting human body parts. It explains why the ISIL story is being reported in some media outlets, but not others.

Updates

Later, 1:59 p.m. Central Time: breaking now, confirming my earlier note above --

• Report: 2,000 rebels, including Islamic State fighters, to be evacuated from Damascus in UN deal - @Reuters  

A Note To The Granddaughters

Several years ago, in the year 2000 specifically, I began a very serious effort to "begin" reading all over again. I started with Ovid and moved forward. I stopped when I got to the Hemingway era. Somewhere along the way I tackled Samuel Richardson's Clarissa. Looking back, it's hard to believe I finished it. Even while reading it, I wondered if it would ever be worth finishing it. I've stored the book away in "Deep Storage" so I can't look at it so see how many pages it was, but let's say it was close to a thousand pages. [Oh, yes, there it is at Amazon.com: 1,534 pages.]

Clarissa is an epistolary novel. Every last bit of the story is told through handwritten letters (though typeset for the published book, of course). Having completed it, one can say they were happy to have completed it, but not knowing exactly why. Sort of like hitch-hiking cross-country these days. An accomplishment of sorts, but to what ends?

Regardless, Clarissa occupies a significant portion of my waking hours when I think about the classics, and wonder if anyone else has ever read Clarissa from start to finish. Over at Amazon this is one of my favorite reviews (and I enjoyed many of the reviews):

What a group of despicable characters! By page 500, I was hoping every character would be put to the rack. By page 1000, I was hoping for a mass hanging. By page 1500, I was willing to grant clemency to a few.

Dozens of times I nearly relegated this book to the pile of books to be sent to an enemy - BUT - each time would pick it up again because I had to know if my hopes would be realized.

Should you read Clarissa? By all means; if for no other reason than to serve as penance for all past sins of omission or commission wreaked on others.

Today, at breakfast, while reading The Peabody Sisters I came across a fairly long section on Clarissa. Of all things, the second Peabody sister, Mary loved fiction and she was greatly influenced by Samuel Richardson's novel. 

For me, I was just thrilled that reading Clarissa did not go to waste. Had I not read it, those couple of pages in The Peabody Sisters would have been less gratifying.

By the way, my daughter reminded me the other day that the correct pronunciation of "Peabody" is "P-ba-D" with heavy, heavy accent on the "P"; minimizing, the "ba" and ending with an even heavier accent on the "D." To get it right, stretch out the "P" to "pea" (the vegetable) and then quickly getting to "D" and holding it. Although it doesn't rhyme exactly, "remedy" has the same syllable/accent.