Today's Tom Sawyer
Lent is over. During the Triduum, I slept on the floor as an added penance, but I'm used to that in Korea, so it was no big deal. While I lost more than a stone during Lent (a block of lard equivalent to the heaviest bowling ball in use, to be exact), I wish I could say that I lost that much Concupiscence. While Spring women's wear here in Korea is by no means revealing, I found it hard to keep a proper custody of the eyes at Easter Mass, even if the most beautiful woman in the parish was sitting next to me holding our son. Regardless of my failures, I must say that it was an entirely enjoyable and legitimate pleasure to "Irish" my morning coffee in celebration of Our Lord's Resurrection, after forty days and forty nights of teetotalism, and the martinis that came later were welcome, too.
Holy Week could have been holier. I spent most of it working on an adaptation of the Adventures Of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain for a Korean publisher that specializes in English educational materials. Remembering what the Eye-talians say about "traduttore, traditore," I was a bit reluctant to take this job. But at the end of the day, I'm quite happy with what I produced. In fact, with all due respect to the author of the original, my adaptation may well prove be the superior work.
Whatever the case, it was a pleasure reading this American classic again. As a reactionary libertarian, I was thrilled by both the book's homage to small-town community and its lampooning of crowd culture. In my adaptation, I strove to retain as much of the politically incorrect from the original as possible. Jim was just a marginal figure; he comes into his own in Huck Finn's cronicle. But Becky Thatcher I portrayed with all her feminine charm and wiles. I noticed that in other adaptations I consulted, those made for native English-speaking children, Becky was de-feminized as Tom was emasculated. In my version, she remains the coquettish vixen who swoons in Tom's arms in the cave.
It seems that wherever I go, Mark Twain shows up. As a kid, my first job was delivering papers for a now-defunct newspaper he had once edited: Buffalo, NY's Courier Express. I recall running across his trail on a visit to the Big Easy in the late XXth Century. My parents now live near San Francisco, and we often eat at the Cliff House, a restaurant he dined at. Charming Virginia City, Nevada is another place our paths have crossed. Last summer, my family spent a month in Saint Louis, Missouri, in an apartment overlooking the "Mighty Mississip."
I wonder, did he ever make it to Pohang? Neil Armstrong did [scroll down].
Lent is over. During the Triduum, I slept on the floor as an added penance, but I'm used to that in Korea, so it was no big deal. While I lost more than a stone during Lent (a block of lard equivalent to the heaviest bowling ball in use, to be exact), I wish I could say that I lost that much Concupiscence. While Spring women's wear here in Korea is by no means revealing, I found it hard to keep a proper custody of the eyes at Easter Mass, even if the most beautiful woman in the parish was sitting next to me holding our son. Regardless of my failures, I must say that it was an entirely enjoyable and legitimate pleasure to "Irish" my morning coffee in celebration of Our Lord's Resurrection, after forty days and forty nights of teetotalism, and the martinis that came later were welcome, too.
Holy Week could have been holier. I spent most of it working on an adaptation of the Adventures Of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain for a Korean publisher that specializes in English educational materials. Remembering what the Eye-talians say about "traduttore, traditore," I was a bit reluctant to take this job. But at the end of the day, I'm quite happy with what I produced. In fact, with all due respect to the author of the original, my adaptation may well prove be the superior work.
Whatever the case, it was a pleasure reading this American classic again. As a reactionary libertarian, I was thrilled by both the book's homage to small-town community and its lampooning of crowd culture. In my adaptation, I strove to retain as much of the politically incorrect from the original as possible. Jim was just a marginal figure; he comes into his own in Huck Finn's cronicle. But Becky Thatcher I portrayed with all her feminine charm and wiles. I noticed that in other adaptations I consulted, those made for native English-speaking children, Becky was de-feminized as Tom was emasculated. In my version, she remains the coquettish vixen who swoons in Tom's arms in the cave.
It seems that wherever I go, Mark Twain shows up. As a kid, my first job was delivering papers for a now-defunct newspaper he had once edited: Buffalo, NY's Courier Express. I recall running across his trail on a visit to the Big Easy in the late XXth Century. My parents now live near San Francisco, and we often eat at the Cliff House, a restaurant he dined at. Charming Virginia City, Nevada is another place our paths have crossed. Last summer, my family spent a month in Saint Louis, Missouri, in an apartment overlooking the "Mighty Mississip."
I wonder, did he ever make it to Pohang? Neil Armstrong did [scroll down].
Redeemed by Our Savior, I work out my salvation with fear and trembling in Pohang, South Korea, where I live with my wife, daughter, and son and teach English at a science and technology university. Baptized a Methodist and raised a Missouri Synod Lutheran in Buffalo, NY, I spent six years as a guest of the Anglican Communion before being received by the Grace of God into the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church on the Feast of Saint Andrew, my patron, anno domini 2002.
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