Daniel Silliman

Reading material

Current:
Oblivion,
by David Foster Wallace

For the year:
1. Prophecy & Apocalypticism,
by Stephen L. Cook
2. The Salmon of Doubt,
by Douglas Adams
3. Absalom, Absalom!
by William Faulkner
4. Farewell, My Lovely,
by Raymond Chandler
5. Ham on Rye,
by Charles Bukowski
6. The Inner Circle,
by T.C. Boyle
7. Breakfast at Tiffany's,
by Truman Capote
8. The Crying of Lot 49,
by Thomas Pynchon
9. The Poet,
by Michael Conely
10. As I Lay Dying,
by William Faulkner
11. Slumdog Millionaire,
by Vikas Swarup
12. 2666,
by Roberto Bolaño
13. Teaching a Stone to Talk,
by Annie Dillard
14. The Most Beautiful Woman in Town,
by Charles Bukowski
15. White Butterfly,
by Walter Mosely
16. The End of the Affair,
by Graham Greene
17. Fathers and Sons,
by Ernest Hemmingway
18. Into The Wild,
by Jon Krakauer
19. Close Range,
by Annie Proulx
20. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men,
by David Foster Wallace
21. By Night in Chile,
by Roberto Bolaño
22. Killshot,
by Elmore Leonard
23. This is Water,
by David Foster Wallace
24. Public Enemies,
by Bryan Burrough
25. Breath,
by Tim Winton
26. The Savage Detectives,
by Roberto Bolaño
27. Loving Che,
by Ana Menedez
28. Ender's Game,
by Orson Scott Card
29. The Short Stories,
by Ernest Hemingway
30. Cities on the Plain,
by Cormac McCarthy
31. Charlotte's Web,
by E.B. White
32. The Selfish Gene,
by Richard Dawkins
33. Good Omen,
by Terry Pratchet & Neil Gaiman
34. Where I'm Calling From,
by Raymond Carver
35. The Armies of the Night,
by Norman Mailer
36. The Street Lawyer,
by John Grisham

Daniel Silliman

10.8.02

Blogging from the National Press club
I had a great day of journalism seminars today, hearing six speakers talking about this wonderful and crazy career. More will be coming as I get somewhere I can post my notes and observations from this center of world journalism.

Meanwhile check out Poynter.org, where a letter I wrote (in exchange for a free book) is due to be posted along with a picture soon.

by Daniel Silliman @ 12:23 AM. : Comments 0

8.8.02

Into the Wild Blue
My summer has ended. After 90 days at home from college, living with my five brothers and one sister, working at the daily newspaper, living within a few minutes of my good friend Jeff Nelson, within four hours of the greatest bookstore on earth, it is over and I am once again moving east.

I’m on a whirlwind tour of U.S. cities, hitting Portland yesterday (see the comment about the greatest bookstore on earth), D.C. tomorrow for a journalism conference and New York City on Saturday for a free-market economics conference. I should also briefly whirl through Baltimore, my own Seattle and Chicago.

I’m expecting to blog through all this, catching internet connections pretty much daily and having all sorts of thoughts and experiences to blog.

And so I go, riding into the wild blue yonder.

by Daniel Silliman @ 7:04 AM. : Comments 0

Packing the Bags
It felt good to pack.

I pack lightly. Three bags total. Light enough I can carry them easily.

It is an act that brings order and forces evaluation and thrift, reaffirming the hard, lean and sparse existence befitting a reporter.

It is an act signifying an end and a beginning and excitement. And so I leave.

by Daniel Silliman @ 7:04 AM. : Comments 0

Consuming Oranges
Approxomate number of oranges eaten this summer at home: 270.

by Daniel Silliman @ 6:42 AM. : Comments 0

Observing the Faces and the Character of Devout Catholic Youth
David Warren observes the faces of the Catholic youth attending World Youth Day 2002, finding them happy, good and respectful of each other, their elders and the Catholic faith.

Having interviewed two of the local young Catholic faithful attending the conference from Port Angeles Wash., Amanda Haas, 17, and Matt Dubeau, 21, of Queen of Angles, I would agree. I disagreed with much of their theology and much of their devotion, but seeing devout young Christians is always heartwarming.

I was glad I was the one to interview them and write the story because I could understand their faith, I wasn’t making fun of Pedophilia scandals and the feebleness of John Paul II.

As Warren said, “I'm an Anglican myself; but hurrah for the Catholics!”

by Daniel Silliman @ 6:35 AM. : Comments 0

6.8.02

The Statement on Murray Street
Graffiti makes a comeback in New York City, according to the New York Sun.

So does this mean that Bloomberg just isn’t up to snuff?

Is graffiti the problem? Is it the cultural decay associated with graffiti?

by Daniel Silliman @ 9:54 AM. : Comments 0

5.8.02

Fighting Rome
Reading about the Anglican break from Rome, I am a little suprised to observe the number of objections to the Catholic Church that no longer apply.

One huge conflict was the Latin vs. Vernacular debate. This was vehement and violent and very, very important, but today the Catholics might have well been reformed.

Another example is Garry Wills, from his book "Why I am a Catholic," quoted in a review by Andrew Sullivan, backing out of a traditionally Catholic look at the verse used to support Petrine supremacy:
"When Peter was told, 'I will give you the keys of heaven's kingdom, and what you tie on earth will have been tied in heaven, what you untie on earth will have been untied in heaven,' he was standing for the entire church, which does not collapse though it is beaten, in this world, by every kind of trial, as if by rain, flood, and tempest. It is founded on a Stone [Petra], from which Peter took his name Stone-founded [Petrus]; for the Stone did not take its name from the Stone-Founded, but the Stone-Founded from the Stone - as Christ does not take his name from Christians, but Christians from Christ.... Because the Stone was Christ."

This is remarkably like the exegesis given by the Martyrologist John Foxe in the opening of his book, defining the Rock as Christ and identifying the promise with the Faith, not with a line of priests.

This doesn't mean the two sides have been rectified. Rather they muddle of a debate has, I think, been brought down to the real dividing question.

What is the final authority for Christian doctrine? The question deviding Rome from the Protestants is the question of the authority of the tradition and the authority of the scripture.

Once that is debated, all other Catholic-Protestant debates are easily decided.

[But of course, even granting tradition the Catholics may lose out to the Orthodox, who have some really good cases against the authoriuty of the "Bishop of Rome" based soley on tradition.]

by Daniel Silliman @ 11:29 PM. : Comments 0

4.8.02

Is it the ghost of Nietzche?
Jeff Nelson and I talk more about the link between Nietzche's power morality and Islamic Terrorism on Atlas.

by Daniel Silliman @ 11:49 PM. : Comments 0

That Bad Conservative Feeling
Derbyshire peddles Conservative gloom. “It’s good! You’re supposed to feel bad! We’ve lost! The world is only getting worse!”

He offers us a list of things to bring back the bad feeling. His list is true I think, but he leaves out the premise, the very Conservative/Traditionalist premise, that things cannot improve. That’s the premise I, as a Christian and a Postmillenialist, reject.

I recognize the accuracy of his identifying this attitude as a Conservative attribute, in the Burkean sense of standing athwart history, of supporting yesterday opposing today.

I think this is wrong, from a Christian point of view. The Bible speaks of the triumph of the righteous, the progressive expansion of the kingdom of God, making the world a footstool for his feet. The army of the Christian Church marches into the future.

I am a Conservative only in the modern American political framework. I believe the future will be better than the past. I believe good will win and right will prevail.

Postmillennialism allows us to take on the world with the great and Christian belief that, with the redemptive power of Christ’s blood and the transformation power of the Holy Spirit, good will trump evil.

So stick out your tongue at pessimistic fatalism and engage the world around you! We can change things and we will push forward through all these bad times.

Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

by Daniel Silliman @ 11:01 PM. : Comments 0

Dylan Returns to the Newport Folk Festival
Bob Dylan came to the Newport Folk Festival again, for the first time since 1965 when he plugged in his guitar and went electric.

I wonder what went through his mind on that stage the other day. I wonder if he played a song for Pete Seeger who, legend has it, took an axe to the speaker system when Dylan plugged in, or for Alan Lomax, who dedicated his life to the music Dylan disrespected like a young punk, or for Joan Baez, the queen of folk who worshiped Dylan as the folk poet and troubadour.
Maybe he thought of Woody Gutherie, the man he once emulated.

I wonder if he bowed a little, apologizing for the anger of his youth.

Or, maybe, he just felt sorry the folk lovers had been a little more patient, less violent and less demanding he hold to an arbitrary acoustic dogma. I wonder if he wished they hadn’t forced him out of the folk festival for so many years, hadn’t insisted he be like them and not followed his own way.

I hope the man enjoyed the beat of his guitar and found a little peace from that frustrated day in 1965.

by Daniel Silliman @ 10:33 PM. : Comments 0

Acting a Man of God
Rod Dreher, talking about the just-released Signs, asks how often we see faith portrayed as manly in Hollywood. Well, pretty much when we watch Mel Gibson and, well, that's about it.

I'll watch Signs just for that.

by Daniel Silliman @ 10:16 PM. : Comments 0

Camping in Civilization
I’m not one for camping, really. I like nature but would much rather take a walk or a drive through the countryside. I like my clothes clean and my beds soft and my conversations interesting. The camping food is normally good, but I’d just as soon cook it in the back yard on a grill.

But the family wanted to go—it’s a great vicarious wild mountain man pioneer experience—and I’m leaving Thursday so I went. One day I said, I’ll be dirty and sleep on the ground and feel the cold water running through the creek.

They roll into the campground bringing civilization with them. Showers, beds, electric lights, razors and everything necessary to make the camping experience as much like the normal home life as possible.

So then I’m a camping purist. “It’s not camping if you bring a couch!” “What’s with coming in and plugging in the spotlights?” “A shower? You’re supposed to be dirty. That’s why they call it camping.”

And then I think maybe that’s why they like camping and I don’t.

by Daniel Silliman @ 9:58 PM. : Comments 0

"Englishmen used to believe in God—when they had an Empire!"

by Daniel Silliman @ 9:37 PM. : Comments 0