The Way of the Tambourine
By James Dale 2001
Review by Erik Moore
This engaging novel by James Dale follows a community of
Christians on a journey towards personal responsibility in how
they take the watershed of traditions that emerged from the man
named Jesus.  Like any good mystery novel, there's plenty of
action and burning questions to resolve.  Dale uses this drama
and intrigue to invite us to explore the mental and social turbulence
 that often occurs when people work to lift their minds out of
dogmatic thinking and adjust their paths towards a knowledge-
based approach in regards to ethics and the development of one's
own perspective.  For those looking to see the discourse of
characters working themselves beyond a myth-fearing mindset,
this book offers rich examples we can all recognize that deal with
both the anguish and the new-found satisfactions of stepping
beyond ingrained ideological habits.  This book is also a treasure
trove of quotations that inspire the reader towards life-long
learning, self-examination of beliefs, and taking responsibility for
contributing to the development of society.  There is significant
reference to Hegel's dialectic as a tool for extracting one's self from
fossilized thinking, but the path the characters take is not portrayed
as locked in to a particular view or method.  The context is set
broadly in modern American Christianity, and the terminology is
adjusted to reference that mindset.  This is an excellent read for all
those interested in understanding better the barriers to critical
thinking that religions and religious people have and how they
might evolve their thinking and relationships to become more
relevant and more responsive to the needs of a rapidly changing
modern world in which they need to think clearly to help us all
survive as a species.
This book can be ordered from:
AALL (All Ages Love Learning)
P.O. Box 1916
WheetRidge, CO  80034
Cost $22.00 + $2.50 S&H/ ea.
Review © Erik Moore, all rights reserved

Moby Dick
Herman Melville, 1851
Melville's Writing to Expand Human Horizons,
a review by Erik Moore
Melville has a wonderful chapter describing the way legends are
created, particularly the legend of The Great White Whale, which
we may see as paralleling that of God.  He describes how many
sightings of old whales and tales of harrowing encounters in the
whaling community were assumed all to refer to the same old
whale, despite the fact that the incidents often happened practically
simultaneously in far-flung corners of the world.  This surely
mimics the way that humans plumb the depths of their mental
experiences and poke at the unexplainable in the vastness of
nature, all coming up with the same mutual thing to point at, God.  
It is because of their penchant for equating the sources of a few
parallel strands of story, and not because of any rigorous tracking,
that a vast web of legend is spun.
The tenor of this chapter is repeated many times throughout the
book as the absurdities of Jonah whale tale are exposed, the
provincialism and prudishness of puritanical disdain is found
shallow, and the follies of perceiving intentionallity in the events of
the natural world is shown as risky as a leeward shore in a squall.  
In contrast to this, Melville paints a wonderful world of intercultural
negotiations in the microcosm of the Pequot, a naturalist’s
approach to the unknown and the awesome, and a rationalists
inquiry into the conundrums of society and science.  He adeptly
uses biblical referencing to pull the timid Christian reader into that
world as he passes along the habit of sensible inquiry through
their mind as they read on for more adventure.  But, as adventure
often turns, we see Ahab shun this broader world of intellectual
inquiry and return to a mystic monomania.  He pilots an
enterprising voyage of the natural world into a miracle play of grand
resolution, with all lives aboard the ship held as naught in
comparison to his holy prize.  Moby Dick is as rich a lesson today
as it was in Melville’s time, that disdain for knowledge of the world
leads man to folly and needlessly self-inflicted tragedy.  As leaders
around the modern world continue to paint their own magical
prizes and ignore the world around them, they continue to wreak
havoc on societies across the globe.  Would that they had paid
more attention to Melville in their formative years.

I recommend the Norton Critical Edition 2nd Ed. Hershel Parker
and Harrison Hayford.  Their excellent footnotes and vast array of
supplemental materials let the reader really enter the time, the
references, and the unique vocabulary with ease.  You can also
download it free at the Gutenberg Project.
Review © Erik Moore, all rights reserved
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