Category Archives: Books

Paper Towns and the Idolatry of Imagination: Part 1—Strings

Posted by Caleb Coy on

“Doing stuff never feels as good as you hope it will feel.”

Part 1: Strings
John Green’s novel, Paper Towns, soon to be a film, can be read as a kind of spiritual parable. With the exception of TFIOS, his three other novels seem to follow a similar formula: Eccentric yet normal teen boy falls for unattainable and eccentric girl because she is such a mystery, and she becomes a puzzle for him to solve as much as a love interest to pursue. Academic references must follow. Were it not for the occasional sexual controversy, Green seems to be begging for his books to be taught in school, pushing aside bulky classics less relevant to teens.
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Doing Delilah [a short story]

Posted by Caleb Coy on

[The following short story, “Doing Delilah,” was published by Midwestern Literary Magazine in November 2010, and subsequently in their volume, Bearing North. I must admit I rushed the story to publication before it was truly ready. The beginning needed some work, and you can tell I have never myself seen battle. Some of it is based on accounts I have heard from those who have seen battle. I keep this story as a learning experience. I figured I could share it as one too.]

DOING DELILAH

by Caleb Coy

“Can’t you see, oh, can’t you see,
what that woman— she’s been doing to me?”
-Marshall Tucker

Was a long, hot day, and there was fighting through every minute of it.  We had a whole battalion stationed just outside Fallujah to secure the rail yards North of the city.  It took about two days, even with help from the Iraqis.  The snipers and booby traps were the worst part for us.  Heavy infantry poured into the city.  Infantry.  Infants.  Some mother’s baby each guy was.  Patrolling in an unarmed jeep and thinking about his own babies.  His own infants.

I could talk about it all day.  But that’s one of the unwritten rules.  You don’t talk about it.  You don’t talk about the fighting and you don’t talk about yourself.  I could talk about myself anyway.  But I’m not.  I’m going to do what any good, self-respecting man does when he returns.  I’m going to tell stories about someone else.  I’m going to talk about Special Officer Martin Caporaso.

But to get to him I have to start with myself.  Grew up in Virginia.  That’s the funny thing.  People always hear about soldiers coming from the armpit of some southern state—that, or Ohio or Indiana.  Like it’s the all-American kid from Ohio, Indiana, or some hole-in-the-wall town in Tennessee.  That’s where Martin Caporaso was from.  Tennessee.  Me, I was born in Virginia.  It’s no armpit.

Back home I wasn’t much of anything like Martin Caporaso was.  I wasn’t a quarterback.  I wasn’t on the homecoming court.  Didn’t sleep with the Queen and her two friends, start my own indie band, or manage to out-drink every adult in the county.  I worked at an arcade and had a girlfriend for two weeks. What did I do for fun?  I played lazer tag after work until the glowing vests needed recharging.  I didn’t have it born in me to be a soldier, but I thought I would be good at shooting things.  Without a thought about college I enlisted, and the next thing I knew the towers fell and we were at war.  I had two weeks before going to Fallujah.

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Book Review: ‘When the Church Was a Family’ by Joseph Hellerman

Posted by Caleb Coy on

I grew up hearing a lot about how the Church is a family, and I’m thankful for that. Sometimes I would hear it described as an institution, and it struck me as funny to hear. For a long time I’ve tried to remind myself that Church is family, but I haven’t been challenged quite like I was when reading Joseph Kellerman’s When the Church Was a Family: Recapturing Jesus’ Vision for Authentic Christian Community.
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Book Review: How to Read Literature Like a Professor

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There is no crash course in literature quite like the revised edition of Tomas C. Foster’s How To Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines. Symbolism, theme, cultural context—you could be awakened to these elements in any great work by taking a full course. Foster’s book is an analytical guide rife with classic examples and explanations, tailored to the unliterary mind curious to become more literate.

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Teaching ‘Wife of Bath’ to 20 Boys and 5 Girls; or to 20 Girls and 5 Boys

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The Wife of Bath’s Tale is one of the most famous and frequently taught of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The compounded irony is laid out thus: A man is telling a story of a feminist woman telling the story of a knightly man who forces himself upon a woman, who for his crime is sentenced by the queen (who was deferred to by the king) to spend a year searching for the answer to the question of what women want, at the end of which he is given the answer by an old woman who makes him swear to fulfill her next request, thereby saving his life, and yet cursing himself to honor her request to marry and bed her, so that he is tormented until she gives him the choice of either having her be beautiful and unfaithful or old, ugly and faithful, a choice which he skirts by letting her decide, thus learning his lesson by deferring to his wife and earning a woman both beautiful and faithful. The moral, says the Wife of Bath, is for God to bless all women with hot sexy men who will let their wives do what they want. At least in this man Chaucer’s story.
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Book Review: A Farewell to Mars

Posted by Caleb Coy on

Brian Zahnd remembers when he, a pastor, threw a huge party for the beginning of the Gulf War—when he, a Christian leader, celebrated the invasion of a country and the use of the sword. Since, he has repented. He even says it was the worst sin he ever committed. A Farewell to Mars is part confession, part instruction, a book about why he left the effective worship of war and chose to worship only God alone.
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Book Review: Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller

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“I am not attacking right theology. I am simply making theology a window rather than a wall.”

I had not read anything by Donald Miller since reading both Blue Like Jazz and it’s companion book, “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.” Then my brother recommended Searching for God Knows What. I was searching for a good book. Donald Miller was searching for God. Again. In a way, I was reminded of how I seek after God, even when I think I’m not.
Sometimes Donald Miller, founder of Storyline Blog, feels like being a Christian is like trying to be in the circus, and everyone is watching him to make sure he does everything right and doesn’t mess up. In fourteen chapters of deeply personal writing (with titles like “Santa Takes a Leak,” “Why Nudity is the Point,” and “How to Kill your Neighbor”) Miller dares us to see Christianity as something not defined by formula, but by relationship.

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A Poem of Mine is Published in The Inaugural Issue of ‘Brain of Forgetting’

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An Irish legend tells of Cenn Faelad, who lost his ‘brain of forgetting’ when his skull was split open in battle by a blow to the head from a sword. He developed a perfect memory, and wrote everything down.

The new literary journal, Brain of Forgetting, has published their inaugural issue, titled “Stones,” to celebrate the legend.

My poem, “Sapphire Stone,” appears in the inaugural issue.

This may or may not qualify me as an Irish poet.

Either way, I’m excited to share the news.

Part the only of my review of ‘Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’

Posted by Caleb Coy on

Is this Battle of the 5 Armies or World of Warcraft?

I‘m trying to count the armies. How do they add up to 5? No bother. When a team of elves arrives with a salad bar on wheels, it’s a trap. As always, I’ll tell you when the spoilers come. Continue reading →