Garland Roark, The Lady and the Deep Blue Sea

Introduction

Opening Passage:

The big clipper was slanting her masts alee when the captain's wife appeared on the quarter-deck and braced herself for the snap roll to windward. As the ship roared on for Boston harbor, Jenny Broadwinder found her sea legs, moved to the lee rail, and stood gazing out over the water.

At a glance, one might believe her sea-weary and dreaming of land and flowers after a long voyage from India; or one could imagine that she was thinking of a home which the handsome captain on the weather side might have promised her after four years of married life at sea. (p.11)

Summary: In 1856, Jenny Broadwinder, the wife of Captain Philip Broadwinder, comes to one of the owners of her husband's ship with a proposal. Captain Broadwinder had been challenged by Captain Mayo Keys, from another shipping firm, to a race; Jenny proposes to the owner, Cartwright, that Cartwright work with the other firm to establish the race as a matter of friendly business rivalry and publicity; in exchange, if Philip wins the race, he will get the half-ownership in his ship, towards which he has been working. Cartwright, unimpressed by Philip but struck by Jenny, agrees -- in theory on business principles but in practice because of Jenny -- and the race is set up.

Captain Philip Broadwinder is a talented captain in many ways. There is no captain who more thoroughly has the admiration of his men. He makes his firm quite a bit of money, because his dash and style makes him popular everywhere he goes. He knows his trade quite well, although Cartwright thinks, with some truth, that he relies a great deal on his luck, which has never run out. He means no harm and is altogether honest. But one of the things we learn during the race is that Captain Philip Broadwinder of the Calcutta Eagle is excellent a captain as he is because of his wife. He sometimes forgets substance in the pursuit of style, and she reminds him of what he's forgetting; she aids him in various ways in dealing with the crew; and she quite clearly does a lot of the behind-the-scenes bookkeeping parts of the captain's life, not because Broadwinder is incapable or unwilling to do it but because it's the sort of thing he would never prioritize. Captain Broadwinder married to Jenny Broadwinder is a smarter, steadier, more effective captain than Captain Broadwinder would be alone.

It's less obvious, but I think important to the story, that Jenny Broadwinder also benefits from the arrangement. She has a life that she enjoys, she gets along very well with Philip with never more than an occasional marital spat of the usual sort, and he gives her a venue for her talents that she would not have at all without him. And, as important, but I suspect harder for more recent readers to appreciate, 'Captain Philip Broadwinder', as known to the public, is as much an expression of her as it is of Philip himself, and she likes it that way. She does not have his flamboyant charm, his ability to be the distillation of everyone's image of a sea captain; she neither is able nor wants to be the public face of the 'Prince of Sea Captains', but the 'Prince of Sea Captains' is something she thinks worthwhile, a creative work that Philip himself, for all his flaws, can undeniably make possible to her. Looking at many online reviews of the work, a lot of readers don't like the ending. But it's an ending consistent with what we know of Jenny Broadwinder: to break the 'Prince of Sea Captain' image would be a loss as great for her as it would be for Philip, perhaps even more so. It would destroy everything she had been working for.

I confess I found the husband-wife banter to be a bit much; it is done very well but there is a limit, I think, to how much one can appreciate such a thing as a spectator. But there is a very real sense in which this is a story about the marriage itself, and about how a healthy, even if imperfect, marriage is not merely something that you happen to have, but something that contributes part of who you are.

Favorite Passage:

"The ship that will race another soon? OF course. Of course." The old man contemplated this for a time. "The captain's wife, friend, is a lovely creature. Indeed, and I am wondering fit he great achievement of my life could be an agent of unhappiness. It must not be, for the object of one's life on this earth is to do good in order to prepare for the next reincarnation. I promised Buddha of the great Shwe Dagon pagoda of Ragoon that I would look deep lest my artistry do evil."

"Evil? Do evil?" Cartwright began. "Now you look here--"

He got no further. The other raised a hand and said, "If honor exceeds all else in you, we can trade. But honor is not a virtue when one argues that he is the possessor of it. So I place you at a disadvantage, for which I beg a thousand pardons even as I await some word from you." (p. 170)

Recommendation: Recommended; it's an interesting, swift read.

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Garland Roark, The Lady and the Deep Blue Sea, Doubleday (Garden City, NY: 1958).

Lent X

We may likewise gather the number of the sacraments from their being instituted as a remedy against the defect caused by sin. For Baptism is intended as a remedy against the absence of spiritual life; Confirmation, against the infirmity of soul found in those of recent birth; the Eucharist, against the soul's proneness to sin; Penance, against actual sin committed after baptism; Extreme Unction, against the remainders of sins—of those sins, namely, which are not sufficiently removed by Penance, whether through negligence or through ignorance; Order, against divisions in the community; Matrimony, as a remedy against concupiscence in the individual, and against the decrease in numbers that results from death.

[St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae 3.65.1.]

Note that the difference between this remedial scheme and the previous one is that this one is concerned with the 'parts' of every sinful action, moving from their bad root (absence or weakness of spiritual life) through the actual sins to their sinful effects.

Diagramming Syllogisms

Ruggero Pagnan, in two articles ["A Diagrammatic Calculus of Syllogisms", Journal of Logic, Language, and Information, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Summer 2012), pp. 347-364; "Syllogisms in Rudimentary Linear Logic, Diagrammatically", Journal of Logic, Language, and Information, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Winter 2013), pp. 71-113], develops a very nice diagrammatic system for syllogisms. It's particularly handy in that, unlike most of the other good diagrammatic systems, it can easily be typed.

First, for the basic categorical propositions:

All X is Y
X → Y

No X is Y
X → • ← Y

Some X is Y
X ← • → Y

Some X is not Y
X ← • → • ← Y

All of these are commutative; you can do them backwards (this helps for putting them together). So, for instance, you can always change X → Y to Y ← X.

We add two principles that let you add new premises in any argument:

Identity
X → X

Subalternation
X ← • → X

We need to be able to link diagrams by terms. For instance, starting with the premises,

X → Y
Y → Z

You can get

X → Y → Z.

In essence, we just overlap the Y's. And last, we need a rule that lets us delete mediating terms, so that by deleting Y and collapsing the arrows we can change this to

X → Z.

The major restriction is that we cannot delete bullets.

Given this, we can establish the Barbara syllogism:

1: M → P
2: S → M
--------------
S → M → P (by concatenation)
S → P (by deletion)

And so on with all the others.

Lent IX

...a perfect cure requires the perfect and complete expulsion of sickness. Now in this case there is a sevenfold disease, comprising three forms of sin -- original, mortal, and venial -- and four forms of penalty -- ignorance, malice, weakness, and concupiscence. Furthermore, as Jerome says, "what heals the foot does not heal the eye." And so it is appropriate that a combination of seven remedies are needed to drive out completely this sevenfold disease: against original sin, Baptism; against mortal sin, Penance; against venial sin, Extreme Unction; against ignorance, Orders; against malice, the Eucharist; against weakness, Confirmation; against concupiscence, Matrimony, which both tempers and excuses it.

[St. Bonaventure, Breviloquium, Monti, ed. and tr., Franciscan Institute Publications (St. Bonaventure, NY: 2005) p. 219. The quotation of St. Jerome is from the Commentary on Mark 9:28.]

Aquinas calls the four forms of penalty the "wounds of sin" (ST 2-1.85.3) and attributes the list to St. Bede, although we don't know why (it's not in any work by Bede that we know).

St. Thomas also has this scheme, but he mixes it with another scheme, the virtue scheme.

Lent VIII

Spiritual life has a certain conformity with the life of the body: just as other corporeal things have a certain likeness to things spiritual. Now a man attains perfection in the corporeal life in two ways: [I] in regard to his own person; [II] in regard to the whole community of the society in which he lives, for man is by nature a social animal.

With regard to himself man is perfected in the life of the body, in two ways: [IA] per se, i.e. by acquiring some vital perfection; [IB] per accidens, i.e. by the removal of hindrances to life, such as ailments, or the like. Now the life of the body is perfected per se in three ways.

[IA1] By generation whereby a man begins to be and to live: and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is Baptism, which is a spiritual regeneration, according to Titus 3:5: "By the laver of regeneration," etc.

[IA2] By growth whereby a man is brought to perfect size and strength: and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is Confirmation, in which the Holy Ghost is given to strengthen us. Wherefore the disciples who were already baptized were bidden thus: "Stay you in the city till you be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49).

[IA3] By nourishment, whereby life and strength are preserved to man; and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is the Eucharist. Wherefore it is said (John 6:54): "Except you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you."

And this would be enough for man if he had an impassible life, both corporally and spiritually; but since man is liable at times to both corporal and spiritual infirmity, i.e. sin, hence man needs a cure from his infirmity; which cure is twofold.

[IB1] One is the healing, that restores health: and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is Penance, according to Psalm 40:5: "Heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee."

[IB2] The other is restoration of former vigor through appropriate diet and exercise: and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is Extreme Unction, which removes the residue of sin, and prepares man for final glory. Wherefore it is written (James 5:15): "And if he be in sins they shall be forgiven him."

In regard to the whole community, man is perfected in two ways.

[IIA] By receiving power to rule the many and to exercise public acts: and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is the sacrament of Order, according to the saying of Hebrews 7:27, that priests offer sacrifices not for themselves only, but also for the people.

[IIB] In regard to natural propagation. This is accomplished by Matrimony both in the corporal and in the spiritual life: since it is not only a sacrament but also an office of nature.

[St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae 3.65.1; I have made a number of modifications to the translation. Note, incidentally, since it is often missed, that the propagation Matrimony concerns qua sacrament is propagation in the spiritual life.]

A slight variation (particularly with regard to extreme unction and with spiritual propagation being given to Order rather than Matrimony) on this scheme is found in St. Thomas's catechetical writings:

First, man needs regeneration or re-birth which is brought through the Sacrament of Baptism.... Secondly, it is necessary that man develop perfect strength, which is, as it were, a spiritual growth, and this indeed comes to him in the Sacrament of Confirmation. This is like the strengthening which the Apostles received when the Holy Ghost came upon them and confirmed them.... The third similarity is that man must be fed with spiritual food.... Fourthly, man must be healed spiritually through the Sacrament of Penance.... Lastly, one is healed both in soul and in body in the Sacrament of Extreme Unction.... Two of the Sacraments, Orders and Matrimony, are instituted for the common good of the Church. Through the Sacrament of Orders the Church is ruled and is spiritually multiplied; and through Matrimony it is increased physically in numbers.

It is worth comparing this to the similar scheme (same with also a slight, and different, modification for extreme unction) of St. Robert Bellarmine:

Now, the reason why there are seven is that God customarily proceeds, in the way in which spiritual life is given, in an incorporeal manner. In as much as He considers the corporeal life: 1) it is necessary to be born; 2) to grow; 3) to be nourished; 4) whenever one must fight, he must be armed; 6) it is necessary that there be some head that rules all men after they are born and increased; 7) that there would be some to whom the duty to propagate the human race would fall, otherwise, if others were not born to succeed the dead the human race would forthwith go out of existence.In the same way, God also constituted this arrangement in the spiritual life. 1) It is necessary for us to be born in the grace of God through Baptism; 2) Confirmation makes it so that grace will grow and be fortified; 3) the Most Holy Eucharist is given so that grace might be nourished and sustained; 4) that whenever the medicine of Penance is received, the grace lost to the soul will be recovered; 5) that when a man is at the point of death he arms itself against the infernal enemy who attacks us more at that time than in any other time, which is done with Extreme Unction; 6) that there would be someone in the Church that rules and governs us in the spiritual life, which is done by one in Orders; 7) that there would be some in the Church who look to the spiritual propagation of the human race, whereby the number of faithful could be increased in this way, which duty is carried out in the Sacrament of Matrimony.

[St. Robert Bellarmine, Doctrina Christiana: The Timeless Catechism of St. Robert Bellarmine, Grant, tr. Mediatrix Press (pp. 153-154).]

Being the preferred scheme of Aquinas, the most widely read Doctor of the Church, and the scheme used by Bellarmine in his catechism, which for a long time was the most widely read Catholic catechism (and influenced a number of other catechisms), this scheme based on analogy with natural life is far and away the most common one. But, as we shall see the next few days, there are others based on analogy with medicine, with moral life, and with equipping an army.

With regard to the slight variations, all of them seem to work as they are; my own view is that Aquinas's catechesis on the sacraments has the best account of Unction (the Summa seems to give us only an indirect analogy, and Bellarmine seems to give us a secondary feature), but both Bellarmine and the Summa give a better account of Matrimony than it does (because spiritual propagation should in fact be assigned to Matrimony rather than Order). The reason is that sacramental theology in Church documents has stabilized in primarily thinking of anointing the sick as based on overflow of grace from spirit to body, while there has been an increasing recognition of the importance of Matrimony as the sacrament that forms the 'domestic church'; Order, on the contrary, is more concerned with maintaining and protecting the integrity of the whole sacramental economy.

Four Kinds of Nonsense Words

We can distinguish different kinds of nonsense words (including in that category nonsense phrases as well); not all nonsense words are equally nonsensical. Here's a rough classification, moving from most nonsensical to only borderline nonsensical.

(1) Arbitrary Gibberish: Examples might be 'sgjkdf' and 'wiouein' or 'dabalobidra'. These nonsense words have no meaning, no association, and are just an artifact of our ability to run through combinations that our language does not in fact use.

(2) Mock Vocabulary: Mock vocabulary has no sense in itself, but exists in a context that makes it work as if it does. Mock vocabulary is distinguished by Alice's Test: "Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas -- only I don't exactly know what they are!" An obvious example is 'vorpal' from Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky":

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

Alice's Test distinguishes mock vocabulary from arbitrary gibberish, which doesn't "fill my head with ideas". It also distinguishes mock vocabulary from the next kind of nonsense word, which does fill the head with ideas, but which depends on your knowing exactly what they are.

(3) Incompatible Combination: Examples of nonsense associated with definite ideas would be 'goat-stag', 'round square', and the like. This kind of nonsense has definite sense, arising from the component parts; it's just that those parts should not go together. You know what a goat is; you know what a stag is; you can't have something that is both simultaneously.

(4) Representative Gibberish: Gibberish is not completely divorced from language. Sometimes you want to say that something is gibberish, and one way you can do that is by labeling it with gibberish. 'Blah blah blah' is possibly of this sort; 'blictri' in logic examples is certainly of this sort. It's supposed to be gibberish; but because it is representative gibberish, it functions as a real word standing in for other kinds of gibberish, or (sometimes) for things that are not gibberish but practically speaking might as well be gibberish -- which means that even though it is nonsense it practically has a meaning. Everybody knows what 'blah blah blah' means in the Gershwin lyrics:

Blah blah blah blah blah blah your hair
Blah blah blah your eyes
Blah blah blah blah care
Blah blah blah blah skies

The whole point is that 'blah blah blah' is gibberish; it conveys that while lover's songs (especially those in movies) may put meaningful words in the place of 'blah blah blah', none of that meaning really makes much of a difference; and because it does convey this, in a paradoxical way it has meaning. That is what representative gibberish is: nonsense words that remain nonsense, but because they stand in for other things, act in language as if they had senses.

Lent VII

Regarding His human nature, Christ received His fullness, such that through Him it is derived to all. Jn. 1:14: 'Full of grace and truth'. And a little later: 'And of His fulness we all have received, and grace for grace'. And 3:34: 'For God doth not give the Spirit by measure'. And so baptism and the other sacraments do not have efficacy except by virtue of the humanity and the passion of Christ.

[St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentaries on St. Paul's Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, Baer, ed. and tr., St. Augustine's Press (South Bend, IN: 2007) p. 189. This is part of his commentary on Titus 3:6.]