{"id":1161,"date":"2009-06-02T16:52:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-02T16:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1161"},"modified":"2009-06-02T16:52:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-02T16:52:00","slug":"from-abortion-to-icelandic-music-and-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1161","title":{"rendered":"From Abortion to Icelandic Music and Back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So Jason decides that <a href=\"http:\/\/wildhunt.org\/blog\/2009\/06\/talking-about-abortion-again.html\">he would rather blog about abortion than Iceland Paganism<\/a>, which leads me to follow the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.icelandreview.com\/icelandreview\/daily_life\/?cat_id=16568&amp;ew_0_a_id=325062\">Icelandic Paganism link<\/a>, as I have read all the usual <a href=\"http:\/\/www.getreligion.org\/?p=13036\">blather that followed the murder of Dr. Tille<\/a>r.<\/p>\n<p>Thus I am lead to the documentary <a style=\"font-style: italic;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0461958\/\">Screaming Masterpiece<\/a>, about Icelandic music, which is now in my Netflix queue.<\/p>\n<p>Must get back to work now &#8212; I have to finish my paper for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cesnur.org\/\">CESNUR<\/a> conference.<\/p>\n<p>Back when I had to teach first-year composition, the joke was that students in search of a topic tended to fall into well-worn ruts: abortion, gun control, the drinking age, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Dealing with the first one was easy, after a while. I just issued a classroom<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"> fatwa<\/span> that only people who had had an abortion could write about the topic.<\/p>\n<p>The real purpose, of course, was to segue into a discussion of <a href=\"http:\/\/rhetoric.byu.edu\/Persuasive%20Appeals\/Pathos.htm\">pathos<\/a> and how hard it was to write convincingly about a topic with which one has no emotional connection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So Jason decides that he would rather blog about abortion than Iceland Paganism, which leads me to follow the Icelandic Paganism link, as I have read all the usual blather that followed the murder of Dr. Tiller. Thus I am lead to the documentary Screaming Masterpiece, about Icelandic music, which is now in my Netflix [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3,86,34],"class_list":["post-1161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-blogging","tag-cesnur","tag-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-iJ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1176,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1176","url_meta":{"origin":1161,"position":0},"title":"My First-Draft Paper on the &#8216;Crisis of History&#8217;","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My CESNUR paper, \"In the Mists of Avalon: How Contemporary Paganism Dodges the 'Crisis of History,'\" has been published on line at the organization's web site.It is sort of quick and lightweight, but I want to work more on those ideas in the future.In the immediate future, however, I need\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1165,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1165","url_meta":{"origin":1161,"position":1},"title":"Blogging CESNUR, 2","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday's CESNUR plenary session focused on Western esotericism, which is getting more respect as a \"player\" in history.Gordon Melton passed out a fancy diagram of the Western esoteric tradition, including everyone from Swedenborgians to flying saucer religions to Wiccans.Wicca was placed under ritual magic, although at some distance. Fair enough:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6959,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6959","url_meta":{"origin":1161,"position":2},"title":"Icelanders Building Formal Pagan Temple","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"An Icelandic Pagan group will begin construction next month on a temple in the capital of Reykjav\u00edk, after beginning the planning process eight years ago. Plans to begin construction of a pagan temple in \u00d6skjuhl\u00ed\u00f0 hill, Reykjav\u00edk, have been set in motion. This will be the first pagan temple to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Iceland\"","block_context":{"text":"Iceland","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=iceland"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2096,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2096","url_meta":{"origin":1161,"position":3},"title":"An Icelandic Approach to the &#8220;Reburial&#8221; Issue","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a twist on the controversy over the reburial of ancient remains: Bury the skeleton and grave goods at the museum. Of course, it helps it the remains are Norse and the museum is the Viking World Museum in Iceland. Not so many problems of cultural continuity there. According\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vikingaheimar.is\/resources\/images\/template\/img2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9649,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9649","url_meta":{"origin":1161,"position":4},"title":"How Do You Say &#8220;Ziggurat&#8221; in Icelandic?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Icelandic Pagan religion \u2014\u00a0 Norse gods and the \"Hidden Folk,\" right? Um, there is more. \"Iceland's pagan Zuist religion hopes to build temple.\" Zuist leader \u00c1gust Arnar \u00c1g\u00fastsson told the paper that the group had always planned to have a place of worship for its followers, but given the movement's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Iceland\"","block_context":{"text":"Iceland","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=iceland"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8586,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8586","url_meta":{"origin":1161,"position":5},"title":"The BBC Interviews Iceland Heathens","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"You can download this episode (27 minutes) of the BBC's Heart and Soul program on the Heathens of Iceland: Floating in a hot spring, snow falling from the night sky, John Laurenson meets Teresa Drofn. A 25-year-old Heathen, Teresa describes her return to the religion of her Viking forebears as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Iceland\"","block_context":{"text":"Iceland","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=iceland"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Icelandic-blot.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}