{"id":6687,"date":"2014-09-06T21:03:55","date_gmt":"2014-09-07T03:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6687"},"modified":"2014-09-06T21:03:55","modified_gmt":"2014-09-07T03:03:55","slug":"blogging-break-over-book-stuff-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6687","title":{"rendered":"Blogging Break Over, Book Stuff Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have taken a brief and unwanted break from blogging, but I hope that it is over. First the MacBook Pro that I use for writing and blogging developed a weird, possibly demonic (or daemonic) directory corruption that flummoxed even the specialists up at Voelker Research<\/a>. About the same time, my desk\/computer chair broke, which felt like a sign<\/em>. A sign that I should just go hiking and read more novels, possibly. And ponder some vivid and meaningful dreams.<\/p>\n

That was wonderful, but I have to give a couple of talks next week, and I needed to prepare. So there I was out on the veranda with a legal pad and a stack of books and print-outs, preparing. If I have learned anything in teaching it is that I am not as good at “winging it” as I like to think I am\u2014unless it is a course that I have already taught ten times over.<\/p>\n

So while I am doing that, here is an interview with Doug Ezzy about his new book, Sex, Death, and Witchcraft: A Contemporary Pagan Festival.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The book is both a rich ethnographic account of controversial Pagan festival and a provocative reflection on the role of emotions, symbols, and ritual in theories of religion.\u00a0 The festival involves \u201ca recreation of the Witches’ sabbat . . .\u00a0 It’s R-rated, it contains adult themes, nudity and sex references\u201d, according to Harrison \u2014 one of the festival participants I interviewed.\u00a0 The theory develops what Graham Harvey and I are calling \u201crelational theory\u201d in the study of religion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is on my reading list.<\/p>\n

And speaking of reading, expect more book reviews here over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have taken a brief and unwanted break from blogging, but I hope that it is over. First the MacBook Pro that I use for writing and blogging developed a weird, possibly demonic (or daemonic) directory corruption that flummoxed even the specialists up at Voelker Research. About the same time, my desk\/computer chair broke, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[19,3,127,4,6,29],"class_list":["post-6687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-australia","tag-blogging","tag-festivals","tag-scholarship","tag-wicca","tag-witchcraft"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1JR","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1061,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1061","url_meta":{"origin":6687,"position":0},"title":"On the Road","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Blogging will be sketchy for the next week, as I am on the road, my destination being first, a small town and an old friend in eastern North Dakota -- and then possibly the Turtle Mountain area of that state.Tonight I fetched up in Valentine, Nebraska (more than halfway there!),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"travel\"","block_context":{"text":"travel","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7401,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7401","url_meta":{"origin":6687,"position":1},"title":"“Hardscrabble Creek’s” Subscriptions Are Changing","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"After experimenting with ReadyGraph's \"User Base\" feature, I have decided I don't like it. I just hate pop-up windows. Maybe you do too. When I checked the blog on my iPhone, the sign-up window dominated the view. So I have deleted the code and plug-in and am just using the\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":1206,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1206","url_meta":{"origin":6687,"position":2},"title":"Late Harvest","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Pastor Flaten displays a firm grip of the obvious, this week when the sound of grain driers dominates the town and grain cars clank on the railroad tracks. That sermon will just write itself, you betcha.The actual harvest\u2014the one that feeds us\u2014is running late, however.All of this is prelude to\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":84,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=84","url_meta":{"origin":6687,"position":3},"title":"Neil Gaiman on blogging versus\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 15, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Neil Gaiman on blogging versus writing Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods, a favorite novel of mine, interviewed at Slashdot, responds: \"I'm not sure that there's a conflict between journalling and writing fiction. (I'm not sure that there's not.) The big picture problems with doing the journal are more to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":223,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=223","url_meta":{"origin":6687,"position":4},"title":"Another short break from blogging\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 9, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Another short break from blogging M. and I are leaving for our favorite small town in the We(s)t Kootenays of British Columbia, which offers bigger lakes, bigger trees, and different mountains than those we see every day. I hope to continue the editing of Her Hidden Children with a goal\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3244,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3244","url_meta":{"origin":6687,"position":5},"title":"Green Halloween?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"First of all, I took this photo on August 26th. Is this what the new Pagan future will look like? Everyone complaining that it is not even the equinox, but the stores are full of Halloween merchandise? This building used to be a Toys \"R\" Us store in Pueblo, Colo.,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/greenspirit.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6687","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=6687"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6689,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6687\/revisions\/6689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}