{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3440", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 3440, "subject": "A Thousand Ages", "messages": 4, "voices": 4, "first": "2002-09-04T22:43:26+00:00", "last": "2002-09-04T23:16:20+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Steve Case", "address": "scase at olivet.edu" }, "date": "2002-09-04T22:43:26+00:00", "subject": "(urth) A Thousand Ages", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "In chapel today (I go to a Christian university) we had our academic\nconvocation service and sang the hymn \"Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past\".\nThe fourth verse jumped out at me because it's the exact quote Wolfe\nuses to start the Book of the New Sun at the beginning of Shadow of the\nTorturer: \"A thousand ages in thy sight/Are like an evening gone./Short\nas the watch that ends the night/Before the rising sun.\" The hymn says\nit's based on Psalms 90, but I looked it up and the wording is different\nenough that I bet Wolfe got the quote directly from the song. I just\nthought it was kind of interesting, and it made a boring service a\nlittle more enjoyable. I thought Wolfe was a Catholic; do Catholics\nsing the same hymns Protestants do? The other five verses don't hold a\nlot of interest in regards to the Short Sun, except for verse five:\n\"Time, like an ever-rolling stream/Bears all its sons away./They fly\nforgotten as a dream/Dies at the opening day.\" That fits the book\nrather nicely as well.\n \n My two cents for the month,\n -Steve\n " } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Matthew Weber", "address": "mweber at library.berkeley.edu" }, "date": "2002-09-04T22:52:49+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) A Thousand Ages", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At 05:43 PM 9/4/02 -0500, Steve wrote:\nIn chapel today (I go to a Christian university) we had our academic \nconvocation service and sang the hymn Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past . The \nfourth verse jumped out at me because it s the exact quote Wolfe uses to \nstart the Book of the New Sun at the beginning of Shadow of the Torturer: \nA thousand ages in thy sight/Are like an evening gone./Short as the watch \nthat ends the night/Before the rising sun. The hymn says it s based on \nPsalms 90, but I looked it up and the wording is different enough that I \nbet Wolfe got the quote directly from the song. I just thought it was \nkind of interesting, and it made a boring service a little more \nenjoyable. I thought Wolfe was a Catholic; do Catholics sing the same \nhymns Protestants do? The other five verses don t hold a lot of interest \nin regards to the Short Sun, except for verse five: Time, like an \never-rolling stream/Bears all its sons away./They fly forgotten as a \ndream/Dies at the opening day. That fits the book rather nicely as well." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Yes, it's based on Psalm 90. It's Isaac Watts' versification of the psalm, \nmade when the Puritan faction was demanding that only the psalms be sung in \nchurches. These days, Roman Catholics avail themselves of the rich \nheritage of Protestant hymnody, when they bother to sing hymns at all (as \nopposed to bad \"folk\" music).\n\nOh, and hello, list. This is my first post, after a month or so of lurking \nand reading the archives. Are we still using Long Sun pseudonyms?\n\nMatthew Weber\nCuratorial Assistant\nMusic Library\nUniversity of California, Berkeley\n\nJudah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree.\n The Holy Bible (The Old Testament): _The First Book of the \nKings_, chapter 4, verse 25" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "John Barach", "address": "jbarach at telusplanet.net" }, "date": "2002-09-04T23:04:45+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) A Thousand Ages", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Matthew writes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Yes, it's based on Psalm 90. It's Isaac Watts' \nversification of the psalm, made when the Puritan \nfaction was demanding that only the psalms be \nsung in churches. These days, Roman Catholics \navail themselves of the rich heritage of Protestant \nhymnody, when they bother to sing hymns at all \n(as opposed to bad \"folk\" music)." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Wolfe talks about that hymn in an essay in _Castle of Days_. Mind you, Wolfe didn't grow up Roman Catholic, did he? He may well have been familiar with the song (which is a pretty popular one and shows up in a ton of hymnals) from his youth.\n\nJohn" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Steve Strickland", "address": "sstrickland at satx.rr.com" }, "date": "2002-09-04T23:16:20+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) A Thousand Ages", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Thanks for the verse five excerpts. Resonates nicely.\n\nBeing a protestant who's married to a catholic, I can tell you with certainty that protestants and catholics sing each other's hymns all the time.\n\nSteve Strickland\n ----- Original Message ----- \n From: Steve Case \n To: urth at urth.net \n Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2002 5:43 PM\n Subject: (urth) A Thousand Ages\n\n\n In chapel today (I go to a Christian university) we had our academic convocation service and sang the hymn \"Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past\". The fourth verse jumped out at me because it's the exact quote Wolfe uses to start the Book of the New Sun at the beginning of Shadow of the Torturer: \"A thousand ages in thy sight/Are like an evening gone./Short as the watch that ends the night/Before the rising sun.\" The hymn says it's based on Psalms 90, but I looked it up and the wording is different enough that I bet Wolfe got the quote directly from the song. I just thought it was kind of interesting, and it made a boring service a little more enjoyable. I thought Wolfe was a Catholic; do Catholics sing the same hymns Protestants do? The other five verses don't hold a lot of interest in regards to the Short Sun, except for verse five: \"Time, like an ever-rolling stream/Bears all its sons away./They fly forgotten as a dream/Dies at the opening day.\" That fits the book rather nicely as well.\n\n \n\n My two cents for the month,\n\n -Steve\n\n " } ] } ] }