How did I miss the existence of Joshua Phillips' blog?

[GenerationCedarchip]

While reading a blog kept by an otherwise sane writer, I found a mention of a blog by Joshua Phillips. So, of course I had to go right over there! Oh my...just take a look:

www.ballantynethebrave.com/about/

On the one hand, Joshua is only 18 so I have a feeling that in later years, he will be mortified at his teenage self. ON the other hand, just reading the bio page was quite something. What modern teenager describes someone as "a first rate chap"? Or waxes eloquent about "the restoration of courageous Christian boyhood "?

And then there's the review of Pride and Prejudice where one of the writers finds Elizabeth Bennet unremarkable and apparently wanted her mother to spend more time being punished by her husband.

Edited to add: Holy cow! He has his own LinkedIn account: www.linkedin.com/in/joshuatitusphillips

[justlurking]

How can he list his blog as a company that he "works for"? Is it incorporated? Does he oversee staff? What kind of profits does the company make? If it's a non-profit, how is the cost of operation covered? Is he being bankrolled by Jim Leninger (sp?) just like his old man?

[clibbyjo]

Like father like son. Both who probably come down to the breakfast table in their1920'stweeds and bowties and say "Why HALLOOOOOOO old chap! What a fine morning for fox hunting! Chreerio and all that." NO REAL people act like this. It is Doug 's vision and JT just goes along. Poor kid, wouldn;t know this own thoughts if they bit him in the ass. :pray:

I like that JT's 16 year old friend read 60+ books in 7 years. Is that supposed to be impressive? :lol: We check out that many books every week from the library. :clap:

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Who knows, really. It seems to me that a lot of these fundie bloggers like to act as if blogging is full time SRS BZNS, just as they act like their various "ministries" and cosplay tours are somehow saving the world. The pressure to have a home business and be a bootstrappy self-made man in their culture surely contributes a lot to it.

I mean, "teenager with a blog" just doesn't quite have the same ring to it or seem nearly as exclusive.

[fundiefan]

The Pride and Prejudice 'review' was just as shallow as the reviews of those who worship the book. His lack of comprehension is exceedingly obvious. But, it doesn't surprise me too much. Most fundies don't 'get' Jane Austen.

[ThisOlGirl]

The more I researched the more I realized that modern critics and publishers object to Ballantyne’s overt Christianity and his vigorous manhood — the very two elements which make Ballantyne great.

Vigorous Manhood? :shock: Yep, he's Dougie's boy for sure!

[AnnoDomini]

He'd be a nice-looking boy if he stopped combing and gelling his hair into that 50s style. Well, nice to me. I do not care for unintentionlly-retro styles, or 50s boys hair at all. Ugh. Too controlled. I like hair that moves. Of course, 18 is far too young for me.

[Joykins]

I don't see Mark Twain on that favorite authors list. I wonder why? ;)

[jockosmom]

The more I see from these Phillips/Botkin people, the more I marvel. They really do wish they could wake up tomorrow and have it be 1830 again, don't they? They don't seem to really have any clue about how hard life was 100-200 years ago, how hard people had to work and how miserable and short most people's lives were due to lack of modern sanitation and medicine. I doubt if those two little pipsqueaks on that blog - J. Titus and John Horn - would have the wherewithal to survive a week at Boy Scout camp.

[marmalade]

His review on Pride and Prejudice had me ROLMAO. Ironic that I'm now taking a seminar on Austen and Scott. I'm only really taking it to write on Austen; Scott is the unpleasant medicine I must endure for the honor to research Jane. It's not surprising he reveres Scott; I'm slogging through Waverly right now and a critical reading renders it virtually unreadable. Hopefully the battle scenes (no surprise young JTitusPhillips is a fan) liven things up a bit.

However, like the young hero of that book, Phillips is making the grave mistake of misreading and it's leading him to make some typical errors of people who read with a jaundiced eye.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

I can't help but wonder what J. Titus would do if confronted with marmalade's school notes.

[MamaJunebug]

Who would take this blog seriously?

Other faux-manly-young-men, I guess.

Dare we think that there are VF maidens out there hanging on J.Teef's every smug, stale thought?

;)

[Guest Anonymous]

I wonder if he's aware that the same English upper-class that he and his old man idealize, would have cheerfully blackballed him and his father if either had tried to join one of their clubs.

[Bookworm]

:lol: That blog looks like a total goldmine of goofiness, if I had the energy. The P&P review made me LOL and then :evil:

"Mr. Bennet: (Elizabeth's father) Probably a realistic portrayal of a Regency father, but woefully neglectful of his daughters' training and relations with the world. I do give him great lenience due to his marriage with Mrs. Bennet."

WHY does he get lenience for his boneheaded marriage? Did she grab him by the neck and make him marry her? In the book the father seems to sort of wish he had made a different choice, while acknowledging that it is his OWN stupid choice. Argh, I just do NOT understand that lenience thing.

[hoipolloi]

Is Joshua actively posting again at that blog?

He farmed it out to Master Horn a while ago, when Daddy Dougie started bringing J Teef along on all the manly, sweaty romps adventures recounted at Doug's Blog.

[sugaree]

Lol at Elizabeth Bennet not being deemed particularly memorable. Silly John.

Okay, the home page convinces me that the entire raison d'être of that site is to sell Vision Forum crap, specifically the Ballantyne books, so I hope and pray that Doug Phillips actually wrote that pablumy About page. Poor J Titus P just can't be a mini-me of his dad; it's too awful to contemplate. I keep picturing him somewhere somewhere where a bunch of boys his age would meet (college dorm, boot camp). Imagine him popping out with that sort of language, and the reaction of his peers.

Yes, I know this would never happen, that J Titus P will never be chatting up a group of guys who are not specifically Doug-approved. But how funny would it be?

[Joykins]

Mr. Darcy: (Main character's eventual love interest) For some reason, Mr. Darcy has been idolized as the woman's "perfect man," and I expected him to be dashing, cheerful, gallant, etc.

I think a lot of that is attributable to the unbearable hotness of Colin Firth in the BBC miniseries, but I wouldn't expect him to know that.

[Patsy]

A suggestion for any FJ meet-ups, if they happen: cosplaying as the Phillipses, including language.

[Guest Anonymous]

Well, I have to give some props to this teenage son of the patriarchy reading a girl book by a girl author from a girl point of view. And, you can't entirely blame him if a lot of it goes flying over his sheltered little head.

Lots of LOLS that he thought Elizabeth Bennet was, "Meh," but seemed to really like dullard Jane Bennet. Of course, Jane is just a cardboard cut-out representing proper boring femininity; she is in the book primarily to highlight by contrast Elizabeth's more lively, forthright, and intelligent personality. Leave it to a VF acolyte to approve the female character who has NO PERSONALITY.

And it is also not surprising that young Master Horn fails to appreciate the one characteristic that has made Lizzie appealing to bookworm teenage girls for generations -- her self-respect. Despite her relative homeliness, lack of means, embarrassing relatives, lack of feminine accomplishment, and relatively lowly social status, she refuses to lick anyone's boots -- not Mr. Collins's, not Catherine de Burgh's and not Mr. Darcy's.

As a corollary to this, he also fails to grasp a crucial aspect of Mr. Darcy's appeal -- his respect for Lizzie, which contrasts favorably to Mr. Collins's lack of respect. Mr. Darcy values Lizzie for herself and he also believes that she means what she says. He takes her "No" for an answer. He doesn't treat her like she's a moron or as if she is so lucky that he is willing to marry her.

[clarinetpower]

What the heck does "Tueri a Vulnere" mean? When you google translate it, it's not a real phrase ("to protect the wound from the"), and when I google it in quotes, the only links are to his stuff. I'm guessing this is not correct Latin. Any Latin scholars out there?

Unless we are protecting the wound from J.T. I guess that kind of does make sense.

Also: he is a boy who would need Cliff's notes to pass any of the literature classes I took (and got A's in).

[Guest Anonymous]

Clarinetpower,

Young Master Horn provides an explanation of his motto in his April 1, 2010 blog entry. Originally he used Google Translate to create his own Latin motto. He intended his motto (which he apparently made up himself) to be "Guard from Harm." So Google Translate gave him, "Tutela ex Vulnero," which he used until a reader told him that it was incorrect Latin, at which point he corrected it at the reader's suggestion to the current "Tueri a vulnere."

It's obviously the height of pretentiousness to create your own Latin motto when you don't read or write Latin yourself. But hey, he's just a kid and kids do silly shit like this. I still cringe at how clever I thought I was when I was 16. The problem is that if he looks up to Doug as his role model, he might never grow out of it!

[Letgo]

Just checked my local library and they do not have a singe one of Ballantyne's books. Barnes and Noble does, however, at least online, so now I will have to make a trip to the store to see if they have any in stock. I want to know just how great and manly these books are! For those of you with Nooks, the ebook versions of Ballantyne's epics can be had for only 99 cents!

[MamaJunebug]

Well, I have to give some props to this teenage son of the patriarchy reading a girl book by a girl author from a girl point of view. And, you can't entirely blame him if a lot of it goes flying over his sheltered little head.

Lots of LOLS that he thought Elizabeth Bennet was, "Meh," but seemed to really like dullard Jane Bennet. Of course, Jane is just a cardboard cut-out representing proper boring femininity; she is in the book primarily to highlight by contrast Elizabeth's more lively, forthright, and intelligent personality. Leave it to a VF acolyte to approve the female character who has NO PERSONALITY.

And it is also not surprising that young Master Horn fails to appreciate the one characteristic that has made Lizzie appealing to bookworm teenage girls for generations -- her self-respect. Despite her relative homeliness, lack of means, embarrassing relatives, lack of feminine accomplishment, and relatively lowly social status, she refuses to lick anyone's boots -- not Mr. Collins's, not Catherine de Burgh's and not Mr. Darcy's.

As a corollary to this, he also fails to grasp a crucial aspect of Mr. Darcy's appeal -- his respect for Lizzie, which contrasts favorably to Mr. Collins's lack of respect. Mr. Darcy values Lizzie for herself and he also believes that she means what she says. He takes her "No" for an answer. He doesn't treat her like she's a moron or as if she is so lucky that he is willing to marry her.

Doomed Harlot!!! You've said it so very well. Thank you!

[marmalade]

Well, I have to give some props to this teenage son of the patriarchy reading a girl book by a girl author from a girl point of view. And, you can't entirely blame him if a lot of it goes flying over his sheltered little head.

Lots of LOLS that he thought Elizabeth Bennet was, "Meh," but seemed to really like dullard Jane Bennet. Of course, Jane is just a cardboard cut-out representing proper boring femininity; she is in the book primarily to highlight by contrast Elizabeth's more lively, forthright, and intelligent personality. Leave it to a VF acolyte to approve the female character who has NO PERSONALITY.

And it is also not surprising that young Master Horn fails to appreciate the one characteristic that has made Lizzie appealing to bookworm teenage girls for generations -- her self-respect. Despite her relative homeliness, lack of means, embarrassing relatives, lack of feminine accomplishment, and relatively lowly social status, she refuses to lick anyone's boots -- not Mr. Collins's, not Catherine de Burgh's and not Mr. Darcy's.

As a corollary to this, he also fails to grasp a crucial aspect of Mr. Darcy's appeal -- his respect for Lizzie, which contrasts favorably to Mr. Collins's lack of respect. Mr. Darcy values Lizzie for herself and he also believes that she means what she says. He takes her "No" for an answer. He doesn't treat her like she's a moron or as if she is so lucky that he is willing to marry her.

Mr. Collins was probably young JTitus' hero. /eyeroll

I'm surprised he didn't write up a screed about Lydia being an example of a girl raised without strict attention to purity set forth by a godly father. I'm also shocked he missed Mary, who WAS a godly sanctimonious prude whom I wanted to smack with regularity.

[Witsec6]

The Pride and Prejudice 'review' was just as shallow as the reviews of those who worship the book. His lack of comprehension is exceedingly obvious. But, it doesn't surprise me too much. Most fundies don't 'get' Jane Austen.

As I was reading the review, I was trying to imagine how JT would go over in a university English class. It's like a 10 year old writing a book review, except he uses 5$ words every once in a while.

I bet he thinks he's a real scholar.