If this is overreaching, so be it.

[elfs]

I realized I was overreaching and wandering into Neal Stephenson's territory when it suddenly occurred to me that one of the central conflicts of Moon, Sun, and Dragons centers on whether or not Cheilliene', an old-school romantic who loathes the formulation of "friendships" vs. "romances" among the nobility, comes to understand that the current (for 1600) fear of intimate friendships comes from the Augustinian concept of selfhood, a concept she has to embrace (and consequently abandon the Aristotelian notion) if she is to succeed in her quest.

Must. Read. More. Dorothy. Dunnet.

---

Well, now that the Left Behind series is finished, and Jesus has returned to slaughter the otherwise innocent but non-Christians in a haze of blood and gore that would have made Tobe Hooper pleased, how is Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins to make any cash? Why, write prequels of course! And in the very first prequel, The Rising, we learn that the Antichrist is "the genetically engineered offspring of two homosexual men." It's two! Two! Two fundamentalist bugaboos in one!

Comments

[jatg.livejournal.com]

I started reading that series out of morbid curiousity. The first 2 weren't great but they weren't too bad either. Each book however got progressively more bad. It's not in my nature to quit reading something...once I start it I HAVE to finish it...but I finally quit reading it in disgust. I think I have 2 books to finish the darn thing...but, I just...don't...care. And that's worse than hating it.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I kinda put it off until the second-to-last one came out, and then on recommendation from a friend took a look. It's porn. Really. For a certain segment of the population, it's JesusPorn with page after page of nastily graphic depictions of human suffering, all committed by the supposed "good guys."

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

So, what you're really saying is that the Left Behind series is Gor for the new ages?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's a meme there, somewhere. I see a story... No, I don't want to read either to get a feel for it.

[srmalloy.livejournal.com]

I had the same attitude toward Stephen Donaldson's "Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever" novels; I managed to choke my way through the first trilogy, but I wasn't about to bother with any of the rest of them. And it took me about four times as long to read those three as it normally takes me to read books, because I kept putting them down to find something that wasn't so unrelentingly depressing.

[omahas.livejournal.com]

I had the same attitude toward Stephen Donaldson's "Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever" novels

Ugh. I so remember those books. I too read the first trilogy. I found that Donaldson really needed therapy. Perhaps that was why he was writing the books.

[chgowiz.livejournal.com]

The first one was enough to dissaude me - although I like a good yarn about apocalyptic events, I could just see where this was going.

I do have to admit, as an aside, I did like the concept/thought to WTF would happen if the Rapture occurred and people just vanished. The concept of planes falling, and the chaos that would ensue was entertaining.

[scyllacat.livejournal.com]

Well, now that the Left Behind series is finished,...
ACK! You kept up with this thing? My sister, convinced of my hereticism and apostasy, tried to get me to read those things. I actually almost got through three of the things before the squirming got too bad.

and Jesus has returned to slaughter the otherwise innocent but non-Christians in a haze of blood ...
And somehow, I'm sure they illustrate this concept in the book -- I don't know which is worse, the "sympathetic" insistence that we may be "good" but still need saving, or my sense that Christians just wouldn't be happy unless all the non-believers "get theirs" in the end.

Why, write prequels of course!
Please! No more! I'm curling up in a fetal ball of near catatonia as we speak!

...the Antichrist is "the genetically engineered offspring of two homosexual men." It's two! Two! Two fundamentalist bugaboos in one!
I didn't think Christians were allowed to even conceptualize such blaspheme. Wow, and they call us obscene.

Sorry, I guess I found a /rant button. Have a good day otherwise, eh?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

And somehow, I'm sure they illustrate this concept in the book.

Oh, lovingly!

The riders not thrown leaped from their horses and tried to control them with the reins, but even as they struggled, their own flesh dissolved, their eyes melted, and their tongues disintegrated. As Rayford watched, the soldiers stood briefly as skeletons in now-baggy uniforms, then dropped in heaps of bones as the blinded horses continued to fume and rant and rave.

Seconds later the same plague afflicted the horses, their flesh and eyes and tongues melting away, leaving grotesque skeletons standing, before they too rattled to the pavement. Men and women soldiers and horses seemed to explode where they stood. It was as if the very words of the Lord had superheated their blood, causing it to burst through their veins and skin.

Shortly thereafter, The (Christian) survivors must drive carefully "to avoid hitting splayed and filleted bodies of men and women and horses".

Good stuff, if you're into that sort of thing.

[nbarnes.livejournal.com]

Feh. That's not even very good catharsis.

[omahas.livejournal.com]

Seconds later the same plague afflicted the horses, their flesh and eyes and tongues melting away,

So, let me get this straight. God decides to go torture and kill *horses*? What, he has decided that horses are capable of making sentient choices about which god they are going to worship, or something?? What kind of moronic idiocy is that??

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[slfisher.livejournal.com]

Left Behind is movies, too. I have two of them.

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

It's not only books and movies, it's in graphic novel form too. I remember seeing a couple of pages in the Time or Newsweek article some time back. Dunno who the illustrator (excuse me, "graphic artist") was, but he (and I'm sure it was a "he") seemed to manage to capture the passion and lunacy that is Left Behind.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

And in the very first prequel, The Rising, we learn that the Antichrist is "the genetically engineered offspring of two homosexual men." It's two! Two! Two fundamentalist bugaboos in one!
Yeah, well, aren't we ho-mo-sekshals all supposed to be Minions of Satan(tm) according to that crowd, anyhow?

At least, that's what they're preaching in their churches these days...

[memegarden.livejournal.com]

I read the first Left Behind book. It was bad in every way I can think of that it is possible to be bad. Well, almost. It was a decent print job and the pages riffled evenly. But as far as all other characteristics of a book? Bad, bad, bad writing, stupid plot, hideous memes. After finishing it, I put it in the recycle bin. Then I talked a bookstore out of displaying it.