Romney Favors Hubbard Novel

The New York Times ^ | April 30, 2007 | Jim Rutenberg

[Labyrinthos]

When asked his favorite novel in an interview shown yesterday on the Fox News Channel, Mitt Romney pointed to “Battlefield Earth,” a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.

[greyfoxx39]

Or maybe he’s trying to get Tom Cruise and John Travolta to bankroll his campaign?

Nailed it!

[Gurn]

Believing what L. Ron Hubbard wrote takes no bigger leap than putting any stock in the whack-job theology of Joseph Smith.

In fact, if you believe Joseph Smith, I think the next logical step in your theology is to become a scientologist.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

All the good he has done?

ROTFLMAO! Have you been researching candidates, or just watching television?

Talk to Freeper EternalVigilance

[null and void]

I hate to admit it, but I enjoyed reading “Battlefield Earth” - you just have to look at as old-style sci-fi, which is to say nothing to do with science at all, hardly. Still kind of fun.

Bingo. It's what Asimov would call a type 1 SF story - An adventure story with a thin veneer of science, as opposed to Type 2 - a gadget story, or Type 3 - a how the gadgets affect society and people.

[Cicero]

I’m a life-long science fiction fan. The idea that Battlefield Earth is the best science fiction novel, let alone someone’s “favorite novel,” is completely ludicrous.

It’s not even good space opera. Grade B at the best.

Is this really his “favorite novel” of all time? Better than War and Peace or The Brothers Karamazov? Better than The Violent Bear it Away or Moby Dick? Better than Nicolas Nickleby or Pride and Prejudice? Better than A Canticle for Leibowitz or The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, or The Demolished Man? Better than Ender’s Game or Wyrms, written by a fellow Mormon?

Good grief, what nonsense.

[Tanniker Smith]

If there was ever a definition of “it is what it is”, it’s Battlefield: Earth. It tries to be like the oldtime movie serials of the past, and for the most part, it succeeds on that level. It has its fun moments, before getting bogged down in the middle and then picking up again.

[elizabetty]

Isn't this a question that has changing answers to people who CONTINUE to read after college?

Romney said his favorite BOOK was the Bible.

He has recently mentioned reading these books:
The Cube and the Cathedral by George Weigel
The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright
America Alone by Mark Steyn
The Places in Between by Rory Stewart
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations by David S. Landes
The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris
The Rise of Teddy Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
John Adams by David McCullough

He is clearly a serious student of the dangerous times in which we live with very little time for FICTION.

[rhombus]

Battlefield Earth is a great example of a SciFi book that captures the zeit geist of the time in which it is written. That has to be kept in mind. The movie was incredibly bad, the book was a real page turner.

[Lx]

OK, I have a question for all youse who said Atlas Shrugged was a good book.

Are you saying the ideas were good?

Her writing was turgid at best but I’ve read pretty much everything she wrote and yes, she was a big time atheist and also cheated on her husband.

The movie Battlefield Earth is great camp, how many different video wipes are possible? I don’t know but they wore the hell out of the middle out and diagonalize wipes.

Here’s a great spoof on the book by Upright Citizen’s Brigade:
http://www.xenutv.com/us/ucb.htm

Southpark spoof:
http://www.xenutv.com/us/mtvawards.htm

[Vermont Lt]

I remember reading that book and saying, over and over, “Why didn’t he end it here?”

I don’t think he had an editor.

It just went on and on.

Not the worst book I’ve read, and not the best. If there was Scientology in it, it didnt leave a mark.

The movie was campy. Just too much information to stuff into a couple of hours. Mini Series perhaps (a la The Stand) but not a moview.

[tumblindice]

http://www.supersimpsons.com/kang-kodos.htm
Resistance is futile.

[elizabetty]

Talk to Freeper EternalVigilance

Rational people living in the real world avoid EV.

[greyfoxx39]

Romney’s tone deaf when it comes to religion...

I'd say he spends too much time reading church-sponsored and approved literature. He should have spent more time checking out the classics including Dante's Inferno.

[null and void]

Scientology: satisfaction or no money back guaranteed!

*ahem* I got my money back...

[Mr. Quarterpanel]

The book had a novella's worth of story stretched by Hubbard into a very long novel.

That is the best description that I have ever read about that book.

It was JUST okay....The whole "Come to Earth to plunder it's mineral wealth" really does not sit well with me. Lots and lots of minerals floating around in space. Easier to mine, already mobile, and you don't have to conquer the natives to get at it.

[Vanbasten]

I liked the book, but I read it twenty years ago.

[RightWhale]

He should have spent more time checking out the classics including Dante's Inferno.

He read the Trilogy in the original Italian.

[null and void]

Wait for the Tom Cruise remake. ~ Boundless

Then it will suck and blow...... ~ Red Badger

ROTFLMAO!

[CatoRenasci]

IF this is accurate, it’s reason enough not to support Romney. Had to be one of the worst pieces of sci fi ever written.

[Constantine XIII]

AAAAAHAHAHAAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAH

*breathe*

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAA

Also, LOL.