Posted on 03/26/2008 11:16:26 AM PDT by NYer
Interesting writer. What has he published?
Great Conversion story.
Not allowed to kill the monsters (I cut that part off when I was spell checking - sorry!).
It’s a race between that or some atheist going their version of the same gig.
LOL! I haven't read any of his books or stories.
“...A Canticle for Leibowitz, which is now forgotten but I believe to be very important still.”
Not in all quarters. I know a tenured professor of philosophy at the Catholic University of America who teaches this novel every year to his incoming freshmen.
sitetest
Neither have I but, from what I understand, he is a well read SciFi writer. My SciFi years ended year ago and were replaced with saintly diaries.
I particularly enjoyed the part where he asked God to reveal Himself and suffered a heart attack 2 days later. Reminds me of that saying: "Be carefule what you ask for, you might just get it". God does indeed have a sense of humor.
Hey livius! I think you meant to post #23 to the uncurved gentleman from the Green Mt. State. Unless this is part of the new top secret Catholic code and my Jesuit masters forgot to tell me, in which case nevermind.
Freegards
Sorry! Don’t be alarmed - no hidden messages intended! Tin foil hat down...
That’s good news. I’m not a true sci-fi addict, but that one really made an impression on me. I wonder how the freshmen react to it.
Still have a 1950s era paperback copy somewhere.
An interesting and far, far darker view of the same issue is Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker. It is a beautifully written book, Hoban is a powerful writer. But don't read it unless you want to be really, really depressed.
I saw the answer you gave livius. Thanks for straightening it out. The book sounds interesting I’ll have to pick it up.
A Sci-Fi writer? He’s gotta the one who’s been writing the encyclicals for while now.
Thanks. This was vivifying to read.
“Thats good news. Im not a true sci-fi addict, but that one really made an impression on me.”
I only recently read the book in the past year. My older son, who is 13, read the book at the suggestion of the professor. After he read it, I read it, too.
“I wonder how the freshmen react to it.”
I'm not sure. The professor provides a roughly 30-page handout to explain to students a lot of the Latin and old prayers in the book, as well as some of the other obscure stuff. My sense is that his students pretty much just take it as one more assignment to get through. Comparing the reaction of my own son to what the professor apparently gets from his college students, my sense is that the impact on his college students may be a little underwhelming.
sitetest
Thanks. I think I'll pass. I only read Canticle because my older son had read it and had been very much affected by it. He wanted to be able to discuss it more in depth with me, so I read it. Then, in a moment of weakness last autumn, I also agreed to let my 10 year-old son read it, too.
Miller wrote a sequel to Canticle, but I'm made to understand that it was a poor work, marred especially by Miller's encroaching mental illness and ostensible loss of faith. Knowing his end, one can see foreshadowing of it in Canticle. Very sad.
sitetest
Welcome home, John C. Wright!
You mean the whole Protestant “Catholics aren’t Christian” crowd that ignore the fact that Catholics accept Jesus Christ as their Savior? That Catholics pray to the same God? That, aside from some theological and practical differences, Catholic and Orthodox Christians just place more emphasis on ritual and tradition in their worship than the average Protestant.
It bothers me that some people only see what divides us, not the common beliefs that we all share.
I mean whoever bring up any arguement for whatever reasons they hold dear.
“shrill psychological flatulence” has got to be one of the tenets of the Democrat Party for all those talking points. I think I will have to remember that one!
As for his focus when he was in the hospital recovering from his quintuple bypass, well as it has been said “Nothing so focuses the mind as the prospect of being hanged in the morning.”
Finally, I like his observation that the people without religion write characters without souls. I wonder if Larry Niven is an atheist? I always assumed his characters in Oath of Fealty were cardboard figures because he was an engineer.
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