Left Behind

andy

Posted: 29.07.2003, 11:27

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Interesting article on Ship of Fools about the Left Behind series.

http://www.ship-of-fools.com/Features/frameit.htm?0703/left_behind.html

The thing is that here in the UK I don't have much fear abouth this, but in the US, you never know...

davidb

Posted: 29.07.2003, 17:33

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I have an irrational hatred for this series. It's totally unreasonable of me, since I haven't even read a page of it, but I feel a strong sense of rage about what I expect is a terrible misinterpretation of parts of the Bible. Whew, I need to calm down before I write more on this...

Midge

Posted: 29.07.2003, 23:55

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My main worry is, as a friend of mine said about that book "Piercing the Darkness" (by Frank Peretti), that people start to think fiction is theology. I've only read one chapter of Left Behind, in a 'taster' paperback, and it was quite fun but predictable (like Harry Potter only less so). What worries me is how many other people have read them all, and what disturbs me is how they're all lined up on the bestseller shelf in the Christian Bookshop (q.v.)

(Like his comment on PhDs tho - I'll add it to my collection)

Anonymous

Posted: 30.07.2003, 14:35

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How can you say that Harry Potter is predictable?

Ok, it might be predictable in the sense that you know that good will inevitably triumph over evil, but in its details I simply don' t believe that you have always foreseen exactly what will happen...

davidb

Posted: 30.07.2003, 17:18

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I can never predict what happens in Harry Potter - each one has majorly surprised me. Particularly the first and third.

I like the latest one, by the way... lots of interesting stuff about not being believed but sticking at it, and lots of interesting struggles for Harry with internal darkness. And I like Umbridge's pen very much

Midge

Posted: 30.07.2003, 18:52

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>>I simply don' t believe that you have always foreseen exactly what will happen...

Sorry, anonymous. No, definitely not. (I'm not Trelawney.) It was just a passing comment - I'm not sure what the hardcore fans of Left Behind would think of it being compared to Harry Potter...

What I meant was that you can always tell that when he gets into trouble or a big struggle, he'll always get out of it somehow (which isn't surprising, considering it's a series). And some of the characters are quite predictable - when Snape, Percy, Malfoy and Umbridge appear, it's mainly to get you angry at their injustices / arrogance / pure nastiness (though not always...) On the other hand, you can always feel safe with Dumbledore - he's a bit like God.

Mmm, a teacher I know said he thought Umbridge's pen was the best chapter in the first half of the book.

To be continued on the new Harry Potter thread...

On 'Left Behind', I remember this chapter I read was saying how this woman was trying to get her husband to become a Christian by giving him tracts about the 'tribulation' and being rescued from it. It seems odd that the point of Christianity & the urgency of repenting was all about escaping the tribulation. (And similarly, the article writer says "I became a Christian because of the rapture.") It seems like it's easier to grasp hold of terrible events in this world than to think about the next world.

andy

Posted: 31.07.2003, 03:06

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I read an enjoyed Piercing the Darkness (or anothoer one of those).

Afterwards I felt just a tiny bit dirty.

Midge

Posted: 31.07.2003, 18:46

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Maybe I should add that I wasn't saying 'predictable' full stop, but 'fun but predictable', in the sense that you know what's likely to happen at certain points, but you don't mind it happening as it's pleasurable to see it happen anyway (e.g. Umbridge being a thorough hate-figure with no redeeming features who you can vent your spleen at whenever she appears). Or something. But I certainly don't think the plot of the last one was predictable.

>>Afterwards I felt just a tiny bit dirty.

What, you mean tainted by 'Christian' sub-culture?

andy

Posted: 31.07.2003, 21:13

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I think tainted by bad theology and the idea that everything is easy if you just do the right thing.

davidb

Posted: 01.08.2003, 13:52

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I remember reading Piercing the Darkness, and enjoying it at the time... but it is weird, when you think about it. In the 'Piercing' universe, angels seem curiously distant from God. Or, perhaps more scarily, God seems surprisingly distant from humans, doing everything indirectly through angels. But maybe I'm just forgetting how it really was - it's a long time ago that I read it.

andy

Posted: 04.08.2003, 12:46

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I really agree about the distance thing.

Midge

Posted: 04.08.2003, 23:33

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Never read it, never gonna read it.

Random website of the day: learn Icelandic with Dilbert:

http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/show_framed_news?cid=dilbert

andy

Posted: 06.08.2003, 17:02

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Good move.

And I don't mean learning Icelandic.

Midge

Posted: 27.09.2003, 12:34

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Is there anybody out there?

Midge

Posted: 27.09.2003, 12:38

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Combining 2 previous themes, has anyone heard about/seen "What Would Dogbert Do?"

My flatmates mentioned it this morning. Here's some stuff I pulled off the internet about it:

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/dnrc/html/newsletter30.html

Dogbert Answers My Mail

-----------------------

In this section, Dogbert answers my mail. These are real e-mail messages sent to me. The names have been changed to make them easier to mock.

The first letter is from someone who objected to my strip in which Dogbert gave Ratbert a bumper sticker reading WWDD (What Would Dogbert Do). It was inspired by the popular WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) bumper stickers. I thought I was mocking bumper sticker wisdom, not Christianity, but many readers felt differently.

---

Dear Mr. Adams,

I have long been a fan of Dilbert, but your strip of today was worse than witless. Your cartoon that mocks the WWJD slogan serves no purpose other than to profane. You obviously had a case of IQ catatonia when you drew it. Evidently, it spread to your editor as well when you submitted it. Keep it up and you'll be relegated to the ash heap of once-trendy nitwits who didn't know the difference between humor and inflammatory idiocy.

Byron C.

Alabama

---

Dear Boron,

I'm glad you are committed to your philosophy of doing what Jesus would do. I assume that includes writing insulting letters to cartoonists on company time. Apparently the bibles in Alabama have a few extra chapters. If I were you, I wouldn't take too many suggestions from the Book of Willy.

Sincerely,

Dogbert

andy

Posted: 29.09.2003, 12:25

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Yes, I'm here, and there must be some lurkers around, but things are a little quiet... Must .... write .... more .... articles ....

I'm off now to try and do some advertising on the web.