Wednesday, September 24, 2003
VALIS
Ah, what to do with this book? It was a science fiction book recommended to me by the host of Unearthed Ruminations, so I really wanted to like it. But I didn't. It's a very spiritual book, and I ended up disagreeing with what it had to say. It's the tale of a man named Horselover Fat who goes crazy and has an encounter with God. The book covers his attempt to make sense of it all, which leads him to discover God's attempt to rescue the world from the mad deities who have screwed it all up. That's a way too simplistic recounting of the book, but for me the plot really was a secondary hing. I was reading the book looking for something, anything, that I could praise about it. About the only nice thing I can say is that it does come across as the author's legitimate search for God. (or at least meaning in life.) But he seemed to find that meaning in Gnostic Christianity. Throughout the book the reader is given snatches of spiritual observations and teachings, but in the end the "truth" is revealed to be that "you will have no gods but yourselves." Feh. If I'm such a god than why can't I write better book reviews? It's an old, old lie and hardly entertaining. So with apologies to the Unearthed Ruminator, I'm afraid I'll have to toss this one in the Elbe river.
Labels: TossIt
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