Posted by Ritch on February 12, 2003, at 8:48:34
In reply to In the Lake of the Woods... My thoughts (kind of), posted by Rach on February 11, 2003, at 19:40:02
> As I nominated it, I guess we all know I think it's an interesting book.
>
> So does everyone agree with me?Yes, I liked the book. I had to laugh when I saw the fiction/nonfiction "device" with the footnotes because we squawked here about footnotes in "Awakenings". It was just funny to see the author talking *about* his own book in a footnote-yet staying *inside* the story. One of the "quotes" from another book that seemed to hit on the central idea of this "fiction" was this: "If you cannot believe in something produced by reconstruction, you may have nothing left to believe in" (from The Historical Jesus). There are a lot of religious connotations in there, but I would have to re-read it to hammer them down. The ideas of a "Lost Election", "Illusion of Death and Resurrection", "It was Sin pure and simple", "Bear witness to the mystery of evil", "Vets with PTSD should avoid churches that believe in evil as an external force", "The notion of confession felt odd. No trapdoors, no secret wires." The "lost election" is the hingepin somehow. I noticed how I wanted to keep believing "the alternate explanations" and that his wife was either just lost or had abandoned him. Another weird thing-I remember when that homeless Vietnam Vet involved with the My Lai massacre was shot in that fight over vodka being on TV. That was so sad and creepy.
poster:Ritch
thread:804
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/books/20020616/msgs/853.html