Hmm: Literary Buffistas, do you think the following a fair take on Defoe's views on faith vs works? (based upon Robinson Crusoe, Journal of the Plague Years and Moll Flanders.) :
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Defoe saw evil and improper acts as distractions that made it impossible to pay attention to God. Evil was always foolish in that it made you blind to God. Virtue included pragmatic self-interest so long as only proper action was taken in pursuit of that self-interest, and so long as self-interest was not all there was to you. Virtue did not ensure salvation, but salvation was unlikely, perhaps impossible without it. The virtuous had the choice of paying attention to God, in way the wicked did not, almost did not.
Defoe did not think you attained salvation by wrestling with the devil and winning. To Defoe, you obtained salvation by wrestling with God and losing.
Has anyone read China Miéville's Kraken? It sounds AWESOME.
I love the way he's described the magic system in it, but I'm not large with the Miéville love. I'll probably give this one a try tho.
I didn't find
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
all that slow, but I did skim the libel/corporate stuff. Or, I guess, the whole thing seemed slow, but that felt right for the story and the environment. When I finished I was like "that was good..." but it's been two years since I read it and I haven't felt any real desire to pick up the other two or see the movie.
Apparently I am totally disconnected from the zeitgeist.
I liked the libel stuff. I'm not sure why. But I definitely liked the first book more than the second (haven't gotten to hornet yet) so I seem to differ from most.
I have a theory that you like the books according to what genre you prefer: mystery (1),
thriller
(2),
legal thriller (w/ a hint of caper)
(3).
It's just a theory. I like all three, and didn't find the libel stuff slow, but I think they are very different books.
Gris, I usually only see you here or in Movies, so happy wedding! And honeymooning! And marriage!
Books I read on vacation:
The Poisoner's Handbook
- awesome history of forensic science via jazz age New York true crime stories. The author has described it as a chemistry textbook disguised as a pulp detective story, which is spot-on.
The Bucolic Plague
- also awesome, if a very light read. Finished this one in two days because the writing is so breezy and fast. Made me want to buy a goat farm.
Brasyl
- best of the lot by far. If you tried
Anathem
and couldn't make it through (or if you did read
Anathem
and loved it) check this one out instead. It's a different take on the many- worlds theory but just as engrossing. The other books it reminded me of are the
Hyperion
series by Dan Simmons. Really strong world and character building AND quantum physics. Loved it.
Congrats Gris. Happy honeynmoon!
The Poisoner's Handbook - awesome history of forensic science via jazz age New York true crime stories. The author has described it as a chemistry textbook disguised as a pulp detective story, which is spot-on.
This book really is awesome. I read the first few chapters of it a while back and then wandered away from it, but I really must go back to it.
