'Objects In Space'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
I'm reading a book called "Misquoting Jesus" (too lazy to look up author)
Bart Ehrman. He was interviewed by Leonard Lopate last month (streaming audio or downloadable file) and by Terry Gross in December. I don't remember much about either interview except that in both of them he talked about the "let he who is without sin cast the first stone" story. It's controversial for some reason, but a quick search didn't say why & I haven't had time to relisten.
Let me take a wild guess and say it has something to do with how the Religious Right has a habit of judging and seeking to punish those who they believe to be sinners.
I don't remember much about either interview except that in both of them he talked about the "let he who is without sin cast the first stone" story
Because it's not in the oldest manuscript copies of the Gospel, it was apparently a bit of fic that got popular and some scribe thought it should be/was canon and made sure it got copied in.
So, just like the end of Mark, right? I found it interesting that, in the original, Mark ended with the discovery of the empty tomb, and the words "and they were terrified." Talk about your WTF endings!
Octavia Butler has died.
Whoa. She was only 58! And... I mean, she just published a new book. I don't know, it just doesn't seem right for her to die. That's so sad.
So, just like the end of Mark, right?
The end of Mark, chunks of Revelation, the differences between the Gospels, why do some old manuscripts show Jesus as being angry at some points when other manuscripts show Jesus as being compassionate at the same moment. There are a lot of variants.
I'm having a hard time getting through Melusine. I *want* to like it, and the basic premise is enough to make me want to know what happens to the characters, but....150 pages in, and NOTHING KEEPS HAPPENING. It's all
Mildmay: t gritty life of a thief....
Felix: t I am FUCKING NUTS.
Mildmay: t No, REALLY -- gritty life of a thief....
Felix: t Everyone looks like an animal to me. And I see dead people. Did I mention I'm FUCKING NUTS?!?
Plus, the whole system of marking time is so confusing to me that it pulls me right out of the story. I spend about 5 minutes trying to puzzle out what a Great Septad is (I still don't know, though from context I'm assuming it's somewhere between 25 and 50 years), and then I realize I forgot what I just read, and have to go back and re-read it.
I'm serious about wanting to like it -- I really, really do. I want to see what happens, but I'm beginning to suspect that nothing ever will, except the gritty life of a thief and a crazy-ass dude.
DH read it - but sadly , I'm not sure what he thought of it. When i get his opinion, I'll post it.