h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh...and LOTR as anglo-saxonist pseudo-fascism: The salt-of-the-earth Anglo-Saxon hobbits against the nasty outside world. It was part of an academic current in pre-war universities of reverting to Anglo-Saxon ideals to escape the degradation of modern times.

It was all pretty much in line with how the Nazis saw themselves.

And do the descriptions of Orcs not ring any alarm bells?

Anyway...it's a turgid book with very little in it than can be classed as a literary idea.

Woohoo!! someone who hate LOTR as much as I do

Well, I know about the religious angle of The Narnia Books, having read some interesting things about CS Lewis - frankly it doesn't bother me at all. And I absolutely refuse to get drawn into the whole sexist thing - what else can you expect from someone with the background of CS Lewis (or Tolkien for that matter)?

As I refuse to get drawn into the facist/racist stuff about LOTR. I believe it was intended as Tolkien said: a sort of myth for those of us who don't really have them. And that each person, no matter how insignificant they seem, can change things if they try.

I finished TRTP - it was depressing all the way through, with a wee bit of a cop-out end. But it would have been thought provoking had I been of any other political persuasion than that which I am.

er...

who's next?


Oh, and as for lining Narnia up against more modern children's literature: I can think of 2 sets off hand which measure up very well. Harry Potter - but the language and writing are nowhere near as dazzling as what Lewis came up with - and the His Dark Materials trilogy. They seem aimed at an older reader, and are truly truly fab. But oh look - religion raising its ugly head again...

Quite the opposite! Philip Pullman has said that he regards religion as 'A malign influence'.

If it wasn't for religion, there wouldn't be half as many problems in the world today.

Interestingly enough, I got suspicious of the LOTR books when I realised that the goodies seem to come from the north and west and the baddies from the south and east...

I haven't read any of Philip Pulman's books yet, but did hear a radio programme that mentioned him along with G P Taylor, which intrigued me. Although primarily children's books I read GPT's Wormwood & Shadowmancer - enjoying both, but without looking any deeper!
Has anyone else read these two & do you know if he has written any more?

I admit to enjoying a good literary well written book, but can equally enjoy an easy read.

I'm afraid I don't tend to look for dark meanings - I had to read Lord of the Flies for my O's & absoutely hated the book just because of the blatent meanings interred within it. I have enough of that in real life &, I think I've said before, I'm the kind of reader that likes to escape from that!

However, I have read Mark Haddon's the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime & thought it so fantastically accurate & well portrayed all circumstances & feelings.

Hope I didn't stir a hornet's nest

I'm currently reading Robert Rankin's "The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse" and Nietzche's "The Will to Power". I'm also halfway through Rushdie's "Midnight's Children", but have been kind of unfocused lately and didn't want to continue it in a half-***ed way, so I'll resume when I'm less distracted.

i believe i have read shadowmancer but not sure as im unaware of the author.

can you tell me briefly what it is about please to see if my memory can be jogged?

An Ann Coulter book, GreyDesk? You are brave!

I've just finished 'Any Given Day', by Jessie Lee Brown Foveaux, who was born in 1899. She wrote the book in 1997, and covers her whole 98 years. Very good! (She had no education and grew up in the mid-West of the USA, but still wrote very well..)

I am sorry, Edward, but I could not agree with you less about LotR... Nevertheless, that's all been argued on other threads.

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No kidding! Didn't he suddenly try saying the opposite when a movie deal was in the offing? Rather a hypocritical thing to do I would have thought..

Hey, once I listened to "Horse Heaven" on tape while driving through Lexington, Kentucky (thoroughbred country). It was funny to pass the horse clinic while it was being mentioned.
Right now I'm into L.J.Braun's "The Cat Who Played Post Office", JL Lieberman's "You Are Your Instrument", Dick Francis's "Field of Thirteen" (a wonderful set of short stories), and the Gospel of John. "Harry Potter #V" on tape is sitting on the shelf waiting for a long trip.

Have just finished "The meaning of everything" Simon Winchester

Am reading "Star Wars: Tales from the new republic" and "Death and the dancing footman" by Ngaio Marsh

And of course reading the first Harry Potter book along with James (my son) at bedtime.

I'm starting into Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. It took a little work to get into, but now I'm well into it!

>> An Ann Coulter book, GreyDesk? You are brave!

No, I'm stupid. It's unreadable. I can't read more than about half a page, where ever I start in the book, before getting totally frustrated with the hectoring tone. At this point I just have to stop.

Foucault's Pendulum - An exercise in taking a pinch from every conspiracy theory from the 11th Century onwards, throw in a few packets of myths and legends, stir gently and then pop it under the grill until it bubbles. The net result? Great fun!

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Well he wouldn't have had anything to write about otherwise, would he?!
But then I had a religious upbringing and rejected it all, so that's probably why HDM appeals to me! Must re-read - yet more for the waiting list.

I saw Philip Pullman at the Hay Festival of Literature in 2002, and he was an excellent and very interesting speaker. He discussed the Narnia books, and their religious influences, and kind of suggested that His Dark Materials was his 'anti-Narnia'. A point he made, which stays vividly in my mind, and I think is very relevant is that "you do not need to be religious to have morals. One does not equal the other." If anyone's interested, Philip will be appearing at Hay again this year (May/June), and is well worth hearing.

Did anyone mention that GP Taylor (Shadowmancer/Wormwood) was a clergyman? I haven't read the books yet, so can't comment on their religious content, but it might be relevant it seems. I understand that becoming a successful author has 'inevitably meant giving up his calling'.

I've just finished reading Diana Wynne Jones' 'A Sudden Wild Magic', which I found captivating, and which she ended a lot more successfully than some of her other books (such as 'Deep Secret', which I keep recommending to everyone!). I've so far only got about a page into both 'The Once and Future King' by TH White and 'Wolf Brother' by Michelle Paver, and I'm itching to read the first two of Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy and the aforementioned GP Taylor books. Not to mention all the others waiting to be read, and studying to be done...

With regard to G P Taylor - yes he is still a clergyman, but apparently a "locum"! To save my fingers (!) his website tells all: www.shadowmancer.com
Yes there is a "fight between good & evil" in both books, but it is done in a really gripping way: the evil character happens to be the vicar in Shadowmancer! Wormwood is more about an ancient prophecy, but set in 18th century London &, no, not about Egypt . The best review, in my opinion, on the back of the Shadow. book was by the Independant: "A compelling & dark-edged fantasy ... highly recommended.

Hope this sheds some light or should I say: darkness

The Once and Future King is such a good book

Hubble Bubble by Christina Jones is a great book I'll recommend it to anyone