Freethought & Rationalism Archive

03-12-2003, 09:37 PM

Fell asleep halfway through the first chapter... guess I'll have to get "The Bible for Dummies" so I can finish this review...

Jeremy Pallant · 03-12-2003, 09:51 PM

Someone really should post one or more of these on Amazon.com. With permission I would like to submit bgponder's.

Strawberry · 03-13-2003, 01:31 AM

Poorly paced and confusing, 1000 pages too long, but contains some good gore and erotica. As a woman, I especially liked the parts about concubines, menstruation being "unclean," the death penatly for female promiscuity, and obeying the father/husband/rapist. Gives great historical perspective. Mediocre fiction. I'd give it two stars.

bgponder · 03-13-2003, 02:55 PM

Jeremy,

You, the admin and anyone else always has full reprint rights to anything I say in these boards. I am flattered! Thank you very much.

"Ah would like t' thank my Momma and Daddy fo' havin' me. An' I truly thank mah bruthas and sistas at Internet In-fuh-dels fo' inspirin' me, fo-evah mo-uh."

On with the reviews!

Peace and Cornbread, BarryG

lisarea · 03-13-2003, 03:37 PM

I actually thought about doing this a while back with all the major holy books.

Anyway, my bible review (I haven't been able to get past Genesis, sequentially) was along the lines of:

Poorly executed 'anthology' approach to the science fiction-fantasy genre. A unique concept, in that multiple authors address the same story from their own perspectives, Rashoman-style. Unfortunately, the execution fails to live up to the concept's potential.

The variant tellings are poorly distinguished. Frequently, inconsistencies in the story will appear within the same paragraph, which ends up looking less like avante-garde styling, and more like plain, old-fashioned sloppy editing. Further, certain critical character development elements are so far off as to be counterproductive. The God character, for example, seems intentionally vague, perhaps to add an aura of mystery or to allow the reader to reach his own conclusions. The character is drawn in such a way as to raise parallels to King Kong in his original starring role. His size and power are rendered in such a way that he's ten feet tall when indoors, and a hundred feet tall outside. These contradictory behaviors serve more to render his character implausible than mysterious.

Other postmodern elements, such as the excruciatingly long listing of names in Genesis, leave the reader feeling, for lack of a better term, ripped off. While a few gems such as the inclusion of 'Gomer' among said names might bring a smile, it hardly justifies the cost, either in terms of printing, or the reader's time and effort. In sum, these ham-handed affectations come across as irritating rather than compelling, and should probably be left to more able practitioners.

Buddrow_Wilson · 03-13-2003, 03:54 PM

"This book was recommended to me by a so-called friend of mine a few months ago. I couldn't get past the first "chapter" and was quite annoyed at the waste of money. But last week when the storm hit, we ran out of joint papers and began frantically searching for an alternative. Well, as you can guess this baby was a literal God-Send (tm) after all. The amazing thing is that based on number of joints you can get out of a standard bible, it is way cheaper than buying papers at the gas station. I now purchase a bible every couple a weeks! What's great is getting stoned and trying to make out what it says on the side. Five stars! *****"

bgponder · 03-13-2003, 04:29 PM

Concise, astute, terrific!

Peace and Cornbread, BarryG

03-13-2003, 02:55 PM	#14
bgponder Regular Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Arkansas Posts: 156	You Betcha... Jeremy, You, the admin and anyone else always has full reprint rights to anything I say in these boards. I am flattered! Thank you very much. "Ah would like t' thank my Momma and Daddy fo' havin' me. An' I truly thank mah bruthas and sistas at Internet In-fuh-dels fo' inspirin' me, fo-evah mo-uh." On with the reviews! Peace and Cornbread, BarryG

03-13-2003, 04:29 PM	#17
bgponder Regular Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Arkansas Posts: 156	Bravo, lisarea! Concise, astute, terrific! Peace and Cornbread, BarryG

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

03-12-2003, 09:37 PM	#11
shifterknob Guest Posts: n/a	Fell asleep halfway through the first chapter... guess I'll have to get "The Bible for Dummies" so I can finish this review...

03-12-2003, 09:51 PM	#12
Jeremy Pallant Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Tucson, Arizona, USA Posts: 1,242	Someone really should post one or more of these on Amazon.com. With permission I would like to submit bgponder's.

03-13-2003, 01:31 AM	#13
Strawberry Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Lancaster, PA/Toronto, ON, Canada Posts: 627	Poorly paced and confusing, 1000 pages too long, but contains some good gore and erotica. As a woman, I especially liked the parts about concubines, menstruation being "unclean," the death penatly for female promiscuity, and obeying the father/husband/rapist. Gives great historical perspective. Mediocre fiction. I'd give it two stars.

03-13-2003, 03:37 PM	#15
lisarea Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Broomfield, Colorado, USA Posts: 5,550	I actually thought about doing this a while back with all the major holy books. Anyway, my bible review (I haven't been able to get past Genesis, sequentially) was along the lines of: Poorly executed 'anthology' approach to the science fiction-fantasy genre. A unique concept, in that multiple authors address the same story from their own perspectives, Rashoman-style. Unfortunately, the execution fails to live up to the concept's potential. The variant tellings are poorly distinguished. Frequently, inconsistencies in the story will appear within the same paragraph, which ends up looking less like avante-garde styling, and more like plain, old-fashioned sloppy editing. Further, certain critical character development elements are so far off as to be counterproductive. The God character, for example, seems intentionally vague, perhaps to add an aura of mystery or to allow the reader to reach his own conclusions. The character is drawn in such a way as to raise parallels to King Kong in his original starring role. His size and power are rendered in such a way that he's ten feet tall when indoors, and a hundred feet tall outside. These contradictory behaviors serve more to render his character implausible than mysterious. Other postmodern elements, such as the excruciatingly long listing of names in Genesis, leave the reader feeling, for lack of a better term, ripped off. While a few gems such as the inclusion of 'Gomer' among said names might bring a smile, it hardly justifies the cost, either in terms of printing, or the reader's time and effort. In sum, these ham-handed affectations come across as irritating rather than compelling, and should probably be left to more able practitioners.

03-13-2003, 03:54 PM	#16
Buddrow_Wilson Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Arkansas Posts: 1,589	"This book was recommended to me by a so-called friend of mine a few months ago. I couldn't get past the first "chapter" and was quite annoyed at the waste of money. But last week when the storm hit, we ran out of joint papers and began frantically searching for an alternative. Well, as you can guess this baby was a literal God-Send (tm) after all. The amazing thing is that based on number of joints you can get out of a standard bible, it is way cheaper than buying papers at the gas station. I now purchase a bible every couple a weeks! What's great is getting stoned and trying to make out what it says on the side. Five stars! *****"

Freethought & Rationalism Archive

The archives are read only.