Do report here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=303743 if you happen onto a good/excellent poem. (Haven't read that much by Gibran, I'm afraid...)
What Book Are You Reading? Volume 9
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Do report here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=303743 if you happen onto a good/excellent poem. (Haven't read that much by Gibran, I'm afraid...)
sophie
Break My Heart
Are you going to play the game? I just saw the first advertisement for it during the Superbowl. My friend described it to me as God of War...in Christian Hell.
Irish Caesar
Yellow Jacket
That was my impression as well. I was underwhelmed by Paradise since it's mostly described as indescribable.
Personally, I preferred Purgatory to Inferno, just because the people Dante met in Purgatory seemed to me to be regular folks like myself.
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
Are you going to play the game? I just saw the first advertisement for it during the Superbowl. My friend described it to me as God of War...in Christian Hell.
I dunno, maybe. It looks like it'll have to compete for my heart with Diablo III
But its not Christian Hell, its just Dante's fantastical dreamt-up Hell. There's no scriptural support for stuff like spheres and contrapasso suffering (or even for Purgatory existing, for that matter); don't get me wrong, its crazy fun, but with little basis in religion.
I'm curious to see where this whole Beatrice thing is going.
What I really liked was how the different people in the different spheres of Hell reflected the particular sphere they were in, and how being in such an evil place kind of brought out the dark side of Dante. Like, for example, he feels compassion for much of the suffering being wrought in the upper spheres, but he seems to lose that and feels real contempt for the souls of the lower spheres (it doesn't help that Virgil eggs him on), who to me seem to be more worthy of his pity and compassion than the people above. I took that as Hell "rubbing off" on him, corrupting him a bit.
Of course, the whole idea of a God with infinite capacity for love and forgiveness creating a place where redemption is impossible, whether you being there is your fault or not ( as many people, like those in Limbo, are) seems like a bunch of scare-tactic crap to begin with to me. If there is a Heaven, and we all don't just immediately go to it when we die, then I could imagine some sort of atonement and purification process like that in Purgatory, with the eventual result being getting to Heaven, and it taking longer depending on how good a person you were in God's eyes, but I cannot imagine a place that an infinitely loving God would send people to suffer for eternity, even if they do repent while there. That would be malevolence, which, as we know, is a sin, and God sinning is kind of a weird idea.
Unless God is not the force of infinite good we take him to be.
Irish Caesar
Yellow Jacket
It's been a long time since I've read the series, but I think I remember the Inferno as being a long anthem of poetic, if not actual, justice. I seem to remember those souls present as being unrepentant, and but a single thought of regret was necessary for admittance to Purgatory, but I could be mistaken. Of course Dante's vision of Hell clashes with the piles of Psalms proclaiming God's mercy, but then, the Comedy is really more a political piece than anything else, with the poet placing Popes and contemporaries in nasty places, no?
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For the record, I'm a few days into Kipling's Jungle Books, and it's a relatively quick read.
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For the record, I'm a few days into Kipling's Jungle Books, and it's a relatively quick read.
Ansar
Détente avec l'été
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Gilder
Deity
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut.
Shekwan
Kim Chi Quaffing Celt
Just finished Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy and Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way by BC himself.
What can I say? I like to sample every flavor of the culural stew.
Going to move onto Stephen Colbert's book, I Am America (and so can you) next.
What can I say? I like to sample every flavor of the culural stew.
Going to move onto Stephen Colbert's book, I Am America (and so can you) next.
I'm reading through The Emperor's Handbook, a new translation of Marcus Aurelius. It's not one of those books you read straight through, though. I just finished a book of essays, and I'm wondering what my next big read should be. I'm thinking about tackling A People's History of the World.
No, it isn't. But I can definitely recommend reading Marcus Aurelius.
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
As do I. His Confessions is great.
1889
Mayor of H-Marker Lake
:b: Margaret Atwood is one of my top 5 authors for fiction although I don't read much of that these days.
Right now I'm taking it easy with Presidential Campaigns by Paul F. Boller. It offers a brief summary (< 10 pages) of every U.S. Presidential campaign through 1984. A quick fun read probably finish this weekend.
Martacus
World's Greatest Warrior
Reading the manual for my bloody oven. Why I'm reading it is an issue for the Random Rants thread.
Gilder
Deity
I'm currently reading I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Tiberius Colbert. Got it from the girlfriend for Valentine's Day. 
Ansar
Détente avec l'été
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Shekwan
Kim Chi Quaffing Celt
I'm currently reading I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Tiberius Colbert. Got it from the girlfriend for Valentine's Day.
Its awesome isn't it. I listened to the audiobook which has a great cast.
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