Subject: Re: (urth) Crowley, then ...
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2003 00:19:36 -0400
From: Alex David Groce 


Well, for what it's worth, Dan'l and James seem to me to have pretty
unusual reactions to LB.  My experience with the novel is that when I
introduce it to someone, they either say:

(1) Eh, well written but I was just bored our of my skull by page 100.
What's the fuss?

or

(2) WOW!  Fantastic!  Where can I get more?


It's one of my very favorite novels, and while I can see James' point
(I certainly didn't finish it wishing it were true, or thinking 'what
a lovely religion, if true'), it seems "beside the point" of the novel
to me.  Whatever that point is.  I'm pretty sure it's not the 60's New
York aspect, or the hippy aspect, or Victorian children's literature
(all I've read except Lewis Carroll was post-first-LB-read), or
wanting to find fairies...  And I'm not sure it's just a taste for the
writing, since some of those who've disliked it have fine taste in
prose.  I think Alice is right, in the end, pointing to a _mood_.  If
you are caught up in that mood, you'll love it.  If you aren't, which
seems pretty independent of religious or even "aesthethic" opinion,
you won't care for it much.


--
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+@cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

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