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Review Date: 10/3/2018
The author wrote about that which he has no knowledge. I only want to address 2 of Mr. Aslan's arguments.
1. That Adam and Eve did not die after eating the fruit of the tree, because, well, they did not die in the physical sense.
Death, as far as the Bible is concerned, never means cessation of living. Death always means "permanent separation", either from "the land of the living", or from God Himself, who is the source of life. Once a human is conceived, they never "die" in the sense of ceasing to exist.
And Scriptures mentions three types of deaths:
a) Physical death. This is what most people mean when they speak of death. But even this does not mean cessation of existence, but merely separation from those living on earth. The "dead" person transitions into another world, and continues to live, forever. This death happens to everyone, including godly people.
b) Spiritual death. This is a state of being out of touch with God the Creator. People in this state of death cannot perceive or understand sipiritual things. To them, God and His claims are a work of fiction. They do everything to avoid being in the presence of God, either out of fear, hate, or shame, or all of the above. This was the death that Adam and his wife experienced, and that explains why they hid themselves in the garden when they heard God's voice as He visited them. Most people on earth are spiritually dead, though they are physically alive, just like Adam and his wife Eve were.
c) Eternal death. This is permanent separation from God, and occurs to all those who experience physical death while in a state of spiritual death.
No one alive is eternally dead. As long as we are alive, we can receive eternal life by turning from sin and accepting God's offer.
2. That Adam and Eve were not created in God's image, because, after they sinned, God said "Now the man has become like one of us".
Here's the full verse:
"And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:..." Gen 3:22 (KJV).
Only Mr. Aslan would interprete this passage to mean what he said it meant.
1. That Adam and Eve did not die after eating the fruit of the tree, because, well, they did not die in the physical sense.
Death, as far as the Bible is concerned, never means cessation of living. Death always means "permanent separation", either from "the land of the living", or from God Himself, who is the source of life. Once a human is conceived, they never "die" in the sense of ceasing to exist.
And Scriptures mentions three types of deaths:
a) Physical death. This is what most people mean when they speak of death. But even this does not mean cessation of existence, but merely separation from those living on earth. The "dead" person transitions into another world, and continues to live, forever. This death happens to everyone, including godly people.
b) Spiritual death. This is a state of being out of touch with God the Creator. People in this state of death cannot perceive or understand sipiritual things. To them, God and His claims are a work of fiction. They do everything to avoid being in the presence of God, either out of fear, hate, or shame, or all of the above. This was the death that Adam and his wife experienced, and that explains why they hid themselves in the garden when they heard God's voice as He visited them. Most people on earth are spiritually dead, though they are physically alive, just like Adam and his wife Eve were.
c) Eternal death. This is permanent separation from God, and occurs to all those who experience physical death while in a state of spiritual death.
No one alive is eternally dead. As long as we are alive, we can receive eternal life by turning from sin and accepting God's offer.
2. That Adam and Eve were not created in God's image, because, after they sinned, God said "Now the man has become like one of us".
Here's the full verse:
"And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:..." Gen 3:22 (KJV).
Only Mr. Aslan would interprete this passage to mean what he said it meant.
Review Date: 10/3/2018
The author wrote about that which he has no knowledge. I only want to address 2 of Mr. Aslan's arguments.
1. That Adam and Eve did not die after eating the fruit of the tree, because, well, they did not die in the physical sense.
Death, as far as the Bible is concerned, never means cessation of living. Death always means "permanent separation", either from "the land of the living", or from God Himself, who is the source of life. Once a human is conceived, they never "die" in the sense of ceasing to exist.
And Scriptures mentions three types of deaths:
a) Physical death. This is what most people mean when they speak of death. But even this does not mean cessation of existence, but merely separation from those living on earth. The "dead" person transitions into another world, and continues to live, forever. This death happens to everyone, including godly people.
b) Spiritual death. This is a state of being out of touch with God the Creator. People in this state of death cannot perceive or understand sipiritual things. To them, God and His claims are a work of fiction. They do everything to avoid being in the presence of God, either out of fear, hate, or shame, or all of the above. This was the death that Adam and his wife experienced, and that explains why they hid themselves in the garden when they heard God's voice as He visited them. Most people on earth are spiritually dead, though they are physically alive, just like Adam and his wife Eve were.
c) Eternal death. This is permanent separation from God, and occurs to all those who experience physical death while in a state of spiritual death.
No one alive is eternally dead. As long as we are alive, we can receive eternal life by turning from sin and accepting God's offer.
2. That Adam and Eve were not created in God's image, because, after they sinned, God said "Now the man has become like one of us".
Here's the full verse:
"And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:..." Gen 3:22 (KJV).
Only Mr. Aslan would interprete this passage to mean what he said it meant.
1. That Adam and Eve did not die after eating the fruit of the tree, because, well, they did not die in the physical sense.
Death, as far as the Bible is concerned, never means cessation of living. Death always means "permanent separation", either from "the land of the living", or from God Himself, who is the source of life. Once a human is conceived, they never "die" in the sense of ceasing to exist.
And Scriptures mentions three types of deaths:
a) Physical death. This is what most people mean when they speak of death. But even this does not mean cessation of existence, but merely separation from those living on earth. The "dead" person transitions into another world, and continues to live, forever. This death happens to everyone, including godly people.
b) Spiritual death. This is a state of being out of touch with God the Creator. People in this state of death cannot perceive or understand sipiritual things. To them, God and His claims are a work of fiction. They do everything to avoid being in the presence of God, either out of fear, hate, or shame, or all of the above. This was the death that Adam and his wife experienced, and that explains why they hid themselves in the garden when they heard God's voice as He visited them. Most people on earth are spiritually dead, though they are physically alive, just like Adam and his wife Eve were.
c) Eternal death. This is permanent separation from God, and occurs to all those who experience physical death while in a state of spiritual death.
No one alive is eternally dead. As long as we are alive, we can receive eternal life by turning from sin and accepting God's offer.
2. That Adam and Eve were not created in God's image, because, after they sinned, God said "Now the man has become like one of us".
Here's the full verse:
"And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:..." Gen 3:22 (KJV).
Only Mr. Aslan would interprete this passage to mean what he said it meant.
Review Date: 3/31/2010
Helpful Score: 7
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent is a stunner of a debut novel.
Kent is a descendant of Martha Carrier who was hung as a witch during the Salem Witch Trials.
She takes Martha's story and tells it through the eyes of Martha's daughter Sarah, who was forced to testify against her mother and confess to witchcraft at the age of eight. The book is an incredibly powerful historical novel with plenty of accuracy along with dynamic characters.
Sarah (who in the book is a bit older than the real child) lives a hard life working beside her taciturn parents and three older brothers on their hardscrabble farm. She is responsible for caring for her one-year old sister Hannah when the two are forced to live with her aunt and uncle during an outbreak of smallpox in the home. Her aunt and uncle are loving and friendly and Sarah's hard heart slowly blossoms under their care. This only hardens her heart even further toward her mother when she's returned to them several months later. But things are changing in their Andover, Massachusetts home. Witches have been discovered in Salem, and whispers and rumors are sweeping the countryside like wildfire. Kent carefully lays the case for Martha's charge of witchcraft: a jealous nephew, an angry neighbor, a humiliated serving girl. Each person becomes a strand in the noose around Martha's neck.
Kent does a masterful job of portraying the suspicion and dread as more and more neighbors are arrested, including Sarah's kind uncle, who isn't who she thought he was. She makes a promise to her mother that both imprisons and frees Sarah.
The descriptions of the horror of the jails the accused (including infants and small children) inhabited are unspeakable, and yet Sarah endures to learn what real love is. Of her mother's quiet, unfathomable, deep, unspoken love versus the shallow, easy, uncomplicated love of her aunt and uncle, Sarah learns which one stands in the face of adversity and so Sarah learns to stand and love as well.
The ending alludes to a secret story in Sarah's father's past, one I hope Kent tackles with her next book. This book will change the way history remembers the Salem Witch Trials when seen through the eyes of a child.
Kent is a descendant of Martha Carrier who was hung as a witch during the Salem Witch Trials.
She takes Martha's story and tells it through the eyes of Martha's daughter Sarah, who was forced to testify against her mother and confess to witchcraft at the age of eight. The book is an incredibly powerful historical novel with plenty of accuracy along with dynamic characters.
Sarah (who in the book is a bit older than the real child) lives a hard life working beside her taciturn parents and three older brothers on their hardscrabble farm. She is responsible for caring for her one-year old sister Hannah when the two are forced to live with her aunt and uncle during an outbreak of smallpox in the home. Her aunt and uncle are loving and friendly and Sarah's hard heart slowly blossoms under their care. This only hardens her heart even further toward her mother when she's returned to them several months later. But things are changing in their Andover, Massachusetts home. Witches have been discovered in Salem, and whispers and rumors are sweeping the countryside like wildfire. Kent carefully lays the case for Martha's charge of witchcraft: a jealous nephew, an angry neighbor, a humiliated serving girl. Each person becomes a strand in the noose around Martha's neck.
Kent does a masterful job of portraying the suspicion and dread as more and more neighbors are arrested, including Sarah's kind uncle, who isn't who she thought he was. She makes a promise to her mother that both imprisons and frees Sarah.
The descriptions of the horror of the jails the accused (including infants and small children) inhabited are unspeakable, and yet Sarah endures to learn what real love is. Of her mother's quiet, unfathomable, deep, unspoken love versus the shallow, easy, uncomplicated love of her aunt and uncle, Sarah learns which one stands in the face of adversity and so Sarah learns to stand and love as well.
The ending alludes to a secret story in Sarah's father's past, one I hope Kent tackles with her next book. This book will change the way history remembers the Salem Witch Trials when seen through the eyes of a child.
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
94
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
94
Review Date: 6/27/2020
If it was not such garbage it would be fascinating. Sort of like watching a train-wreck in slow motion. I have never seen anyone squirm and sweat so much to twist facts to fit the group-think of liberal fanaticism as this.
Im a Democrat with a brain, and I intend to use it. I refuse to be spoon-fed this propaganda and blindly follow it. It reminds me of the joke, where a person jumps out of the 109 floor and every 5 seconds reminds him/her self what a grand view he/she has of the world, unobstructed and all to him/her self....
Im a Democrat with a brain, and I intend to use it. I refuse to be spoon-fed this propaganda and blindly follow it. It reminds me of the joke, where a person jumps out of the 109 floor and every 5 seconds reminds him/her self what a grand view he/she has of the world, unobstructed and all to him/her self....
Review Date: 5/31/2009
Back cover:
Some men die legends. Some legends never die...
Tryton, Elder of the Shikar Council, knows the cost of love and vows never to fall prey to its seductive embrace. He cannot, for that way lies madness, destruction and unspoken secrets centuries old.
Niki Akitoye is a woman cursed by love, indeed by any emotion that makes her lose grip on her tightly held control. When Niki loses control, people die. She must never let anyone get too close.
But once these two proud fighters meet, all their rules stand waiting to be broken...and the price of desire could be salvation or destruction.
In a world you thought you knew, pasts collide and futures hang in the balance. For our greatest needs and darkest secrets are kept closest to the heart. And fate has a way of catching up with us...
Comments:
Lord of The Deep was truly an outstanding book! Not only did this book delve more into the Horde War the Skikar warriors are fighting against the Daemons, it went more in-depth with the secrets Tryton has been withholding for centuries from his people. After Tryton and his team locate Niki, who finds herself in the mist of the Horde War, Tryton finds himself possessed with a wanting he's never experienced before. Niki is his goddess and what he wants he gets. The sparks and sexual desire between these two is flaming hot! The story also brings forth a multitude of revelations for the Shikar warriors and how far the Daemons will go to destroy both them and humans. Prepare yourself for a couple of surprises and many twists and turns. This is a must read if you are a fan of the Horde Wars series.
Some men die legends. Some legends never die...
Tryton, Elder of the Shikar Council, knows the cost of love and vows never to fall prey to its seductive embrace. He cannot, for that way lies madness, destruction and unspoken secrets centuries old.
Niki Akitoye is a woman cursed by love, indeed by any emotion that makes her lose grip on her tightly held control. When Niki loses control, people die. She must never let anyone get too close.
But once these two proud fighters meet, all their rules stand waiting to be broken...and the price of desire could be salvation or destruction.
In a world you thought you knew, pasts collide and futures hang in the balance. For our greatest needs and darkest secrets are kept closest to the heart. And fate has a way of catching up with us...
Comments:
Lord of The Deep was truly an outstanding book! Not only did this book delve more into the Horde War the Skikar warriors are fighting against the Daemons, it went more in-depth with the secrets Tryton has been withholding for centuries from his people. After Tryton and his team locate Niki, who finds herself in the mist of the Horde War, Tryton finds himself possessed with a wanting he's never experienced before. Niki is his goddess and what he wants he gets. The sparks and sexual desire between these two is flaming hot! The story also brings forth a multitude of revelations for the Shikar warriors and how far the Daemons will go to destroy both them and humans. Prepare yourself for a couple of surprises and many twists and turns. This is a must read if you are a fan of the Horde Wars series.
Review Date: 12/18/2009
This stirring prequel to The Forest House, Paxson's first collaboration with Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930â1999), is sure to please fans of the late author of The Mists of Avalon. In The Forest House, they introduced the Society of the Ravens, sons of the Druid priestesses who were raped and tortured by Britain's Roman invaders. Now Paxson explores the events circa A.D. 60 that inspired the mythical group's formation. Strong women surge to the forefront, most notably Druid priestess Lhiannon and her headstrong student and friend, Boudica, a Celtic princess who forgoes becoming a priestess to marry Prasutagos, High King of the Iceni. The uneasy peace with Rome shatters after Prasutagos dies, and Roman soldiers, refusing to recognize Boudica as queen, beat her and rape her daughters. Vowing vengeance, Boudica raises an army infused with the battle goddess's magical power and strikes back at the Romans. Paxson's bright fusion of fact and myth is a fine tribute to Bradley and the real-world triumphs and tragedy of Boudica.
Review Date: 9/5/2014
Helpful Score: 2
I agree with the reviewer "Lenka".... but apart of the book being a subtle indoctrination tool of the glory and martyrdom of Islam, the book also is poorly written.
The reader can every now and then hit a pocket of nice storytelling, but you have to endure lots of poorly executed time line jumps, the narrator's (Aisha) cryptic, futuristic comments, which are meant to intrigue the reader, but instead all they do is frustrate, and annoy. Except for the side stories, such at the opening one, where Aisha is born, which will captivate the reader, by large the characters feel flat, and the politics (apart of the gruesomely descriptive tortures/deaths of the first martyrs) are just a big tangled mess, which makes the research behind the book feel poorly done. The book just feels so much more like a badly executed fiction then a retelling of well documented history. For example, when the "miracles" that Moses did are repeated by Muhammad, the author achieves the opposite effect with the way he presents it. Instead of being given the feeling of religious ecstasy and humbleness, the reader has no choice but laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole situation, as it is presented.
The "Authors Note" attacks Christianity, (claiming that Christianity has no substance as its history is not documented, and the rape of 9 yr olds in Islam is ok, because Marry's (a Christian) was pregnant at 12yrs. This tells me 2 things. The author is a Muslim because he implies that Mary had intercourse at age 12, (as Muslims do not believe that Marry's child was conceived without physical intercourse). Which in turn explains why the book is endorsed by Muslim Brotherhood, whose charter is quite an eye opener...
In short reading this book was just like dragging your feet in 2 feet of mud; the writing drags most of the time, the characters do NOT come alive, the politics are tangled mess, the narrator is annoying, and constant glory of Islam is rubbed in your face. If you want to read a truly remarkable book about Aisha, with all the cultural, human and dirty political interaction, get THE JEWEL OF MEDINA, THE SWORD OF MEDINA, it is a trilogy, and the third has not been published as yet. The book was blocked in every publishing house, but one, by Muslim Brotherhood, and it truly is worth reading.
The reader can every now and then hit a pocket of nice storytelling, but you have to endure lots of poorly executed time line jumps, the narrator's (Aisha) cryptic, futuristic comments, which are meant to intrigue the reader, but instead all they do is frustrate, and annoy. Except for the side stories, such at the opening one, where Aisha is born, which will captivate the reader, by large the characters feel flat, and the politics (apart of the gruesomely descriptive tortures/deaths of the first martyrs) are just a big tangled mess, which makes the research behind the book feel poorly done. The book just feels so much more like a badly executed fiction then a retelling of well documented history. For example, when the "miracles" that Moses did are repeated by Muhammad, the author achieves the opposite effect with the way he presents it. Instead of being given the feeling of religious ecstasy and humbleness, the reader has no choice but laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole situation, as it is presented.
The "Authors Note" attacks Christianity, (claiming that Christianity has no substance as its history is not documented, and the rape of 9 yr olds in Islam is ok, because Marry's (a Christian) was pregnant at 12yrs. This tells me 2 things. The author is a Muslim because he implies that Mary had intercourse at age 12, (as Muslims do not believe that Marry's child was conceived without physical intercourse). Which in turn explains why the book is endorsed by Muslim Brotherhood, whose charter is quite an eye opener...
In short reading this book was just like dragging your feet in 2 feet of mud; the writing drags most of the time, the characters do NOT come alive, the politics are tangled mess, the narrator is annoying, and constant glory of Islam is rubbed in your face. If you want to read a truly remarkable book about Aisha, with all the cultural, human and dirty political interaction, get THE JEWEL OF MEDINA, THE SWORD OF MEDINA, it is a trilogy, and the third has not been published as yet. The book was blocked in every publishing house, but one, by Muslim Brotherhood, and it truly is worth reading.
Review Date: 10/31/2012
A recreation of the diaries of Martha Jefferson creates an intimate portrait of two fascinating people and their passionate love affair, as well as a chronicle of the revolutionary period.
From Publishers Weekly
Cast in the form of a diary written by Thomas Jefferson's wife, Martha, Grimes's first novel chronicles the years from their courtship in 1770 to her death in 1782. Atmospheric and richly detailed, with exact accounts of such contemporary activities as leaching dye and boiling soap, the novel captures the personalities of two extraordinary people and the tumult of the revolutionary war that consumed their lives. We view the conflict through the prism of Martha's sharply perceptive mind; the maneuvers of the era's famous men--George Washington, Patrick Henry and Benedict Arnold--form a well-integrated backdrop to her story. The novel also traces Martha's evolution from a self-indulgent Southern belle to an outspoken young mother with radical social views; conversations with her slave Betty on the explosive subjects of emancipation and miscegenation are revealing of the complex relationship between white and black Americans in the 18th century. Thomas Jefferson's steady rise as a lawyer, lawmaker and statesman takes second place here to his role as husband, father and lover, so shattered by his young wife's death that he never remarried. The moving tale succeeds both as gripping historical saga and powerful love story. BOMC and QPB selections.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Judge Johnson, as this overlong but still fascinating study clearly demonstrates, is one of the most influential federal jurists of this century. The history-making decisions he made during his 37-year tenure as a federal judge in Alabama not only desegregated all 118 school districts in the most segregated state in the Union but also extended the spirt and letter of the 1954 Supreme Court Brown decision to local police department hiring practices, voting rights of blacks, the administration of state mental institutions and prisons, and the ethics of the judiciary system. Though this biography meanders through the struggles and rewards of Johnson's public and private life and sometimes provides more detail than most readers might want, it sketches a vivid picture of a society undergoing deep, irrevocable changes--of which many were heavily influenced by the judge's unpopular and courageous decisions. Based on extensive interviews with Johnson and his many political friends and adversaries, this book updates and extends Robert F. Kennedy Jr's biography, Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. ( LJ 9/15/78) and portrays an activist, highly principled judge who set into motion a social revolution. Highly recommended.
- Jack Forman, Mesa Coll. Lib., San Diego
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Publishers Weekly
Cast in the form of a diary written by Thomas Jefferson's wife, Martha, Grimes's first novel chronicles the years from their courtship in 1770 to her death in 1782. Atmospheric and richly detailed, with exact accounts of such contemporary activities as leaching dye and boiling soap, the novel captures the personalities of two extraordinary people and the tumult of the revolutionary war that consumed their lives. We view the conflict through the prism of Martha's sharply perceptive mind; the maneuvers of the era's famous men--George Washington, Patrick Henry and Benedict Arnold--form a well-integrated backdrop to her story. The novel also traces Martha's evolution from a self-indulgent Southern belle to an outspoken young mother with radical social views; conversations with her slave Betty on the explosive subjects of emancipation and miscegenation are revealing of the complex relationship between white and black Americans in the 18th century. Thomas Jefferson's steady rise as a lawyer, lawmaker and statesman takes second place here to his role as husband, father and lover, so shattered by his young wife's death that he never remarried. The moving tale succeeds both as gripping historical saga and powerful love story. BOMC and QPB selections.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Judge Johnson, as this overlong but still fascinating study clearly demonstrates, is one of the most influential federal jurists of this century. The history-making decisions he made during his 37-year tenure as a federal judge in Alabama not only desegregated all 118 school districts in the most segregated state in the Union but also extended the spirt and letter of the 1954 Supreme Court Brown decision to local police department hiring practices, voting rights of blacks, the administration of state mental institutions and prisons, and the ethics of the judiciary system. Though this biography meanders through the struggles and rewards of Johnson's public and private life and sometimes provides more detail than most readers might want, it sketches a vivid picture of a society undergoing deep, irrevocable changes--of which many were heavily influenced by the judge's unpopular and courageous decisions. Based on extensive interviews with Johnson and his many political friends and adversaries, this book updates and extends Robert F. Kennedy Jr's biography, Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. ( LJ 9/15/78) and portrays an activist, highly principled judge who set into motion a social revolution. Highly recommended.
- Jack Forman, Mesa Coll. Lib., San Diego
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review Date: 5/2/2021
An actual attempt to tell you what the book is about.
I apologize for my review title. This is one of the cases when I am not sure I recognize the book I just read from the other reviews. I propose to try to tell you something about actual content and structure of the book. I think it is worth doing because I believe this to be one of the most important books on political philosophy written during the twentieth century.
Strauss' history of Western political philosophy can be summed up as follows. In the beginning there were the Greeks. They lived in their politeia (which Strauss translates as regime- see circa p.136 for his discussion). At first they believed that the laws of their particular cities were handed down from god(s) either directly or through divine inspiration. But then they began to reflect on the fact that their different politeia contradicted each other in their ideas of what was just, godly and noble.
Two things happened as a result. The ideas of nature and convention developed.
-Important methodological aside- As has been pointed out by Kennington and many other commentators, Strauss' use of the word `idea' (see. p. 123) is very particular and could be called Socratic-Platonic. In NRH, he uses the word very sparingly, and only to indicate the philosophical issues that are central to his story. The discussion of each chapter of the book and the book as a whole is built around these ideas. By my listing they are as follows: philosophy, history, natural right, science, nature, justice, man, best regime, man's perfection, the city, and virtue (I may have missed some of these). Now some of these, I would claim, Strauss sees as fundamental issues that have alternate solutions between which it is impossible to rationally decide and some of these issues are dead ends for philosophy. Part of the fun of reading Strauss is deciding which is which. And now back to our story.-
Out of these related ideas- convention and nature, the classical vision of political philosophy developed. Strauss covers this in his central chapters 3 and 4. There is only a few points I want to make about his presentation. He believes that the classical understanding of natural right and of man is based on " the hierarchic order of man's natural constitution" (127). Because our nature is hierachial, our ends are as well. Our highest end is the philosophy which is not a body of knowledge but a life of contemplation on the nature of the whole and on the nature of the parts.
Back in the political realm, the result is an investigation as to what constitutes the best regime- what form of politea encourages the development of gentlemen (from whom the philosophers will come-note the type of person that Socrates typically converse with in the Platonic dialogues) and the fostering of the virtues that will be necessary for both the city and the citizen (the virtues required for the philosopher are much more difficult to grasp). Note also that there is no discussion of individual rights here- it is of the duties of the citizen that we speak.
The beginning of the modern version of natural rights is almost an inversion of this view. Instead of focusing on what is highest (and therefore rarest) in human nature, the moderns (e.g., Hobbes) decided to focus on what was most common, indeed, what was universal in the hopes of actualizing their philosophies. Hobbes and Locke (according to Strauss) therefore focused on the passions, particularly on the desire for self-preservation. Strauss' reading of Hobbes and Locke is brilliant and is based on a very broad reading in their works. He sees modernity as undergoing three waves (see the essay, The Three Waves of Modernity, in Strauss' book An Introduction to Political Philosophy). The second wave, started by Rousseau, exposed the presumptions in the philosophies of Hobbes and Locke and ruthlessly critiques their philosophies on the basis of their own presumptions (see p. 269 of NRH for an example). Not discussed in NRH is how Nietzsche initiated the third wave by doing the same thing to Rousseau and his followers.
The third wave of modernity self-implodes in the philosophies of Heidegger (the radical historicist of the early chapters of NRH) and the vacuousness of positivism.
Thus my summary of NRH. Note that there is little content as to what natural right really is in Strauss' opinion. Strauss felt that we would get nowhere on understanding natural right unless we confronted the two major traditions in Western philosophy: historicist (modern) philosophy and nonhistoricist (ancient philosophy). His book is best seen as his attempt to reconsider the most elementary premises of those traditions (p. 32). After all of our careful reading, we are back at the beginning. Running as fast as we can to stay where we are. I am being glib.
I would love to have other readers of NRH comment on how I might improve my understanding of this book. I am nowhere near done with the book or the author. Like other reviewers, I disagree w/ Strauss in many of his fundamental presumptions (where is his argument for the soul?), I suspect many of his interpretations (although many are revelations) but I love learning from him and debating internally with him. He very rarely tells you what to think. He spends almost all of his time exploring the issue at hand in its full complexity. And he has driven me back to rereading Plato and Locke. Ain't nothing wrong with that.
I apologize for my review title. This is one of the cases when I am not sure I recognize the book I just read from the other reviews. I propose to try to tell you something about actual content and structure of the book. I think it is worth doing because I believe this to be one of the most important books on political philosophy written during the twentieth century.
Strauss' history of Western political philosophy can be summed up as follows. In the beginning there were the Greeks. They lived in their politeia (which Strauss translates as regime- see circa p.136 for his discussion). At first they believed that the laws of their particular cities were handed down from god(s) either directly or through divine inspiration. But then they began to reflect on the fact that their different politeia contradicted each other in their ideas of what was just, godly and noble.
Two things happened as a result. The ideas of nature and convention developed.
-Important methodological aside- As has been pointed out by Kennington and many other commentators, Strauss' use of the word `idea' (see. p. 123) is very particular and could be called Socratic-Platonic. In NRH, he uses the word very sparingly, and only to indicate the philosophical issues that are central to his story. The discussion of each chapter of the book and the book as a whole is built around these ideas. By my listing they are as follows: philosophy, history, natural right, science, nature, justice, man, best regime, man's perfection, the city, and virtue (I may have missed some of these). Now some of these, I would claim, Strauss sees as fundamental issues that have alternate solutions between which it is impossible to rationally decide and some of these issues are dead ends for philosophy. Part of the fun of reading Strauss is deciding which is which. And now back to our story.-
Out of these related ideas- convention and nature, the classical vision of political philosophy developed. Strauss covers this in his central chapters 3 and 4. There is only a few points I want to make about his presentation. He believes that the classical understanding of natural right and of man is based on " the hierarchic order of man's natural constitution" (127). Because our nature is hierachial, our ends are as well. Our highest end is the philosophy which is not a body of knowledge but a life of contemplation on the nature of the whole and on the nature of the parts.
Back in the political realm, the result is an investigation as to what constitutes the best regime- what form of politea encourages the development of gentlemen (from whom the philosophers will come-note the type of person that Socrates typically converse with in the Platonic dialogues) and the fostering of the virtues that will be necessary for both the city and the citizen (the virtues required for the philosopher are much more difficult to grasp). Note also that there is no discussion of individual rights here- it is of the duties of the citizen that we speak.
The beginning of the modern version of natural rights is almost an inversion of this view. Instead of focusing on what is highest (and therefore rarest) in human nature, the moderns (e.g., Hobbes) decided to focus on what was most common, indeed, what was universal in the hopes of actualizing their philosophies. Hobbes and Locke (according to Strauss) therefore focused on the passions, particularly on the desire for self-preservation. Strauss' reading of Hobbes and Locke is brilliant and is based on a very broad reading in their works. He sees modernity as undergoing three waves (see the essay, The Three Waves of Modernity, in Strauss' book An Introduction to Political Philosophy). The second wave, started by Rousseau, exposed the presumptions in the philosophies of Hobbes and Locke and ruthlessly critiques their philosophies on the basis of their own presumptions (see p. 269 of NRH for an example). Not discussed in NRH is how Nietzsche initiated the third wave by doing the same thing to Rousseau and his followers.
The third wave of modernity self-implodes in the philosophies of Heidegger (the radical historicist of the early chapters of NRH) and the vacuousness of positivism.
Thus my summary of NRH. Note that there is little content as to what natural right really is in Strauss' opinion. Strauss felt that we would get nowhere on understanding natural right unless we confronted the two major traditions in Western philosophy: historicist (modern) philosophy and nonhistoricist (ancient philosophy). His book is best seen as his attempt to reconsider the most elementary premises of those traditions (p. 32). After all of our careful reading, we are back at the beginning. Running as fast as we can to stay where we are. I am being glib.
I would love to have other readers of NRH comment on how I might improve my understanding of this book. I am nowhere near done with the book or the author. Like other reviewers, I disagree w/ Strauss in many of his fundamental presumptions (where is his argument for the soul?), I suspect many of his interpretations (although many are revelations) but I love learning from him and debating internally with him. He very rarely tells you what to think. He spends almost all of his time exploring the issue at hand in its full complexity. And he has driven me back to rereading Plato and Locke. Ain't nothing wrong with that.
Review Date: 7/5/2020
Helpful Score: 1
Explains what makes the president tick. Helps a person understand his decisions. If you're honestly curious, I'd recommend it. If you really don't want to know, don't bother. It'll shake your thinking and you won't like it. An honest look though? I think D'Souza was fair, factual, and looked at the topic intellectully.
I wanted a better understanding of Obama and why he was trying to undermine his own country. From reading climate skeptic books, I understood that Obama was obsessed with reducing co2 emissions by destroying his country's reliance on cheap energy but not why. This book scares the crap out of me. I never thought some one this caring and well spoken like Obama, was hatching a plan to reduce the greatest country in the world to nothing. His war on coal, manufacturing, and the middle class. And his trillions of dollars spending habit were a planned attack to bring America to its knees.
I wanted a better understanding of Obama and why he was trying to undermine his own country. From reading climate skeptic books, I understood that Obama was obsessed with reducing co2 emissions by destroying his country's reliance on cheap energy but not why. This book scares the crap out of me. I never thought some one this caring and well spoken like Obama, was hatching a plan to reduce the greatest country in the world to nothing. His war on coal, manufacturing, and the middle class. And his trillions of dollars spending habit were a planned attack to bring America to its knees.
Review Date: 7/3/2023
A war between interdependent cultures, once friendly and now risking global catastrophe in a brinksmanship quest for world domination. Sound familiar?
Well known to us today, this theme is explored as a sardonic explanation for the end of the dinosaurs and other worldly beings, some 66 million years ago.
Cixin Liu's 2021 dark satire, âThe Cretaceous Pastâ, is a science fiction look forward by reconstructing the past with familiar, disquieting results (originally published in 2020 as âOf Ants and Dinosaurs).
By accident and self-motivated interests, two physically opposite species â dinosaurs and ants â form an unexpected mutually satisfying relationship building on each other's skill sets. This arrangement leads to 3,000 years of economic and technological prosperity throughout the era's Gondwanan supercontinent.
But not without tensions and competitiveness leading to first religious, then, nationalistic, species-bias motivated conflicts. Dinosaurs are presented as creatively innovative but physically inept, while ants as micro fine-motor skilled legions of unimaginative technocrats.
Not unlike the breaking apart of the supercontinent at the time, the dinosaurs split into two competitive subgroups: one with an autocratic, monarchy feel, the other more republic-oriented by its description. And the ants continue in their socialist bureaucracy. The parallels with the current world political orders for all three groups are apparent.
Will the conflicts be resolved or end in a sort of Dr. Strangelove accidental finality marking a geologic boundary for future scholars and explorers to study?
While Liu's dry humor and wit keep the narrative moving quickly forward, the characters, motivations and events are hard to empathize with â sort of like looking at an experiment in a Petri dish. It is interesting, even entertaining, to see the results but at times hard to feel excited.
A similar investigation worth reading is Czech writer Karel Capek's 1936 brilliant science fiction satire of human motives at cross purposes with another species, âWar with the Newtsâ. And along the same lines about efforts doomed to repeat is Walter M. Miller Jr.'s 1959 amusing and disturbing âA Canticle for Leibowitzâ.
You might be surprised by this quick read and find Liu's fable confirms William Faulkner's thought: âThe past is never dead. It's not even past.â
Well known to us today, this theme is explored as a sardonic explanation for the end of the dinosaurs and other worldly beings, some 66 million years ago.
Cixin Liu's 2021 dark satire, âThe Cretaceous Pastâ, is a science fiction look forward by reconstructing the past with familiar, disquieting results (originally published in 2020 as âOf Ants and Dinosaurs).
By accident and self-motivated interests, two physically opposite species â dinosaurs and ants â form an unexpected mutually satisfying relationship building on each other's skill sets. This arrangement leads to 3,000 years of economic and technological prosperity throughout the era's Gondwanan supercontinent.
But not without tensions and competitiveness leading to first religious, then, nationalistic, species-bias motivated conflicts. Dinosaurs are presented as creatively innovative but physically inept, while ants as micro fine-motor skilled legions of unimaginative technocrats.
Not unlike the breaking apart of the supercontinent at the time, the dinosaurs split into two competitive subgroups: one with an autocratic, monarchy feel, the other more republic-oriented by its description. And the ants continue in their socialist bureaucracy. The parallels with the current world political orders for all three groups are apparent.
Will the conflicts be resolved or end in a sort of Dr. Strangelove accidental finality marking a geologic boundary for future scholars and explorers to study?
While Liu's dry humor and wit keep the narrative moving quickly forward, the characters, motivations and events are hard to empathize with â sort of like looking at an experiment in a Petri dish. It is interesting, even entertaining, to see the results but at times hard to feel excited.
A similar investigation worth reading is Czech writer Karel Capek's 1936 brilliant science fiction satire of human motives at cross purposes with another species, âWar with the Newtsâ. And along the same lines about efforts doomed to repeat is Walter M. Miller Jr.'s 1959 amusing and disturbing âA Canticle for Leibowitzâ.
You might be surprised by this quick read and find Liu's fable confirms William Faulkner's thought: âThe past is never dead. It's not even past.â
Review Date: 7/29/2009
Though a lot of SF writers are more or less efficiently continuing the tradition of Robert A. Heinlein, Scalzi's astonishingly proficient first novel reads like an original work by the late grand master. Seventy-five-year-old John Perry joins the Colonial Defense Force because he has nothing to keep him on Earth. Suddenly installed in a better-than-new young body, he begins developing loyalty toward his comrades in arms as they battle aliens for habitable planets in a crowded galaxy. As bloody combat experiences pile up, Perry begins wondering whether the slaughter is justified; in short, is being a warrior really a good thing, let alone being human? The definition of "human" keeps expanding as Perry is pushed through a series of mind-stretching revelations. The story obviously resembles such novels as Starship Trooper and Time Enough for Love, but Scalzi is not just recycling classic Heinlein. He's working out new twists, variations that startle even as they satisfy. The novel's tone is right on target, toosentimentality balanced by hardheaded calculation, know-it-all smugness moderated by innocent wonder. This virtuoso debut pays tribute to SF's past while showing that well-worn tropes still can have real zip when they're approached with ingenuity.
Review Date: 6/1/2009
Back cover:
They have built utopia on earth at last, 10 000 years in the making... They build it on a platform that covered the polluted surface of the world, turned mens eyes away from unsolved problems of the old bad days, and brought their shining new cities up to the perpetual sunlight.
But down there, in the lamplight 'sky' of the old surface, life has persisted. Men existed, and semi-men, and things that never were men... and nobody in the sunlight above knew of them - until disturbing dreams began to intrude and visions bothered few sensitive minds.
One man investigated. One man went down to that forgotten basement of the earth and thereby uncovered the grave of the world that was - and let its transformed phantoms glimpse the light above.
This is the masterwork of an acclaimed author of the Grainger and Daedalus novels - a triumph of future fiction.
They have built utopia on earth at last, 10 000 years in the making... They build it on a platform that covered the polluted surface of the world, turned mens eyes away from unsolved problems of the old bad days, and brought their shining new cities up to the perpetual sunlight.
But down there, in the lamplight 'sky' of the old surface, life has persisted. Men existed, and semi-men, and things that never were men... and nobody in the sunlight above knew of them - until disturbing dreams began to intrude and visions bothered few sensitive minds.
One man investigated. One man went down to that forgotten basement of the earth and thereby uncovered the grave of the world that was - and let its transformed phantoms glimpse the light above.
This is the masterwork of an acclaimed author of the Grainger and Daedalus novels - a triumph of future fiction.
Review Date: 1/12/2010
As an Indian who was raised in india and spent time in bangalore and now lives in the US, this book was a walk down memory lane for me. The characters and events portrayed were so real and the issues dealt with are so current...the clash of cultures, the bizarre blend of western lifestyles and indian society, the clash of new money and old values, the depiction of iyer brahmins etc....
Review Date: 7/29/2009
Helpful Score: 3
In Otherworld, gray witch Hannah Wentworth plans revenge against the Dark Goddess of Underworld Ceithlenn, who caused so much death and destruction in San Francisco. Using her dragon elemental mirror to scry the future, Hannah is shocked to see humans flee from the Fomorii Demons and her familiar Fire Dragon shoot flames at her. Hannah travels with D'Dannen warriors and fellow D'Anu witch Rhiannon to meet with the latter's father Drow King Garren ruler of the Dark Elves, considered a traitor by those in the Otherworlds of elves and humans for allowing Ceithlenn and her evil God spouse Balor to escape from Underworld. However, to defeat Ceithlenn, they will need Garren's support although his elves like him cannot travel in sunlight as they have been cursed.
At the meeting Hannah feels nervous around Garren as they are attracted to one another. However, they ignore their desires and discuss the situation. Garren makes it clear he will do what is right for his people. After escorting Hannah on a tour of the Dark Elves realm, he explains they opened the door to Underworld to let in the light, but erred instead allowing the Fomorii Demons and Ceithlenn to escape; his beloved brother died in the fight to stop them.
In San Francisco, Ceithlenn is weak from her fighting with the witches, warriors, and cops, but most of her anger is at Darkwolf who has stolen her spouse Balor's Eye. She also fears for her husband as she has not found him and knows he must be very weak and near death. Soon all the parties will converge in a key showdown.
This series is already one the best romantic urban fantasies and SHADOW MAGIC may be the best book to date. The lead couple is a great pairing who the audience will like while the paranormal species all seem genuine as does the attacks in San Francisco. Though there are obviously previous novels in this series and the future is somewhat established, this excellent tale can stand alone as Cheyenne McCray affirms she is a great fantasist.
At the meeting Hannah feels nervous around Garren as they are attracted to one another. However, they ignore their desires and discuss the situation. Garren makes it clear he will do what is right for his people. After escorting Hannah on a tour of the Dark Elves realm, he explains they opened the door to Underworld to let in the light, but erred instead allowing the Fomorii Demons and Ceithlenn to escape; his beloved brother died in the fight to stop them.
In San Francisco, Ceithlenn is weak from her fighting with the witches, warriors, and cops, but most of her anger is at Darkwolf who has stolen her spouse Balor's Eye. She also fears for her husband as she has not found him and knows he must be very weak and near death. Soon all the parties will converge in a key showdown.
This series is already one the best romantic urban fantasies and SHADOW MAGIC may be the best book to date. The lead couple is a great pairing who the audience will like while the paranormal species all seem genuine as does the attacks in San Francisco. Though there are obviously previous novels in this series and the future is somewhat established, this excellent tale can stand alone as Cheyenne McCray affirms she is a great fantasist.
Review Date: 11/25/2013
Pro muslim propaganda at its best, presented as novel, but treated as facts this book is just an outcry for so called injustice done to the Islamic culture and state in Spain. Blood thirsty christians slaughtering the peaceful, god fearing Moors. This is just another victimhood book telling us that the middle ages christianity is to be blamed for all the evil in the world, while the poor discriminated Muslims are just defending their right to be... then and now.
Fact value 0 *
(it is classified as fiction book)
Writing 2 *
(mediocre at best, T.Ali is a terrible speaker and it projects into his writing. See him on Youtube interview with Hirsi Ali...)
Final Thought: Stay away there are better ways to waist your time...
Fact value 0 *
(it is classified as fiction book)
Writing 2 *
(mediocre at best, T.Ali is a terrible speaker and it projects into his writing. See him on Youtube interview with Hirsi Ali...)
Final Thought: Stay away there are better ways to waist your time...
Review Date: 7/29/2009
A fantasy with an original and intriguing premise: a world of magic, demons, and monsters that was shattered 1000 years ago by an evil spell - into habitable fragments orbiting each other and the sun. But now the fragments' orbits are decaying, and the plot - which never carries much conviction or purpose - involves the efforts of the unappealing, indecisive characters to put the planet back together again. Master magician Pandrogas, who guards the powerful runestone of Darkhaven, is trying to rediscover lost spells. Meanwhile, his ex-pupil Ardatha (she has a demon-claw instead of a left hand) sends Beorn - a shapeshifting thief - to steal the runestone so that she and her associates can raise the dead Necromancer (who broke the world in the first place). And though Reaves has several good ideas here, his storytelling is inept and unattractive - with gothic prose (clogged, repetitive, pretentious) that's reminiscent of Stephen R. Donaldson at his worst.
Review Date: 3/30/2010
Zana Muhsen, born and bred in Birmingham, is of Yemeni origin. When her father told her she was to spend a holiday with relatives in North Yemen, she jumped at the chance. Aged 15 and 13 respectively, Zana and her sister discovered that they had been literally sold into marriage, and that on their arrival they were virtually prisoners. They had to adapt to a completely alien way of life, with no running water, dung-plastered walls, frequent beatings, and the ordeal of childbirth on bare floors with only old women in attendance. After 8 years of misery and humiliation, Zana succeeded in escaping, but her sister is still there, and it seems likely that she will now never leave the country where she has spent more than half her life. This is an updated edition of Zana's account of her experiences.
Review Date: 7/3/2023
The title of this review is meant to be enigmatic, for the Western reader would not be familiar with Lao She's _Cat Country_. That's a shame, but it's also a shame that many readers have been quite challenged in obtaining an insightful reading of _Supernova Era_. Starting with _Cat Country_, we can begin to understand what Liu Cixin is trying to say with _Supernova Era_ and how it is not merely just a large-scale version of Golding's _Lord of the Flies_.
Back in 1933, Lao She published _Cat Country_ as a science fiction satire and allegory of what was then contemporary China. Lao She was a cat owner, but if he was a cat lover, he was the kind of cat lover that understood his cats' flaws. He depicted a spaceman's journey to Mars, inhabited by cat people who were used to satirize the Chinese of the time. The choice of cat, evidently, was to emphasize the inability of his compatriots to cooperate and coordinate; the expression "herding cats" come to mind. He depicted a decadent society that was predicated on the ruthless exploitation of other cats and could not come together to fend off external threats. Liu Cixin's _Supernova Era_, similarly, draws upon the same technique, postulating a world populated only by children.
A big mistake of many readers, however, is their failure to understand the child metaphor. In Jiayang Fan's _New Yorker_ piece, Liu Cixin relates that his inspiration for _Supernova Era_ came after the failure of the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989. Jiayang Fan herself didn't understand how it worked, and that contributes to her characterization of Liu Cixin as an authoritarian propagandist of the Chinese regime. But by understanding _Supernova Era_'s child metaphor, we get a more nuanced picture.
What is a child, beyond an immature form of an adult? A human child is someone who is lacking in knowledge, wisdom, and judgment. What else is lacking in knowledge, wisdom, and judgment? It may pain democratic liberals to hear this, but the answer is the citizen-subject of an authoritarian/totalitarian regime. An award-winning Harvard student essay (which I can't find) discusses the imposition of childishness in Orwell's _1984_. The dictatorial regimes, by stripping political rights and responsibilities from their citizen-subjects, impose a state of childishness on their population. The dictatorship or oligarchy takes on the role of the parent, making decisions for their children and stripping from them the valuable experience of choosing and being responsible for their choices. They tell their subjects that they lack the expertise to make such choices on their own, like choose leaders, vote on laws, and so on. And due to enforced childishness, the regime is not entirely wrong. For instance, in Taiwan, the former President Chen Shui-bian was arrested for embezzlement after he left office, the President having been a human rights lawyer during the period of KMT dictatorship. But this is a feedback loop dictatorships cherish; the more infantilized their population, the less potent their opposition.
With this metaphor in sight, we can see what Liu Cixin is doing in _Supernova Era_. Liu postulates a China where the Tiananmen Square demonstrators had gotten their way and managed to depose the Chinese Communist Regime. What would have resulted would have been new democratic leaders with no experience and an electorate with no democratic habits. Likewise, the children's society in _Supernova Era_ is, at least initially, dysfunctional. Now that they no longer have adults / the Communist Party telling them what to do, the children of the _Supernova Era_ discover strange values, they choose to emphasize play and create a society oriented on play. Nationalism, as in the section discussing an international children's society, comes to the fore and creates uncouth situations with hundreds of thousands of lives being lost because the children think "war is fun". But Liu Cixin, contrary to Jiayang Fan's portrayal, is not simply an authoritarian propagandist. Like Burgess or Orwell, he ends on a positive note, with the now adult narrator recounting his history of the _Supernova Era_ on Mars. So Liu's views of democracy are more conditional, with the essential line being that an electorate cannot be like children.
More of interest, however, to the Western reader is the discussion of Western children. In _Supernova Era_, the sudden transition to a children's society is global, not merely one limited to China. But if Chinese children are reflections of the Chinese people at that time, how can electorate infantilization occur in the West? And why would that matter?
The important source to draw on is developmental economics, a key question of which, is why do democratic developing countries remain developing countries? Their answer is that democracy by itself is not key, but requires also institutions, including soft ones such as the mindset and education level of its electorate, the presence of a middle class, and a free press. These institutions can be eroded and can be demonstrably eroded in the West, as seen with the rise of populist leaders preying on the prejudices of electorates. And capitalism by itself is also an infantilizing force, reducing the citizen to merely a consumer, whose only politically important actions are what to buy and how to get the money to buy it.
That brings us to one of the most entertaining parts of _Supernova Era_. Toward the end of the work, Liu takes us to America as well as a show of Sino-American relations and international politics in a world of children. The American president is depicted as a pretty boy of somewhat above average intelligence controlled by a Kissinger / Cheney figure, and the implementation of the "play" society in America is an NRA fantasy come true. The United States devolves into a country where children are given guns to shoot each other for fun, a 105mm cannon is used to destroy the UN building in New York for fun, and New York exceeds dystopian visions such as the film _Escape From New York_. The implicit message here is that while Western electorates may be more "politically mature" than the Chinese people, it is not that hard, knowing what's happening in the West, for Western voters to degenerate into children as well.
===
When I had first touched _Supernova Era_, I found the text to be humdrum and somewhat embarrassing. But after having considered the key metaphor for a while, the novel came upon to me and I find it to be an entrancing addition to Western political discourse. It's much like Liu Cixin himself; he's a writer in an authoritarian / totalitarian state and must be subtle with his themes and ideas. I'm shocked that Supernova Era, with its ultimate approval of democracy (under circumstances), didn't get banned by Chinese censors. But it didn't get banned, and it survived into translation, and in an era where Western institutions are under attack, it deserves a close and discerning reading
Back in 1933, Lao She published _Cat Country_ as a science fiction satire and allegory of what was then contemporary China. Lao She was a cat owner, but if he was a cat lover, he was the kind of cat lover that understood his cats' flaws. He depicted a spaceman's journey to Mars, inhabited by cat people who were used to satirize the Chinese of the time. The choice of cat, evidently, was to emphasize the inability of his compatriots to cooperate and coordinate; the expression "herding cats" come to mind. He depicted a decadent society that was predicated on the ruthless exploitation of other cats and could not come together to fend off external threats. Liu Cixin's _Supernova Era_, similarly, draws upon the same technique, postulating a world populated only by children.
A big mistake of many readers, however, is their failure to understand the child metaphor. In Jiayang Fan's _New Yorker_ piece, Liu Cixin relates that his inspiration for _Supernova Era_ came after the failure of the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989. Jiayang Fan herself didn't understand how it worked, and that contributes to her characterization of Liu Cixin as an authoritarian propagandist of the Chinese regime. But by understanding _Supernova Era_'s child metaphor, we get a more nuanced picture.
What is a child, beyond an immature form of an adult? A human child is someone who is lacking in knowledge, wisdom, and judgment. What else is lacking in knowledge, wisdom, and judgment? It may pain democratic liberals to hear this, but the answer is the citizen-subject of an authoritarian/totalitarian regime. An award-winning Harvard student essay (which I can't find) discusses the imposition of childishness in Orwell's _1984_. The dictatorial regimes, by stripping political rights and responsibilities from their citizen-subjects, impose a state of childishness on their population. The dictatorship or oligarchy takes on the role of the parent, making decisions for their children and stripping from them the valuable experience of choosing and being responsible for their choices. They tell their subjects that they lack the expertise to make such choices on their own, like choose leaders, vote on laws, and so on. And due to enforced childishness, the regime is not entirely wrong. For instance, in Taiwan, the former President Chen Shui-bian was arrested for embezzlement after he left office, the President having been a human rights lawyer during the period of KMT dictatorship. But this is a feedback loop dictatorships cherish; the more infantilized their population, the less potent their opposition.
With this metaphor in sight, we can see what Liu Cixin is doing in _Supernova Era_. Liu postulates a China where the Tiananmen Square demonstrators had gotten their way and managed to depose the Chinese Communist Regime. What would have resulted would have been new democratic leaders with no experience and an electorate with no democratic habits. Likewise, the children's society in _Supernova Era_ is, at least initially, dysfunctional. Now that they no longer have adults / the Communist Party telling them what to do, the children of the _Supernova Era_ discover strange values, they choose to emphasize play and create a society oriented on play. Nationalism, as in the section discussing an international children's society, comes to the fore and creates uncouth situations with hundreds of thousands of lives being lost because the children think "war is fun". But Liu Cixin, contrary to Jiayang Fan's portrayal, is not simply an authoritarian propagandist. Like Burgess or Orwell, he ends on a positive note, with the now adult narrator recounting his history of the _Supernova Era_ on Mars. So Liu's views of democracy are more conditional, with the essential line being that an electorate cannot be like children.
More of interest, however, to the Western reader is the discussion of Western children. In _Supernova Era_, the sudden transition to a children's society is global, not merely one limited to China. But if Chinese children are reflections of the Chinese people at that time, how can electorate infantilization occur in the West? And why would that matter?
The important source to draw on is developmental economics, a key question of which, is why do democratic developing countries remain developing countries? Their answer is that democracy by itself is not key, but requires also institutions, including soft ones such as the mindset and education level of its electorate, the presence of a middle class, and a free press. These institutions can be eroded and can be demonstrably eroded in the West, as seen with the rise of populist leaders preying on the prejudices of electorates. And capitalism by itself is also an infantilizing force, reducing the citizen to merely a consumer, whose only politically important actions are what to buy and how to get the money to buy it.
That brings us to one of the most entertaining parts of _Supernova Era_. Toward the end of the work, Liu takes us to America as well as a show of Sino-American relations and international politics in a world of children. The American president is depicted as a pretty boy of somewhat above average intelligence controlled by a Kissinger / Cheney figure, and the implementation of the "play" society in America is an NRA fantasy come true. The United States devolves into a country where children are given guns to shoot each other for fun, a 105mm cannon is used to destroy the UN building in New York for fun, and New York exceeds dystopian visions such as the film _Escape From New York_. The implicit message here is that while Western electorates may be more "politically mature" than the Chinese people, it is not that hard, knowing what's happening in the West, for Western voters to degenerate into children as well.
===
When I had first touched _Supernova Era_, I found the text to be humdrum and somewhat embarrassing. But after having considered the key metaphor for a while, the novel came upon to me and I find it to be an entrancing addition to Western political discourse. It's much like Liu Cixin himself; he's a writer in an authoritarian / totalitarian state and must be subtle with his themes and ideas. I'm shocked that Supernova Era, with its ultimate approval of democracy (under circumstances), didn't get banned by Chinese censors. But it didn't get banned, and it survived into translation, and in an era where Western institutions are under attack, it deserves a close and discerning reading
Review Date: 12/17/2009
The title story of this collection a 1969 vignette about a boy-robot who wants to be real captured the imagination of Stanley Kubrick. Two additional vignettes by SF Grand Master Aldiss 30 years later "Supertoys in Other Seasons" and "Supertoys When Winter Comes" flesh out something of a story line, which has become the basis of Steven Spielberg's probable summer blockbuster, AI. Many of the other pieces here also remain at the vignette level, merely presenting ideas rather than creating stories. "Apogee Again" and "Becoming the Full Butterfly" offer settings where sex becomes a metaphor for survival. "Beef," "A Matter of Mathematics" and "Cognitive Ability and the Light Bulb," like the speechified "III," extrapolate the eventual failure of humanity's attempts to grow and expand to other worlds without harming them. "Marvells of Utopia," "The Pause Button" and the Socratic dialogue of "A Whiter Mars" all examine different versions of Utopia, each a society that has sacrificed some basic human value in order to achieve qualified perfection. The search for a better life through time travel likewise reveals predictable results in "The Old Mythology," while "Headless" delivers heavy-handed points on crime and punishment. This collection is a mixed bag of scenes and cold, distantly told stories showcasing the author's biting sarcasm and apparent lack of hope for humanity's future.
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