I don't get the rationale for sacrificing virgins to encourage a good harvest. Virgins, with one notable human exception and few million lizard, amphibian and fish exceptions, don't generally reproduce. It seems to me that the better approach would be to sacrifice mothers of 6 or more children. Now there's fertility on action.
I think we can tell our gods are of good conscience by looking at the frequency with which we experience the same sort of man-made and natural disasters. Clearly, if any celestial conscience was bothered, things would change.
Zuzu sounds sort of arbitrary and capricious, even for a god. Especially that destroying the world and making a new one thing. It's rather Hopi in feel, but it's not clear why the destruction has to be. I like the swan bit, it's very traditional for gods to take that form and then use their peckers on human females. The choice of Ann Coulter is odd. I mean, resurrecting her as a concubine? Except for the "young" part, it pretty much violates all the incest taboos. If god did it, even a sort of A&C minor godlet like Zuzu, is allowing it really relevant?
I like the idea of Garry and the fact that he seems to prefer skilled manual labor sorts of trades. Probably next he'll be a barrista or maybe an IT guy. He should always keep moving with the times.
I like the Garryan creed as set forth here too. Especially the part about taking up checkers.
I'm a bit less sure about the tomahawking. It seems to me that the Iroquois may have as much right as the Catholics to see that as the will of the god. The ultimate winners in the culture wars seem to usurp that distinction for their martyrs though. If the Iroquois had emerged victorious, Garry would have just been one more eradicated invader and the tomahawk wielder would have been doing god's will.
Miracles, like most everything else, are relative. Today's miracles are tomorrows observational phenomena. As we get better at discerning and detecting, very little is contrary to natural events, once you have a good handle natural.
I like the last two sentences. All religions are just alternative descriptions of the same observed unity. Who needs anything more miraculous than that?
Love the concepts, especially the O'Reily/Letterman thing and the Mary Tyler Moore Reunion. I think the reality show is a bit weak. Too hard to sell the idea of innocent Fox News Reporters. Getting to know random mob members has potential though. I've always suspected for some people the fact of the mob is more critical to their participation than the subject matter.
You need at least one good nature show in the line-up. I suggest a sort of Jane Goodall sort who is devoted to understanding wharf rats.
I love the way all of the deities in this series are like run of the mill screw-ups with supernatural powers, which have perfectly natural explanations. It makes the line between what we regard as supernatural and the natural world meaningless, which fits well with my personal take on reality. It's all on big continuum. I like Jesus' gills, which I think would make an excellent swear term as in "Jesus' gills!" he cursed as he snapped himself with the lip of the bentonite condom, "Small wonder the world is being overrun with gollums!"
First the CIA and now the Coca Cola Company!?! Will you leave nothing of our great American icons intact? I like the clay fetus thing and the mandrake. It's bizarre on the surface, but internally consistent with the entire story.
I'm also a bit confused by the iron ore idea. Where is this going? Are we going to find out that Edward Sabine was a warlock in league with Lucifer?
Glad to see someone attends such things for the purpose of intellectual discourse rather than just hearing what they already agree with. I had never realized that Leprechauns were quite do hung up on family values. I suppose the Spartan's family values will work about as well as anyone's. They were pretty into women's liberation, which should appeal; to the liberals and by waiting to hurl full term babies off the cliff they avoid the moral conflict of abortion, which should, along with the mindless militarism, appeal to the conservatives.
I have to say, despite many years of separation, I still like the Catholic position of salvation through good works, and I would think the right wingers would too. To be able to just make a simple profession and then be entitled to salvation without having to get up and work for it smacks of the 47%.
As to Mary being a vessel of God, may God bless her her and all who sail in her.
Okay, I was a little bit disappointed when you killed off Zeus in the last installment. I thought he had serious potential as a character in your story. I liked his attitude and his general mix of seeming omnipotence and commonness. It was what you would really fear in your uncle the alcoholic. When Aden shot him, and then Raven I was concerned that you were killing off all the entertaining characters and wrapping up. I was relieved when you brought them all back, but if you;re going to go the metaphorical route now, could you not have at least waited three days before Zeus rose and started healing people? There is something to be said for tradition!
Nick seems to have an inexplicable preference for women on the financial side of the shop. I fear that he may be setting himself for trouble in pursuing romance with people who are so concerned with other peoples money.
Over all, it is a nice little character sketch. Should you need legal defense for the libel charge, I regret that can't practice in your state. It would be pretty entertaining.
Fascinating numerology and no, I did not work it out to check your math. I am going to blindly accept that you did it and let it go at that.
I think you have a couple of historical things a bit off. I had always read that Joseph Smith was killed by a mob that was attempting to take him out of jail and lynch him, but my understanding was that it was a more generalized mob and not associated with any particular sect. It is also my understanding that the head of the Mormon Church is regarded as a prophet, not all the bishops. As Ed Abbey once observed, they have more bishops than saints.
Other than that, I think you argue your key point quite effectively. There really is an extreme element of wishful thinking in the way we view political promises. Both sides tend to promise things that they are incapable of delivering, either because of the sheer inertia of the nation, or because of the inherent limitation in the constitutional system of checks and balances.
All that said, I am sure that your equations would cause a certain amount of consternation in the religious right, who might find a choice between a Kenyan Socialist and the Anti-Christ a tough call to make!
I like the way you manage to work virtually every know recommendation platitude into this letter. Christine is fortunate to have you in her corner. I think if it had been writing it, I would simply have pointed out that, if not delayed by their unreasonable withholding of her diploma, that Christine is good as out of town.
Love the heavier theological implications in this segment. It has a sort of Universalist feel to it. I like the Velveeta on a cracker thing too. It adds to the idea you establish with a pot-bellied putz of a Zeus, that the divine is also mundane and that we just don't recognize the connection. His transformation into Jesus is also rather interesting, since in a sort of comic way, it expresses that commonality of all things spiritual. Zeus, Odin, Allah, Jesus, Yahweh etc. are all expressions of the same universal connectedness and it is the same even when manifested as your idiot uncle eating processed alleged cheese food product and drinking heavily.
As usual with this story series, I really like the way it hangs together internally, The plot is, as they say, thickening. It will be interesting how you manage to introduce Lucifer into the mix. I like the way so much of it is tongue in cheek, without losing the essential story line. I like the way it is clearly building toward something, but it is still unclear what. And we still, presumably, have a gollum on the loose, whose story has not tied back in entirely.
Well of course they can, if you liberalize the definition of turkey that way. And since when did we start referring to peon labor in fast food franchises as associates? Is this some other manifestation of the self esteem culture? My first consulting job I worked my butt off for 8 years to be finally called an associate.
I like the gangster touches and the pleasant calling them out on the false advertising. These days fresh seems to mean we placed the food fossils in their current stratigraphic arrangement when you ordered.
Pretty clear to see why you want to write a book. You're not that much younger than me, but you have in fact, lived a lot more and it shows in the entries. Some of it is pretty difficult to write, I imagine, but you seem to do it well, and with a bit of a wry sense of humor. It also explained a bit more about Vertago, who I have to come regard as one of your more unpredictable and interesting characters.
Anyway, keep it up. If nothing else, it must be sort of cathartic to see some of this stuff in print.
And even more importantly, they are toads and probably have toxic skin secretions. You could have just made them tetraploids and had Galia spawn numerous little parthenogenic tadpoles and allowed the world to wonder at the proliferation of virgin births. In any case, the world needs more toads and I don't much care how we get them!
Once again, I really enjoy the internal cohesiveness of this series of stories. If one is going to suspend disbelief and enter into something like this, it has to be consistent. Also, once again, you have those little bits of humor throughout that make it seem like social satire. I enjoyed the little bits of the everyday that you use. The slapping of the teacup, The knocking over of furniture and sliding into the pool. Elli's comment that she is on the patio. That and the sexual innuendo that is sort of similar to a 1960s vintage sex farce. It all makes it sort of what I suppose I'd call suburban, middle class occult. Nice job.
You did a very nice job with this one. It seemed to have been well proofed, but perhaps that was Monica's influence. It's a sort of nice little scenario that demonstrates quite nicely how even the Fundamentalist are not invariably committed to the entirety of the word. I view it as a sort of denominational spam filter that all religions employ. Some of them set it higher, some lower but the intent is to filter out the parts of scripture that don't jibe with their views. Inevitably, there is an enormous dose of culture in all religions, which in my opinion means that, on a larger scale, almost all of it is negotiable.
Other than the spelling irregularities, this is pretty good work. Of course I could just be getting excessively rigid about little things in my old age. I liked the dialog and the more elevated discourse than we get the regular debates. It gives me hope. The biggest problem I have with this piece is that you have insisted on making the bimbo blonde. Why is that bimbos are always blonde? I suspect there may be a bit of profiling going on here.
In general, I really enjoy this entire little series you have going here. This piece is a bit more tongue-in-cheek than some of the others, which were more openly humorous. This is my favorite line in the story:
Raven examined it; "You misspelled 'cadif.'"
Aden began to sob.
It has a sort of Mel Brooks quality to it. Actually the entire idea of a life or death incantation written on Aden's hand is pretty amusing.
By the way, given all the geological metaphor in this series, is Aden a subtle reference to rocks also, as in the "Barren Rocks of Aden"?
This is actually not badly written and I certainly see the point you are trying to make. You do not however, seem to really understand the workings and motivations of the creatures of the forest or the eagle.
These things are far more effective when you actually can draw some contrast between creatures that is meaningful. An example of the problem: Hawks seldom if ever steal from eagles and are certainly not treacherous. Treachery would imply that there is some duty of good faith or loyalty being violated, and in this context, none exists. Eagles, on the other hand, ruthlessly steal from hawks and particularly ospreys. Ravens, a classic carrion eater, will steal from eagles and are sometimes quite successful at it.
There is a sort of unevenness in the imagery. The woods are idyllic, yet unacceptable, there is no one there, yet it is full of creatures. Cats living in forests are never fat. It seems as though you were doing this as a vocabulary exercise and that made it a trifle forced.
All in all, it's a good idea and could be cleaned up a bit and turned into an effective little parable.
Have to disagree with your premise that Christianity is the guiding ideology in the United States. It may be the one the majority profess to subscribe to, but it appears that once they have made that profession, they pretty much ignore the tenets of the faith, except when beating those of other professions over the head with them. I suspect that our guiding ideology is actually acquisitiveness. It seems to be the one that cuts across all lines in this culture.
I like the UFO baby schtick. It was interesting and well thought out. Personally, I have no problem with parthenogenesis. Numerous species of lizards and fish do it all the time. They do have the good sense, as far as I know, to avoid messianic proclamations every time it happens though.
Why is it that the New World Order is always futuristic in some way? Why doesn't anyone ever write about a bunch of Neanderthals who were cryogenically preserved in a glacier in hopes of arising and starting a new world order? Surely new is a matter of perspective. I could support the new Neanderthal regime, I think.
If you want to use the boob joke, it should be Silicon rather than silicone. Works better for geologic humor. Also watch your new/knew.
I have to think he was either drunk or pulling someones leg. I loved the speech, it was like a caricature of the entire old angry white guy party showed up to make everybody look at themselves. I liked the segue from the movies back in high school to the convention. Coke out the nose was an effective image and you had the good sense to call it Coca Cola, thereby avoiding the obvious comments about your mental state and the unreasonable expense watching the convention put you through.
I think you're getting unnecessarily alarmed. I'm sure that if such a thing does come to pass we'll simply default on our obligations, nationalize foreign assets and become like other countries. States can pass all the resolutions they want, but after that little fracas back in the 1860s, they can no longer opt out. Those resolutions are nothing more than elected idiots pandering to electorate idiots. Watch you there/their and your can/canned.
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