[lit-ideas] Re: FW: Read and pass...Fwd. 'Stay the Course!' is not enough
- From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 23:43:29 EST
Funny. I liked Little Men and Jo's Boys better. Hmmm...
On a serious note, I look back at my love affair with Alcott's books --
Under the Lilac, Eight Cousins, all the rest ... and am astonished re-reading
them at the incredible moralization, the supremely conservative ideals, the
strictures, the, yes, fundamentalism I think, and I remember that in my
idealistic childhood I revered and idolized these characters. I try to
introduce
these books to my children but even in my head I realize how absolutely
ridiculous the characters, the acts, the speech would be. Not foreign like
Shakespearean language, but not only incomprehensible but totally absurd.
Monty
Python absurd. In this day, the relationship with the Uncle that the main
character has in Eight Cousins would be, at minimum, suspect. And I can't
figure
out when Louisa May Alcott became quaint.
Julie Krueger
========Original Message======== Subj: [lit-ideas] Re: FW: Read and
pass...Fwd. 'Stay the Course!' is not enough Date: 1/7/05 10:29:22 P.M.
Central
Standard Time From: _ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(mailto:ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) To: _lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) Sent on:
on 1/7/05 6:54 PM, JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx at JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx wrote:
They also tend to avoid
> critical thinking because, you see, intellectual inquiry is seen as
doubting,
> lacking faith. Have faith in God and His spokesmen, His chosen
Leaders....if
> something looks wrong, you just don't understand God's ways and need to
have
> faith that He and His Leaders are Right. Then, if you are really
troubled,
> you twist your ideas to fit God's Leaders Actions Are Right. See? Bush
is
> anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, and holds prayer meetings in the White
> House.
> Ergo he is on God's side. If he is on God's side, God is working through
> him to work His will. God's will is incomprehensible to us. We must
have
> faith. See how it works?
Today, while humbly laying tile, I *heard* how it works. National Public
Radio's "Science Friday" was considering how to prevent large asteroids from
hitting the earth and causing giant waves, climate changes, the extinction
of...etc. The fellow from NASA said that to alter the course of a large
asteroid was within the range of possibility. Then someone called in and
said something approximately as follows, "God doesn't want us to do this.
In the first Gulf War anti-missile missiles couldn't hit Scuds, so it's all
a waste of money. If God wants the world to end, it will end. We shouldn't
spend a dime."
People wanting relief from this kind of nonsense might enjoy the article in
the current "New Yorker" about Louisa May Alcott's father. Reading it, I
was reminded of a guilty secret, which I now confess. When people asked me,
as a boy, what books I had read and enjoyed, I never mentioned one that had
impressed me greatly, "Little Women." Now I can't remember a thing about
that book, but a brand new hardback copy was one of my early treasures. Who
on earth gave it to me?
David Ritchie
Portland, Oregon
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