Metal Reviews

Once you understand how theology really works (from a philosophical standpoint), there's no need for conflict between your religious beliefs and your scientific knowledge. In fact, I'm in complete agreement with the late evolutionary biologist (and Jewish Agnostic) Stephen Gould in saying that religion and science are complementary but shouldn't be confounded too much since they explain different phenomena (Richard Dawkins, who otherwise admires Gould, has attempted to argue with this position several times before; and while he's made some valid points, I think his arguments are ultimately refutable).

Where religion and science DO collide IMO is not in terms of knowledge, but in terms of the moral convictions you might have against certain scientific experiments (cloning, stem cell research, etc.) if you're religious.

Hobbes - Leviathan, I have the original text in an antiquated English which is kind of annoying but easily understandable.

Gene Wolfe- Litany of the Long Sun

The Broker - John Grisham

Finished Grendel--John Gardner.

Really fucking good. MANDATORY if you liked Beowulf.

Finished Strange Embrace, really coll horror story/melodrama with unsettling art. 8/10

A History of Violence - Hmmmm, it was good, well told story and art but it just seemed a little...... soap opera? There were too many deus ex machinas....

What do you think of John Locke, just out of curiosity? My particular life philosophy has always been a mixture of Hobbes and Locke.

Finished The Picture of Dorian Gray, I never really read any of it, I got the audio book instead. I loved it, and I'll probably read it now that there's no time constraint.

Hobbes and Locke are such polar opposites though.

I've only read excerpts of Locke for classes and I generally like his style and ideas a lot. I have his Second Treatise of Government on the bookshelf waiting to be read.

Along the same vein of thought, I'm now reading Rousseau for that same class and Rousseau shares much of the same views as Locke. I have a hard time stating whether or not nature is war or Eden and try to go in the midway point which is more like Rousseau. Locke and Hobbes are way to extreme on either side.

I have such a hard time agreeing with Kant on morality because I can't accept anything metaphysical. It seems like he is saying morality is either just because or because God made it so.

That's actually what I was trying to get at. My life philosophy falls more into that midpoint between Hobbes' insane pessimism and Locke's insane optimism. Sorry for not being clearer.



Well, when studying Philosophy, it's probably impossible to be completely objective. Since you and I have opposing views on metaphysics, my opinion on Kant would probably be the exact opposite of yours if I read his works (ie. I'd probably agree with him on a lot of things).

I feel like you would like Rousseau.

Having just briefly read up on him, you're probably right. Thanks for the recommendation.

I'm starting Twilight soon.

ahahhaa.

EWWWWWWWWW

Please don't. They're absolutely horrible books in just about every way.

Hahaha!
I've heard a few people say they love it, others say the opposite.

I'll give it a shot.

Re-read Watchmen. Still can't understand how you can hate it Zad

The plot starts out well, but it gets stupid. OMFG, you engineered a telepathic alien octopus and then teleported it into a city! It tries to make itself above nerdy shit, as I fondly call that sort of thing, and then wallows in it.

Plus, I fundamentally disagree with the morality (I know it's not definately agreeing with it, but anyways) - anyone that starts to kill in a quest for utopia ends up a tyrant, look at the French and Russian revolutions. The millions of lives sacrificed were too great a cost; moral/ethical/right change comes without the use of violence. The guy with the dots (forgotten his name) was completely right.

I'd have to re-read it to really get to grips with what I hated last time, and I don't want to do that, so this is your lot! Might watch the film, even though it'll be bollocks.

Heh, the ending is pretty WTF, isn't it? I don't know, something about Watchmen compels me to read it again and again despite its obvious flaws, and the fact that most of the characters are kind of shitty people.

That's another thing - what the hell's so great about them? My god, superheroes who are actually EVIL?! It plays on comic-book expectations, which is like a band covering Limp Bizkit.

I don't think that Moore intended anyone to side with Ozymandias at the end of the book, you, me and anyone who reads it all side with Rorschach at the end. I think you weren't supposed to actually buy the alien completely, to show:

How Rorschach, despite being a right wing nut is the one character anyone sympathises with;

That Nite Owl and Silk Spectre are pretty weak for accepting to hide Ozymandias' exaggerated story;

Ozymandias' emphatic "I DID IT" says to me that despite all his "oh lol i had to do something real bad to save lots of people lolol" crap Ozymandias really did the whole thing for himself.

And that Jon truly doesn't care about humans. (And if you talk about the characters following conventions, how would Jon fit into that? EVERY superman style character ever has an overstated empathy for the characters around them. I think it's much more realistic that a genuine superhuman being would act like superman.)


Also i dont think your Limp Bizkit analogy holds up The book does use comic conventions, but i think it (more to its credit) flips them. Sure, some are predictable maybe, but some aren't and the more predictable ones (ie the fact that no one is really "good") are at least realistic.

IE - almost all the characters have an origin story, yet most (Silk Spectre, Nite Owl, Rorschach, Ozymandias) present the heroes origins being in human terms (child abuse, mum pushed her into it etc).

Im kind of all over the place, but i also will admit the ending was weaker than the rest (specifically because I dont like Ozymandias), but i still stand by hating Ozymandias at the end as being exactly what Moore planned.

Plus the way the story interconnects between characters, times, artwork, to compare/foreshadow is excellent, especially the Black Freighter story. And I'm a huge fan of the art as well, I love how restrained(?) it is.


Out of curiosity, have you read Moore's Supreme: Story of the year Zad?