This book changed my lifeThe Goat writes, "Some books have made a huge impact on my life." It's true. It wasn't until the b3ta mods read the Flashman novels that we changed from mild-mannered computer operators into heavily-whiskered copulators, poltroons and all round bastards in a well-known cavalry regiment.
What books have changed the way you think, the way you live, or just gave you a rollicking good time?
Friendly hint: A bit of background rather than just a bunch of book titles would make your stories more readable
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chthonic, Thu 15 May 2008, 15:11)
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@CheWell - I'm full of surprises!
I wouldn't neessarily expect it to be objective - my problem with it is twofold (and bear in mind that it's well over a decade since I read it, so my memory may be a little hazy).
The first is the way that it blurs biography with fiction. It's fair enough to say what happened to such-and-such a person; but
The second is the utter lack of moral nuance. Mrs Ting is Evil. Mao is Evil. Blah-di-blah. Essentially, the criterion for moral judgement is whether or not someone fits into the mould of Western liberal democracy. It's a very black-and-white worldview which, as well as being childish, often ignores the context in which stuff happened. It's like Star Wars with chopsticks: the goodies are the goodies (and they also happen to be her relatives) and the baddies are the baddies and never the twain shall meet.
"Validity" or "invalidity" - whatever they mean - don't enter the question.
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 20 May 2008, 17:13,
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