December 5, 2005

The Gang That Wouldn’t Write Straight - Review - Books - New York Times:

In “The Gang That Wouldn’t Write Straight,” his survey of what used to warrant the name New Journalism, Marc Weingarten demonstrates two things clearly. The first: there is no substitute for reading the classics of this genre firsthand. The second: the writers who are commonly lumped together in this category didn’t have that much in common after all.

It’s always a bit said when an author choose a title that goes “clank.” THE GANG THAT WOULDN’T WRITE STRAIGHT just isn’t a euphonius play on “the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.” The author’s tin ear is, alas, a fatal flaw in a book that’s about innovative writing.

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | ‘Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion’:

But what’s this? After a long, dark night of the soul and women’s weeping, the lion is suddenly alive again. Why? How?, my children used to ask. Well, it is hard to say why. It does not make any more sense in CS Lewis’s tale than in the gospels. Ah, Aslan explains, it is the “deep magic”, where pure sacrifice alone vanquishes death.

Of all the elements of Christianity, the most repugnant is the notion of the Christ who took our sins upon himself and sacrificed his body in agony to save our souls. Did we ask him to?

Polly Toynbee has written a long, hateful rant expressing her views on what is most hateful about religion. Rather amazing that this hateful, aggressive secularist is spending so much energy hating what she sees as hateful, aggressive relgiion.

Update: I have mixed feelings about the Guardian’s editorial judgment in publishing Toynbee’s piece. On the one hand, that is what newspapers do: publish cogent, provocative opinions that stir up controversy. On the other hand? they should be ashamed of themselves.