Well, it's a book that has erotic poetry next to fairly frenzied denunciations of the body; the beauty of the psalms next to the incredible (and approved) cynicism of Lot trying to placate the crowd with his daughters in Sodom and Gomorrah; exhortations to exterminate competing tribes (except for their young women who are to be raped and enslaved) set next to lamentations about slavery and wishes for peace; and so on. An utterly loopy and incoherent book that despite this is captivating and a great read; the best and worst of humanity all rolled into one. Especially the King James Version for the poetry of the language.
Irvine, No actually i meant, generally speaking what do the words "cracked and wonky" mean, not so much what you ment by applying them to the Bible. It must be slang that I'm just not hep to, Cat. Didn't mean any offense by that or by the "IS that fair?" comment. Both were made in jest. I'll make better use of emoticons in the future.
The most useful way to approach the bible (one utterly unfavored by fundies of course) is as a portable library, not a single, unitary book. That's probably not news to people involved in this discussion, but some people might find it helpful. By the way, Irvine, I'm on the waiting list for your book at the local library. I should be taking it out for a test-read in 3-4 weeks.
I'm on the waiting list at Waldenbooks. It seems the one I go to has sold out their first order. Good sign! BTW, here are a couple more to help catch me up to the crowd. I should need two more after this, right? Ethan Frome Out of Africa Both of which I was supposed to read, but boredom precluded me from getting past the 3rd chapter in either one. JMac
Sorry, thought you were asking me to explain my opinion rather than my terminology. "Cracked" as in irrational or incoherent and "wonky" as in just plain weird.
Waiting list? You mean more than one person was interested? Neat. Also good news about Jacen's Waldenbooks. I feel a groundswell of word-of-mouth coming on... I have read neither Ethan Frome nor Out of Africa, and I don't regret missing either one.
I can't remember if Out Of Africa is by Dinesen or about Dinesen. In any event, I've got a book of Dinesen's short stories around here somewhere, and they're pretty good.
Nay on Ethan Frome and Out of Africa. Irvine, it's just the BigSoccer effect with the book. If it works in pestering anti-soccer columnists, it must work just as well for book sales. No problem on the explanation. It was interesting to read anyway.