Friday, August 26, 2005

... of religion, cadavers and verification

Tip o' the hat to: Aisehman My occasional visit to his site was greatly-rewarded today: I was pointed in the direction of an amazingly well-written article by Karen Armstrong, entitled Holy Scriptures: It is both wrong and dangerous to believe that literal truth can be found in religious texts. (Full article HERE). Please check it out.

For those who don't know of her, she wrote an excellent book entitiled "A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam" (1993) (Amazon link HERE) and explores the 'development' of the God of the three major faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The one time I read it, I only made it through to where she explains how the Holy Trinity concept came about. Will check it, and her other books, out at the library next time i'm there :-)

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btw, what *am* I currently reading?

fyi, I'm not going thru what seems like a book a day like I was a month ago (some of my "book reviews" HERE and HERE)... but I *am* messing with two books at the same time right now, teehee!

1. Firstly, I'm slowly making my way through a compilation of fantasy short stories (Legends II): My last 'must read' here is a post-American Gods tale about our friend Shadow by Neil Gaiman. I'd actually borrowed Legends I & II solely for George R. R. Martin's short stories The Hedge Knight and The Sworn Sword. They were ok lah, but set a bit too long (100 years or so) before the events that unfold in his "Song of Ice & Fire" saga. They'll do until book 4 comes out in Oct/Nov '05.

2. Now, THIS I highly recommend, and I'm only at Chapter 2! Ever heard of STIFF: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (Amazon link HERE) by Mary Roach? She explores the world and history of dead bodies: so far I've 'watched' a seminar on practicing face-lifts on severed heads (that the day before had been the subject of nose-jobs practice)... and also of memorial services conducted by medical students at the end of their gross anatomy lab, encouraging respect for the body that helped them get a good grasp of the inner workings of the human body.

best of all, the writing style is totally appropriate: witty, respectful and macabre at all the right places... check it out!

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oh, and I'm taking advantage of a new feature provided by blogger, and added comment verification... it will be an extra step for readers leaving comments, but at least it *should* eliminate the comment-bots.... do tell me it it's too much of a bother, ok?

ok buhbyyyeeeeeee!

1 comment:

  1. >The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
    This looks like something important to know..
    So.. going over to order it now.
    (Thanks for the heads-up.)
    Blogger verification: Naw, easy...
    helps to test my visual acuity...
    ...(*....*) Great posts!

    ReplyDelete

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about two months later...

 ... hi again. This return to blogging is really not working out, is it? Actually, I am writing, three pages of mind vomit and affirmations ...