jimb@ISM780.UUCP (01/23/86)
> From my experience, I have determined that because _Job_ is a spoof on > religion(s), two types of people will not like or appreciate it. The first > group includes people who, in my mind, take their Religion and/or Faith > much too seriously, and are not accustomed to Doubting. _Job_ makes one > Doubt (yes, with a capital D). > The second group includes people who simply have little or no knowledge > of religions or faith, and therefore lack the background required to > appreciate the Questions and the humor. To dissent, I fall into neither group, and I did not care for JOB, though I found it immeasurably better than RAH tripe like Friday, etc., etc. It's a slapdash work with the suffocating RAH preaching attenuated only slightly. **** Pause for injection of personal philosophy In a nutshell, my own belief is that Faith is necessary; yet Faith unilluminated by knowledge, questioning, and the intellect is mere superstition. Faith must follow where knowledge leads. **** End pause As a result, I don't like being *preached to* by anyone, RAH included, when he writes *ex cathedra*, telling us how things *really* are. From an esthetic standpoint, I don't generally enjoy stories where the writer can pull anything he wants to, either *ex machina* or *ex deus*. To a novel written with such a premise, Phooey! -- from the bewildered musings of Jim Brunet ihnp4/ima/ism780B