Discussion questions:
What new books are you reading?
Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction?
Question of the week:
What do you think of Brandon Sanderson?
Also, something to look at.
Enjoy!
Discussion questions:
What new books are you reading?
Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction?
Question of the week:
What do you think of Brandon Sanderson?
Also, something to look at.
Enjoy!
Anatole France’s “Revolt of the Angels”. It’s about the ‘War in Heaven’ between Satan and God and a sort of romantic reinterpretation of it that portrays Satan as a revolutionary and God as a callous demiurge. France himself was a communist who supported the Bolshevik revolution and it shows in his writing, mostly in his obvious contempt for the aristocracy, organized religion, and liberalism. Very good so far.
Fiction, if that wasn’t clear, not theology. France is considered one of the forebearers of the tradition known as “Romantic Satanism” and the recasting of Satan/Lucifer as a revolutionary rather than contemptuous figure.
Oh nice. How did you learn about this author and his work?
I’ve also tried to do my own research on “proletarian fiction.”
It’s a funny little rabbit hole, but someone here shared something about The Satanic Temple (I think they confused them with the Church of Satan) so it led me to dig into TST’s stated ideology and their beef w/ CoS. Their ideology is unsurprisingly a bit of a mess, and in their official statement they seemingly attempt to synthesize Romantic Satanist themes w/ pseudo-socialist rhetoric sprinkled in with some pretty cringe Americana. Regardless I enjoy both Percy Shelley and Byron’s work, so I got their “Introduction to Romantic Satanism” and they mentioned Anatole’s novel which sounded interesting, a communist’s fictitious retelling of the war in heaven. It’s good so far! Surprisingly funny. Although it’s an early 20th century text translated from French into English, so it can be a little clunky at times.
It’s difficult to find fiction related to communism or workers’ movements without it being some vile reactionary crap for sure.
Funny how things work out.
That book sounds dope, I’m adding it to my reading list. Thx!
Absolutely, I’m enjoying it a lot!