03-02-2014, 01:14 AM
$tevie wrote:
I find your description of an incoherent stream of consciousness completely disconcerting. You don't happen to think he is a Christian and hence automatically decided not to read it, did you?
Ummm... No. It's pretty clear that if he's not an outright humanist he's worshipful of the idea of humanism.
My problem is with his writing style.
There's little cohesiveness and no real follow through on what appears to be his thesis, but is in hindsight part of a criticism that he doesn't elaborate on until far down the page when he finally derides the author as a chronicler of ideas rather than a seeker for their meaning. And then he proceeds to chronicle a bunch of ideas in a seemingly similar fashion, elaborating only on results, not meaning and motivation: Religious expression gives atheists and humanists the warm fuzzies. Oooooookay. What binds all of these things together and is this something that we can take and use to enhance our lives?
I think that he could have written a better review in three paragraphs and left the rest for the speculation of secondary characters in a novel.
I don't enjoy this style of writing.