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Asteriktos
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« on: May 18, 2003, 10:39:51 AM » |
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I thought it might be interesting (and educational) to have a thread devoted to what non-Orthodox fictional texts we find to be interesting, inspirational, thought-provoking, etc. People have been saying that we should have a wider variety of discussions on the board, so here's a chance  Personally, I'd like to mention The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton. The whole piece is really wonderful, and it's hard to just give an excerpt without giving a large amount of text, but if I could try, I'd like to give one of my favorite parts of the piece. Chesterton has King Alfred of England asking the Mother of God (who is standing before him): "When our last bow is broken, Queen,
And our last javelin cast,
Under some sad, green evening sky,
Holding a ruined cross on high,
Under warm westland grass to lie,
Shall we come home at last?" The Mother of God corrects King Alfred on a number of things he is misunderstanding, both about the world and about heaven. One of my favorite passages in the whole piece is this part of her answer to him though: "But you and all the kind of Christ
Are ignorant and brave,
And you have wars you hardly win
And souls you hardly save." |
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« Last Edit: May 18, 2003, 10:53:21 AM by Paradosis »
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sinjinsmythe
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« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2003, 01:48:47 PM » |
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Here are mine:
1984
Animal Farm
Brave New World
Gulliver's Travels
A Modest Proposal
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Life is just one disappointment after another.
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Αριστοκλής
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« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2003, 02:18:21 PM » |
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Dostoyevsky- all five major novels and short stories...
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« Last Edit: May 18, 2003, 02:19:14 PM by Aristocles »
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"Religion is a neurobiological illness and Orthodoxy is its cure." - Fr. John S. Romanides
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yBeayf
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« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2003, 06:02:30 PM » |
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Walter Miller, Jr.'s A Canticle for Leibowitz: the story of a Catholic monastery in the western US, and its existence in a post-nuclear holocaust dark age.
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Anastasios
Webdespota
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Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Florina
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« Reply #4 on: May 18, 2003, 06:48:03 PM » |
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I liked Eon and Eternity by Greg Bear, science-fiction novels where an asteroid appears over earth and ends up containing a tunnel that goes on forever and connects civilizations from the past, future, and alternative timelines.
I also liked the first Foundation novel by Isaac Asimov.
An interesting novel also is Fatherland where the Nazis win World War II and they and America enter a cold war. Newt Gingrich copied this idea and wrote a similar book called 1945.
Passing was an interesting novel where a black woman in the 1920's "passes" as a white woman.
anastasios
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« Last Edit: May 18, 2003, 06:48:42 PM by anastasios »
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Check out my personal website with 130+ articles: www.anastasioshudson.comDisclaimer: Past posts reflect stages of my life before my baptism may not be accurate expositions of Orthodox teaching. I served as an Orthodox priest from June 2008 to April 2013, before resigning for personal reasons |
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Linus7
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« Reply #5 on: May 18, 2003, 07:35:58 PM » |
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One of my all-time favorite books is in German: Die Maenner von Mitgard, by Akky van der Veer. The book was originally written in Dutch and then translated into German. It's a great book of historical fiction, with a revolt of the Frisians against the Romans in A.D. 15 as the background. What I like about it is the author's insight into the human psyche. He details the events in the lives of a group of Frisian men of a small farming and fishing village on the North Sea coast.
Great stuff. If you can read German, you should check it out.
I am an avid Tolkien fan.
Otherwise I don't get a lot of time to read fiction.
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The first condition of salvation is to keep the norm of the true faith and in no way to deviate from the established doctrine of the Fathers.
- Pope St. Hormisdas
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David
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« Reply #6 on: May 18, 2003, 08:06:07 PM » |
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Some of my favorite fiction...
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
The Brother's Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C.S. Lewis
Walden Two by B.F. Skinner
Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters by J.D. Salinger
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (of course)
Silence by Shusuko Endo
Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse
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"When looking at faults, use a mirror, not a telescope."
-Yazid Ibrahim
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Justin
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Pray for me, a sinner.
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« Reply #7 on: May 18, 2003, 10:55:30 PM » |
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I'll probably be ostracised by everyone, but I like Neil Gaiman and Frank Herbert. They aren't the most friendly people from a Christian perspective, but they are great authors worth a read.
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Nigula Qian Zishi
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« Reply #8 on: May 18, 2003, 11:24:38 PM » |
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Indeed Justin, The Sandman is even anti-Christian at times, but in my pre-Christian days I really loved it. My favorite of the Endless family was Delirium. Maybe because I had hair like her.
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johng3110
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Alaverdi cathedral and monastery, in Georgia
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« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2009, 11:56:33 AM » |
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I stumbled across this thread, and I think it is good.
Here are a few of my favorites from fiction that I find inspiring or thought-provoking:
A Canticle for Leibowitz -- by Walter Miller Jr.
1984 -- by George Orwell
We -- by Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Sparrow -- by Mary Doria Russell
The Lord of the Rings -- by J.R.R. Tolkein
The Martian Chronicles -- by Ray Bradbury
-- John
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« Last Edit: July 25, 2009, 11:57:08 AM by johng3110 »
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Brigid16
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« Reply #10 on: July 27, 2009, 09:04:47 AM » |
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The Little Prince
Walk When the Moon is Full
anything by Willa Cather
The Purloined Paperweight by PG Wodehouse (I'm fairly certain all Wodehouse is good, but this is all I've read so far)
Terry Pratchett novels, and yes Neil Gaiman too
There are a thousand books I love. These are just the first to come to mind.
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Heorhij
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« Reply #11 on: July 27, 2009, 10:09:13 AM » |
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My all-time favorite is Tolstoy's "War and Peace," but I am not sure it's any good in translation (I am lucky, I can read the original ). Everything by Chekhov - short stories, novelettes, plays. Hemingway. Faulkner. Salinger. Steinbeck. Gabriel Garcia Marquez - everything and anything any day in large amounts. If I had two lives and my second life were completely idle, I would spend it reading Marquez. |
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Love never fails.
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Nyssa The Hobbit
Used to be OrthodoxFairyQueen
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« Reply #12 on: July 27, 2009, 09:22:20 PM » |
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Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens
Jane Austen's novels
Harry Potter series
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Shakespeare's works
Chaucer
Brave New World
Crime and Punishment
Siddhartha and Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
Just for starters.....
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Author of "Tojet" (fantasy) and "The Lighthouse" (Gothic), info available at my website URL.
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Jimmy
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« Reply #13 on: July 27, 2009, 11:45:00 PM » |
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Dostoevsky's novels, especially Crime and Punishment and Brothers Karamazov. I haven't read Demons yet.
Harry Potter
Lord of the Rings
Les Miserables
The Eyes of the Dragon by Steven King
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Robb
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« Reply #14 on: July 29, 2009, 12:35:09 AM » |
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the Brothers Karamazov
The works of Nikolai Gogol (especially Taras Bulba and his Ukrainian tales).
The works of Harry Turtledove (especially his alternative Civil War and WWII histories).
Turtledove has a degree in Byzantine studies and treats the Orthodox Church very respectfully when it comes up in his novels. He even has a few Orthodox characters scattered throughout his books. there is also this series he wrote (whose name escapes me since I haven't read it) about what would have happened if Byzantium had never fallen.
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« Last Edit: July 29, 2009, 12:39:10 AM by Robb »
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Men may dislike truth, men may find truth offensive and inconvenient, men may persecute the truth, subvert it, try by law to suppress it. But to maintain that men have the final power over truth is blasphemy, and the last delusion. Truth lives forever, men do not.
-- Gustave Flaubert
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Entscheidungsproblem
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« Reply #15 on: July 29, 2009, 01:00:46 AM » |
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I stumbled across this thread, and I think it is good.
Here are a few of my favorites from fiction that I find inspiring or thought-provoking:
A Canticle for Leibowitz -- by Walter Miller Jr.
1984 -- by George Orwell
We -- by Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Sparrow -- by Mary Doria Russell
The Lord of the Rings -- by J.R.R. Tolkein
The Martian Chronicles -- by Ray Bradbury
-- John
Now this is a great list. I'd also add H. G. Wells' The Time Machine, and Isaac Asimov's The Dead Past, The Last Question, and Obituary. |
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As a result of a thousand million years of evolution, the universe is becoming conscious of itself, able to understand something of its past history and its possible future.
-- Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS |
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