User Profile

This book is two sets of interviews with a bit of analysis and explanation sandwiched in between, followed by a very brief essay that tries to draw conclusions based on the Aum Shinrikyo interviews.

What I appreciated most about the book was how well Murakami captured the individual perspectives of people who were involved. It makes the situation real and immediate and lets the reader get into the heads of both the victims and members of Aum Shinrikyo.

I really empathized with the feelings of the victims who spoke about how people were dropping to the ground and foaming at the mouth while people kept passing by and going on with their day as if they didn't see what was happening. Also, with the people who felt that if they didn't make it to work or weren't noticed by someone they worked with in the street, then they would not have been helped. What an amazing view into Japanese society and the Japanese psyche in the late 90s!

The Aum Shinrikyo members that were interviewed were so plain and unassuming. It seems like most of them were looking for some kind of purpose or greater meaning in life, and I can empathize with that, but they fell victim to a charismatic, manipulative fraud, and even after the fact, some of them refused to believe it.

I got the impression that some of the Aum members didn't really know what was going on, but others seemed to be telling an invented story that reduced or covered up their culpability, I suppose with the expectation that there would be no way to contradict it.

I wonder if the general persecution of former Aum members is still common in Japan today?

I know why it's not (lingering influence of Christianity on local governments and teaching for standardized tests instead of to create educated people), but this book should be required reading for every 11th grade student in the United States.

"The Age of Reason" challenges a lot of the misconceptions that people have about the Bible and Christianity that have developed over the centuries and that somehow still persist today. It was really hard for me to read this and realize that it was published 200 years ago, but I still grew up with a distorted idea of what the Bible is.

To sum this book up, I would say that Paine clearly shows what other academics have shown: the Bible is a conglomeration of texts of dubious origin that contradict each other and don't paint a clear, coherent, or even positive light on Judaism, Christianity, or God. Paine argues that the real expression of God is creation itself and that educating ourselves in mathematics and the sciences are the only way we can commune with and show devotion to the driving force behind existence.

That's a pretty interesting idea. I like it, and it's something that's going to influence how I look at the world from now on.

I'm surprised by how well the story has held up, considering that it was written in the 70s.



I need to reread the part about the transformation in the desert, because I'm not sure how or if that really fit into the story's world. It felt more like magic than science or evolution.



The author describes patterns of human activity that repeat over eons. He approaches the idea that people need to stay connected to the immediacy of life and human nature. Somehow, the story strikes me as being anti-technology and a call for people to be spiritual but not religious.



The end of the story gave me some ideas about Shai-Hulud. Unless I really misread things, the goal of the Dune story is to describe replacing the big worm or driving force below the desert, which makes me wonder if this is a repeating cycle that has happened before.



Herbert draws heavily on various religions in the creation of his universe, so a circular conception of time and the embodiment of "divinity" in an actual character whose existence becomes the literal and spiritual foundation for galactic civilization would be right up his alley.



The scale and complexity of the ideas the author is tackling grows in each new Dune book. Some people may not like it or understand a lot of it. I know I didn't when I tried to read these books at 13, but they are thought-provoking and fascinating to me now, 27 years later and being much more well-read.

This book is a fun mix between The Expanse and Game of Thrones (think Ring Builders + the Night's Watch) with a little Star Trek thrown in for good measure. The characters are two-dimensional but entertaining. I wasn't expecting a lot from the series because it sounded like it was really derivative, but it comes together in a way that is highly entertaining and wound up being a page-turner that I had a hard time putting down.



Two drawbacks in the story that really jumped out at me are that I had guessed the plot by about 65% of my way through the story and that Cavalon Mercer is too handy a character, by which I mean that he always knows exactly what needs to be known to make a situation work. It comes off as a little too perfect. But again, if you go into the story with the right expectations, you can still really enjoy it.