Lovecraft Revisited and Views on Wickedness

There has been in the past some discussion here about Lovecraft and his atheist and nihilistic beliefs, mirrored in his stories. It is stressed that the stories he writes are more nihilistic than the most pessimistic nihilists,

By comparison, Lovecraftianism assumes there is no hope at all, so knowing the truth can’t save you. Knowledge is only power if there is some realistic chance you can act upon it. Lovecraft’s stories often assumed there was not.

https://www.millennialstar.org/what-is-lovecraftianism/

A key word in the quote is “often” as even his most popular stories have some moral criticisms that are overlooked. It might be true that once the truth of how inconsequential they are is found out humans will go completely insane. Putting that aside, there is almost always some human action that provokes the cosmic horror to be unleashed. Even when there is a case that the horror is not provoked into surfacing, past or current moral deficiencies tend to exacerbate the situation.

* Evil is not a natural part of the (neutral) physical world.
* Sins that are taught or ignored can become multi-generational
* Evil takes root where family, community, and eventually civilization are at odds.
* War and violence lead to awakening ancient evils.
* Humans can be as destructive as the forces they cannot detect or control.

Although the videos I made about some short stories of H.P. Lovecraft look at them as a whole, there are still a few moral lessons. Don’t expect any specific descriptions of morality and sin. Despite that, it is interesting to see how this atheist author used his work to point out social disorder.
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Book Review, Apocalypse: Reading Revelation 21-22. Julie M. Smith, editor.

Review, Apocalypse: Reading Revelation 21-22. Julie M. Smith, editor. 

From the Proceedings of the Mormon Theology Seminar.

Published by The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship.

418gtmufail-_sy346_Full disclosure up front: generally, I don’t consider myself a fan of doing “Mormon theology.”  Not that I find the concept inherently incorrect, but that the results (usually) disappoint me.  However, this slim volume, from “The Proceeding of the Mormon Theology Seminar” is a happy exception; even if I didn’t find value in all the essays, I found the collection, overall, quite valuable. Continue reading

Book Review – 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

1491

I recently finished Charles Mann’s book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus and wanted to do a quick book review.

As the title indicates, this is a book about what the civilizations of the American continent were like before Columbus arrived. The book is based on the most current research on the subject, though I must warn you that even our best most recent research seems quite tentative to me, as the author often admits. But here are some interesting new directions that seem worthy of note.

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Book Review: “Heroes of the Fallen” by David J. West

[Cross Posted from Sixteen Small Stones]

I don’t typically read LDS Fiction.  A lot of it just doesn’t appeal much to me.  Those few books that do draw my attention are often either, in my estimation, much too preachy, superficial, and emotionally manipulative on the one hand or on the other veer off into apostasy in order to be edgy, artistic, intellectual, and morally nuanced. Blech.

However, contrary to my usual interests, last month I picked up a newly released book by David J. West entitled Heroes of the Fallen.  I had run across West’s blog a few months earlier, and I had been following his posts.  I knew that he was an aspiring LDS author, but I hadn’t followed his blog closely enough to realize that he had a book about to be published.  When he announced it’s release, I was intrigued by what I had already gathered from his blog.  So I headed over to the local bookstore where he was doing a book signing and purchased an author-signed copy. I finished Heroes of the Fallen in about a week.

The book is set in the ancient America of the Book of Mormon, around 320 or so years A.D.  This setting is both a benefit and a challenge for the author.  West benefits from a pre-existing setting, complete with unusual names and places, a history, language, political system, and religious beliefs.  My favorite fantasy writers, like J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Lloyd Alexander, drew upon the histories, myths, and legends of the ancient civilizations with which they were familiar, borrowing names, plots, archetypes, and themes in order to lend weight and coherence to their works.  In some ways, Heroes of the Fallen benefits similarly from the Book of Mormon.  By adapting and extrapolating from the Book of Mormon, West is able to concentrate on filling in the details and bringing to life a fully-realized, exotic, ancient civilization without having to invent it whole-cloth.

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