View source | |
# 2019-03-07 - Illusions by Richard Bach | |
A friend of a friend recommended this book. He said it influenced | |
him and it is a quick read. The characters seemed a little macho to | |
me in the way that they repressed their feelings and spoke tersely. | |
Clever of the author to have a holy man who was born in Indiana | |
rather than India. He had no trouble eating ham sandwiches and | |
hamburgers. | |
A couple of times i noticed ideology that seemed to blame the victim. | |
A belief system that you are empowered to change everything also | |
implies that you are responsible for everything. We would need to be | |
more than human in order to shoulder a burden that large. | |
Below is an excerpt from a review of Illusions 2, published in 2014: | |
"In the book's most unbearable section, Bach falls into the dark trap | |
of the New Age movement: the metaphysical recklessness that | |
implicitly blames victims for their illnesses and misfortunes. | |
Chatting with his messiah, Bach learns that the plane crash took | |
place because he wanted it to, even prayed for it, as a kind of test | |
of his mental abilities. ``I needed to know whether my beliefs would | |
overcome every one of the problems,'' he says. | |
Ick. Try hawking that that New Age goo to children dying of cholera | |
in Haiti." | |
From: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2014/02/08/… | |
# Chapter 6 | |
"When he said that, he looked lonelier than I had ever seen a man | |
still alive. He didn't need food or shelter or money or fame. He | |
was dying of his need to say what he knew, and nobody cared enough to | |
listen." | |
# Chapter 8 | |
"... they are unhappy because they have chosen to be unhappy ..." | |
[victim blaming] | |
"Reality is divinely indifferent, Richard. A mother doesn't care | |
what part her child plays in his games, one day bad-guy, next day | |
good-guy. The Is doesn't even know about our illusions and games. | |
It only knows Itself, and us in its likeness, perfect and finished." | |
# Chapter 11 | |
"... Nothing good is a miracle, nothing lovely is a dream. ..." | |
"The world is a dream, you say, and it's lovely, sometimes. Sunset. | |
Clouds. Sky." | |
"No. The image is a dream. The beauty is real. ..." | |
# Chapter 13 | |
"The thing that puzzles you," he said, "is an accepted saying that | |
happens to be impossible. The phrase is 'hurt somebody else.' We | |
choose, ourselves, to be hurt or not to be hurt, no matter what. Us | |
who decides. Nobody else..." | |
[victim blaming] | |
"Listen," he said, "it's important. We are all. Free. To do. | |
Whatever. We want. To do." | |
[Shatner voice] | |
# Chapter 19 | |
What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a | |
butterfly. | |
author: Bach, Richard | |
detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Illusions_(Bach_novel) | |
LOC: PZ4.B12 Il | |
tags: book,counterculture,fantasy,fiction,spirit | |
title: Illusions | |
# Tags | |
book | |
counterculture | |
fantasy | |
fiction | |
spirit |