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# 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
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