Average customer rating:
- Wonderful Read
- Very nice "fairy tale"!
- Very Very Slow
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Wandering Unicorn
Manuel Muji Lainez
Manufacturer: Berkley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Fantasy
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
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ASIN: 0425083861 |
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful Read.......2006-08-01
I agree that it is slow going sometimes but some of the best works usually are. I loved this book and have been looking for another copy for years
I would suggest not that you try to read it . If you can't read it then don't. But if you do dredge on and try...you will not be disappointed.
Very nice "fairy tale"!.......2005-01-26
I found the book very well written. From the begining it has kept me entertained, the attention to detail pulls you in and hooks you. I particularly liked the historical link tied in with the "fairy tale". It vaguely reminds me of Boccacio with a "Avalon" twist to it. A little fantasy, a little fiction, just a fun book to read. It entails a story of an immortal fairy, love, and life during the crusades.
Very Very Slow.......2000-06-03
I had hoped, after reading the back cover, to enjoy this novel greatly. However, the book is extremely slow and only occasionally picks up a bit. It's filled with death, curses, and lots of sexual innuendo. The author is constantly caught up in his attempt to achieve verisimilitude, and he strains the lead characters believability and in general annoys the reader with his constant interuptions. The story flows well enough but I've had to force myself to keep reading, and I, like most readers, would rather not have to beg myself to turn the page and keep going. On the good side the book is rather realistic in its historical background of the crusades, if you omit the fairies and angels flying around. My advice is that unless you just happen to like reading boring things don't bother!
Average customer rating:
- Out of print, but still excellent and evocative
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The Wandering Unicorn
Manuel Mujica Lainez
Manufacturer: Chatto and Windus
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 070112668X |
Customer Reviews:
Out of print, but still excellent and evocative.......1998-04-17
Out of print now, I found this book only through browsing through a library book sale. Translated into English, it is probably a poor shadow of what it must be in its original language, but the epic feeling is still brought through in this novel. The book follows the story of one fairy, doomed to immortality, Melusine, as she travels from France to Jersualem during the Crusades. She follows one boy, Aiol (her descendant), who she is in love with and sacrifices much to be with him. It is also the Aiol's story as much as Melusine, as the hunted 'unicorn,' the blameless and at the same time, the sinful.
Rich in description, the war- and religion-torn society of the Crusades is brought through rich and evocative images of life in Jerusalem as a knight, a Crusader. What I thought was the most interesting was the theme central to this novel--'forbidden love,' in all forms, are examined...but not wholly judged. Incest, homosexuality, and simple unrequited love are some themes touched in this book that I thought was interesting in their portrayal. I recommend this to anyone with a taste for history and fantasy--it is excellent, and I enjoyed it immensely.
Average customer rating:
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The Wandering Unicorn : A Novel
Manufacturer: Taplinger Publishing Company, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HKKAB2 |
Book Description
An innovative thinker tackles the controversial question of why we believe in God and how religion shapes our lives and our future
For a growing number of people, there is nothing more important than religion. It is an integral part of their marriage, child rearing, and community. In this daring new book, distinguished philosopher Daniel C. Dennett takes a hard look at this phenomenon and asks why. Where does our devotion to God come from and what purpose does it serve? Is religion a blind evolutionary compulsion or a rational choice? In Breaking the Spell, Dennett argues that the time has come to shed the light of science on the fundamental questions of faith.
In a spirited narrative that ranges widely through history, philosophy, and psychology, Dennett explores how organized religion evolved from folk beliefs and why it is such a potent force today. Deftly and lucidly, he contends that the "belief in belief" has fogged any attempt to rationally consider the existence of God and the relationship between divinity and human need.
Breaking the Spell is not an antireligious screed but rather an eyeopening exploration of the role that belief plays in our lives, our interactions, and our country. With the gulf between rationalists and adherents of "intelligent design" widening daily, Dennett has written a timely and provocative book that will be read and passionately debated by believers and nonbelievers alike.
Customer Reviews:
There Is More Than One Way To Drown Yourself........2007-10-02
Dear Narrow Minded Reader (Yes, You),
Please try to refrain from immediately smothering me with your certainty of your own unmistaken intelligence, whether it is of a scientific bent or a religious one, be kind enough to give me a bit of breathing room, and carefully consider my position. I have read this book (carefully) and found that doing so was essentially a waste of my time. I don't feel this way because I adhere blindly to any religious belief, I am open to any real empirical evidence concerning religion or anything else. My reason for dismissing this book is that it doesn't get down to the real issue that it rests upon. I am not referring to the fact that the book is merely a proposal for scientific study of religion rather than being such a study (there is no empirical evidence of anything in this book except the fact that Dennett is an uncompromising materialist). No, the issue I refer to is deeper than that.
The whole Religion vs. Science battle will never resolve itself into anything fruitful because it is fought on too superficial a level. The soldiers on each side merely fling at their opposition big gobs of reasoning that, however skillfully constructed, are completely ineffectual. No one is ever convinced by the opposing side. Why? Because they are reasoning from different premises. That's all reasoning is: the logical unwinding of certain premises. If one person is reasoning from a premise of materialism and another from a premise of spiritualism then they cannot possibly arrive at any common ground no matter how finely they reason, in fact, the more finely they reason, the further away from each other they will become. The real issue is where the premises come from. Why does Dennett hold and reason from premises of materialism? How did he come by these premises? How did his opponents come by their opposing premises? It is pointless to say that they each came by their premises through reasoning because that gets us nowhere, it only takes us back to the unanswered question of the premises they are reasoning from. The materialists will say that Dennett came by his premises through empirical evidence. But that is not true. I am well read in this area and I know for a fact that there is no empirical evidence that proves that consciousness and all religious content in consciousness have a purely physiological nature and explanation. I also know that there is no religious or spiritual-philosophy explanation for the human condition that answers everything. The only FACT here is that we all eventually run up against the UNKNOWN and that some people react to this mystery by leaning on spiritual premises and some lean on materialist premises and that they are both questionable and should be questioned. The fact of the matter is that unless we allow the unknown to simply be what it is then we come by certain unexamined premises which allow us to construct a reasoned-out world-view. These premises are unexamined because we acquire them on a sub-conscious level as an individual emotional reaction to the fact of the UNKNOWN. They remain unexamined because we don't know how to bring their formation process into consciousness and are too frightened to try to learn how. But this would be a task truly worthy of our greatest effort. Much more worthy than flinging fantasies at each other.
I am all for empirical research into the question of what role the brain plays in the formation of human beliefs. I am against Dennett's materialist assumption that the brain contains all the answers. I am also against an assumption that it doesn't. Can we possibly rid ourselves of our unconscious premises and dive open-mindedly into the UNKNOWN? Probably not. Forgive me, dear reader, for proposing something as mad as taking off your life-saver while you are treading fathomless waters. Forgive me. Yes, go ahead and fling another gob.
Under a Spell.......2007-09-27
This book really make pne think about how religion has been used by Europe as a tool of mass brain washing, especially to those of colour, to it to justifiy racism and slavery.
Philosophically Weak.......2007-09-19
In this book Daniel Dennett tries to answer the question, `Why are we religious?' Looking at the issue from the standpoint of evolutionary biology, Dennett hopes to explain the origin and endurance of religion naturalistically.
Personally, I'm not completely opposed to this kind of project, nor am I particularly concerned about the results. There is no reason for Christians to worry about theories which naturalistically explain the tendency for people to be religious. There are several reasons for this, not least of which is the fact that providing explanations of the origin of beliefs are not grounds for dismissing the belief. To make such a dismissal would be to commit the genetic fallacy. The rationality of any given belief must be analyzed on its own merits.
And this is what Dennett fails miserably to do, which would be fine except for the fact that he promises to do it. If Dennett were merely describing the ways religion could naturalistically arrive, then there would be no problem. But the book is not quite neutral on the subject, and it is clear that Dennett thinks that there are actually good reasons to reject religious beliefs. In one short section, Dennett takes on the task of refuting natural theology. Yet, even by his own admission, the section contains little or no reasoning- it only gives broad pronouncements. To introduce the section, Dennett writes,
"At long last I turn to the promised consideration of arguments for the existence of God. And, having reviewed the obstacles- diplomatic, logical, psychological, and tactical- facing anybody who wants to do this constructively, I will give just a brief bird's-eye view of the domain of inquiry, expressing my own verdicts but not the reasoning that has gone into them, and providing references to a few pieces that may not be familiar to many." [240]
Did you catch that? Dennett admits that he is not going to provide any reasoning, but merely pronounce his own verdicts on the matter! Why on earth should he do that? It's already clear at this point in the book that Dennett is an atheist, so we are already aware of his `verdicts.' What we need is some solid reasoning.
And of course, what he does offer us on this subject is extremely weak. He brushes off historical arguments, claiming that they are manifestly question-begging. Well, some of the most unsophisticated ones are, but this does not show that all historical argumentation is useless. Dennett apparently thinks that the only historical arguments are the ones of the fashion:
1. The Bible is God's word.
2. God makes no mistakes.
3. Therefore, the Bible makes no mistakes.
And, therefore (of course), we know that God exists, because the Bible tells us so! Of course these sorts of arguments are absolute trash, but what about arguments for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which do not assume that the Bible is perfect but merely considers the books of the New Testament (and others) as historical sources. Dennett probably doesn't think that a good case for the resurrection can be made, but the point is simply that he cannot brush off all forms of historical argumentation as if there is nothing substantial to discuss.
Philosophy is actually Dennett's primary expertise, so we should expect him to be particularly qualified to discuss philosophical arguments for God's existence. Here, again, he falls far short. He brushes off the Cosmological Argument with simplistic objections like `What caused God?' Then he basically dismisses the whole argument as too `arcane' to bother with. He doesn't even do this much when discussing the Design Argument, which he claims to have covered `quite extensively' in his book Darwin's Dangerous Idea, and he decides to merely provide a summary from that book rather than offer any reason for us to think that the Design Argument is flawed.
And that's all there is to say about that. Whatever the use of this book, it certainly provides no compelling reason to think that God doesn't exist.
Besides developing an account of the naturalistic emergence and evolution of religious belief, Breaking the Spell also attempts to address the question, `Is religion good for us?' Dennett admits that much more research needs to be done before conclusions can be reached, an admission that he makes concerning almost every topic and theory discussed throughout the entire book. Yet, despite the fact that the data is too limited and the variables too many to come to a conclusion on the matter, Dennett still seems, at least implicitly, to conclude that religion is bad for us, or at least is seriously problematic.
Dennett does get quite a bit right. He is right that we should not try to shield religious beliefs and protect them from skeptical or reflective inquiry. He is right that we should pursue a great deal of research into these topics. I am personally not afraid of such scrutiny of my religious beliefs. But Dennett has a long way to go if he hopes to convince me that religion is only a natural phenomenon.
A Very Human Book.......2007-09-12
What to add to the many excellent reviews already posted?
Not long before I read BREAKING THE SPELL I had lunch with a couple of friends who were exercised about the utter irrationality of some of the religious types they knew. They just couldn't "get" what religious belief and affiliation was giving these folks.
After reading BREAKING THE SPELL I felt I "got it." Religion is a "natural phenomena." Irrational belief structures make sense in the right context. And it's the context Daniel Dennett provides, the most important aspect of which is how our brains are put together. (Be sure to read Stephen Pinker's HOW THE BRAIN WORKS too.)
So despite the fact Dennett gets thrown in with the most radical of religion attackers, I believe BREAKING THE SPELL comes across with a far more compassionate approach.
I believe, too, that accepting why human brains "naturally" create folk and organized religions is a better platform for curtailing the many and obvious problems with religion -- especially the institutionalized lack of compassion for others -- than outright antipathy.
I've already sent copies to friends who've been deeply hurt by religion, especially American fundamentalist "Christianity." It's been healing for them.
Dr. Kirtland C Peterson
Often tedious but sometimes fascinating.......2007-09-05
This is a fascinating 200 page book trapped inside of a tedious 400 page tome. Dennett begins by offering some compelling possible analogies to religion, both positive and negative, and also quite a few interesting quotes. The material seems to get pretty thin rather quickly in the early going though, and I counted no less than four instances of Dennett saying "this is what this book is going to be about". Yeah, so get to the point already! His stated intentions of not wanting to bring down religion but instead open the religious up to the idea of scientific inquiry is not quite convincing. We ALREADY know what science thinks of religion, and Dennett himself is known to be quite hostile to even the notion of the "Prime Mover" of deism, to say nothing of the specialized God of Christianity. So he sort of comes off as a snake oil salesman with his analogy that maybe when the religious let go of that branch on the cliff, maybe they'll find that their feet are only inches from the ground.
The heart of the book is Dennett's "theory sketch" for a possible natural history of religions, mostly based on the science of self-propagating memes. This was by far the most engaging part of the book and I wish Dennett had actually made this the subject of an entire volume without the dishonest pretentions of trying to find common ground between science and religion that are present here.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Catholic Insight, published by Thomson Gale on September 1, 2007. The length of the article is 1823 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Atheism turns fashionable: the new missionaries of unbelief.(ELECTION: FUTURE OF CANADA SECTION C)
Author: Richard Bastien
Publication:
Catholic Insight (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 15
Issue: 8
Page: 41(3)
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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Skeptic (Altadena, CA), published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2005. The length of the article is 1354 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Believing in belief.(Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon)(Book review)
Author: Michael Shermer
Publication:
Skeptic (Altadena, CA) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 12
Issue: 3
Page: 71(2)
Article Type: Book review
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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Skeptic (Altadena, CA), published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1112 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Broken spells and unveiled secrets.(Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon)(Book review)
Author: James N. Gardner
Publication:
Skeptic (Altadena, CA) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 12
Issue: 4
Page: 71(2)
Article Type: Book review
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This digital document is an article from First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2007. The length of the article is 7328 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Daniel Dennett hunts the snark.(Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon)(Critical essay)
Author: David B. Hart
Publication:
First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 169
Page: 30(9)
Article Type: Critical essay
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Average customer rating:
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Lonely atheists of the global village.(Book review): An article from: National Review
Michael Novak
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
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ASIN: B000O768YQ
Release Date: 2007-09-27 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from National Review, published by Thomson Gale on March 19, 2007. The length of the article is 8935 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Lonely atheists of the global village.(Book review)
Author: Michael Novak
Publication:
National Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 19, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 59
Issue: 4
Page: 43
Article Type: Book review
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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Cross Currents, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2006. The length of the article is 1103 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Mutualistic? Commensal? Parasitic?(Books)(Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon)(Book review)
Author: Peter Heinegg
Publication:
Cross Currents (Newsletter)
Date: June 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 56
Issue: 2
Page: 275(3)
Article Type: Book review
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Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Weekly Standard, published by Thomson Gale on August 21, 2006. The length of the article is 1246 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Village Atheist; Daniel Dennett's answers avoid the Big Questions.("Breaking the Spell Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" by Daniel C. Dennett )(Book review)
Author: Thomas W. Merrill
Publication:
The Weekly Standard (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 21, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 11
Issue: 46
Page: NA
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Customer Reviews:
A Mediocre review.......2006-12-27
If you didn't like Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, you may like this review. While I thought it was clear that Merrill didn't like Dennett's book, there was little substance or specificity to his comments, just a vague, slightly sneering sense of disapproval. I'm not even certain what "Big Questions" Merrill wanted covered.
The best part of the review was Merrill's crack about the decision of Dennett, et al., to name their nascent group the "Brights.": '... telling your unenlightened brethren that you're bright and they're dull--despite Dennett's protests, it's hard to avoid the inference--isn't exactly a winning strategy in this democratic age.' (For the record, Dennett suggested that people who believe in the supernatural call themselves "Supers". ) But that's a small point, overall.
Merrill jeeringly asks why atheists would feel the need to organize - are they persecuted? Not on a large scale, but most US Americans say that they would not vote for an atheist, more would vote for either a nonwhite male or a woman. And an unlucky few atheists, pagans, etc., end up losing jobs, embroiled in law suits, etc. I'd say that there are disadvantages to openly being an atheist, even though it, thankfully, doesn't include being burned at the stake these days.
Contrary to what Merrill says is the gist of Dennett's 2003 OP-ED piece, he (Dennett) is certainly willing to take on other professors and philosophers in this work.
For the most part, I did enjoy Dennett's book, and Merrill has said nothing to make me rethink any views. What if Dennett is pleading for more money to study his subject? Don't most groups, including religious congregations, constantly ask for more money to further their aims? I'm not quite sure what Merrill's objections are, other than disapproving of Dennett's attitude about religion. He says: "Here Dennett's decision to close his ears to the substantive arguments on either side is the more fundamental flaw in his project." What two sides is Merrill talking about? He says that "the real religious types can speak for themselves", but who else does he think Dennett slights? He (Merrill) claims to favor the "prospect of studying religions from the point of view of social science and evolutionary biology", so what exactly is the problem? Dennett argues that the truly religious should be happy to participate, expecting to prove their own point.
I would say that Dennett is a bit smug at times, but that hardly makes him unusual. I have no more objection to this than I have to devotional literature, except to say that it might undercut Dennett's professed purpose of creating a dialogue. By the same token, religious people are sometimes quite surprised that other people don't like being told that they are agents of evil and bound for everlasting torment. One point that should be clear: Dennett isn't asking the religious to try and achieve a concensus of thought, as other scientists like Kenneth Miller might want. Rather, he is trying to get them to agree that religion should be studied on the same scientific basis as other human endeavors.
I would argue that Dennett raises interesting questions, and doesn't necessarily provide, or feel able to provide pat answers. Even readers who disagree with Dennett's atheism may none the less find some of the material interesting. If Merrill wants Dennett to be deferential to the religious, does he also call for the religious to be deferential to the "Brights"? And just what does "deference" mean in this case? For that matter, is he being any politer to Dennett and like minded people that Dennett is to the religious?
The one problem that I don't think Dennett squarely faces, and that Merrill doesn't mention, is the issue of authority. For many people, it would make no difference if Dennett could produce faultless studies proving the worst about religion. If one accepts revelation rather than the scientific method as authoritative, findings could be simply rejected as obviously wrong, being contrary to the undisputed truth of prophetic utterance. Of course, those in between the Dennett and the Fundamentalists might find it a little uncomfortable, which I suspect may be Merrill's real fear.
Books:
- Witchblade: Demons
- Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Three Complete Novels of the Hainish Series in One Volume--Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions
- 15 Books in 1: L. Frank Baum's Original "Oz" Series. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, The Road to Oz, The Emerald City of Oz, The Patchwork Girl Of Oz, Little Wizard Stories of Oz, Tik-Tok of Oz, The Scarecrow Of Oz, Rinkitink In Oz, The Lost Princess Of Oz, The Tin Woodman Of Oz, The Magic of Oz, and Glinda Of Oz.
- A Gathering of Stones (Book Three of the Drinker of Souls trilogy)
- A Romance of Two Worlds (Dodo Press)
- A Season of Angels/Touched by Angels (Angels Everywhere)
- A Wanderer's Return (Windameir Circle, Book 3)
- Airbrush Action: The Best New Airbrush Illustration
- Ananse - The Web of Life in Africa
- Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale (Picture Puffin)
Books Index
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