Take a photo of a barcode or cover
hammo 's review for:
The Pilgrim's Progress
by John Bunyan
I quite like the premise. Narrator describes a dream in which journeys though a land in which everyone represents some quality or idea. But I hated the way it was employed to spout nonsensicle Christian ideology. Thus: Christian departs to seek out the Pearly Gates after hearing about them from Evangelist. On the way he comes across many colourful characters like Sloth, Hopeful, Lord Hate-Good, and my favourite: Mr Worldly-Wiseman. Christian passes through all kinds of symbo-allegorical places, tribulations, triumphs. I'd quite like to read a guide to this because it seems pregnant with allusions and metaphors (in a similar manner to Gulliver's Travels), such that the annotations of of PilgrIm's Progress are probably more interesting than the main text.
As I said, I like the premise. It's just a shame that all of the characters are such shallow depictions of other ways of living or thinking. Clearly straw men set up for Christian orthodoxy to pillar. What if Christian encountered Logic, Buddhism, Prof. Science, Nihilism, Hegel, Mrs. Skepticism? This would've made a much more interesting read. I suspect that if Christian actually encountered any other genuinely fleshed out ideologies his insufferable naivety could be employed to great comic effect.
In conclusion: I found this super insipid and annoying because of all the Christianity stuff, but I suspect the annotations would be quite interesting. I also think it would have been a good novel if, say, Lewis Caroll or Douglas Hofstadter had written it. Yeah. 5 stars in the parallel universe where Douglas Hofstadter wrote Pilgrim's Progress.
Oh! One other thing I just remembered: Christian and Faithful pass through "Vanity Fair" at some point (which naturally is run by Beelzebub). Did Bunyan originate this phrase? Is the magazine so-called as a kind of ironic nod to Prilgrim's Progress? I wish we had spent more time at Vanity Fair as it seemed to be the most interesting setting in the whole saga.
As I said, I like the premise. It's just a shame that all of the characters are such shallow depictions of other ways of living or thinking. Clearly straw men set up for Christian orthodoxy to pillar. What if Christian encountered Logic, Buddhism, Prof. Science, Nihilism, Hegel, Mrs. Skepticism? This would've made a much more interesting read. I suspect that if Christian actually encountered any other genuinely fleshed out ideologies his insufferable naivety could be employed to great comic effect.
In conclusion: I found this super insipid and annoying because of all the Christianity stuff, but I suspect the annotations would be quite interesting. I also think it would have been a good novel if, say, Lewis Caroll or Douglas Hofstadter had written it. Yeah. 5 stars in the parallel universe where Douglas Hofstadter wrote Pilgrim's Progress.
Oh! One other thing I just remembered: Christian and Faithful pass through "Vanity Fair" at some point (which naturally is run by Beelzebub). Did Bunyan originate this phrase? Is the magazine so-called as a kind of ironic nod to Prilgrim's Progress? I wish we had spent more time at Vanity Fair as it seemed to be the most interesting setting in the whole saga.