ghoti_mhic_uait

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We watched Evening last night. Very beautiful, very emotionally draining. It's about memory and mistakes, and love. It's a brilliant film, but not easy.

Similarly, I am currently reading The Fionavar Tapestry series by Guy Gavriel Kay. I am moved to wonder whether atheists have the same reaction to Kay that I have to Egan - obviously the books are very good, but it's hard to read more than one at a time because of the relentless religion (in Kay's case, Christianity; in Egan's case, evangelical atheism). In any case, the starkness of the spirituality is something which I find difficult, again, very beautiful, very draining.

Current Mood: drained

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

sparrowsion

You don't mention (have you read?) The Last Light of the Sun in which the Jaddites get a very positive portrayal as promoters of harmony and learning.

One of the things great things I think Kay has done is write fantasy with religion but without intrusive gods. The reverse seems to me to be far more common.

From:

simont

I have read it, but for some reason I didn't find it as memorable as the rest of his books. Therefore, I forgot about it when writing that comment :-)

Actually, I think the single most unusual attitude to religion in fantasy is that taken by Mordant's Need, which I managed to get all the way through before I noticed that it was completely secular – the only mention of any kind of god at any point at all was in the curse-words of characters from Image-worlds. Fantasy is normally so dominated by manifest gods and politically ascendant priesthoods that it was a refreshing change to see purely mechanistic magic and no religion whatsoever.