>Time for my $.02. In fact, I was unable to get into To Reign in Hell--it >had *athiest* written all over it, and as such, failed to gain my interest >or sympathy. I'm genuinely sorry to hear that. As it happens, I am an atheist, but I hate to think of some of the books that I would have missed out if I avoided books that, for instance, depicted Christian themes in a positive light (e.g., C.S. Lewis' _The Great Divorce_, which is one of my favorite stories). For that matter, I can think of a lot of books that I would have missed reading if I were applying ideological filters to my selections. Ken McKleod's books, for instance, tend to take the stance that Communism is a viable ideology -- a view which I find vastly implausible -- but the stories are just so darned good that I can accept that as just an axiomatic aspect of his fictional universes. Likewise, Heinlein's politics annoy the hell out of my more than half of the time, but I still find his stories interesting and thought provoking. Sheri Tepper's books are chock full of radical-feminist theories and contentions, but I would be diminished were I were to have never read them. I could go on. I think that I would lose something if I were to avoid artistic works simply because they contain views and opinions that don't mesh with my own. Indeed, I think that to do so, to be frank, would be an indication that my own convictions wern't very strong, or stable, in the first place. Any view that can only survive in a carefully circumscibed shelter isn't one, I think, that is worth holding. Or so I think. -- Andrew Lias _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail&xAPID=42&PS=47575&PI=7324&DI=7474&SU= http://www.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/getmsg&HL=1216hotmailtaglines_addphotos_3mf