Controversial SK Opinions/Confessions
- Thread starter CriticAndProud
- Start date
-
This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.
I thought Under The Dome was bloated and uninteresting. I barely finished it, and remember almost nothing about it. However, my son loves it and has read it at least three times. Different strokes
I read on MSN yesterday that Under the Dome is cancelled for a 4th season.
Had a difficult time getting through the book I admit but really enjoyed the movie. Usually, for me, it is the other way
around.
Has it occurred to you that this flaw may be by design?
The story is ultimately about the Hand of God, and Mother Abigail's hubris is central to the sacrifice her God comes to ask of "her" people, or so it seems to me.
The old mother is fond of chastising her pilgrims not to "presume to know the mind of God," and yet she, herself, does this throughout the narrative.
Surely that is no accident.
But if she's a true prophet of God, which we are expected to understand, then Abigail doesn't presume the mind of God, she is the mind and voice of God.
Sure she presumes. That's why she has to go out into her 'desert'. She ignored what God was telling her to do in favor of doing what she wanted to do. Plus, there was something with the weasels after her and the chickens...it's been a while, but I think she claimed she cast them out rather than calling on God's strength. She is Moses in this story, as I said before, and she makes the same kind of mistakes he did (remember, Moses claimed that he drew water from the rock, rather than giving the glory to God?). God speaks through her, but imperfectly because she has human failings--she is MOSES, not JESUS. The rest of the prophets had the same condition of human failing. Imperfectly perfectly human.
I guess Mr. King is the only one who knows for sure, but that's how I see her, and I think the story details bear it out.
Oh yeah, I totally agree with you.
I suppose my original post was a bit harsh-- I get why Mother Abagail exists. It's just she gets on my nerves. She's annoying to read about. Her mannerisms, the way she thinks about things... It's not fun for me to read about. I can't connect with her in any way. She simply falls flat for me. I get her existence in the King canon, and I respect it. But I don't enjoy reading about her-- same with Richie Tozier and the British guy from The Langoliers (his name escapes me....)
God doesn't speak imperfectly. When Abigail wasn't presuming, when she was the mind and voice of God, she was Him (Jesus in fact, since you brought Him up) thinking and speaking. The prophets were martyred not because nobody wanted to listen to another failing human being but because nobody wanted to listen to God. The ones with the stones might've accused them of being "self-righteous". sK gives Abigail human as well as supernatural traits. This might not have occurred to another author to do.
I totally understand. She strikes me as something of a caricature, but that is probably less in the narrative than in what I bring to the reading myself. I am not a religious person, but I can get down with the notion of a fire-and-brimstone god. What troubles me (and perhaps you) about the character is that she comes across as both superior and put-upon at the same time. This is the "pride" that skimom alludes to in her post, and I would certainly agree that it not only serves the narrative in a very specific way, but it makes her unlikable to people not predisposed to think the same way Mother Abigail does.
And again, of course, that is merely interpretation.
It's an aphorism designed to remind folks that starting your explanation with "If" tends to invalidate it before it even gets revved up.
If you're correct what this means is that sK made a mistake. It's okay to criticize him.
I still have no idea what you're talking about. But, I don't mind. Religion is a sensitive topic. I personally find it next to impossible to have much of a civil conversation about it for very long.
I would certainly agree with that.
Mr. Toomey was the guy who was tearing paper into strips and HAD to make that meeting. The English guy was annoying, but I can't remember his name either.
I just remember the girl in the mini-series saying his name over and over: 'Misssster Toooooooomey? Misssster Toooooooooomey?' Drove me nuts!!
Was she blind and hoping for an operation?