MK Shrimper
Striker
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2005
- Messages
- 52,643
And the final tie....
From Wiki (as I've not read it).
Illusions - With some similarity to Nevil Shute's 1951 novel, Round the Bend, Illusions revolves around two barnstorming pilots who meet in a field in midwest America. The two main characters enter into a teacher-student relationship that explains the concept that the world that we inhabit is illusory, as well as the underlying reality behind it:
'What if somebody came along who could teach me how my world works and how to control it? ... What if a Siddhartha came to our time, with power over the illusions of the world because he knew the reality behind them? And what if I could meet him in person, if he was flying a biplane, for instance, and landed in the same meadow with me?'
Donald P. Shimoda is a messiah who quits his job after deciding that people value the showbiz-like performance of miracles and want to be entertained by those miracles more than to understand the message behind them. He meets Richard, a fellow barn-storming pilot and begins to pass on his knowledge to him, even teaching Richard to perform "miracles" of his own.
The novel features quotes from the "Messiah's Handbook", owned by Shimoda, which Richard later takes as his own. A most unusual aspect of this handbook is that it has no page numbers. The reason for this, as Shimoda explains to Richard, is that the book will open to the page on which the reader may find guidance or the answers to doubts and questions in his mind. It is not a magical book; Shimoda explains that one can do this with any sort of text. The messiah's handbook was released as its own title by Hampton Roads Publishing Company. It mimics the one described in Illusions, with new quotes based on the philosophies in the novel
:stunned:
I first read AQOTWF at the tender age of 18 and again earlier this year.
So very topical for the present and a remarkable account of the butchery and hell that was endured in the trenches 100 years ago.