Did you work this out yourself or did you crib it from somewhere else? If the former, then I am very impressed. ML4E 03:52, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
I copied the summary of the Book of Revelations. The information on the last couple of trumpets I took directly from the Book itself. TR 05:08, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
Very good. An excellent bit of work. ML4E 04:15, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
Left Behind[]
Has anyone here read Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins? It feels like Gordon McSweeney attempted to write Star Wars! I've been editing their wiki extensively for punctuation and proper linkage.Matthew Babe Stevenson (talk) 07:45, 29 August 2021 (UTC)
- I've heard of it but what I heard never interested me. Neither would proofreading its wiki like that. Turtle Fan (talk) 07:55, 29 August 2021 (UTC)
- It is severely bad writing, enough to make Dan Brown look intellectual. Its rule about action and character development is "tell don't show", and it relegates so much character development and important events to happening offstage that The War That Came Early seems like a model of perfect editing. We're told things like "Ray looked over the city and saw that a huge battle was raging," and "the Great Leader's new capital was the most impressive modern city ever built," and "Buck was the world's greatest reporter and went where other journalists feared to tread," without any further detail to make us believe any of this. One commentator said that LB is like a slide show host standing in front of the screen so you can't see anything. At least Dan Brown, if he wrote the scenes where they travel through Jerusalem, would cut and paste enough Wikipedia and travel guide entries that we could imagine we are there.
- The Revelation plagues which the series describes could make a beguiling fantasy-horror story, and in each book I am thinking that a competent writer like Stephen King really could do something substantial with this. It's not a problem that the LB writing committee believe this shit is real and they're "witnessing," the problem is just that they are crappy writers. Blogger Jenny "Mouse" Mingus has asked "did an editor run over the author's dog when he was young, and now the author hates editing?"
- And that's not considering the horrible form of Christianity which the series endorses. And that Tim LaHaye, in addition to being a McSweeneyite about religion, was a misogynistic, homophobic asshole. I was planning to write a commentary on his guide to dealing with gays, but someone already did it better than I could ever hope to do.Matthew Babe Stevenson (talk) 08:34, 29 August 2021 (UTC)
- I haven't read any of the Left Behind books or seen the film versions and, after reading that, I can't say that I'm sorry. Tim LaHaye was an absolutely terrible person who spewed horrific bile. That there were forty Left Behind spin-off books for kids is even worse. I never heard of Bob Jones University before and I wish that I could return to that happy state. The whole atmosphere seems oppressive, hateful and nuts. GusF (talk) 11:47, 29 August 2021 (UTC)
- Strangely enough, the kids books had some better characterization in them, most memorably a strawman heavy-metal rocker character who doesn't appear in the adult series, probably because they had a third writer, Chris Fabry, who is one step better at writing than Jenkins.
- Some of LaHaye's wackier proclamations on shit in general can be found at yada, yada, yada, and yada.Matthew Babe Stevenson (talk) 12:18, 29 August 2021 (UTC)
- If you find this franchise so objectionable, why are you investing time in improving its wiki? Turtle Fan (talk) 19:45, 29 August 2021 (UTC)
- It has a slight element of so-bad-it's-good, or I-can't-believe-an-editor-thought-this-would-work. The parodies and commentaries which people like the Mouse write on it are much better than the books themselves. And the plot has great fantasy-horror concepts done badly.Matthew Babe Stevenson (talk) 05:42, 30 August 2021 (UTC)
- I don't see how proofreading a wiki could increase your enjoyment of any of those silver linings, but whatever. Turtle Fan (talk) 14:16, 30 August 2021 (UTC)
- The talk pages there are pretty active.Matthew Babe Stevenson (talk) 11:34, 31 August 2021 (UTC)
- Ooh, that does sound exciting. Turtle Fan (talk) 14:38, 31 August 2021 (UTC)