The Age of Raisin (sorry)
“He is then introduced into the Garden of Eden, in the shape of a snake or a serpent, and in that shape he enters into familiar conversation with Eve, who is no way surprised to hear a snake talk; and the issue of this tête-à -tête is that he persuades her to eat an apple, and the eating of that apple damns all mankind. ” Thomas Paine
Yes, I am about halfway through Paine’s Age of Reason. It is sometimes boring, sometimes heavy-handed, but it generally lacks the “pat yourself on the back” self-congratulatory bullshit that is written by self important assholes. Maybe because it’s not atheistic – it is in fact deistic. Or maybe because it was written to try to win people over, rather than to put down people he disagrees with.
“The story of Eve and the serpent, and of Noah and his ark, drops to a level with the Arabian tales, without the merit of being entertaining.”
I’m shocked at how modern it is. If only for a few odd phrases and some outdated ideas (science now knows how a seed grows into a tree, fer instance) this could have been written last week. By Adam Savage, perhaps. Maybe he could spell “shews” correctly.
“They will now find that I have furnished myself with a Bible and Testament; and I can say also that I have found them to be much worse books than I had conceived. If I have erred in any thing, in the former part of the Age of Reason, it has been by speaking better of some parts than they deserved.”
Wernt he a debbL woarship Er?
Ay luv gritz.