God's Debris
Dec. 4th, 2005 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_e[Later edit: I'm amazed that I didn't give the link to the book: http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/godsdebris/ hits head. But if you hate pdf as much as I do, ask me for the html version I made instead.]
Scott (Dilbert) Adams has re-released his book God's Debris for free. Yay! I originally bought it when it was first published. I prefer ebooks, but unfortunately it was encumbered with all kinds of locks that made it pretty much impossible to use on a different computer... and of course all computers die.
The new, free release is as a .pdf file. I welcome this with mixed feelings. I'm delighted that I can re-read the book, but I despise .pdf. I spent a while last night converting the pdf to flat text and then into html. Now I have it in a form that I can happily read on any of my computers (desktop, laptop, Palm). Yay! And now I can show people this totally cool book.
I implore everybody to read this book. It is not what you think it is. It defies categorisation really. It is fictional in style, but is about reality. It is constructed as a series of short sequences that could be easily read on tram or train commutes, or in waiting rooms or short breaks.
From the introduction:
Scott (Dilbert) Adams has re-released his book God's Debris for free. Yay! I originally bought it when it was first published. I prefer ebooks, but unfortunately it was encumbered with all kinds of locks that made it pretty much impossible to use on a different computer... and of course all computers die.
The new, free release is as a .pdf file. I welcome this with mixed feelings. I'm delighted that I can re-read the book, but I despise .pdf. I spent a while last night converting the pdf to flat text and then into html. Now I have it in a form that I can happily read on any of my computers (desktop, laptop, Palm). Yay! And now I can show people this totally cool book.
I implore everybody to read this book. It is not what you think it is. It defies categorisation really. It is fictional in style, but is about reality. It is constructed as a series of short sequences that could be easily read on tram or train commutes, or in waiting rooms or short breaks.
From the introduction:
This is not a Dilbert book. It contains no humor. I call it a 132-page thought experiment wrapped in a fictional story. I'll explain the thought experiment part later.By the way, if you have already read God's Debris and liked it then you might be interested in his sequel out now, The Religion War. And you can still buy God's Debris.
God's Debris doesn't fit into normal publishing cubbyholes. There is even disagreement about whether the material is fiction or nonfiction. I contend that it is fiction because the characters don't exist. Some people contend that it is nonfiction because the opinions and philosophies of the characters might have lasting impact on the reader.
The story contains no violence, no sexual content, and no offensive language. But the ideas expressed by the characters are inappropriate for young minds. People under the age of fourteen should not read it.
The target audience for God's Debris is people who enjoy having their brains spun around inside their skulls.
After a certain age most people are uncomfortable with new ideas. That certain age varies by person, but if you're over fifty-five (mentally) you probably won't enjoy this thought experiment. If you're eighty going on thirty-five, you might like it. If you're twenty-three, your odds of liking it are very good.
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Re: Promises to be fascinating
Date: 2005-12-04 08:00 am (UTC)In it he essentially proves that god doesn't exist and that the world's "holy" books were written by superstitious savages. The neat trick is that he manages to prove these things. We have become so used to people saying that you can't disprove a god that we've somehow accepted it.
Marshal Brain is a computer science teacher, has published lots of books, created the much awarded How Stuff Works (http://www.howstuffworks.com) site, and has a number of fascinating essays online about Robotic Freedom at http://marshallbrain.com