The news has been really heavy lately, and I keep wondering why *any* of this \*vague gesture\* is happening. Since my favorite escape is through books, I’d like to read people’s interpretations of **what is means to be good vs evil**, or **what the fight of good vs evil even means**.
This can be anything: fiction, essays, philosophy; Shakespeare, fantasy, journalism; even TV shows and movies. Like, I love how *Succession* shows how the lack of a moral compass affects the characters.
Got any suggestions? **What taught you what it means to be good vs evil**?
by bigbootyyogi
12 Comments
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre
From Goodreads: In this classic work, Alasdair MacIntyre examines the historical and conceptual roots of the idea of virtue, diagnoses the reasons for its absence in personal and public life, and offers a tentative proposal for its recovery. While the individual chapters are wide-ranging, once pieced together they comprise a penetrating and focused argument about the price of modernity.
The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
Demons/The Possessed by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
1984 by George Orwell
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Something Wicked Comes This Way by Ray Bradbury
The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell
The Children of Men by P.D. James
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
**The Brothers Karamazov** by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
*Ingathering: The Complete People Stories* by Zenna Henderson
Man’s Search for Meaning
by Viktor Frankl
Freedom Is A Constant Struggle Angela Davis
*The Wingfeather Saga* by Andrew Peterson is such a great 4-book series. You see evil and also good. You’ll see characters do evil things and justify them to themselves so they feel like they’re actually doing the right thing. You’ll have your heart ripped out, but you’ll laugh out loud and fall in love with the characters, too. It’s technically for middle-grades, but every adult who I’ve talked to that has read it, loves it.
loitla Currently reading it for an intellectual freedom class. Wish me luck.
It’s a young adult book called “The Book of Joby”
“The Book of Joby is an epic fantasy complete in one volume.
Lucifer and the Creator have entered, yet again, into a wager they’ve made many times before, but this time, the existence of creation itself is balanced on the outcome. Born in California during the twilight years of a weary millennium, nine year old Joby Peterson dreams of blazing like a bonfire against the gathering darkness of his times, like a knight of the Round Table. Instead, he is subjected to a life of crippling self-doubt and relentless mediocrity inflicted by an enemy he did nothing to earn and cannot begin to comprehend.
Though imperiled themselves, the angels are forbidden to intervene. Left to struggle with their own loyalties and the question of obedience, they watch Lucifer work virtually unhindered to turn Joby’s heart of gold into ash and stone while God sits by, seemingly unconcerned.
And so when he is grown to manhood, Joby’s once luminous love of life seems altogether lost, and Lucifer’s victory assured. What hope remains lies hidden in the beauty, warmth, and innocence of a forgotten seaside village whose odd inhabitants seem to defy the modern world’s most inflexible assumptions, and in the hearts of Joby’s long lost youthful love and her emotionally wounded son. But the ravenous forces of destruction that follow Joby into this concealed paradise plan to use these same things to bring him and his world to ruin.
As the final struggle unfolds, one question occupies every mind in heaven and in hell. Which will prove stronger, love or rage?”
The Count of Monte Cristo.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. This one taught me about the subtleties of treating people kindly and honoring who they are, which is ironic considering that the author espouses homophobic and transphobic views, among other problematic opinions.