Non-Religious Literary Works Part 2

[naomi24]

The original question ….. has any non-religious literary work had a positive influence on your life?

The follow up question …. if so, in what way?

[naomi24]

I remember you saying you were reading that, Birdie, and I agree entirely. It's extraordinarily insightful - a chilling and disturbing vision alarmingly pertinent to today’s world. A work of great genius that once read can never be forgotten - and repeated readings don’t diminish its impact.

[Tilly2]

I did answer on the previous thread and said n how the particular book helped me.

Can I have a poem?

The Peace Of Wild Things.

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
-------------------------------------------------

I read this when I am troubled and find it gives me comfort.

[grasscarp]

Shouldn't this be in Arts & Literature as asking for comment on non religious books?

[Tilly2]

It could be classed as spirituality, grassy.

[grasscarp]

I see. I just thought it may get a wider audience in literature.

[naomi24]

Tilly, of course you may. That's lovely.

Grasscarp, no. It relates to the link I posted on the first thread.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/william-shakespeare/10701368/Trevor-Nunn-Shakespeare-is-100-times-more-relevant-than-the-Bible.html

I just omitted to ask people in what ways the non-religious books they'd read had influenced their lives - hence part 2.

[Prudie]

I think you mean in a spiritual way so probably not but when I was made to read Far from the Madding Crowd at school it was the first book that totally consumed me, I couldn't put it down and dreamed for weeks of being Bathsheba Everdene. It gave me a life-long love of Hardy and a desperate desire to be in Dorset (where I've now lived for 25 years). I've always thought I must have connections with the county from a previous life.

[grasscarp]

My whole life was shaped by 2 magazines. One - Girl Abou Town - said first girls to phone up would get a free flying lesson. Went loved it. Worked in aviation ever since. Other was Lord Reith writing in the Listener - "I realised to late that life was for living". I promptly changed my behaviour and started really living! Not books that changed me but written word none the less.

[naomi24]

//I think you mean in a spiritual way…//

Not only that – since it has often been said that good moral values can only be acquired through religion, I’m also wondering if anyone feels that a specific piece of non-religious literature has beneficially influenced their morals or principles. For example, one of the books that influenced me was Charlotte Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre’. I admired Jane’s principles, her resolve, her honesty, her refusal to succumb to sycophancy or to be anything other than true to herself, ‘Jane’ endorsed what my parents taught me – and I thank her for it.

[beso]

grasscarp. You really must read Richard Bach's Illusions. The context is all about flying. I promise you won't be able to put it down.

[grasscarp]

I see it has great reviews on Amazon so have ordered it Beso. Thank you for recommendation.

[naomi24]

Ha ha! I can't say reading Pride & Prejudice taught me anything - but I love the book.

In your capacity as imaginary King of the World, would you consider adding Orwell's 'Animal Farm' to your list of compulsory reading for teenagers?

[beso]

I was not impressed by 1984 at all. I tried it in the mid seventies. I would have been about 16. Stopped reading it. Animal Farm was pretty ordinary too.

Personally I think Orwell is highly overrated as an author.

[naomi24]

beso, now you're grown up, have you never considered trying them again?

I was rather hoping for more discussion on this question. I find it difficult to believe that so many are morally inspired by religious literature and so few by all the wonderful non-religious literature out there.

[mibn2cweus]

I've just read a couple of these -

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Tales_of_Mother_Goose#vii

I don't think I will ever be quite the same again. :o)

[Kromovaracun]

I actually find 'Brave New World' a lot more incisive and readable than '1984', which I think is somewhat overrated.

Other than that, I'd nominate 'Alice in Wonderland'/'Through the Looking Glass.' It probably doesn't come across on AB very much (I tend to be super-serious on AB because humour doesn't translate well), but in real life I make an effort to see the ridiculous side of everything I can.

Learning to realise how absurd most people are got me out of a particularly po-faced and humourless phase in my teens and has dramatically affected the people I choose to socialise with. Reading the 'Alice' books were at least partly responsible for that - and so was 'Catch-22'.

As Lazygun mentioned in the other thread, I've also been a long-time reader of science fiction. Probably the book I most obsessed about when I was younger was Frank Herbert's 'Dune', which isn't a particularly uplifting read, but I think it might have introduced me to the idea of transcendence. Whenever I think about that book, my mind always ends up trying to imagine being something other than human in a way that I've not found in other books. The first book alone has an incredibly rich setting which puts snore-fests like 'Lord of the Rings' to shame.

Herman Hesse's 'Steppenwolf' had a significant effect on me, too. Though I only read it a couple of years ago and I can't really explain what that effect is.

[Kromovaracun]

And 'Animal Farm' is rubbish, imho. If you like Orwell, read his journalism. It's much better than his fiction.

[Kromovaracun]

(sorry, I'll stop posting after this.)

Is this thread just about literature or any non-religious work of culture? 'cause I honestly think there's a huge number of graphic novels, comics, and TV shows etc. I would mention that offer serious moral and philosophical discussion in a more funny and contemporary way than religious texts do - especially for teenagers.