L.B.: Ben and Glory

Left Behind, pp. 321-324

With executive editor Steve Plank leaving Global Weekly to serve as the New York-based, English-language press secretary for the president of Romania, Buck Williams has been offered Steve's old job (in addition to the job he already has). Buck spends the next three pages protesting that he really doesn't want the job, saying things like "I just want to write."

The idea here, apparently, is that Buck is too humble to be ambitious. That's what Buck and the authors here seem to think they're conveying. What comes across, instead, is the most arrogant kind of ambition -- the ambition of someone who wants power and promotion, and who regards himself as so deserving of it that it ought to be thrust upon him over his own "humble" protestation. This dance gets performed all the time in American politics by men who desperately want to be president or governor or senator, but who seem to think it would be unseemly to admit it, so they strike a pose of reluctance, refusing to seek the office until others demand they do so. These candidates aren't wrong to think that naked ambition is perceived with suspicion by many voters, but naked ambition is, at least, more honest than ambition cloaked in false modesty, and I'd prefer an arrogant narcissist to an insecure one.

We can't really believe Buck's protestations here because what he says -- "I just want to write" -- doesn't match with what we've seen of him. We haven't actually seen him write anything -- not even about the two interviews he's conducted in the past week. And despite his protests, Buck doesn't really come across as all that humble:

"Bailey would never stand for my assigning myself all the best stuff."

"Make that a condition of your acceptance. If he doesn't like it, it's his decision, not yours."

For the first time, Buck allowed a sliver of light to enter his head about the possibility of taking the executive editor job.

That first sliver of light comes after three pages of Buck discussing all of the other conditions, assurances, affirmations and reaffirmations he would need to accept the job. Methinks the humble lad doth protest too much.

Those three pages started off with this exchange:

Buck followed Steve to his office: "Did you hear about those kooks at the Wailing Wall?" Steve said.

"Like I'm interested in that right now," Buck said. "Yeah, I saw them, and no, I don't want to cover that story."

Here, again, is the try-to-make-readers-feel-smart-by-making-characters-look-dumb trick that Jenkins seems to have learned from bad detective fiction. We know those "kooks" Buck dismisses will play an important role in Bible Prophecy, so since we know something he doesn't, we're supposed to feel smarter. The real effect of this trick, though, is to make us feel stupid for wasting our time reading about these morons.

The most glaring example of this device in Left Behind has to do with our fledgling Antichrist, Nicolae Carpathia, who is all but walking around with a name tag reading, "Hello, I'm the Antichrist. Ask me about my plans for One World Government." His true identity is flagrantly obvious. It's something that every reader of the book recognizes as soon as he is introduced, but no character in the book picks up on this, not even Bruce Barnes, who is actively looking for a rising Antichrist, using all of the Antichrist-detection resources left behind by Pastor Billings.

This comical obtuseness reminds me of that scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer in which every character, except Spike, is magically prevented from realizing that Glory and Ben are the same person:

SPIKE: You know, Ben is Glory.

WILLOW: You mean Ben's with Glory?

XANDER: "With" in what sense?

ANYA: They're working together?

SPIKE: Noooo, no. Ben is Glory. Glory's Ben.

XANDER: So you're saying Ben and Glory ...

ANYA: ... have a connection?

GILES: Do we suspect that there may be some kind of connection between Ben and Glory?

SPIKE: Is everyone here very stoned?

LaHaye and Jenkins conceive of their Antichrist as a creature like Glory -- a minor, evil deity able to use his divine powers to deceive the world. Buck, Steve, Bruce and Rayford and all the other characters in Left Behind are in the thrall of Nicolae Carpathia's magical spell. This is why we keep running into passages like this one, in which Steve says of Nicolae:

"I wouldn't feel this way about anybody else. No U.S. president could turn my head like this, no U.N. secretary-general."

"You think he'll be bigger than that."

"The world is ready for Carpathia, Buck. You were there Monday. You saw it. You heard it. Have you ever met anyone like him?"

"No."

Monday, here, refers to Carpathia's speech at the United Nations -- a recitation of trivia followed by an alphabetical listing of country names.

"You never will again, either. If you ask me, Romania is too small for him. Europe is too small for him. The U.N. is too small for him."

"What's he gonna be, Steve, king of the world?"

Steve laughed, "That won't be the title, but don't put it past him. The best part is, he's not even aware of his own presence. He doesn't seek these roles. They are thrust upon him because of his intellect, his power, his passion."

Just like the role of executive editor is being "thrust upon" Buck because of his intellect, power and passion, see? Except, wait, that makes Buck just like the Antichrist, so ...

Steve isn't done working himself up over his new job and his new Super Cool boss. "I'm sitting on one of the greatest rises to power of anyone in history," he says. "Maybe the greatest. And I'll be right there helping it happen."

Buck agrees, "Except that I could never be anybody's press secretary, I almost envy you. You are uniquely positioned to enjoy the ride of your life."

Keep in mind that all of this adulation is being heaped on a man who has held public office for exactly one week; that the office in question is the presidency of Romania; that his track record as president of Romania has thus far consisted only of leaving the country; that he took office during the midst of a global chaos and crisis and has, thus far, failed to even comment on that crisis, let alone to suggest or take any steps toward resolving it; and that Buck knows him to be complicit in two homicides and that he offered only a non-denial denial when questioned about a third. So here's a guy with no experience and no accomplishments. None. But despite this, he's already tainted by association with scandal. Yet both of these journalists is certain, all evidence to the contrary, that this stumbling out of the gate is actually the beginning of "one of the greatest rises to power of anyone in history."

This only makes sense once you understand that Nicolae has cast a spell over them.

Suddenly we're reading a book with spellcasting and magic in it. I tend to like books with spellcasting and magic in them, and I have no problem with crossbreeding genres, but this hadn't been that sort of book up until now and it doesn't seem fair for the authors suddenly to be changing the ground rules like this. So far LB has presented itself as a kind of Tom-Clancy-wanna-be thriller set in the apocalyptic world of the PMD End Times. The effect of suddenly introducing magic into this scenario is like if you were to read the new Clancy novel and learn that Jack Ryan was an alumnus of Hogwarts. The authors are violating the bargain they had established with the reader. That bargain had said that the world of LB was intended to be this world, or at least this world + divine wrath. This world + magic is not the same thing.

The rationale for Nicolae as sorceror supreme seems to come from the authors' interpretation of Matthew 24, a passage sometimes called the "little apocalypse." Jesus warns his disciples to "Watch out that no one deceives you," because "many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ... False Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect -- if that were possible." Jesus' reference to "false Christs and false prophets," plural, "many," is glossed over and ignored by the Lone Antichrist theorists of PMD "prophecy" studies -- just as they ignore the plural use of "antichrists" in John's epistles (the only place in the Bible the term appears).

"Signs and miracles" is, to L&J, indistinct from magic and spellcasting. And once those things are in play, it makes sense to them that this would be how the Antichrist (singular) could "deceive many people." They also interpret Jesus' suggestion that "the elect" cannot be deceived as further evidence of magic -- a protective talisman against the spells of the Antichrist that comes to play a large role in this series of books.

The decision to have Nicolae's rise to power result from magical deception allows the authors to avoid having to imagine how else such a rise to power might occur, or how a leader not possessing such dark magics might still be able to "deceive many." This failure of imagination tends to have real-world consequences. L&J's target audience of American evangelicals and fundamentalists, you may have noticed, tends to be particularly susceptible to demagoguery and the machinations of Mayberry Machiavellis.

Here I think the PMDs obsessive vigilance against a single, future "Antichrist" does them a disservice. They're so preoccupied with Satan that they ignore all the devilishness that ordinary, non-supernatural people are capable of. Convinced that their talisman protects them from the dark magic of the Antichrist, they become easy prey for nonmagical hucksters and con men of every sort.

Comments

[SueW]

the machinations of Mayberry Machiavellis

I simply must find a way to use that phrase in conversation.

[twig]

Before the last six years or so, I thought decieving people into making horrible, barely-planned-out decisions would be hard, or at the very least involve cunning and skill and deception.

At this point I think you could be Johnny Depp's character from Once Upon a Time in Mexico, walking around undercover while wearing an 'FBI' shirt and it still wouldn't be unsubtle enough.

*sigh*

[Robb]

Ah, the sweet, sweet ambrosia of literary criticism on a Friday. Thanx Fred!

I think it's high time we saw someone with naked ambition: "I want to be President, because we need to do something about [issue]." I agree that the false humility thing is just plain old. I don't buy it from any politician I've ever seen, and someone who's honest about their desire to use power for good is far better than someone who skirts the issue of how much power they'll actually have.

Blend the sentences "Jack Ryan was an alumnus of Hogwarts" and "They are thrust upon him because of his intellect, his power, his passion" and suddenly, we have the potential for the greatest slash fic of all time.

[Robb]

Bah! Stupid bold tag!

[Jesurgislac]

"You are uniquely positioned to enjoy the ride of your life."

Steve smirked. "I know." He leaned closer to Buck. "Carpathia is big. And he can ride."

"I know," said Buck. "I had him first."

Steve kept his smirk. "He had you first. But he liked me better."

[Jos]

You know, I really liked false modesty when Gloucester did it in Richard III, but Left Behind yet again manages to sap the fun out such a scene.

Good things this entry also sees some pre-S6 Buffy to soothe the soul.

[patter]

the beginning of "one of the greatest rises to power of anyone in history."

It was the suit that gave them the first clue:

his navy-on-navy pinstripe suit and matching tie were exquisitely conservative.

That damned Bob Redford.

[ako]

What bothers me much more than "oh, there's magic" (from my atheistic viewpoint, most religion-related powers look a lot like magic), is how bad they are at establishing what's really going on.

I read the whole first book, and I still don't know if Nicky Grampians has mass-hypnosis powers through the television or not. I don't know if we're meant to notice the disconnect between the UN speech and the reaction. Aside from one scene at the end, I don't know what's Antichrist brainwashing, what's charisma, and what's everyone else being just that dumb.

I do know, from that short scene in Buffy, that;

1) Ben is Glory
2) The characters can't grasp that because of some magical intervention.
3) The magical intervention plays by specific rules (for instance, it doesn't work on vampires, and stating it flat-out doesn't undo the effect).

I knew, fairly quickly in the Manchurian Candidate, that "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life," was an implanted phrase. If you're going to make characters behave abnormally, you need to make it clear (at least by the end of the story) what causes it, how (in at least a functional sense) it works, and what's been altered because of that. Especially when you're introducing characters.

[Buttercup]

so since we know something he doesn't, we're supposed to feel smarter.

Same shinola that Rowling pulled throughout most of the HP series. Except that's supposed to be for KIDS, which makes it slightly more acceptable.

I have to say (and I don't think I've said before) that I'm thoroughly enjoying this series. It also depresses me somewhat, though, because those hacks are actually making money off of these sad excuses for books.

[mmack]

This comical obtuseness reminds me of that scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer in which every character, except Spike, is magically prevented from realizing that Glory and Ben are the same person

And Fred, my first thought was a similar vein, but a different television show. Everyone, meet Mr. Hilter from Minehead:

Landlady: Of course it's his big day Thursday. Oh, they've been planning it for months.
Johnson: What's happens then?
Landlady: Well it's the North Minehead bye-election. Mr Hilter's standing as the National Bocialist candidate. He's got wonderful plans for Minehead.
Johnson: Like what?
Landlady: Well, for a start he wants to annex Poland.
Johnson: Oh, North Minehead's Conservative, isn't it?
Landlady: Well, they get a lot of people at their rallies.
Johnson: Rallies?
Landlady: Well, their Bocalist meetings, down at the Axis Café in Rosedale Road.

Who knew Monty Python had the plot line for The AntiChrist in Left Behind?

[Tyro]

his navy-on-navy pinstripe suit and matching tie were exquisitely conservative.

I don't want to raise this again, because we hashed out and mocked the "Nicolae is a snappy dresser" thing already, but this is a really terrible piece of writing. The tie was "matching"? How? Was it a "power tie"? Was it striped? What?

Also, politicians (unfortunately) eschew pinstripes. Were the pintripes widely spaced, like a banker's? Did it make him look like a gangster? Or was it a fashion-forward sort of pinstriped suit of the sort favored by the young? To a degree, I'm thinking L&J figured they could gloss over this and leave the rest to the readers' imagination, but I find this really irritating, myself.

I should also note that this description seems to violate a cardinal rule about politics: Spend a lot of money to look terrible.

[linnen]

There is an OTOH aspect to this.

Fred has already show that the authors have an *cough* unusual view of the world around them. Could it be that instead of showing Old Nick with magical charisma, the authors were showing that the audience and everyone else (the unwashed masses) were gullible sheep?

[Joe Smith]

That bargain had said that the world of LB was intended to be this world, or at least this world + divine wrath. This world + magic is not the same thing.

But in L & J's beleife system, this world DOES have magic!!! I saw a prominent, mainstream fundementalist (Andre Kole) talk about how African witch-doctors had sent demons against him to foil his missonary efforts. The pentecostalists actively practice "signs and wonders" I had a street preacher attempt to heal a wart on my hand by invoking Jesus's name. And lets not forget Benny Hinn and his bolts of divine lightening. And the constant presence of faith healing.

Many believe that the power that a true preacher exerts over his flock comes from divine grace (The word "Charisma" means divine grace.) It only stands to reason that the antichrist would have demonic grace.

In a few chapters we are going to have people Belching Fire, a little mind control doesn't seem like too much.

[ObiterDicta]

Is it just me or do fundamentalists all make their versions of Antichrist non-American? (The one possible exception I can think of, Jerry Falwell, said at one point that the Antichrist was alive and was a Jewish male, but did not specify a nationality.}

Nicolae being from Romania obviously preceded Donald Rumsfeld's praise for "New Europe." If LB were being written today would the Antichrist be French?

[Tonio]

"Suddenly we're reading a book with spellcasting and magic in it."

Perhaps instead of LaHaye and Jenkins collaborating on the entire book, one of them started the book and simply turned over the story to the other writer to finish.

The pseudo-Clancy setting might have been fodder for a more competent writer to shape Buck into a three-dimensional character, one tempted to sell his soul both literally and figuratively. Similarly, the Nicolae-as-sorcerer premise might have worked for an "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" type of allegory.

Imagine how LB would have turned out if LH&J had lost their faith after writing the first couple of chapters, and stopped trying to make the story exactly fit the Revelations script.

[Joe Smith]

If you're going to make characters behave abnormally, you need to make it clear (at least by the end of the story) what causes it, how (in at least a functional sense) it works, and what's been altered because of that.

But in the "real" world, where people are regularly seduced by demonic powers, it is NOT always clear. Unless you've read the right books. There's many people (not just PMDs) that beleive that Hitler and Jim Jones had some weird mass hypnosis powers.

The weird thing about this book is how the secular world refuses to acknowledge the signs and wonders no matter HOW obvious they are. . When Moshe and Eli start belching fire, we see Stanton Bailey suggesting they've got a hidden sniper with a flame thrower.

[the opoponax]

Same shinola that Rowling pulled throughout most of the HP series

Well, no. Rowling is using third person omniscient. We see things the protagonist doesn't see (or understand things the protagonist doesn't understand), so we're able to stay a step ahead of Harry. This is not supposed to make us feel "smarter" than Harry -- that would be a very odd tack for YA lit to take. It's just a slightly different way of telling a story than simple third person.

The other thing about Rowling is that she does very interesting things with her choice of perspective, and also her choice to have Harry be rather ordinary in the skillz and maturity department. It's clear that she knows what she's doing and why she's doing it, and how to make it work.

Jenkins demonstrates over and over that he is completely inept in all of those ways. We're never quite sure whether this is even supposed to be third person omniscient or what, or what the rules of the game are (the only rule seems to be "Read The Book Jacket"). We're never dragged into the story enough to experience that little shiver of anticipation when we realize what's going to happen 2 pages before Harry does. It just falls flat on every level.

You may like Rowling, or not, or whatever, but you have to admit she's got a lot more going on in a narrative sense than Jerry Jenkins.

[the opoponax]

When Moshe and Eli start belching fire, we see Stanton Bailey suggesting they've got a hidden sniper with a flame thrower.

I love that this is the default rationalization, and not that Eli and Moishe must have spent their formative years in a traveling circus. I mean, clearly they have the sideshow calling and fire-breathing chops down. They dress funny. Could it be any more obvious?

[Craig]

I can't really understand why people act surprised at L&J including magic powers. Have you ever heard these people talk? I dare anyone to listen to a fundie describe missionaries or (tele)evangelists (or those two describe themselves) and not immediately think "D&D cleric." You've got the divine appointments, the lay on hands, the blessings, the magical buffs/debuffs, the combating evil and/or rival sects and faiths, the whole deal. Not to mention the "soldier of God" thing just screams a guy in armor smiting things with a mace.

[the opoponax]

I'm thinking L&J figured they could gloss over this and leave the rest to the readers' imagination,

Yeah, that seems to be Jenkins' M.O., with anything that bears describing. It's phone calls and travel itineraries he wants to tell us about.

I assumed the reason he glossed over Nicky Ural's sartorial specifics is that he's too much of a manly man to describe clothing. Though it goes hand in hand with the general fundie lack of interest in aesthetics of any sort.

[ObiterDicta]

Is it just me or do fundamentalists all make their versions of Antichrist non-American? (The one possible exception I can think of, Jerry Falwell, said at one point that the Antichrist was alive and was a Jewish male, but did not specify a nationality.}

Nicolae being from Romania obviously preceded Donald Rumsfeld's praise for "New Europe." If LB were being written today would the Antichrist be French?

[ObiterDicta]

Is it just me or do fundamentalists all make their versions of Antichrist non-American? (The one possible exception I can think of, Jerry Falwell, said at one point that the Antichrist was alive and was a Jewish male, but did not specify a nationality.}

Nicolae being from Romania obviously preceded Donald Rumsfeld's praise for "New Europe." If LB were being written today would the Antichrist be French?

[the opoponax]

Perhaps instead of LaHaye and Jenkins collaborating on the entire book, one of them started the book and simply turned over the story to the other writer to finish.

To be clear, Jenkins is the writer of the book. LeHaye is just a big name with occasional theological consulting duties.

[ObiterDicta]

Gah! double post!

[histrogeek]

I'm not sure L&J meant to give Nicolo Sierra Nevada some kind of Jedi mind-powers. People in their weird paralell universe seem to act according to their pre-determined roles with little or no sense of motivation. Nick Great Dividing Range rises to power because that is pre-ordained. People believe he's even better than Robert Redford AND sliced bread because that will put him in power. Motivation means nothing to L&J. They could have written him as someone who provided hope in a time of unspeakable horror. They could have shown him as Voldemort (years before Rowling) using magic and fear. They could have made him Genghis Khan using a small band of ruthless followers to take over the world. Any of these options would put Nicky Cantabrian in power more credibly and coherently than some guy showing up in New York and naming a bunch of UN agencies.
Alas, then there would be a real danger of the book being interesting.

[Ian]

In fairness to the authors, the "what me, king? " routine is a classic. (Julius Caesar, Absalom) It can work well if written well, no further comment needed.

The sad thing is that this trick often works pretty well in the real world.

[Joe Smith]

The bizarre thing for me is "exquisitely conservative". The notion of dressing conservatively is that you display elegance without calling attention to any particular thing. Its just like his "understated jewelery". What kind of jewelry does a diplomat wear? When dressing for sucess, men generally don't wear jewelry. A nice watch and a wedding band is about it. What was nicholai wearing that screamed "understated?" What were the other diplomats wearing? Diamond pimp necklaces? Nose Rings? Teeth grills?

"Matching tie"???? The tie SHOULDN'T match the suit...unless you're the Blues Brothers.

The whole thing with using adjectives like "Exquisite" "understated" "conservative" is that it violates the "show don't tell" rule. Let us SEE the suit in our minds, don't tell us how to react to it.

[The Cynic Sage]

The decision to have Nicolae's rise to power result from magical deception allows the authors to avoid having to imagine how else such a rise to power might occur, or how a leader not possessing such dark magics might still be able to "deceive many." This failure of imagination tends to have real-world consequences. L&J's target audience of American evangelicals and fundamentalists, you may have noticed, tends to be particularly susceptible to demagoguery and the machinations of Mayberry Machiavellis.

Here I think the PMDs obsessive vigilance against a single, future "Antichrist" does them a disservice. They're so preoccupied with Satan that they ignore all the devilishness that ordinary, non-supernatural people are capable of. Convinced that their talisman protects them from the dark magic of the Antichrist, they become easy prey for nonmagical hucksters and con men of every sort.

I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw the movie.

[the opoponax]

@ Joe Smith -- I'd guess they mean "a really, really nice watch", as opposed to a merely "classy" one. Like Cartier rather than a mere TAG Heuer, or something.

[nappatak]

Hello, I'm the Antichrist. Ask me about my plans for One World Government.

Please, please would someone put that on a T-shirt. I'll take a dozen.

[LL]

RE So here's a guy with no experience and no accomplishments. None. But despite this, he's already tainted by association with scandal. Yet both of these journalists is certain, all evidence to the contrary, that this stumbling out of the gate is actually the beginning of "one of the greatest rises to power of anyone in history."

So George Bush is the Antichrist?

[Spalanzani]

Has this been brought up before? It's about that damn Left Behind game being sent to soldiers in Iraq.

http://richarddawkins.net/article,1563,Not-So-Fast-Christian-Soldiers,Michael-L-Weinstein-and-Reza-Aslan-LA-Times

[Lax Tool]

"Bailey would never stand for my assigning myself all the best stuff."

That's pretty much a giveaway for what kind of narcissist Buck is. He's been offered the opportunity to lead a major news magazine, and one of his top concerns is making sure he can still get "the best stuff." (ie. hog the glory) Here's a guy that know's you can't spell t-e-a-m without m-e. Bet he'd be a fun guy to work for.

It's astounding the extend to which LB (at least based from your blog) works on the level of self-parody. It feels like something that should be released in an annotated version, with footnotes provided by a sardonic editor.

[Kitty]

I admire anyone who can keep reading this dreck after the part where the airplane takes off from Chicago, turns around and Greenland, and makes it back to O'Hare.

On the suit issue, navy-on-navy is NOT pinstripes. There are stripes like that with a real name I can't think of, but pinstripes have to be in a contrasting color to the main body of the suit. Guys who wear nothing but Hanes Beefy T's but work on hot rods know this fact about pinstripes but L & J can't be bothered. Yeeesh, guys, go get a Brooks Brothers catalog and copy it. When you fail in an area of writing mastered by small-town paper wedding columnists (i.e, the ability to accurately identify clothing) you really out to find another job.

Finally, as I've been following Fred's discussion on this, I've been thinking that a slightly more thoughtful version of the end times would be a really excellent story. Of course, not following their grocery-list model, but an exploration of what humans would do in the fact of this kind of adversity and with the prospect of the return of Jesus. Steven King's The Stand is closer to what I'm thinking of, but scrubbed of the supernatural. The End of the World, but with a minimum of nukes and a lot of really rotten human decisions. That story would of course make most readers of airport novels ill, so it'd never sell. Still, one of you literary sorts should consider.

"Please, please would someone put that on a T-shirt. I'll take a dozen."

Since you asked:
http://www.cafepress.com/notquitedaily.95599156

[Jeff Weskamp]

"Suddenly we're reading a book with spellcasting and magic in it."

Most Fundamentalists and Evangelicals truly believe in Magic in the real world. That's why they hate the Harry Potter series so much. They are genuinely afraid that young people might learn how to cast spells from them. "Sorcery" is a reality (and a real threat) for many, many American Christians.

Ken and I discussed Peretti's Darkness series in an earlier post. Many folks regard the Darkness novels as being virtual grimoires that teach readers how to battle the Dark FOrces of Evil.

[pepperjackcandy]

There are stripes like that with a real name I can't think of

The only word I can come up with is "brocade." Is that the word you're thinking of?

[Jeff]

His true identity is flagrantly obvious.

This has been an unfortunate convention for ages.

I've been watching the old Dark Shadows show from 1966, and one of the minor characters has started to display a tendency to wander around at night, has had a mysterious blood loss, and has two strange marks on her neck ... we've been strung along for dozens of episodes, yet no one has stated the obvious!

[1982_Cygni]

They could have shown him as Voldemort (years before Rowling) using magic and fear.

Uh, Voldemort wasn't exactly original. Darth Vader had the whole magic and fear thing going, and he was far more interesting--even in those horrible tacked-on prequels. Plus, you have IT in A Wrinkle in Time.

Steven King's The Stand is closer to what I'm thinking of, but scrubbed of the supernatural. The End of the World, but with a minimum of nukes and a lot of really rotten human decisions.

The 4400 is much like that--a lot of ordinary human beings being given God-like gifts in a VERY short period of time in cultural terms (a nanosecond in evolutionary terms), having to adjust VERY quickly (especially if you are a brilliant, attractive, and dangerous young woman named Isabelle Tyler whose chronological age is much smaller than your shoe size), and making some pretty crummy choices at times. And I've changed my mind about religion in there, BTW; the series actually does cover religion of a sort, namely the dangers of cults and religious violence. And maybe, come to think of it, maybe the Jordan Collier character is a way of answering the question, "What if Jesus Christ had flaws, or chose to be sinful, or really was as arrogant and/or deranged as some non-Christians believe he was?"

[1982_Cygni]

BTW, Sojourners has a short, but interesting and to the point article about LB:

http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2007/08/taking-the-bible-seriously-by.html

[Bill S]

"...they become easy prey for nonmagical hucksters and con men of every sort."
Which is why these books are so popular.

[cjmr]

A navy suit with navy stripes has a 'tone-on-tone' stripe. Thank you, Project Runway. Usually brocade has more of a pattern to it than just stripes--'v's or fleur-de-lis, or checkboard--but it is often tone-on-tone.

[Vermic]

Suddenly we're reading a book with spellcasting and magic in it. I tend to like books with spellcasting and magic in them, and I have no problem with crossbreeding genres, but this hadn't been that sort of book up until now and it doesn't seem fair for the authors suddenly to be changing the ground rules like this. So far LB has presented itself as a kind of Tom-Clancy-wanna-be thriller set in the apocalyptic world of the PMD End Times.

Here's where I have to differ, because I do think it has been established as that sort of book. We've already seen two miracles (the Rapture itself, and the whole nuclear strike on Israel thing), and while these might not be "magic" like Nicky's mind-whammy, they do all fit comfortably in the broad category of "supernatural". So, after seeing God perform a few magic tricks, it doesn't bother me when Satan pulls one of his own. (I actually find The Stand more jarring in that regard, starting as it does with a completely non-supernatural apocalypse but then introducing ESP and a quasi-Satanic villain later on.)

That doesn't mean I approve of the Nicky mind-whammy as a plot device, though. It still seems like a lazy alternative to writing a character with real charisma. And it hasn't even been done very competently, seeing how it's still not clear at this point whether Nicky does have a mind-whammy, or whether the other characters are just dumb.

[cjmr]

That should say 'checkerboard'. I'm having a lousy week for proofreading, apparently.

[Josh D]

I love the cafepress T-Shirt. I might have to order a few of those, too.

Fred's last comment:
Convinced that their talisman protects them from the dark magic of the Antichrist, they become easy prey for nonmagical hucksters and con men of every sort.

Case in point:
Did anyone see any of the recent news reports on shows such as Dateline detailing the Nigerian E-mail scams? I think there was a church pastor who actually cleaned out his church's savings to try and get hold of the 12 million dollars (US) he was being promised by e-mail scammers. Sad thing is, even after he goes to jail, and has to declare bankruptcy and whatver else, he still wants to send these guys just another $5000, certain they'll be able to deliver the cash this time.

[Kitty]

Tone - on - tone, that's it. They could have said "herringbone - weave" or "shadow stripes" or something that conveys hugely expensive fabric in an unremarkably flawless suit. Instead, pinstripes with a bad description. Gack.

[Hibryd]

You know, a better author wouldn't have to work much harder to establish all-emcompassing Antichrist Mojo. If a competently-written book suddenly turned into bizarro world where everyone heaped identical praise upon a world leader who didn't seem to deserve it, the reader would say "ah-ha, this is suspicious!" The problem is that the authors have already ruined their credibility by playing the same trick straight, in their GIRAT. People call him a brilliant investigative reporter, over and over again, despite the fact that he has neither investigated nor reported anything since the book began. (Pretty bad when your Mary-Sue-ism is as effective at warping reality as Evil Antichrist Powers.)

[Ryan Ferneau]

Well that's just what Stephen King does. He says, "Hmm, I can't get this plot to work. I know, suddenly everyone has ESP now, and they didn't even know it!"

[the opoponax]

On the suit front, aside from their completely inept description of a tone on tone stripe, everybody knows the really flush suits are NOT striped.

Jenkins could have saved himself a lot of grief if he'd said "a Saville Row suit", and left jewelry, understated or no, out of it entirely.

[Kitty]

Or even better "bespoke suit."