Mencken, thou shouldst be living at this hour

[Eric Beck]

Michael Pollak wrote:

>  > The Left Behind series
>
>Has anyone ever read any of these?  I was just wondering if they were at
>all gripping.

I listened to an abridged version of the first book on cassette, and 
it was pretty gripping. Ridiculously cliched and precious (one of the 
main characters is a rebellious reporter [aren't they all?] who is 
nicknamed Buck because he's constantly "bucking the system"), but 
LaHaye and Jenkins nail all the action/thriller conventions. The 
twist in this version of the formula is what is defended from attack: 
instead of the usual ones, America or a woman's honor or a man's 
pride, it's God. What  makes the book so fascinating though is the 
warped worldview: Israel is cleared of the heathens (Arabs), with a 
little help from Above, making the way for Jesus; the Anti-Christ 
comes from Eastern Europe, is extremely charismatic, and gains 
control of the world through the UN; etc. But even the bizarre 
ideology gets old pretty quick, sorta like new-economy partisans: at 
first their hallucinatory analysis of the now and hopes for utopia 
seem fantastic and like an insight into some previously unknown 
silent majority, but eventually they become tiresome and you realize 
these just may be the tedious fantasies of a few (vanguard) fanatics.

>Because the movie _The Rapture_ is kind of weirdly
>fascinating.  If the books were as interesting as that, the fact that 7
>million people -- 2.5% of the population -- were fired up about them
>wouldn't strike me as at all odd in this land of a thousand mini cults,

I don't think it's that odd either. I see that Chip Berlet has 
already weighed in with the literalist interpretation, but that's to 
be expected. People, even Christians, aren't completely formed by the 
cultural products they consume (I wonder how many people who read 
these books are not even Christians), and I wonder if any besides 
those who already believe actually buy into the books' right-wing 
outlook.

People have been dressing up and going to see (actually *watching*) 
The Rocky Horror Picture Show for 25 years now. That's scarier to me 
than a few books about the Apocalypse.

Eric