Comments on: More Updike: Empathy for the devil

By: Hot Air » Blog Archive » Borders makes “Terrorist” its Shortlist pick o’ the week

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 15:29:24 +0000

[...] “Utterly incomprehensible” indeed. Previous posts on Updike are here and here. [...]

By: Warner Todd Huston

Warner Todd Huston — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 16:57:08 +0000

I wrote about this fool on my blog the other day, myself. Publius' Forum- Why Libs'll NEVER get the war on terror Updike is so concerned that he eviscerate Christianity that he excuses the terrorr from radical Islam!

By: honora

honora — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 16:23:52 +0000

Allahpundit: not contrarian, but this whole thread reveals an ignorance I find distressing. Updike writes about a terrorist who has some positive human qualities, this is equated to being sympathetic to terrorists? Are we so dull witted we can’t wrap our minds around the notion that our enemies don’t have forked tongues and may love their mothers? Our world is not a cartoon, complexity is our fate as humans. As the saying goes, Mussolini made the trains run on time and Hitler loved his dog.

As Ron White would say, you can’t fix stupid.

Neither Raskolnikov not Iago are sympathetic, but seeing them only as evil entirely misses the point. Rasklonikov is so compelling because he doesn’t recognize evil, nor good, based on the harrowing society he observes. Killing an old woman is an evil act, but do really think this was the point Tolstoy was making???

By: Allahpundit

Allahpundit — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 15:58:30 +0000

Do you enjoy being contrarian just for the sake of being contrarian, honora?

I didn’t say no one should write about villains. I said one should retain some moral perspective when doing so — particularly when it involves a matter of current political concern.

You mention Dostoyevsky and Shakespeare. Have you read “Crime and Punishment” and “Othello”? Do you take Raskolnikov and Iago to be sympathetic characters?

By: honora

honora — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 15:52:09 +0000

So we only go for writing about nice people. That would knock out most Tolstoy and Dovstoyevsky novels, most of Shakespeare’s tragedies (that Richard III was SOOOO nasty and don’t get me started on Iago…), John LeCarre almost entirely. Just the A’s alone: All the King’s Men, An American Tragedy….these are stories about some pretty nasty people.

Here’s a big secret: most novels that are happy, happy about people of virtue are pretty dull. Most dramatic tension comes from looking at the dark side of human behavior, and making those human multi-dimensional. (Is it MacBeth’s evil side or his more empathetic side that makes the play so riveting?)

Making our enemies one dimensional reduces them to cartoons. Big, big mistake.

By: Abigail Adams

Abigail Adams — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 15:34:56 +0000

And Updike is what passes these days for an American artist…God help us all.

By: Professor Blather

Professor Blather — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 14:58:02 +0000

Alex K:

Pick up Nelson DeMille’s “The Lion’s Game.”

Great terrorist character, evil as the day is long, but still well-developed. You’ll understand how he feels, even empathize somewhat … but still feel like putting a bullet in his brain pan.

(Read “Plum Island” first – it’s a prequel with the same main character)

By: dman

dman — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 12:14:38 +0000

If terrorists, in their own minds, are just being good Muslims, then the enemy is Islam itself – or at least their faction. We need to respond accordingly and drop the PC crap.

By: THeDRiFTeR

THeDRiFTeR — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 10:49:21 +0000

How about V for Vendetta, although that could be a comic book. Not sure…

By: Axe

Axe — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 06:32:00 +0000

“If the only way you can find a shared human experience between two sides is by ignoring the substance of their values to emphasize the fact that each has values and feels strongly about them, then I’d gently suggest there isn’t much to this particular human experience that’s actually being shared.”

See, it’s crap like that that makes me all about Allah.

Shooter — I think I know what you are talking about! I’ve … aw man, what’s it called? It’s famous–

umm

By: The Therapist

The Therapist — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 05:06:25 +0000

Oooh . . . it’s on the tip of my tongue . . .

By: shooter

shooter — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 01:05:11 +0000

I can think of one book, about a leader and possible terrorist that is supposed to be loveable and kind (to some). But it has chapters though, that do call for killing others that dont belive the way he did, kindof a jihad thing….lets see, whats the name of that book,….???

By: inmanjh

inmanjh — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 01:00:56 +0000

AlexK, pick up just about any fiction by Tom Clancy, he does terrorists right!

By: thirteen28

thirteen28 — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 23:37:03 +0000

Christopher Hitchens has a great review of this book in the most recent issue of The Atlantic Monthly. Needless to say, after Hitch is done, Updike looks pretty small.

By: THeDRiFTeR

THeDRiFTeR — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 21:50:17 +0000

“Ahmad is lovable, or at least appealing; he’s in many ways the most moral and thoughtful character in the entire book.”

Reminds of a review I read once about the first Star Wars film. (Is my age showing?) The reviewer proclaimed that R2D2 and C3P0 were the most humane characters in the movie. Just reminded me, that’s all…

;O)

By: Alex K

Alex K — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 21:45:29 +0000

“[a]nybody can write a novel about an evil terrorist.”

Er, has anyone done that? I mean, a really good novel, where the terrorist is a real character but, you know, still evil? Sounds hard to me, but either way I’ve never heard of it.

By: Defector01

Defector01 — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 21:26:24 +0000

docdave, AMEN BROTHER!
There aren’t many positive portrayals of terrorists? Look A. in the middle east and B. amongst the far left. Its harder to create a portrait of an evil terrorist of radical islam then to make them appear positive

By: inmanjh

inmanjh — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 21:19:33 +0000

“…it’s not so unlike what we ask of our soldiers, to sacrifice themselves or risk death on behalf of a cause, of a set of ideals.”

I just want to bitch-slap Updork after reading that. And by “bitch-slap,” I am referring to a 1st Amendment-protected form of self-expression, of course.

By: docdave

docdave — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 21:09:19 +0000

Good terrorist? Oxymoron anyone? You know what a ‘good’ terrorist is don’t you? IT IS A DEAD TERRORIST!!!

By: shooter

shooter — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 21:06:31 +0000

Upchuck puts this book kid,with an Irish parent, in New Jersey
“”Devils, Ahmad thinks. These devils seek to take away my God,” is the first line of the book, as he surveys the scene at his high school where girls expose their bellies and cleavages and where he is bullied by black and Latino classmates.”
Thats a heck of a start to a book the he claims only to:”"I was trying to show how a perfectly human American can find himself enlisted in a catastrophic plot”
IMO he is the racist and the terrorist. You dont have to blow yourself up to be a terrorist, writing can and does get the job done.
Upchuck, updyke, Al Uppety, whatever he calls himself someone else to watch closely.
just my opinion.

By: Kini

Kini — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 20:51:07 +0000

This is right from Yasser Arafat’s terrorism handbook. Osama bin Laden was right to use the Liberal media as a weapon against the west. Watch them blame everyone else but the Muslim Terrorist and ask “why do they hate us” mentality.

They are using terrorism to push forth a political agenda and claiming it is not a religious cause. It’s one and the same in my opinion. It’s a World War.

The question is, how may more so called religious causes can be justified before the MSM call it like it is: Terrorism

By: Clark1

Clark1 — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 20:48:22 +0000

I imagine a small Austrian boy dreaming of a world without Jews. Is he really so much different than ourselves?

By: darwin

darwin — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 20:40:21 +0000

I mean…….is this how these nuts get positive feedback in their lifes? Enabling murders? Sending a message that it’s ok to kill? WTF is wrong with these people?

By: BirdEye

BirdEye — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 20:25:50 +0000

Up yours, Updike.