Book of Eli
Oct. 27th, 2010 03:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackWhat inspired the previous poll was someone talking about the Book of Eli. Apparently, the premise is that Eli is a blind gunfighter who is travelling across a post-apocalyptic north america to deliver a bible to an enclave of civilisation, but survives because God is with him. I definitely like the plot so far, and haven't had any truck with people who suggest there are weaknesses with the "blind gunfighter" part or the "god is with him" part or the "surely a braille bible should be about 50 books, not just one?" parts.
However, based purely on a plot summary, several small things DID bother me:
(1) Apparently this is the last bible known. How come? Surely there are far, far more bibles lying around than ANY other book. My poll may be skewed by people with no bibles not answering, but so far only one person has actually NOT had a bible, and some people have 10+.
(2) It's also possible they were deliberately eradicated. But the thought just gives me cold chills. Eradicating ANY book produces quite a backlash, but eradicating a major holy book of the dominant faith?
(3) And apparently no-one can make a copy until they get to the enclave?
(4) The bad guy apparently wants the bible in order to exert some sort of thrall over the local populace (unknown whether this is a literal or a metaphorical effect, or if he's just crazy). But can't because he gets hold of the bible, but it turns out to be in braille. And he's too stupid to do some basic frequency analysis. OK, recognising braille characters can be really difficult if you're not used to it, but if he's obsessed, you'd think he'd try. It was invented to be read, it's easier than a substitution cypher because the characters are in some sort of order.
(5) I agree it would be bad for the bad guy to have the ONLY copy, but forgive me for not speaking authoritatively about what god wants, but as I understand the Christian tradition, shouldn't as many people as possible be exposed to the bible? Including, perhaps even especially, sinful ones?
However, based purely on a plot summary, several small things DID bother me:
(1) Apparently this is the last bible known. How come? Surely there are far, far more bibles lying around than ANY other book. My poll may be skewed by people with no bibles not answering, but so far only one person has actually NOT had a bible, and some people have 10+.
(2) It's also possible they were deliberately eradicated. But the thought just gives me cold chills. Eradicating ANY book produces quite a backlash, but eradicating a major holy book of the dominant faith?
(3) And apparently no-one can make a copy until they get to the enclave?
(4) The bad guy apparently wants the bible in order to exert some sort of thrall over the local populace (unknown whether this is a literal or a metaphorical effect, or if he's just crazy). But can't because he gets hold of the bible, but it turns out to be in braille. And he's too stupid to do some basic frequency analysis. OK, recognising braille characters can be really difficult if you're not used to it, but if he's obsessed, you'd think he'd try. It was invented to be read, it's easier than a substitution cypher because the characters are in some sort of order.
(5) I agree it would be bad for the bad guy to have the ONLY copy, but forgive me for not speaking authoritatively about what god wants, but as I understand the Christian tradition, shouldn't as many people as possible be exposed to the bible? Including, perhaps even especially, sinful ones?
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Date: 2010-10-27 03:26 pm (UTC)http://www.goodshepherdyucaipa.com/images/brailleBible.jpg
Braille being quite thick...