I disagree, but didn't read the book. Two is stellar. One is quite good—and besides generating the impetus for the season two move, it has lots of Carrie Coon in it.

But yeah, I flipped through that novel about the rise of the First Order in the store, and yowch.

Some other day, I have a thesis to try on you about how TFA is much deeper and more original than the seeming plot recycling indicates.

Can I get a 'book check' on what course this show is taking so far? I watched the first season but not this one. I think I'm out but I'm happy to be sold back in.

Not trying to be that dick 'THE BOOKS!!!' guy—but in them, Holden is far less of the bland lead-man type. The writers call him their Holy Fool, and while his moral convictions provide great heart, wow can he blunder in cool, complexifying ways.

I try not to get baited into fights about religion—but I'm still easy to lure when it comes to TFA.

Jumpin Jesus, Wussy. I said he was a ruling God, not an *omnipotent* one.

I wish I could debate that dude. Or that he'd take on someone like David Tracy instead of the tomato cans he gets his Ws off of. When 'skeptics' swat at the lowest-hanging fruit of evangelical cosmic literalism, it's not hard for them to come away looking like winners. Meanwhile, the rest of us are less concerned with…

Thanks so much for these helpful insights.

I'd be with you if those new stories gave such characters some mystery and power, instead of bitchiness and powers.

It's essential. They can detect it already; if you're matter-of-fact about it, they don't fear it. If not, well…behold America, where almost nobody has a sensible relationship with death.

I'm eager for Gray to keep winning, I'm all for getting my Fitzcarraldo on, and I'm even rooting for Hunnam (even if only because I'm also a six foot blond with no proven talent at all onstage so far)—but I cannot stand for this blithe hagiography of Fawcett. Along with his 'artistic chops and celebrity pals,' the…

If you have small children that you want to talk death with or introduce poetry to, you absolutely cannot do better than Dickinson's work. My daughter's seven, and just gets it on this joyful, immediate, primordial level I can only approximate for myself with prim intellectual appreciation. I'm jealous.

Well, hell. So are you suggesting the old Communist purges were more deeply motivated by race, too? I guess I always assumed it was the other way around in the case of targeted ethnic Chinese then, without really knowing what the fuck I was talking about.

Funny how just being Christian is 'progressive' in another land. Good luck, man—and may the whole nation not suffer further for fundamentalism.

If you're told that, you're hanging with—and reading—the wrong people.

I see. My fault. No, you're right, and a little more grounding in oh-shit-how-does-this-affect-oh-EVERYTHING, even the light bit of it that the films work in around Thor, would do the comics a ton of good. All the bombast has made awe or deep existential fear next to impossible in them.

Good luck, homes. If it would help to talk faith with people that have no problem reconciling it with mysticism, multiculturalism, skepticism, progressive values, or science, hit me up; plenty of people in my crew good on the subject. Meanwhile, my dear Lucas fan, let me point out the obvious: we're currently getting…

I don't care to kick off another round of atheist pile-up on this site, but I think equating other dimensions and supernatural beings with the focus of most religious peoples' practices and concerns is inaccurate, and most of us would probably prefer not being lumped in with flat-earthers.

For further context: the Jakarta governor, whom everyone just calls Ahok, commented last year that it was deceitful to use the Quran to argue that non-Muslims couldn't hold office. For this comment, he was brought up on blasphemy charges with a potential five-year sentence. His trial was postponed until after the…