The Most Powerful...

Tom

An Old Friend
What is the most powerful, personal message you ever concieved from reading a book?

Which book was it?
Was it a series?
Who wrote it?
Do you have a link to a sample?
What message did you percieve?
Was it an intended message or something that was just for you or your circumstances?
Was it an enlightenment or an awakening?
At what point did the realization strike you? 1/2 way thru, at the start, after the end?
Have others had a similar enlightenment or awakening?
Would you start a thread to discuss the merits further?
 
What is the most powerful, personal message you ever concieved from reading a book?

Which book was it?
Prometheus Rising

Was it a series?
No

Who wrote it?
Robert Anton Wilson

Do you have a link to a sample?
Prometheus Rising - Wikipedia (description)
http://www.newfalcon.com/excerpts.php?from=prometheus_rising (sample)

What message did you percieve?
To put it simply, it is as if we as human beings are asleep, and all of our actions are based on conditioned reactions. But we're capable of waking up, and choosing who we want to be.

Was it an intended message or something that was just for you or your circumstances?
Intended.

Was it an enlightenment or an awakening?
Awakening.

At what point did the realization strike you? 1/2 way thru, at the start, after the end?
As I was reading it. Possibly while high.

Have others had a similar enlightenment or awakening?
Yes

Would you start a thread to discuss the merits further?
Of course!


But what about you?
 
That's a tough one: I can recall being very excited about various books in the past, but mainly because they were simply a good read. The ones which have made me think most are non-fiction.

In the SF world, the one I can recall reading which I thought had some real messages for humanity was "City of Truth", by James Morrow. I reviewed it on my SFF blog here: Review: City of Truth by James Morrow
 
What is the most powerful, personal message you ever concieved from reading a book?

Which book was it?
Prometheus Rising

Was it a series?
No

Who wrote it?
Robert Anton Wilson

Do you have a link to a sample?
Prometheus Rising - Wikipedia (description)
http://www.newfalcon.com/excerpts.php?from=prometheus_rising (sample)

What message did you percieve?
To put it simply, it is as if we as human beings are asleep, and all of our actions are based on conditioned reactions. But we're capable of waking up, and choosing who we want to be.

Was it an intended message or something that was just for you or your circumstances?
Intended.

Was it an enlightenment or an awakening?
Awakening.

At what point did the realization strike you? 1/2 way thru, at the start, after the end?
As I was reading it. Possibly while high.

Have others had a similar enlightenment or awakening?
Yes

Would you start a thread to discuss the merits further?
Of course!


But what about you?


I think you would like the movie THEY LIVE with Roddy Piper.

Its right with this line of thinking.
 
This post is more a reminder for me than an answer

Don Pendleton
Breathing

I will try to elaborate tonight after work
 
I LOVE They Live! (Best Roddy Piper movie, next to Hell Comes To Frog Town!) Seriously though, I think it's one of John Carpenter's best movies. I read once that he made the movie with the Republican Party in mind. (They were supposed to be the aliens.)
 
The Executioner is a paperback series of books (343 as of June 2007) created and written by American author Don Pendleton in 1969 who would go on to write 36 more Bolan novels before he licensed the rights to Gold Eagle. The series details the ongoing adventures of twelve-year career Army sniper Master Sergeant Mack Bolan, introduced in The Executioner #1 (War Against the Mafia).
Bolan is a weapons specialist and skilled armorer who was serving his second tour of duty in Vietnam when he returned home on leave to the United States following news of the death of his parents and sister, and the critical wounding of his younger brother. Bolan discovered that a local Mafia "family" had been intimidating and harassing his family, as well as luring his younger sister into a life of prostitution, which resulted in a murder/suicide committed by his own father. Bolan decided his war with the "real" enemy was right here at home and not on the battlegrounds of Vietnam.
In books 1 through 38 Bolan fights a one man battle against different Mafia and Mafia-controlled organizations throughout the country. His successes in breaking up various Mafia operations (mainly by killing the leadership and most of the local muscle) were attributable to his use of a mix of stealth & infiltration and military-style attacks, including heavy weapons (grenades, mortars, automatic weapons, missiles, sniper rifles) plus his excellent marksmanship with rifles and handguns. His signature during the early books was to leave a marksman's medal on or near his victims, an idea borrowed from earlier characters in pulp fiction.
During his campaigns against the mafia, which he refers to as his "Mafia Wars," Mack vows to "Shake their house down." He uses such aliases as LaMancha and Omega in conjunction with a laminated playing card of an ace of spades. This card was used by the mafia to identify a mafia enforcer called a "Black Ace" who had almost unlimited power among Mafiosi to even unseat the head of a Mafia family on his own authority. A Black Ace was greatly feared by Mafia families.
The Executioner is often cited as the inspiration for the Marvel Comics character The Punisher, who also fights the Mafia.
Several announcements have been made of an Executioner film at first produced by Joseph E. Levine who contracted Richard Maibaum to write a screenplay. Coincidentally or otherwise, Maibaum's unproduced screenplay and the earliest Executioner book not written by Pendleton (Sicilian Slaughter by Jim Peterson; a house name of Pinnacle books) featured Bolan fighting the Mafia in Europe. Later announcements were made of Executioner projects variously starring Burt Reynolds or Sylvester Stallone (with Cynthia Rothrock appearing opposite him [1]) but the ideas never left development hell.

bolan2.jpg


http://www.donpendleton.com/executionerseries.html

I actually adopted his breathing techniques and organizational skills. This series had a great impact on my vision of right and wrong.

I have never met anyone else that has read or even heard of this series so I don't know what impact it has had on others. I still occassionally control my breathing this way when I am paniced.
 
Someday, money permitting I would like to purchase the entire series and reread it.
I laid the last one down in 1978, it was The Executioner's Warbook.
The first one was given to me by our family pastor in 1969
 
The picture (I assume of Mack Bolan), reminds me of a cross between Superman and Wolverine. Just wanted to get that out there.

I do think that it sounds like a intresting series, though I was never a fan of The Punisher.
 
Never thought of it as the Punisher.
I always thought of it as an exercise in rage control and professionalism.
I was young and adults were all happy because I was a young male and I was actually reading a book instead of making trouble and mischief.
 
Bicentennial Man. The mortality theme finally got me to associate emotion with family mortality.
 
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