The Mother of all Battles - Prompted by an uncharacteristically bloggish link from Drew, I've been exploring the pop literary phenomenon of Left Behind. If I were an evangelical this sort of stuff would have a strong appeal to me. Even as an unbeliever, I'm a bit intrigued by the sci-fi/fantasy aspects of the genre. Ripping images from today's headlines to promote the idea that the apocalypse of St. John is upon us surely makes for fascinating fiction. Frankly, the book of Revelation reads like a very bad LSD trip, yet drawing parallels between those warped visions and current events is a venerable tradition that's a thousand years old. Mankind needs his myths, of creation as well as end times. Don't kid yourself that reason and enlightenment are the prevailing human philosophies of this or any other time.