very interesting - I didn’t think we were supposed to be on that priests side, especially as he made himself suffer needlessly at the end im order to suffer as much as she (the woman he had prevented from suicide) had suffered

it does completely change the meaning of the book if discussions on space pope prevents us from progressing and they die in a nuclear holocaust ! so much more cynical

I misunderstood. they take off, there’s a blinding light, and then the next paragraph describes a plane being broken up in the ocean.

ah ok I misunderstand. the ship takes off and then the next paragraph describes a plane being broken up in the ocean and floating among dead sea life. I thought the spaceship was broken up

very last page describes people boarding but the spaceship is broken apart in the ocean and floats among dead sea life

edit nope the ship does take off! and they describe a plane breaking up in the ocean last page

yes! I experienced the exact same last night

I think the edgiest one is that in The Sparrow.“Not but a sparrow falls that god does not know of it. but the sparrow still falls.” the author comes up with the most depressing story imaginable and uses that depressing fictional story to question gods existence. Most people love that book though, I really looked forward to reading it

maybe that’s why there’s a pope then. almost every book and all knowledge is wiped out, to the extent of re creating a different version of christianity. the pope isn’t even in the bible. and yet to him, it’s inconceivable that there is a world without a pope

yes especially because a spaceship that was meant to colonize other worlds gets obliterated by nuclear holocaust. After 700 years of rebuilding society. Pretty explicitly saying we will be forever doomed to this rise and fall and that it is inescapable. in his time as well as ours, that’s bleak

exactly. I felt horrible for most of the people in the book and how they suffered. The woman and her baby going to be euthanized after the bombs dropped was so bleak

I would say with that definition it is definitely satarizing aspects of the catholic church as a hierarchical organization (for the reasons described in my post). but that is also just my opinion

that’s a really interesting point I hadn’t considered. I am atheist raised catholic and i found it super depressing but i can see how a religious person might feel comforted that the monks devotion gets them to heaven

as someone else pointed out maybe social commentary is a better description than satire

Even though I knew it was satire, it was still depressing rather than funny because of the in depth descriptions of individual people suffering and dying.

good I didn’t find it funny but others in my life did so I wondered if it was widely considered funny

yes the ending implies we are trapped in this cyclical rise and fall. very depressing

at the end of the book a priest thinks of all fallen societies and lists Rome and America. With a second nuclear holocaust we will just go through everything all over again. we are doomed to these rise and fall because of our violent tendencies. very bleak

I may not agree with the idea that they held humanity back but in the second part of the book that is a central conflict. A world leader and a religious leader have a little argument about it and the religious leader insists that people lost their lives to maintain these records and they couldn’t be used until now. The military leader disagrees and blames them for the state of the world