Novel: A world without God

[aaron stark]

Hi,

For an assignment for my Postromantic Materialisms class, I'm looking for a novel in which a story takes place and characters just do their daily things, in a world where there's an absence of faith and belief in God. I was thinking of writing something about Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, but I'm not sure yet. Any further suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Aaron

[cafolini]

Such world would suffer from paramount ambiguity. An impossible. The only way to achieve disambiguation is to accept that ambiguity and separate it from the entangling trying to hide it.

[TheFifthElement]

What about Life Without God by Doug Coupland?

[Desolation]

Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises might be seen as a study of the world where faith is seen as almost obsolete after the horrors of the first World War, and the ways that people try to readjust to their new faithless existences.

[cafolini]

Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises might be seen as a study of the world where faith is seen as almost obsolete after the horrors of the first World War, and the ways that people try to readjust to their new faithless existences.

There never was any general faithless existance. In fact, those who fought and won WWII restored freedom of faith. Without faith, WWII could not have been fought.

[Desolation]

I agree, it was a bit of a Modernist myth that society at large had turned away from faith. But, as a member of the Modernist tradition, some critics have said that Hemingway's works are a big exemplar of that idea.

[cafolini]

I don't like to write like God. It is only because you never do it, though, that the critics think you can't do it. ~ Ernest Hemingway

Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war. ~ Ernest Hemingway

[PeterL]

Do you mean something without any gods or goddesses? Or do you mean something without the Christian god?

There is a big difference between the two, and there is much literature that does not include the CHristian god, all that Eaasst Asian and South Asian literature for starters, and there is some European literature that may even refer to the Christian god, but the deep level is about the older Gods and Goddesses; look at Irish books for that. They never stopped believing in the old gods; they just changed the names to protect the true believers.

[aaron stark]

I'm sorry if I didn't make myself clear enough. What I'm basically looking for is a novel in which characters try to cope with an existence without God, where they ask themselves in a way what human existence means, having a materialistic opinion/belief that something such as God does not exist.


What about Life Without God by Doug Coupland?

Hadn't heard about Life After God by Coupland. Definitely seems a suitable case, thanks.
Other suggestions are still welcome.

[Calidore]

Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time maybe? Here's a pretty good review; you can see if it fits your theme well enough.

http://www.scwu.com/bookreviews/h/MoorcockMichaelDancersattheEndofTimeThe.shtml

[PeterL]

Would Ayn Rand's works work for you?

Some existentialist novels might be what you want

[Scheherazade]

How about The Plague or Waiting for Godot?

[aaron stark]

Thanks for the existential recommendations, but I'm more or less looking for something more recent. I've read quite some existential works and I'm rather hoping for something contemporary to write about on this theme.

[Scheherazade]

Those are not older than Brideshead Revisited.

How about Blindness? Or The Road?

[aaron stark]

Those are not older than Brideshead Revisited.

How about Blindness? Or The Road?

I know. That's why I was looking for something else. Great recommendations, thanks a lot

[Anton Hermes]

I've recommended The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus on many occasions, but it seems very appropriate to a discussion of religious belief or lack thereof. In this apocalyptic novel, the voices of Jewish children have become toxic. Eventually language itself becomes generally deadly. The notion of religion as any sort of consolation in this world is seen as a comical delusion: Jews in the story practice by retreating into huts in the woods, where they pick up secret broadcasts by their renegade rabbi. However, it's evident that the content of these broadcasts is deliberately incoherent and unreliable, and that nothing useful can really be understood about man's relationship to the divine or the eternal. The importance of ritual and belief appear to be directly proportional to their utter futility and incomprehensibility.

[cacian]

Hi,

For an assignment for my Postromantic Materialisms class, I'm looking for a novel in which a story takes place and characters just do their daily things, in a world where there's an absence of faith and belief in God. I was thinking of writing something about Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, but I'm not sure yet. Any further suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Aaron

That is an interesting title but we already live in a world without the presence of god amongst us.
There is no physical presence of god amongst the living so to ask to read about a world without god is ambiguous and does not make sense.
If you mean to say a world without religions then yes that would make a lot of sense and I would predict more harmony and sense without them then with them.
A book without religions connotation is what you need.
Try erotic books they certainly do not have any bearing on the meanings of god.

[aaron stark]

I've recommended The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus on many occasions, but it seems very appropriate to a discussion of religious belief or lack thereof. In this apocalyptic novel, the voices of Jewish children have become toxic. Eventually language itself becomes generally deadly. The notion of religion as any sort of consolation in this world is seen as a comical delusion: Jews in the story practice by retreating into huts in the woods, where they pick up secret broadcasts by their renegade rabbi. However, it's evident that the content of these broadcasts is deliberately incoherent and unreliable, and that nothing useful can really be understood about man's relationship to the divine or the eternal. The importance of ritual and belief appear to be directly proportional to their utter futility and incomprehensibility.

Wonderful. It's certainly useful, since we also deal with the notion of language in our class, that is to say if there's a possible link between the use of language in the story and the lack of faith. Thanks a lot.


The notion of religion as any sort of consolation in this world is seen as a comical delusion: Jews in the story practice by retreating into huts in the woods, where they pick up secret broadcasts by their renegade rabbi. However, it's evident that the content of these broadcasts is deliberately incoherent and unreliable, and that nothing useful can really be understood about man's relationship to the divine or the eternal. The importance of ritual and belief appear to be directly proportional to their utter futility and incomprehensibility.
I've read some reviews and articles about The Flame Alphabet and I think I'm going to analyze it. Apparently interpretation plays a crucial part in Marcus's work, that is that a lot of things could be understood as metaphors, so I've read. And if I'm not mistaken and understand you correctly, you're stating that the language of these Jewish children can be seen as a metaphor for the act of believing, or simply religion? I'm sorry if I misunderstand you, haven't read the book yet. Just want to make sure it's definitely a suitable case for my paper, so I can start reading it in the very little time I have.

[Anton Hermes]

I've read some reviews and articles about The Flame Alphabet and I think I'm going to analyze it. Apparently interpretation plays a crucial part in Marcus's work, that is that a lot of things could be understood as metaphors, so I've read. And if I'm not mistaken and understand you correctly, you're stating that the language of these Jewish children can be seen as a metaphor for the act of believing, or simply religion? I'm sorry if I misunderstand you, haven't read the book yet. Just want to make sure it's definitely a suitable case for my paper, so I can start reading it in the very little time I have.
I wasn't suggesting that the language of the Jewish children is a metaphor for religion, or that anything in The Flame Alphabet can be read as a straightforward parallel. Marcus makes language toxicity the cause of the breakdown of families and society, but I think this is just the alienation that infects modern society. No one knows why this is happening or whether it will end, so there's a great deal of anxiety and uncertainty about the phenomenon. Before language itself has become deadly, the Jews in Rochester have taken to going to their huts in the woods to receive broadcasts from their maverick rabbi. It's his incoherent teachings and the incomprehensible rituals his followers perform that I think parodies the seriousness with which we approach religious subjects.

I take it that Marcus is asserting that the ways we conceptualize family and transcendent reality are defined by language that isn't appropriate to the task. We think we can "understand" these matters merely because we're used to articulating the way we feel about them in a mutually comprehensible terminology. However, this intersubjective word game falls apart when our vocabulary is revealed as useless. The characters' attempts to reestablish the meaning of family and faith in the absence of language is haunting, funny, poignant and futile.

I hope you find the book as fascinating as I did.

[aaron stark]

I wasn't suggesting that the language of the Jewish children is a metaphor for religion, or that anything in The Flame Alphabet can be read as a straightforward parallel. Marcus makes language toxicity the cause of the breakdown of families and society, but I think this is just the alienation that infects modern society. No one knows why this is happening or whether it will end, so there's a great deal of anxiety and uncertainty about the phenomenon. Before language itself has become deadly, the Jews in Rochester have taken to going to their huts in the woods to receive broadcasts from their maverick rabbi. It's his incoherent teachings and the incomprehensible rituals his followers perform that I think parodies the seriousness with which we approach religious subjects.

I take it that Marcus is asserting that the ways we conceptualize family and transcendent reality are defined by language that isn't appropriate to the task. We think we can "understand" these matters merely because we're used to articulating the way we feel about them in a mutually comprehensible terminology. However, this intersubjective word game falls apart when our vocabulary is revealed as useless. The characters' attempts to reestablish the meaning of family and faith in the absence of language is haunting, funny, poignant and futile.

I hope you find the book as fascinating as I did.
I have a feeling that won't be a problem. I'm starting it right away, thanks a bunch for the help