Who here has read one of the "Left Behind" books or watched the movies?

[Paragon]

And if you did...why?!?

ON EDIT: Isn't "Left Behind" just ripe for a porno title of a similar name? :silly:

[Liberal Veteran]

1. I read three chapters of the first book...

...before my suspension of disbelief (and I LOVE FANTASY AND SCI-FI) was exhausted.

[Lavender Brown]

2. Yes! Because I'm a founding member of the Kirk Cameron fan club!

Just kidding. :) He's a loser.

[bluestateguy]

3. I hear the prose is of poor quality

and I know of at least one fairly conservative Christian who thinks the books are bunk.

[Liberal Veteran]

5. The word "preachy" or "over the top" doesn't begin to do it justice.

It's like, okay....we get it already that sinners are bad selfish people.

[BurtWorm]

11. Is it like a prose version of a Chick cartoon?

:puke:

[Book Lover]

4. The first 3 books

My mom and I had a kind of bet: I was to read the LB books if she read "The Passover Plot" Since TPP is a demi-scholarly book, and LB is drek, I figured a 1-to-3 ration was fair. They are so poorly written... I don't think they had a real copyedit, to tell the truth.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. A lengthy pre-release excerpt of the movie was shown

on Trinity Broadcasting late one night while I was channel-surfing. I stayed to watch because I couldn't believe that even the fundies could get this silly.

I cracked up when all the "saintly" types were raptured, disappearing suddenly and leaving their neatly folded clothes in piles all over the place. Oh, yes, and the AntiChrist was the head of the European Union! No wonder it was so easy to make the freepers hate France.

[TN al]

7. Just a thought that hit me as I read your posts...

...Wouldn't it be funny if we all started talking about the rapture as if it had already happened. I mean as far as the fundies are concerned we are all going to be left behind anyway but imagine their shock when we talk about it in the past tense and they think they were left behind too. I see them saying something along the lines of: "What are you talking about? Why wasn't I notified? There must be some mistake!" Wouldn't that be a hoot? or maybe I just need to go take a nap.

[Liberal Veteran]

8. That's a good idea...we should toss around a rumor.

...that the Black Death was really the rapture.

Just to scare the bejeezes out of them.

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

9. People just disappearing?

Patriot Act... 'combatant'.... swoosh.. gone. ;)

Seriously, never read these books altho long before the series started there were many 'left behind' types of books... which I read a few.

I guess before you fly in a plane from now on, you'd better make sure your pilot & copilot & navigator are all heathens!

[Skinner]

10. As a matter of fact...

EarlG and I watched Left Behind II last night. It was not as good as Left Behind I, mostly due to fact that it had fewer explosions.

I actually read Left Behind: The Book many years ago. I just had to know what all the fuss was about. And I wanted to make fun of it.

It was very bad. As were the movies.

[Paragon]

12. FReeper!!!

:silly:

Oh, and Kirk Cameron says you're gonna burn, sinner.

[Champ]

13. I watched the one where the world was ending

Not sure what it's called but Kirk Cameron is a damn fucking good actor, he should of won an oscar for his performance. Bravo!

[rucky]

14. Is that Kirk Cameron?

i always wondered what happened to him.

guess his career got left behind as well.

[jjmalonejr]

15. I've read "Left Behind" and am almost finished with "Tribulation Force"

They are very entertaining and humorous pieces of science fiction fantasy (even if that isn't the intent of the authors). Not exactly brilliant prose and the authors seem to have limited understanding of international politics. However, the story is a pretty interesting yarn.

If you can get past the preachiness (a definite challenge) and you can cope with the idea that many people actually BELIEVE this bunk (Yikes!), you just might get a kick out of them.

If not, you probably won't be able to cope with more than a few chapters.

[Paragon]

16. Good grief.

You are a braver soul than I.

[Liberal Veteran]

17. Those books are to literature what....

...Ed Wood movies were to film.

[jjmalonejr]

23. so bad, they're good

[jjmalonejr]

21. My Mom gave them to me as presents.

By approaching them with a sense of humor, they were much easier to get through, and actually somewhat enjoyable. Sort of like watching "Reefer Madness" (the 1920's anti-marijuana propaganda film. It wasn't supposed to be funny, it was supposed to be a serious, sobering wake-up call. But, damn, it sure is funny!

I convinced myself that by reading the books, it would give me carte blanche to do all the Bush-bashing I wanted to in her presence. That has proven more difficult than I thought, mainly because it makes conversations with my mom more awkward than they ought to be. I suppose if she started aggressively proselytizing to me, I wouldn't like it much.

At the end of the day, my relationship with my Mom is more important than who she votes for.

[NMDemDist2]

19. agreed, I read 2 or 3 of them. The writing is horrible and the

characters were weakly drawn, but I'll read the backs of cereal boxes if that's all there is.

It is such an interesting premise for a sci-fi/fantasy, too bad it was so poorly executed.

[jjmalonejr]

22. Well, there are much better things to read, of course.

I had ulterior motives for reading them (see my post above), but I found that by approaching them in a certain way that they could be somewhat entertaining.

[Blue-Jay]

18. My ex-GF got PISSED when I referred to those books

as "bad sci-fi/fantasy written by no-talent hacks".

Oh well.... That's part of why she's an ex.

[Liberal Veteran]

20. Wow.....some people just can't accept a compliment, can they?

That's about the nicest thing anyone has ever said about those books.