Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason

GOD defiles Reason · Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 6:00 pm Post subject: Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason

Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason

Bill Moyers is going to be doing a series on the very topic we frequently discuss here at BookTalk. It's gonna be on PBS -- Sundays at 12:00 noon central time.

I don't know much about these authors, but here's a list of authors he'll be interviewing:

Salman Rushdie
Martin Amis
Margaret Atwood
Mary Gordon
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Colin McGinn
David Grossman
Anne Provoost
Richard Rodriguez
Jeanette Winterson
Will Power
Pema Chödrön
Sir John Houghton

Has anyone here read any of these author's work?

Anyway, I like Bill. I think he's a quality guy. These shows will probably be pretty good, and might present us with something to talk about.

Here's a link where you can get some background on the authors and see previews of the series:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/

GOD defiles Reason

GOD defiles Reason · Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 7:22 pm Post subject: Re: Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason

12:00 noon central time is specific to my PBS station in my area. You'll have check the schedule for your area, it might even air on a different day of the week in your area.

www.pbs.org/moyers/schedule.html

Sara Michael · Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 9:13 pm Post subject: Re: Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason

Appreciate the heads up, I love Bill Moyers - and the list you provided appears to be only writers. I saw the Rushdi interview Friday night. Excellent!!! Looking forward to the next.

Rushdie launched this series with a symposium that Bill elected to elaborate into a new series. Rushdie clarifed to Moyers his reasoning for inviting writers only was simply - "writers are creative dreamers who can get into the skin of another in ways scientists, philosophers and thinkers cannot."

Did anyone else catch it? My area is running each interview twice.
Sara

Loricat

Quote:
Has anyone here read any of these author's work?

Pema Chödrön is a Canadian Buddhist monk (in the Maritimes somewhere) who has written a number of books on Buddhist thought. I've read some articles by her -- very straightforward kind of woman.

Jeanette Winterson is a British author who, I believe, now has a deli or cafe...The one book I remember reading of hers (and it was made into a rather good film) was Oranges are not the only fruit -- a coming-of-age story about a young girl with Evangelical parents who discovers she's a lesbian (semi-autobiographical, I believe).

Margaret Atwood...doesn't necessarily write about Faith & Reason, but her novels examine a lot of controversial topics.

I'll try to keep my eyes open for the series here in Canada, but it may be harder to find (especially since I dont' watch much TV). I may have to wait until the book of interviews comes out (I have a couple of his books already).

"All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds."

Loricat's Book Nook
Celebrating the Absurd

GOD defiles Reason

Loricat,

You can watch it online if you have highspeed. Look for the link "Watch the full interview with Salman Rushdie " on this page www.pbs.org/moyers/watch.html

"Oranges are not the only fruit -- a coming-of-age story about a young girl with Evangelical parents who discovers she's a lesbian ...."

Hmmm. How-do-ya like 'em apples?

Thanks for the info on those authors.

Sara: Did anyone else catch it?

I saw it. Who does an interview better than Bill?
Well, Charley Rose comes to mind...

What a life Mr Rushdie has lived so far. Can you imagine living under the cloud of a fatwa like that? I didn't know what the Satanic Versus were about until that interview.

The funniest thing I remember was him saying that someone joked that he wanted his tombstone to read "Thank God I died an Atheist."

A more serious point I came away with, was his assessment that the radical Islamists are just a pimple on the nose of Islam. What I fear now is that we are spreading that acne all over it's face. What I think needs to happen is for our more moderate and liberal religious wing get a dialogue going with the oppressed, more moderate Islamic body and convince them to issue a fatwa on that zit.

MadArchitect · Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 2:02 pm Post subject: Re: Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason

I read Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" back in college, when I should have been reading something for class. There were enjoyable parts, but Rushdie is one of those writers who enjoys riding a horse until it drops from exhaustion. He has some very clever ideas, but he drags them out entirely too long. The sections of the book that, presumably, earned Rushdie a fetwa were re-imaginings of Mohommed's pilgrimage to Medina.

Incidentally, if you pick up a DVD copy of "Lost in La Mancha", the IFC documentary about Terry Gilliam's failed bid to make a film based on "Don Quixote", the extras include an hour long discussion between Gilliam and Rushdie that's worth watching. Rushdie is an intelligent, engaging conversationalist, but as a novelist, he's a bit too heavy a stylist for my taste.

GOD defiles Reason · Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 6:34 pm Post subject: Re: Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason

Author Isaac Azimov from WORLD OF IDEAS

I think Mr P would appreciate this interview with Isaac Azimov. I like Moyers' steering questions, and Azimov seems to explain things so fluidly and naturally.

I found this at the PBS Faith & Reason audio archive.


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