George Ricker wrote:
What is 'mileage'?

The phrase, "your mileage may vary," simply indicates folks have different opinions about things. I use it now and then. Sorry if it caused any confusion.

George

I always use the term 'mileage' when I want to speak of how much somebody got out of something - like a book - got a lotta' mileage outta' that one, I might say.

In other words, it kept me going for a while.

I understood your term 'mileage' when I read it.

Penelope said . . .

Some people, in this day and age....in their fear.....treat the Bible as though it is God. It is not God....it is just a collection of books.

Unquote

I liked that . . . very good explanation of The Bible.

It was written by 'man' - other than is depicted in The Ten Commandments, God didn't write it himself - it was inspired by God, God's prophets and written by man.

Exactly, Penelope and Carly!

Those books were written by men.

I see two possibilities:

1- written by men, inspired by God (if you consider he exists).

2- Written by men who needed an explanation of the world and principles to rule their lives, just as every human group in human societies has always done, resulting in a great variety of religions.

In either case, it's men writing about the world such as they saw it 2000 years ago. Things like love, respecting your parents, murder, etc... haven't lost their meaning, but it's absurd to refer to the Bible to say that abortions or assisted suicides are forbidden by the Book. How could the people of two thousand years ago have known how societies and medical science would develop, how societies would evolve to tackle moral questions because of those evolutions and because of changes in what is now felt to be acceptable, or no longer acceptable?
Whatever wisdom they got from god had to be translated into something they could understand.

I hear that it is different with the Koran and that the Prophet was more like a transmittor, each word being dictated by God.

Thomas wrote:

I believe that the humanities make us humane and that Ophelia
(in Hamlet) dies because her feminine sanity blocked the descent
of the play into foredoomed chaos.

I was in Eritrea in the early 60's and have a firsthand experience of
The Heart of Darkness -- disease, corruption, brutality, starvation, . . . .
but that was then and this is now.

I'm right about Conrad's deficiency with female characters, aren't I?
I really don't know.

Thomas wrote

>1- We agreed earlier that female characters were not devoped in
Heart of Darkness.

Does Conrad ever develop female characters?

>So, what does Kurtz's Intended symbolize?

She symbolizes the illusion of sanity in a world of madness.

She symbolizes the illusion of sanity in a world of madness.

I like this.

I hope the people who discussed HD before will feel like taking it up.