Samuel Peterson’s Reviews > Daemon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling > Status Update
Samuel Peterson
is on page 380 of 480
"We find parallels in both religious and atheist forms of totalitarianism" He goes into concepts of heresy and punishment, apostasy, inquisition/secret police, complex procedure of betrayal and denunciation, a view of history leading to a golden age, fear and hatred of unbelievers, fear and hatred of internal threats, and pilgrimage to sacred places and holy relics. Makes me wonder if the final concept will apply now
— May 21, 2026 09:54AM
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Samuel’s Previous Updates
Samuel Peterson
is on page 429 of 480
"So the myth of the Republic of Heaven would explain both how we came about, in terms that are as true as they can be to what we know of the facts, the facts of biology and physics and history; and it would explain what our true purpose is. Our purpose is to understand and to help others understand, to explore, to speculate, to imagine—to increase the amount of consciousness in the universe." A good a purpose as any.
— May 22, 2026 12:51PM
Samuel Peterson
is on page 422 of 480
"No one in Middle Earth has any sexual relations at all. I think their children must be delivered by post." BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
— May 22, 2026 12:38PM
Samuel Peterson
is on page 421 of 480
"If the Narnia stories had been composed...the children who have passed through all these adventures and presumably learned great truths from them would be free to live and grow up in the world...and use what they'd learned for the benefit for others. If you're wiser and stronger as the result of your experiences, then do something useful with that strength and wisdom—make the world a bit better."
— May 22, 2026 12:34PM
Samuel Peterson
is on page 420 of 480
"[C.S.] Lewis's position as a whole wasn't at all consistent. Whereas the Narnia books illustrate the very antithesis of the Republic of Heaven, his critical writing...often shows a more generous and sensible spirit...the sensible Lewis...was thrust aside in Narnia by the paranoid bigot who proclaimed an interest in lipstick and nylons was not an addition to the pleasures of life but a disqualification for heaven."
— May 22, 2026 12:31PM
Samuel Peterson
is on page 418 of 480
"[This belief of imperfect copies] is pernicious because it encourages us to disbelieve the evidence of our senses, and allows us to suspect everything of being false. It leads to a state of mind that's hostile to experience. It encourages us to see a toad lurking beneath every flower, and if we can't see one, it's because the toads are extra cunning and have learned to become invisible."
— May 22, 2026 12:22PM
Samuel Peterson
is on page 402 of 480
"Nothing that a human being can do unaided is any good at all, and the only way you can get anything decent or good out of a human being is by the grace of God. So we are to blame for our defects, but we are not allowed any credit for our merits. My view is that we are responsible for both."
— May 22, 2026 09:24AM
Samuel Peterson
is on page 382 of 480
"A large part...lies not only in what theocratic or totalitarian societies choose to read, but in the way they read. A word that's emblematic of this attitude is the word correct. We've become used to it in the cliché politically correct, which is a right-wing caricature of a left-wing tendency to emphasize one approved kind of language we should use, one single attitude we should adopt to social questions..."
— May 21, 2026 10:04AM
Samuel Peterson
is on page 381 of 480
"The first thing is that people with this cast of mind have low expectations of literature. They think that literature has only one purpose, which is ideological, and so its worth can be judged by how well it fulfills that ideological purpose." Not just literature either: films and TV can be applied as well.
— May 21, 2026 09:57AM
Samuel Peterson
is on page 370 of 480
"But there are some flowers I return to again and again for the quality of their nectar, as a butterfly, or there some lights I can't help fluttering back to, as a moth. And this tiny insect-brain or insect-instinct knows what's good for it and what's bad; and little by little it's been gathering drops of nectar from here, and beams of light from there, and making them into something..." I love this analogy.
— May 21, 2026 08:17AM
