The Children's Story, written by
James Clavell (author of various other works including the
Asia Saga. This story is absolutely amazing. From such a simple story Clavell convey's a
thought provoking idea. You could think of the telling of this story as close to
Zen. That doesn't make the story any less important however.
For those of you who
can't be fucked reading the left, the essential
theme of the childrens story is the ease with which children's
thoughts and
opinions can be
manipulated. It spreads a
dire warning by drawing a
direct threat to the
western world and what it idealistically stands for (
rights,
freedom of speech, etc., not by directly attacking these ideas, but by
subversion.
Quite frightening stuff if you think about it enough.
This story could be
put on the same shelf as
Aldous Huxley's
Brave New World,
George Orwell's
1984 (and various others). However this is written with more
simplicity and
class than others.
Perhaps my only irk with it is that like many
profound books, it sits on a
right wing pedestal and takes a stab at communism and its evils. However it's still a good read
If you haven't yet then I
urge you to
read it.