- Hardcover: 212 pages
- Publisher: Doubleday; First Edition edition (July 28 1989)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385247729
- ISBN-13: 978-0385247726
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.7 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 272 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,528,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Godwin follows his brash and brittle satire, Waiting for the Galactic Bus , with an all-out attack on evangelists. Elaborating on Galactic 's premise that intelligent life on Earth resulted from the caprices of two bored, alien schoolboys, Barion and Coyul, this sequel proposes an afterlife vaguely modeled on Christian visions of heaven and hell. Preacher Lance Candor throws a bomb at Coyul, whom many humans suppose to be the Devil. The ensuing trial becomes a media event, a circus of demagoguery and a forum for Godwin's mouthpieces to argue that any intrusion of the church into affairs of state violates the freedoms granted by the American Constitution. Godwin's tart humor resonates through his burgeoning cast of caricatures and celebrity walk-ons: a barely disguised L. Ron Hubbard is incarnated as an answering machine; Dorothy Parker ghost-writes the autobiography of a Tammy Bakker stand-in; and prosecutor Abraham Lincoln, incognito here as Joshua Speed (and described as "an ugly Henry Fonda"), calls Jesus as an expert witness.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Religious fanaticism and rational humanism clash in a heavenly courtroom presided over by Marcus Aurelius , as sf/fantasy author Godwin recounts the further adventures of the extraterrestrial creators of humanity--and their plethora of religions. This sequel to Waiting for the Galactic Bus emphasizes the author's acerbic wit, his sense of the absurd, and his firm commitment to the principles of humanistic philosophy. Recommended for large libraries.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Understanding of "Christian Right" movement & logical result,
By A Customer
Ce commentaire est de: The Snake Oil Wars or Scheherazade Ginsberg Strikes Again (Hardcover)
REVIEW OF "THE SNAKE OIL WARS"Author: PARKE GODWIN, 1989 Submitted by Sandy Buckingham, Daytona Beach, Florida (1998) Though THE SNAKE OIL WARS was written almost 10 years ago, it is most apropos to this age of burgeoning religiosity in American politics, bombings and killings by Christian fanatics and more and more breaches in laws and principles that would protect our rights to privacy and freedom of choice. SNAKE OIL WARS astounds by being a satire on America's Puritanical decade of the 90's, written prior to the fact. Is this prophecy or what? No, this is hardly prophecy, for the author takes us on a whirlwind tour of the history of religious fanaticism, and especially the historical foundations of what we now call the "Christian Right" movement. He then shows the logical conclusion of the movement: a fascist theocracy in which science, technology and medicine is subject to "snake oil salesmen" and in which the poor and those less fortunate than ourselves are scorned just because they do not seem to show the "visible signs of God's favor". This is "must" reading for anyone who wants to know the basic principles behind why Americans increasingly are losing their privacy rights, why freedom of choice is being made to sound like a dirty word, and what the real agenda of the "Christian Right" is. It is also "must" reading for anyone in the "Christian Right" movement who would like to know the foundation and logical outcome of the movement. Do we really want to live in a country in which our houses and lives are exposed to an "inerrant writ", where the right to privacy is extinguished, and "legal judgment (is made) on the most personal matters"? In conclusion, I can only quote the erudite author's dedication of the book: "To those lucid and courageous minds who gave you the Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, Falwell, Robertson and the God-inspired Rule of the Righteous. To those intrepid souls who fight with unflagging zeal to remove from libraries dangerous books they have not read and from theaters those spiritually toxic films they have not seen, believing that thought is a controlled substance and secular thinking hazardous to mental health."
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews) 5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funnier than Hell,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
Ce commentaire est de: Snake Oil Wars or Scheherazade Ginsberg Strikes Again (Hardcover)
A whirlwind tour of heaven and hell, or Topside and Below Stairs, as it's referred to in the book. When God/TheDevil/An Alien is put on trial, the author managed to humorously skewer the religous right, the hippies, yuppies, the middle class, and every major religious character out there. Fun stuff.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Understanding of "Christian Right" movement & logical result,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
Ce commentaire est de: The Snake Oil Wars or Scheherazade Ginsberg Strikes Again (Hardcover)
REVIEW OF "THE SNAKE OIL WARS"Author: PARKE GODWIN, 1989 Submitted by Sandy Buckingham, Daytona Beach, Florida (1998) Though THE SNAKE OIL WARS was written almost 10 years ago, it is most apropos to this age of burgeoning religiosity in American politics, bombings and killings by Christian fanatics and more and more breaches in laws and principles that would protect our rights to privacy and freedom of choice. SNAKE OIL WARS astounds by being a satire on America's Puritanical decade of the 90's, written prior to the fact. Is this prophecy or what? No, this is hardly prophecy, for the author takes us on a whirlwind tour of the history of religious fanaticism, and especially the historical foundations of what we now call the "Christian Right" movement. He then shows the logical conclusion of the movement: a fascist theocracy in which science, technology and medicine is subject to "snake oil salesmen" and in which the poor and those less fortunate than ourselves are scorned just because they do not seem to show the "visible signs of God's favor". This is "must" reading for anyone who wants to know the basic principles behind why Americans increasingly are losing their privacy rights, why freedom of choice is being made to sound like a dirty word, and what the real agenda of the "Christian Right" is. It is also "must" reading for anyone in the "Christian Right" movement who would like to know the foundation and logical outcome of the movement. Do we really want to live in a country in which our houses and lives are exposed to an "inerrant writ", where the right to privacy is extinguished, and "legal judgment (is made) on the most personal matters"? In conclusion, I can only quote the erudite author's dedication of the book: "To those lucid and courageous minds who gave you the Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, Falwell, Robertson and the God-inspired Rule of the Righteous. To those intrepid souls who fight with unflagging zeal to remove from libraries dangerous books they have not read and from theaters those spiritually toxic films they have not seen, believing that thought is a controlled substance and secular thinking hazardous to mental health." 4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
I'll be Below Stairs if anyone needs me ...,
By Fredrick L. Mcdonald - Published on Amazon.com
Ce commentaire est de: Snake Oil Wars or Scheherazade Ginsberg Strikes Again (Hardcover)
I first read this book and it's prequeal (Waiting for the Galactic Bus) about ten years ago. Since then, I've read it three more times, getting something new each time. The last time I read it, I actually took notes on some of the historical characters - especially the two very important incognito figures. This story has many levels it can be enjoyed on, the most obvious being a comical farce; moving deeper there's a lot of serious philosophy here and a scathing examination of the American ideals of Freedom vs. America's religious revisionists determined to make us a 'Christian Nation'. All in all, an excellent read!
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