ladybusiness | (Reply)

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I see faith as any other thing. It is not good or bad, but what you do with it that matters. It doesn't make it less real as faith. For example, back when I was still struggling with my fury and disgust with Christianity I would struggle with what I considered "good" faith and "bad" faith. But I was approaching the debate incorrectly. Who can say whether Vardy's faith or lack thereof was any better than Dane's? I can't. I can say that the intent and use of that faith, the byproducts of, were terrible and had too many consequences.

Yes, you and Maree talked about Billy as an Everyman in your review, and I agree. Like I've said, he was okay — he didn't come into his own until the end, and when he did he chose to kill himself, so the Billy Harrow we meet, who we travel with, technically is dead and the Billy Harrow we're left with is brand new and shiny, if you subscribe to the theory the book sort of forces you into, given Simon. It's not an option not to believe this Billy Harrow isn't the second one, but I have feelings (as per usual). So we have two Billy Harrow's, one of which is not well characterized and acts as more of a reflection. That's complicated.

I felt like...Billy was the true martyr of the book. He lost his previous self completely, he lost Leon, and Dane, and the book suggests he might lose Marge, too, to distance and different gods and places. He's been thrown into a new world in more ways than one, as someone new, with only bits and pieces of the Billy Harrow who knew how to navigate it, if that makes sense. I mean, emotional impact wise, I hurt for him a lot (you saw me on Twitter) given the business of dying and rebirth. It could be considered a cheat, to say Billy "survived" and so the emotional impact was lessened. But I go back to liking Billy and Dane as a unit. It depresses me that he's a sidekick without a blank space beside him...or maybe he's graduated from that definition and he's a man where his partner could have been.

Both are equally depressing.