Talk:Lord of Light

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"is a renegade crewman who has turned down god-hood"

I think this sentence is incorrect. In my book we are never told if Sam is a god...

  • Actually, I believe we are told that Sam had not taken up godhood, despite it being offered to him. The only time he accepts is in the section where he is the aging Siddhartha, and his acceptance there is false.

Shouldn't we mention that parts of the book was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction? --Kristjan Wager 08:50, 30 May 2005 (UTC)


From what I remember, much of the summary is incorrect or at least gives the wrong impression of the plot. I wouldn't mind rereading the book again anyway. ^_^ --Starwed 06:55, 20 September 2005 (UTC)


Contents

[edit] Sam, Buddhism and Deity

Sam introduces Buddhism as a culture jamming tool and with this new religion, murder and outright rebellion strives to cripple the power of the "gods".

In many ways, the story of Lord of Light mirrors that of the novel Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.

And of the real story of Gautama himself, upon whose life Siddharta is modelled; or that of another boddhissatva prince. Buddha's was a revolt against Brahmin orthodoxy and his ethic involves no God, does not address the question of God; it addresses the question of self and sansara and mu/wu (all that is nothingness, sorta). The egalitarian teachings of Sam in the book are in the same relative position; the revolution took hold in India for many years, including the great empire of Asoka and spread to other countries, even taming the wild and violent pre-Buddhist Tibetan civilization. But within a number of centuries Buddhism in India was assimilated and propagandized back into Buddhism, and assmilitave Hindu multiplicity prevailed and reverence for divinity and ritual restored. The reason Buddhists make offerings is that, human though he remains, Buddha's spirit is eternal, as well as aware; but he is still just a transcended being, not a god (although some sects might as well call him one).
And is Sam a god, as the comment above asks? Not if his character is buddhistic; boddhisattvas remain human, which is their whole meaning - that transcendence is possible within the mortal body, even though all the world is an illusion. In Hinduism it is an illusion too, and so is all concept of the eternal; the Eternal can not be known. In Buddhism, it can be entered - or rather, forgotten altogether, once one has reached samadhi, since all concept of mind has been lost in mindfulness....
Sorry for the ramble; I really gotta start a blog - but it's Wikifying as a habit that's got me writing a lot, 'tis true. Lotsa interesting subjects, and things I hadn't seen or thought about for a while.Skookum1 10:52, 26 November 2005 (UTC)
None of this applies, however, as Sam is not buddhistic. He merely pretends to be, because he believes it to be a way to break down the power of the gods. It might apply to Rild, who may have actually been buddhistic, but it no one ever claimed that Rild was a god.

mkehrt 23:00, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Blasphemy?

User talk:203.99.195.1 put the following into the article text. I'm not quite sure how to address it. It seems worthy of discussing here, it is not appropriate in the article as it stood. John (Jwy) 14:30, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

IS IT NOT BLASPHEMY TO WRITE ABOUT HINDU GODS LIKE THIS? WILL CHRISTIANS TOLERATE IT IF I WRITE A NOVEL AND KEEP JESUS AND MARY AS THE MAIN VILLAINS? WILL MUSLIMS TOLERATE IT IF I PORTRAY ALLAH AS A CRIMINAL? WHY SHOULD HINDUS BE INSULTED LIKE THIS? IT SHOWS A SICK MIND. THIS IS UTTER NONSENSE. ALL THE NAMES MENTIONED HERE ARE REVERED HINDU GODS. THE CREEPS WHO WROTE THIS NOVEL WILL DEFINITELY ROT IN THE HELL OF THEIR OWN RELIGION

Stupid and utterly pointless commentary, if only for the fact that this novel is not about gods, but about humans IMPERSONATING gods. He should at least have read the article. --TheOtherStephan 11:18, 12 April 2006 (UTC)
Completely pointless. Not nly are the characters humans assuming the mantles of gods, it wouldn't matter if it was about the Hindu gods themselves. Wikipedia (theoretically) follows NPOV, and so the article only relates to the fact that the book exists. The merits and flaws of its contents are not what is being adressed here. The fact that this book may offend some people (fairly or unfairly) is not a reason to change the article on it.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 74.67.252.128 (talk) 00:39, 10 February 2007 (UTC).

It does raise the interesting question of how the novel in question was received in India, however.

[User Calibanu] 13.34, 16 August 2007

[edit] Rakasha or Demons?

On the page, the Rakasha are consistently referred to as demons - in fact the word Rakasha appears only once, in the description of Taraka, and it's not entirely apparent that the term Rakasha refers to the race of beings of which Taraka is most powerful. I know demon is the more familiar term to English readers, and they do possess traits similar to demons (with the exception of being supernatural, as the book puts it), but I think Rakasha would be more accurate. --Jamoche (talk) 02:13, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:LordofLight(Zelazny).jpg

Image:LordofLight(Zelazny).jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 17:06, 2 January 2008 (UTC)