I am reading Judges from the OT now. this reminds me----
When I was very young i owned a set of Bible story comics.
When I was in primary school I was the model student but the time I paid attention in class was minimal. During a class i very often let my mind drift free in the world of chinese history stories or Bible stories, while sitting still to please the teacher.
During homework time I devoted many brain cells to my own "mathematical" dilemma, Bible-related too. Noah's ark in chinese translates "a square boat". My underdeveloped brain back then could only visualise a massive rectangle but not a massive square so attempting to draw the biggest square i could on any pieces of paper had been a favourite pastime. Another fascination stemmed from a much more disturbing origin: the Levite cutting his concubine into 12 pieces. So even more time was spent on drawing a gingerbread figure and hoping to divide it into 12 equal pieces. I never succeeded back then obviously.
Nowadays I cringe bad when I read Judges 19 and seriously believe certain sections of the Bible should be rated at least MA. I really look back with horrid fascination, at how I managed to derive so much enjoyment out of such a terrible story when I was young. -_-|||||
The complete Judge Dee Mysteries by Robert Van Gulik has been my prized possession ever since I was 10. Re-reading them these days simple reminds me that my love for certain things just never dies. I enjoy them these days, largely for the profound humanity and pain reflected thru the stories but i do suspect a long time ago, I have loved the stories for much simpler reasons.
Bad people did bad things, a very smart good guy came along and solved everything and punished the baddies and made everyone happy. The end.
It was a beautiful touching simplicity.
And I love most the books which can be appear so simple and be enjoyed as a child, but as one advances in age, can always see new ideas and thoughts revealed through the same old simple stories.
