komponisto comments on Special Status Needs Special Support - Less Wrong

20 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 04 May 2009 10:59PM

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Comment author: Cyan 12 May 2009 05:16:12PM *  1 point [-]

The point about Milton was that Milton's poetry contributes to people's sense of the bible as a source of the sacred. Byrnema commented that the bible is a derivative work of itself, and this also contributes to people's sense of the bible as the source of the sacred; he then asserted that a single individual, even one as gifted as Tolkien, would be hard-pressed to replicate the effect. Finally, in a non-sequitur, Eliezer presented the fact that Deuteronomy (a law text, essentially) is less entertaining than the Lord of the Rings as a counter-argument.

Comment author: komponisto 13 May 2009 04:19:03PM *  3 points [-]

I don't think it's necessarily that much of a non-sequitur. Great literary works are often praised for their complexity, with the clear implication that this contributes to their being interesting as literature. If the Bible is so rich in complexity, why is it so boring to read?

The answer, of course, is that the kind of complexity the Bible possesses isn't the kind that's relevant for judging literary quality. In the case of texts like Deuteronomy, we're not talking about things like dynamic characters, foreshadowing, ingenious use of language, etc -- hallmarks of conscious design by an author specifically trying to create literary art. No, we're talking about the Bronze Age equivalent of the tax code.