Turning briefly to your last book, I have to admit I found The Symbolism of Evil a bit impenetrable. Three LAPD detectives are brought face to face with the secrets of their corrupt and violent careers. It’s fascinating, isn’t it? By a rich tradition of interpretation, Adam and Eve saw themselves for the first time not simply as vulnerable and without clothing, but as sexual beings—hence, nakedness refers to genitals. In Augustine’s account, nakedness particularly shows what it means to be aroused if you’re a male. It’s visible, and you’re not in control of it. The relationship between Eve and Caleb was perhaps the worse thing of the whole book. I felt no connection, chemistry or anything whats so ever between those two. The romance felt shallow and forced. If you're not going to take time to develop the relationship between characters step-by-step, realistically then don't even bother...like, seriously just don't.

and the ending. oh, dear. it is the most abrupt ending in the history of books. i am going to avoid spoilers but it's like, "oh, wait, what?? really?? but i love you. oh, okay, whatever. see ya" The second point is what is meant by consubstantiality. In a very clear-sighted way, Adam grasps that God could take another rib and make another rib for him. But he doesn’t want that; he wants this particular woman, the woman who is part of his very being.

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There are so many varying critical interpretations of how Eve emerges as a figure in this poem. For one thing, she is always at a secondary remove from divinity. So much is written into the story at a later date. There’s no mention of sin, a ‘fall,’ Satan, or even an apple. A lot of the things we associate with the story aren’t there. Why is that? In my book, I speculate that a key factor was Augustine’s experience of his own body, and I focus on the scene in the Confessions in which, as a sixteen-year-old with his father in the bathhouse in Thagaste, he has an erection. But I don’t suggest that’s the only factor. It’s quite important that they’re not there. No motivation is given to the serpent; there’s no account of original sin. It’s unclear from the verses whether mortality—either for humans or all creatures—is an actual consequence of this act, or that it was part of a natural fate that eating the fruit of the tree of life might have averted, had the humans not been expelled. Many questions are left open.

One of the first questions I ask myself when I'm reading a dystopian novel is, "Could I ever live in this world?" I can easily answer no for Eve. I can see this book having two distinctive effects on people: horrifying them and completely turning them off or intriguing them just enough to keep them reading. I'm happy to say I fell in the latter category. Lyra's quest weaves fantasy, horror and the play of ideas into a truly great contemporary children's book.

and that was when I threw the book at the wall, because if Eve thinks that rape is a compliment, then she's officially too stupid to live. (Also, I'm pretty sure the book maintains this rape-is-a-compliment theme, since -- if I gather correctly -- the King of America will decide that Eve will be his own personal baby-maker, come heels or high water. BECAUSE SHE IS JUST THAT SPECIAL. Obviously.) While I don't demand walls of text to explain world-building in my dystopias, I do require the setting to at least make sense. The hand-wave for why a tremendous amount of resources are sunk into the girls' education is quite I feel really sorry for Eve’s friends. They seem really sweet, funny and very patient with Eve’s AFP ways. One of them also sings my second favourite Beatles song in the shower. So that’s also fine. It doesn’t help that she also had to attend "Dangers of Boys and Men" seminars (Um, yeah… that happens too.)

One of the themes in my book is that under the impulse of Augustine, the characters of Adam and Eve are made more and more real. As in the story of Pinocchio, the strings are eventually cut, and the figures, ceasing to be mere puppets, seem to be actual agents in the world. This is another way of saying they become more like great characters in fiction—Hamlet, or Dorothea Brooke, or Isabel Archer. Some of the worst things imaginable have started with the best intentions, but that is not the point here. It only took a moment to form. “How long?” he asked somberly. “How long must we wait before the end, when our healing will finally be complete?” Reaching out, he took her hand and placed it on his heart. The Vinceys throw a party on New Year's Day, and one of the guests, the kind vicar Mr Farebrother, sees the tensions that go unperceived by his jolly hosts. Rosamond has become bored by her husband; Lydgate is preoccupied by his money problems; Fred Vincey is jealous of Mr Farebrother's attentions to Mary Garth. Happy New Year. Fleeing the only home she's ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Arden, her former rival from school, and Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust... and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life.The "Eve" in the title refers to Mitochondrial Eve, a name used for the most recent common ancestor of all humans in the matrilineal (mother to daughter) line of descent. This song is the only instant where love triangles are fun. And I think Caleb would suit one of those chunky knits. The bottom drawer held folders documenting the girls’ scant personal information, including a facial photograph of each. Height, weight, age, health. The names were obviously aliases, each an earthly country beginning with sequential letters of the alphabet: Algeria, Bolivia, Canada, and down to Lebanon. He paused for a moment to stare at the images. The faces and eyes in the photos were windows into twelve stories that deserved a proper grieving.