Reddit reviews Job: A Comedy of Justice

Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein

Have you ever read the book Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein? The USA seems to be going down that path faster and faster.

I see Satan as a sort of amalgamation of the mythologies that are all about what is best in humanity.

Lucifer freed mankind from God's tyranny by "tricking" us into eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Truly, God must be the Lord of Ignorance to get his panties in a twist over something like that. I like to think of him the way he was portrayed in Heinlein's book Job: A Comedy of Justice; trying his best to mitigate God's incessant, terrible interference with humanity.

Additionally, when I think of Satan, I think of his likenesses in other mythologies:

Prometheus is the most obvious example to me; the guy literally stole fire from the gods to enrich mankind.

Then there's Loki, a textbook example of The Adversary, even though he helps his friends as often as he hinders them. He's even blamed for Ragnarok, even though the whole thing is fated to occur in a specific way, just like the Biblical Apocalypse, which by Christian definition must be God's fault; if God is all-powerful, he could just... not have an apocalypse.

There's also Hel, another Norse cutie, who runs the afterlife. That's one way that religious folks have an advantage over the rest of us; they get to have a smug sense of superiority about what happens after we die. The best that we atheists get is, "Well, at least there's no more... pain?" Hel is what I consider when I worry about that sort of thing. She's the aspect of my own personality that I let worry about what happens... after. Not only to whatever I am, but to those I care about. It's a comfort, which is... really the entire point of the theatricality of Satanism; to satisfy an itchy part of ourselves that traditionally non-religious folks just don't get to scratch.

And oh man, if you ever get into the Bhagavad Gita, there's a whole slew of characters who are portrayed as bad guys, but seem to actually have mankind's best interests at heart.

So... that's how I interpret Satanism. It's not exactly mainstream, but then, what part about fucking Satanism could one consider mainstream?

Drinking beer with felons!?!?

I'd imagine the ideal is to stay in school. You can always cook. Most people never make it back to school after taking a "break". You'll have more wisdom and stories. The only risk here in not staying in school. This will have a profound effect on your lifetime income...which means arguing with your spouse over money down the road and a lot of extra stress (lack of freedom).

It's a good way to end up at a bar after shift for rest of your life too. Watch that.

There a reason people fail as restaurateurs after retirement. They would have failed anyway, but now they're not homeless.

In the end don't believe the hype. Call and ask for advice in person from three chefs in the middle. You can say it's for a paper. Get the straight dope. Spend enough time to ask about what home life is like and what they would do differently.

Statistically you won't be on T.V. You'll be in the middle fighting with a small business owner (maybe their first) for budget and creativity. High stress long hours hopefully with battle buddies you like. There are no sick days (or insurance) and no one cares if your wife left you or how much your body hurts. You will show up and perform a miracle in multitasking while micromanaging the kids that are your age now. All to be hyper criticized by some douchey pseudo-foodie on the internet. The after glow from a busy shift is pretty sweet. I'd rather drink a beer with kitchen felons than bankers and lawyers any day.

Plus you might get to shag the hostess.

Read Job by Heinlein. If you can work a kitchen you will always have busy hands and stay fed.

When you talk to people keep bias in mind. We are built to never regret things we are stuck doing. We are built to survive...not think about what might have been. Food preparers chime in at a whopping 24% job satisfaction.

With school even if you lose, you win.

Working restaurants in my 20's=Priceless.

This one isn't very well known but it's fun:

Fredrik Pohl - The Voices of Heaven

And Ted Chiang's short story collection Stories of Your Life and Others has a really cool story about angel visitations. Actually all the stories are excellent, and two others deal with ideas from religious mythologies.

In addition to his Stranger in a Strange Land already mentioned, Heinlein's Job: A Comedy of Justice is neat.

Heinlein's Job: A Comedy of Justice is a classic that has several false realities. I haven't read it since it came out ('84), but it was nominated for the Hugo and the Nebula at the time.

Also read Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein.

Reminds me of this book.

ok, read Job: A Comedy of Justice asap and you will feel better.

I enjoyed the second half, but i totally understand your point.

Job: A Comedy of Justice By Robert Heinlein

get rid of all the useless begots and you have one hell of a story.
Some of the rare parts(parts they generally dont make sermons about) are just as good as any horror or science fiction books that i have read. (grown men getting circumcised, crap that's like some Clive Barker shit)Heck some of the ones, that they do preach about arent so bad. Lots wife turning into salt.(and concidering salt was money back then, not a bad deal for lot. Job was pretty fucked up but a neat story(the science fiction book JOB loosely based on the biblical book JOB is pretty damn good). Have to admit they are creative.

take out all the supernatural crap along with the begots and well the entire old testament, and you have a no so bad moral code.

All and all, It isnt a bad book for having been written 2000 years ago, as long as you skip the begots and dont believe a word of it. It's no Odessey or Iliad, but it isnt total crap either.

This version of "god" is just a s big a prick as the old testament YWHW, unless the "chaff" are "punished" with non-existence, while the "wheat" get to experience the super cool shit. Why? Because indoctrination is really hard to overcome.

But as a fantasy? If you fleshed it out, it might make a cool novel. Similar to Heinlein's Job: A Comedy of Justice. A pretty good read...

Is your fictional story going to be apocalyptic?

Depending on whether or not you interpret the book as allegorical, there are some portions of the Revelation to John that seem to indicate who is in heaven at what points. Revelation 20:4-5, maybe. It speaks in broad terms, though.

http://biblehub.com/context/revelation/20-4.htm

Also, if you want some examples of apocalyptic fiction to read as prep work/background, and don't mind if one of them is a satire of Evangelical Christianity, Robert Heinlein's "Job: A Comedy of Justice" was a fun read for me in my youth, and iirc presents the Christian main character quite sympathetically.