Letters from the Earth
by Mark Twain · first published 1962
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The eponymous story, “Letters from the Earth,” is a set of eleven letters written by Satan to the archangels Gabriel and Michael about his travels. Satan finds human beliefs about themselves almost insane, pointing out that their conception of heaven leaves out everything humans find most pleasurable in life (particularly sex). He also considers God’s hypocrisies: not forgiving Adam and Eve even though humans are supposed to forgive transgressors; forbidding jealousy but then calling himself a jealous God; killing all the large animals during Noah’s flood even though they weren’t guilty of any
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…also fascinating. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. I enjoy all of Vonnegut's work, but Cat's Cradle is a magical perfect novel. I don't know if everyone would agree that it's sci-fi, but Mark Twain's Letters from the Earth was an eye opener for me when I was a kid (I went on a Mark Twain kick when I was in elementary school...no one ever told me that all of his books weren't kids books, so I read everything I could get…
on “Ask YC: What's the most inspiring sci-fi book you've read?” ↗That said,"Letters From the Earth" by Mark Twain is an excellent companion volume to the Screwtape Letters, taking an opposite position (and from the perspective of a somewhat more exalted demon).
on “Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs” ↗…once unsuccessfully; helped organize the Populist Party; successfully defended Big Bill Haywood, Moyer, and Pettibone; published his first book. Twain: wrote Pudd’nhead Wilson, The Mysterious Stranger, Letters from the Earth, his autobiography, and a vicious literary criticism of the Leatherstocking series that’s better reading than the Leatherstocking series itself; did a six-year around-the-world lecture tour; survived…
on “Winning Isn't Normal” ↗Twain was mentioned in the article a couple of times with various works more or less stating "God apparently made everything like this on purpose: >In Mark Twain’s Letters from the Earth (published posthumously in 1939), Satan sends a series of reports from Earth to the archangels Michael and Gabriel. In Letter VI, Satan marshals the evidence to call God a “malevolent lunatic”: ... >The…
on “A Planet of Parasites and the Problem with God” ↗I read Letters From The Earth. On the surface it's a rather scathing mockery of mainstream Christianity and morality of the time, but there's more to it. A disturbing and difficult work. Bitter, seeped in frustration both of the…
on “Is Mark Twain’s old age best forgotten?” ↗