Just focussing on the moral, without asking the ‘why’ question seems to be the perenial error of Christian fundementalism (i write as one) always judging the morality, but never asking why this lifestyle was viable to Ozzy, and attractive to others. can we learn about our culture from these books?

Anyway, i hate that my first comment on either of your blogs is slightly negative. Especially as i’m asking you to do something i couldn’t do! Your book was one of my reading highlights of the last year, and your recent articles on Challies.com have made me seriously think about how i use social media, and how it uses me. Your voice fills an empty niche. Thank you.

I am definitely open to suggestions about what you’d like to see more and less of in the project. At this point I feel like I’m still just getting my bearings, getting a sense of the different kinds of books out there. I feel like as time goes on I’ll be able to bring a lot more to bear on my reflections on them. Really I’m only 1/12 into this thing and am still just getting a sense of what the project will be.

So please, tell me what it should be!

I’m wondering if Ozzy wrote anything about marriage in his book. He seems pretty devoted to his wife… any thoughts on that?
Thanks,
Lorina

I forgive you for f-ting!

I guess we’re more on the same page than seemed at first

“I am wondering if Tim can move beyond the simple morality-tale stuff and dig a bit deeper. The point of this whole 10m thing was to understand culture and people better, not just to complete a marathon…Just what are the “worldview” points we are to get out of this review?

Cos if you (Tim) just reads alot of books most evangelical Christians won’t want to read and then says ‘Don’t bother reading this book’ I think your would be better spent reading (or doing) something else. Unless we are going to get some worldview points along the way (and not just in your upcoming NY bestseller paperback “How I Read Lots of Bad books in one year” – c’mon Tim, fess up – is that the plan?)

Any way, it seems my main point is still floating around up there. I am wondering if Tim can move beyond the simple morality-tale stuff and dig a bit deeper. The point of this whole 10m thing was to understand culture and people better, not just to complete a marathon. Unless I am wrong.
That is why I am asking the question.

Just what are the “worldview” points we are to get out of this review?

thanks for the comment – I think. I’m not sure if you’re talking to me or Tim, who read the book and wrote the review.

For the record I am an Englishman, a heavy metal musician who understands Ozzy’s role in the hymnody of an age and at least up to about 1985 owned every album Ozzy had ever released. soooo…

What I was questioning is the depth insight that Tim is going to derive from popular culture from reading a ghost written book about Ozzy that as he says is “hard to believe…could be consistently factual” and may be “a compendium of could-be-true tales drawn from dim memories”.

And even this was a useful book to read on that subject, whether the overall goal is worth the time he’s devoting to reading 10 million words…

It would be interesting to hear you go beyond the simple morality-tales approach you are taking with the biographical material you are reading. It is an easy out in my opinion. There is a larger story that you are not touching upon, and that is the hymnology of an age expressed in pop-music. Regardless of your personal taste, there is something to be learned from the artistic expressions that are immensely popular at any given time.

Black Sabbath’s music was — for better or for worse — a defining moment in rock history, and there are so many Christian bands who are in fact indebted to and copying their grooves (I am sure inadvertently) that it seems strange to simply shunt him off as a useless “rock-star”. His influence is deeper than you give on here.

Ozzy may be a nut, but he is a lasting nut. This might sound too close to praise for Spinal Tap-ishness, but War Pigs seems more relevant today than when it was written.