(TXT) View source # 2019-02-25 - The Kin of Ata Are Waiting For You by Dorothy Bryant The unnamed protagonist is an antihero who reminds me a little of Thomas Covenant. Both are antiheroes who are transported to a dream world during a crisis. Both are redeemed by the generous people in a dream world. Ata is an island on Earth but it may as well be a separate world. The setting is Utopian and i enjoyed the radical simplicity. They made all their own clothing, food, shelter, containers, mats, etc. Everyone had one piece of clothing. Dishes were communal and made out of simple materials such as sea shell bowls. Once used, dishes were placed in an open area to be cleaned naturally by the rain, sun, and ocean winds. A big portion of the winter was spent fasting. The lifestyle was more than adequate for survival but not comfortable by our standards. The remarkable part to me was how this simple lifestyle eliminated a lot of labor, thus enabling a slower pace of life. The people place great emphasis on dreams, and they try to live so that they can dream higher dreams. Ironically, just after i finished reading this book, my dream life exploded into action after a long period of dormancy. I guess it was a powerful experience for me. I thought the author did a fairly good job of writing the story using the voice of a male protagonist. I heard once that women can generally write from a male perspective more convincingly than men can write from a female perspective. I read that this same thing generally holds true for minority groups. Because of social pressure to fit in, minority groups are generally more conscious of majority perspective, and majority groups are generally less conscious of minority perspectives. There is a scene in the book where the kin are performing dances in the evening and sharing dream visions in front of everyone at once. The protagonist sees gems and jewels. Asking about those, he is told that he sees them because that is how he understands something of great value. The gems and jewels are subjectively true expressions or representations of higher principles. I felt a little disappointed how the story ended. The book implies that the greatest spiritual teachers were frequently people who had spent some time in Ata and then transported to the normal parts of Earth to help guide the human race away from complete depravity and destruction. The protagonist returns to Earth, goes to court on charges of murder, pleads guilty, and is given the death sentence. At this point everything becomes blissful for him as though he had passed some test. I find it challenging to equate a guilty plea to the works of great spiritual leaders. author: Bryant, Dorothy, 1930- (TXT) detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/The_Kin_of_Ata_Are_Waiting_for_You LOC: PZ4.B91477 Ki3 PS3552.R878 tags: book,counterculture,fantasy title: The Kin of Ata Are Waiting For You # Tags (DIR) book (DIR) counterculture (DIR) fantasy