re: #316 Dianna

While I’m not fond of Anathem, it bears no resemblance (except by accident) to Canticle.

I can’t sell my copy of Anathem. I scribbled irritated notes in the margins.

I did that to the first few chapters of Neal Robinson’s “Discovering the Qur’an”. There is an argument, dating to Patricia Crone in 1977, that Islamic history ought to be compiled from non-Muslim sources first; and that when that happens, it turns out the Qur’an was compiled late in the late Umayyad era and that some suras may have been written after Muhammad’s death. Robinson’s counter-argument is that Crone does not take the Qur’anic evidence into account. That is, that the Qur’an’s claims about itself are proof of the Qur’an’s claims about itself.

Robinson’s book is so circular, I could use it as a frisbee for the dog.