Talk:Isaac the Tank Engine

In case you have missed the point, this is not about Thomas the Tank Engine. This is more a dig at the Chronicles of Narnia and the Passion of the Christ, and in general the attempts by religious organisations to make religion "accessible by the kiddies." Using the vehicle of Rev WV Awdry, who created the Thomas character in his Railway series shortly after the end of WWII which of course had a devastating effect on England. Shortly after the end of the war the Chronicles of Narnia were released by CS Lewis (hmmm, two initials and a five letter surname and a prominent Anglican author) and the death of George VI, the head of the Anglican Church. Thomas is a vehicle which drives the point.

The other thing that is heavily used in this is Via Crucis (otherwise known as the way of the cross or more commonly the Stations of the cross) which is a Catholic/Anglican tradition that was changed in 1991 to rest more heavily on scriptural basis and was also (reportedly) the basis for "Passion of the Christ."

I rely very heavily on HTBFANJS when I write here which suggests that I avoid throw away lines and try and use the truth wherever possible. I also have a reason why I have the layout I have and have avoided too many gags. I don't aim for length when I write but quality of the material. I actually wrote about twice this much and then condensed it as it was too long to hold the joke initially.

What I'm thinking about redoing when I revisit this is have it that it was a random 6 or 7 stations that got found are not the first 6 but a random 6 or 7, and do a little photo imagery to show Isaac being crucified. I'm just not quite that good at photoshopping yet... Pup 23:52, 7 July 2009 (UTC)

Hey Puppy, I like the small changes you have made to the synopsis. The layout is much improved and the pictures are certainly much less crushed into the side of the article. I couldn't really see any errors as I read through, a couple of very minor points of ambiguity with regard to grammar which I decided weren't problems. Going forward I would continue to focus on the synopsis, work mostly on the way each section works with regard to the satirised work and with the basis you are using. Basically make sure that you continue using the Thomas the tank engine characters as a base and that you don't stray too far from them as they can really make this article. I apologise for not going into more depth, but I have to do some proofreading. Let me know if there are any more problems or you need any more advice.--ChiefjusticeDS 20:42, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

Litiratteur ? Deliberate ?? I would guess yes but doesn’t add to the story. How about the Literary Misinterpretation Department , Cambridge etc etc instead ??? Also should there be a reason why the train is called Isaac in this story . If ‘doubting Thomas’ then perhaps to explain why it is Issac here ? Have you in mind the Abraham and Isaac story ?? I am going to vote yes but thought I would ask you here first as regards those questions I had about the article. --RomArtus*Imperator ® (Orate). 09:52, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

"Literary Misinterpretation Department" it is... and thank you. It was bugging me but I couldn't think of a substitute that had the sparkle I was after. ^{[Boring citation]}And Isaac in often compared to Jesus in Christian circles (ie, the Father sacrifices the Son), and Jesus is a Latinisation of Iesu or Yeshua as a name, is often transliterated as Isa, which is a variant of Isaac, both of which meaning something along the lines of the promised one. In short, I wanted it to have a link to the name Jesus, but "Jesus the Tank Engine" was just really wrong. Pup t 12:37, 21/08/2009

Glad to have helped with a suggested edit. Just back on the issue of Jesus/Isaac - I had actually thought Jesus was version of Joshua but I won't go to the cross on that one. I do think that perhaps this name substitution needs a note somewhere otherwise people who will read this will wonder why it was 'Isaac' and then became Thomas. Perhaps Isaac sounded too Jewish and the writer was forced to come up with an 'good old English/Welsh name like Thomas'..--RomArtus*Imperator ® (Orate). 14:01, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Can't seem to think of a way to draw attention to the logic behind the name change within the body of the article without making it just plain boring. And Joshua was a contender, Charlie, but dropped for pure aesthetic reasons. I can see where you're coming from, but does the choice of name here really lessen overall enjoyment of the article? Pup t 20:58, 21/08/2009

Call him Aslan perhaps...which is Turkish I think for Lion...or Larry the Lamb (Lamb of God), Billy the Fish..or Jesus Lulz.. --RomArtus*Imperator ® (Orate). 09:43, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Featured!

Aslan... That's a really good idea. I could use that name for a series of allegorical novels about Christianity... That's never been done before! Pup t 19:46, 22/08/2009