A Superhero for Free Thinkers
The Champion of Reason is a philosophical comedy, a scathing satire, and a rock-’n’-roll adventure of one man’s battle for truth, justice, and the rational way. Harold Brown, professor of philosophy at Northern Illinois University, wrote: “It’s a dangerous book: it will make you laugh and make you think.”
A traveling DJ comes rolling into Addleton, which is a microcosm of American foolishness. He isn’t in the singular city long before he hears a superhero-infatuated little girl ask, “Why isn’t there a superhero to fight foolishness?” That’s all it takes for him to get together a costume and set himself up as the foe of folly, the Champion of Reason.
Standing on the side of science, the Champion of Reason barges in here and there and delivers harangues that incite the Addletonians. The corrupt mayor and his inept police force are then out to capture him, causing the plot to thicken and the action to pick up.
The Champ’s message can be summed up in this excerpt from a pro-evolution (anti-Creationism) speech he delivers in the pseudo-science class at Addleton High: “I’m not preaching, I’m teaching. There are a lot of people telling you to believe this or believe that. I’m not telling you to believe anything. All I’m saying is, ‘Be reasonable’.”
The Champion of Reason has scored especially well with readers who like John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces, as well as the novels by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
I also co-wrote a screenplay based
on the novel.
If you would like to listen to me read a section from The Champion of Reason (from the chapter in which the Champ socks it to the anti-abortionists), I’ve got it for you in an MP3 file. Click below to listen to it (24:12).
If you would like to read some sections of the Champ barging into places and socking it to the addlebrained Addletonians, I’ve got three of them for you in PDF files:
- The Champ at a basketball banquet where he talks about limitations imposed by the laws of science (7 pages)
- The Champ at a pseudo-science class at Addleton High where he lambastes Creationism (13 pages)
- The Champ at an auditorium where he knocks down arguments for the existence of God (9 pages)
No trees are cut down in the
production of eBooks.
The reading and the PDF files are from my new-and-improved edition of The Champion of Reason. For financial and environmental reasons, I am making this new-and-improved edition available only as an eBook.
Thanks for visiting my website. Best wishes to you for a whole lot of things to smile about and laugh about. I hope that The Champion of Reason will be in the mix.
