Has anyone else read the 2013 book "Going Clear" by Lawrence Wright?
Asked by
rockfan (
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June 10th, 2015
I finished it a few weeks ago, and I thought it was a great examination of Scientology, although quite depressing and unsettling in parts. For those that have read it, what did you think of it? And have you seen the HBO documentary? How does it compare to the source material?
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4 Answers
I saw the documentary but didn’t read the book. The parts about celebrities were not surprising. The parts about L. Ron Hubbard were weird, he seems so weird. The parts about them using their legal expertise to get the government to bend to their whims were sad but not surprising, either.
It wasn’t the best documentary. It was a little dry.
I also saw the documentary without reading the book. I’ve already sifted through a lot of material about Scientology, so I didn’t find the doc very surprising. I was a bit disappointed by that, because there had been a bit of hype about new revelations, and I don’t think it really delivered. That being said, I’ll watch any documentary about Scientology – I find it fascinating.
But yeah. Scientology is definitely “depressing and unsettling” in its own right, so I can understand your reaction.
Not yet. I haven’t seen the documentary either, but the cult’s frenetic and strident countermeasures are great incentives to check out both.
Yes. Pretty wild how many people can be influenced by a single psychotic man.
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