Celestial Omnibus

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Summary: The Omnibus and twentieth century secularism by Katie Hansen
Review: "The Celestial Omnibus" by E.M. Forster tells of a boy's belief in a celestial omnibus, afuture state or heaven. In the story, his belief and curiosity is ridiculed by his parents. This action shows the idea of secularism, by discouraging the boy against the idea of anafter-life. Instead of leading him toward Christian morality, his parents direct him tomemorizing poetry, showing their belief in the morality and well being of man in this life. Sneakily, the boy discovers that the omnibus is not a joke, as his parents told him, but thatis was real. The boy is made to be a liar when he returns, but soon convinces Mr. Bons togo back to the omnibus with him. The boy is able to enter the "heaven," but, because ofMr. Bons' disbelief, he dies on the earth

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Summary: Think About It.
Review: Quite possibly the best collection of short stories published in the Twentieth Century, so minimalist that they're metaphysical. Each demonstrates that the meaning of meaning is the creation of meaning, that people exist to create meaning, whether they know it or not, and what it means to create meaning, or fail. Images become symbols, symbols become allegories. High bourgeois culture, at its best, accessible at many levels to anyone.

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Summary: A Celestial Read
Review: The other reviewer of this book completely missed the point of the story. THE CELESTIAL OMNIBUS is about the liberation of the Soul through Art, and is not meant to be a religious text at all. A young boy in a prosaic middle class suburb catches a glimpse of something otherworldly in an alley--an omnibus that travels 'To Heaven'. This is not the religious Heaven but the infinite world of the imagination. Great literature literally provides an escape for the boy, who has a poet's soul and is ridiculed for it by his family and their friends. In their view, Literature and Poetry exist only on library shelves, bound in red leather. It is the neighbor, who only concentrates on the physical manifestation of the writings, who 'dies on the earth' since he confuses the end with the means. It is more important to feel the spirit of a great writer than to worry about the binding on their books, while never understanding their meaning. The other stories in this collection are also memorable and deal with living the quiet life and leaving the rat race--in one case, literally. This is one of the most inspirational collections of short stories ever written and it is a shame that it is out of print.