I am so behind in my reading it is sad, but anyway I started reading the slave. It was a breathe of fresh air really. The bible is great and even poetic, plotz has an interesting take on it, and I'm certainly learning a lot from all those readings, but with "The slave" I've really got a story to sink my teeth into. Not a collection of stories but one, with an overall plot and message.
I certainly like the style of the book. I can see why so many people have been commenting on how they couldn't put it down.
The first thing that struck me was the way jacob is described in his enviornment. It reminds me of castaway stories, almost as if he is adrift in this ocean of foriegners. The contrast between his desperate clinging to faith, and their lack of faith is interesting. I say lack of faith because while the peasants of the village are described as christian, it seems only a word. It states how they still act like animalistic pagans, they worship old house gods, and they don't have any rituals that I would associate with the christian religion. Their world is full of faeries and superstition, and the christian term is just a word to add more gods and monsters.
Speaking of monsters, I must admit I love all the old folk lore references, particularly Baba Yaga, one of my favorite old story creatures. http://efimero.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/baba-yaga.jpg She's your standard wood witch type, but she's got a hut with chicken legs :D http://images.elfwood.com/art/r/e/reuben/reubencdodd_baba_yagas_hut.jpg
One line that struck me, on page 37 of my book, as Jacob is trying to resist temptation and at the same time think of a way for it to be okay for him to be with wanda, he thinks this "It was God who spoke in the simpler language while evil overflowed in learned quotations" First of all this threw up a red flag for me in terms of the preist, where he's described as having lost his knowledge except for the ability to speak in large words.
But it also struck me as a sort of lesson from simply taking this class. Just from reading the bible we've all had a moment where we've realized some highly quoted thing is misquoted. I'm sure we've all had a moment where we've seen someone mindlessly quoting the bible to further some sort of point, but without any real knowledge of what that means. Sometimes when I've asked they are unable to put it into summary and use simpler words.
This speaks to me because I personally see it as one of the larger problems with religions. It isn't really the message that's wrong, simply that people will use little quotes and such, without knowing the real meaning of something.
Anyway I shall carry on with my reading. I just needed to write this bit out before I forgot.
I certainly like the style of the book. I can see why so many people have been commenting on how they couldn't put it down.
The first thing that struck me was the way jacob is described in his enviornment. It reminds me of castaway stories, almost as if he is adrift in this ocean of foriegners. The contrast between his desperate clinging to faith, and their lack of faith is interesting. I say lack of faith because while the peasants of the village are described as christian, it seems only a word. It states how they still act like animalistic pagans, they worship old house gods, and they don't have any rituals that I would associate with the christian religion. Their world is full of faeries and superstition, and the christian term is just a word to add more gods and monsters.
Speaking of monsters, I must admit I love all the old folk lore references, particularly Baba Yaga, one of my favorite old story creatures. http://efimero.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/baba-yaga.jpg She's your standard wood witch type, but she's got a hut with chicken legs :D http://images.elfwood.com/art/r/e/reuben/reubencdodd_baba_yagas_hut.jpg
One line that struck me, on page 37 of my book, as Jacob is trying to resist temptation and at the same time think of a way for it to be okay for him to be with wanda, he thinks this "It was God who spoke in the simpler language while evil overflowed in learned quotations" First of all this threw up a red flag for me in terms of the preist, where he's described as having lost his knowledge except for the ability to speak in large words.
But it also struck me as a sort of lesson from simply taking this class. Just from reading the bible we've all had a moment where we've realized some highly quoted thing is misquoted. I'm sure we've all had a moment where we've seen someone mindlessly quoting the bible to further some sort of point, but without any real knowledge of what that means. Sometimes when I've asked they are unable to put it into summary and use simpler words.
This speaks to me because I personally see it as one of the larger problems with religions. It isn't really the message that's wrong, simply that people will use little quotes and such, without knowing the real meaning of something.
Anyway I shall carry on with my reading. I just needed to write this bit out before I forgot.
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