zac > Recent Status Updates

I'm actually going to stop reading this one. Life is too short to read books that are equal parts boring and unfollowable. I'm sure it was/is a great book for those who could/can understand what on earth he's saying (in terms of both language and imagery), but I couldn't be bothered to find that out for myself. Even reading the Wikipedia synopsis, it doesn't look like I'd personally be missing out on very much.

These past couple chapters were a bit more engaging, moving beyond Mr. Raven's oft-incoherent philosophical sayings (rendered more opaque due to its occasionally semi-obscure language) to more decipherable subject matter like mythological components (such as shapeshifting and beast-/nature-selves), or more familiar Christian imagery (like bread and wine that 'go deeper than' Mr. Vane's hunger and thirst).

MacDonald's style, while impressive and diverse, is at this point a bit antiquated and hard to follow. If it weren't for the book's actual cover I, for example, would have very little idea what exactly the second chapter describes. I'm looking forward to reading Lilith (especially after conversing with some friends about it over the summer), but I can already tell that it will be a somewhat laborious task.

Borderline confounding, idiosyncratic esoterica. Just when you think you can grasp on of Powys' points, he turns it against you. The prose itself is wonderful though--unrestricted third-person narration that manages to be deeply psychological, thanks in no small part to the sometimes chapter-long meditations on certain characters, emotions, or ideas. A thorough exploration of Dodder's citizens' inner and outer lives.

Filled with wonder and exploring deeply the minds of his characters (even animals!) and their natural surroundings, T.F. Powys, who is still hidden from the majority of contemporary readers, intending to deliver the fullness of small-town Britain, and then dissect the power of death, having a keen sensitivity for Christian thought, cannot help but infuse every paragraph with profundity, charm, and humour.

Too much going on to adequately record here. This past chapter (8) is certainly the most powerful one. To lay down your own salvation and faith as an act of love, similar to the Christian idea of Christ laying his life down for his people, is a profound idea, one that many Christians are too afraid, lethargic, or ignorant to wrestle with, all to Ferreira's (Sawano's) credit. It's a profundity that is mournfully rare.

Is and will likely remain the most powerful chapter. Rodrigues is not tortured, because he would grow stubborn if the attacks were not ideological. This climaxes in his meeting with Ferreira, apostatized, revealing that Japanese Christians, through unintended syncretism, never believed in the true Christian God. All missionary efforts were/are thus a waste. So what is it exactly that the Japanese Christians died for?

Now captured, the letters end and the chapters are now narrated in third-person, keeping the letters' restricted and past-tense form. After a futile debate with a new translator, learning that Ferreira is alive and fully assimilated to Japanese culture, finding a once thriving and Christian town now burnt to the ground, and sent to a surprisingly hostile Omura, Rodrigues' cycle of deterioration and doubt intensifies.

This fourth chapter is slightly odd: The first third turbulently recalls a series of persecutions in Tomogo, where Rodrigues praises the martyrs and mourns their deaths; the second third describes Rodrigues' exile from the village into the wilderness under suspicion that his arrival aroused the persecutions, meanwhile he laments the silence of God; the final third reintroduces Kichijiro as a nearly ambiguous traitor.

Sebastian Rodrigues is quite dislikable: He is excessively proud that he is a missionary in Japan, comparing himself to Jesus and declaring that he and Garrpe are the only hope for the surrounding villages; he calls the food he receives daily "wretched" and looks down upon the Fukazawa pilgrims for eating it so eagerly upon their arrival; he looks upon all Japanese Christians with contempt and undeserved pity.