"The longer I teach, the more I think my job is to cultivate healthy and necessary doubts."-- This is so beautiful! I feel that just in getting older.
I didn't think about how Father Q doesn't tell stories. Sancho's story felt like just the break--the lightening--I needed after the serious joust about faith and belief. And the kicker is when the butler ruse is deemed not, um, kosher, because it doesn't fit Jone's exact definition. "Oh, you can't beat those moral theologians. They get you every time with their quibbles."
Another guest appearance by that "Moral Theology" volume, Father Herrera would have been apoplectic had he witnessed Sancho's subversion.
Class hierarchy (downstairs/upstairs butler duties) and religious proprieties (guilt free sex with coitus interruptus) blend together in the funniest tale so far for me.
The money/sex combination continues in some other memorable sentences:
"It’s funny, isn’t it, but the Church can alter its mind about what concerns money much more easily than it can about what concerns sex?’
"We don’t worry about coitus interruptus, only about the means of production – I don’t mean sexually."
And just as quickly the mood turns sombre again, the ghosts of the dictatorship still walking amongst the living keeping their fears alive.
Much rabbit holing with this read. The Valley of the Fallen is an amazing display of wealth and control. I like it that MQ prayed there just as he would for anyone. His lack of understanding as to why he made the sign of the cross as they drove away was an interesting little aside. And such an effort and expense to flaunt the rules of the church. And then it wasn’t acceptable. Tres amusement
I was also struck by Father Quixote's enigmatic sign of the cross, "against the perils of the road or against hasty judgments, or just a nervous reaction." For himself, for the Generalissimo, for all the dead, for the world's absurdities and atrocities...
Love the banter today including the Mayor’s humorous conspiracy theory. “Perhaps the thermometers in Spain have been falsified under clerical influence.”
On the subway today I saw an advertisement for a new app that can determine fertility by taking your temperature (maybe using an Apple Watch? Blue Tooth Thermometer? I have no idea!).
I am drawn to the Mayor's sardonic observations: "Look at the guillotine on top of the hill - or the gallows if you prefer."
MQ: "I see a cross."
Mayor: That's more or less the same thing, isn't it?"
Despite his implicit critique of religious faith, the Mayor's tenuous, yet authentic, empathetic embrace, of MQ's innocent and questioning nature is touching: "Oh, I laugh at your superstitions, father, but I shared some of them in those days. Is that why I seek your company now - to find my youth again, the youth when I half-believed in your religion and everything was so complicated and contradictory - and interesting?" Oh, to embrace complications, contradictions, and interesting "unknowns." Why do we lose this willingness to to revel in ambiguity, curiosity, and the unfamiliar as we journey through life? Why must the world be "an absurd" one to allow for an unlikely "road trip" in which a "borrowed collar," and "purple socks," proffer momentary "balance" between unlikely friends?
Too much baggage in our brains and the inability to enjoy the world with the Zen “beginner’s mind”. Religion prefers that we view the world based on liturgy.
I read this exchange four times because I was so perplexed --and still am. I'm pretty sure it is Quixote who says, "Look at the guillotine on top of the hill - or the gallows if you prefer." And the Mayor who says, "I see a cross." Not sure what this means.
Ohhh, now I am confused too. I went back to re-read the passage and remain uncertain (a continuing theme - uncertainty and its relation to meaning - in this book). I think that whomever sees "a guillotine/gallows" and whomever sees a "cross," both remain uncertain about the the tensions inherent in faith, and the ways in which different strands of "faith" have often been used to validate violence, stoke fear, and contradict the foundational precepts of the faith. Where does that leave those "tilting at windmills" and seeking a path to a more elevated world in which everyone can find, claim, and live with meaning?
You're right about the theme. But I'm still pretty certain it's Quixote who says the guillotine/gallows line because the line right after the "I see a cross" is, "That's more or less the same thing, isn't it? Where are we Sancho?" That would be MQ. It may be that he is referring to the cross as an instrument of execution, which it was.
This chapter felt like the moment at which the story—unlike Rocinante—kicked into a higher gear. The presence of the Guardia Civil introduced physical danger, ratcheting up the tension provided by the psychological menace of the bishop and Herrera and the Opus Dei clothiers. And I suddenly had an understanding for the role Sancho will play: the provocateur, who can’t help but talk when he should stay quiet. That scene really cranked my anxiety for a pair of characters for whom I’ve already developed affection.
"It's an absurd world or we wouldn't be here together." Perfect gloss on the road trip novel!
Hanging out to use that line
"The longer I teach, the more I think my job is to cultivate healthy and necessary doubts."-- This is so beautiful! I feel that just in getting older.
I didn't think about how Father Q doesn't tell stories. Sancho's story felt like just the break--the lightening--I needed after the serious joust about faith and belief. And the kicker is when the butler ruse is deemed not, um, kosher, because it doesn't fit Jone's exact definition. "Oh, you can't beat those moral theologians. They get you every time with their quibbles."
Another guest appearance by that "Moral Theology" volume, Father Herrera would have been apoplectic had he witnessed Sancho's subversion.
Class hierarchy (downstairs/upstairs butler duties) and religious proprieties (guilt free sex with coitus interruptus) blend together in the funniest tale so far for me.
The money/sex combination continues in some other memorable sentences:
"It’s funny, isn’t it, but the Church can alter its mind about what concerns money much more easily than it can about what concerns sex?’
"We don’t worry about coitus interruptus, only about the means of production – I don’t mean sexually."
And just as quickly the mood turns sombre again, the ghosts of the dictatorship still walking amongst the living keeping their fears alive.
hilarious juxtaposition of sex and politics!
Much rabbit holing with this read. The Valley of the Fallen is an amazing display of wealth and control. I like it that MQ prayed there just as he would for anyone. His lack of understanding as to why he made the sign of the cross as they drove away was an interesting little aside. And such an effort and expense to flaunt the rules of the church. And then it wasn’t acceptable. Tres amusement
https://www.sanlorenzoturismo.es/en/what-to-visit/valley-of-the-fallen/
I was also struck by Father Quixote's enigmatic sign of the cross, "against the perils of the road or against hasty judgments, or just a nervous reaction." For himself, for the Generalissimo, for all the dead, for the world's absurdities and atrocities...
Love the banter today including the Mayor’s humorous conspiracy theory. “Perhaps the thermometers in Spain have been falsified under clerical influence.”
On the subway today I saw an advertisement for a new app that can determine fertility by taking your temperature (maybe using an Apple Watch? Blue Tooth Thermometer? I have no idea!).
‘The Mayor smiled. “Perhaps we shall even conquer death with transplants.” Transplants from whom? Reminds me of Ishiguro Never Let me Go
I am drawn to the Mayor's sardonic observations: "Look at the guillotine on top of the hill - or the gallows if you prefer."
MQ: "I see a cross."
Mayor: That's more or less the same thing, isn't it?"
Despite his implicit critique of religious faith, the Mayor's tenuous, yet authentic, empathetic embrace, of MQ's innocent and questioning nature is touching: "Oh, I laugh at your superstitions, father, but I shared some of them in those days. Is that why I seek your company now - to find my youth again, the youth when I half-believed in your religion and everything was so complicated and contradictory - and interesting?" Oh, to embrace complications, contradictions, and interesting "unknowns." Why do we lose this willingness to to revel in ambiguity, curiosity, and the unfamiliar as we journey through life? Why must the world be "an absurd" one to allow for an unlikely "road trip" in which a "borrowed collar," and "purple socks," proffer momentary "balance" between unlikely friends?
Too much baggage in our brains and the inability to enjoy the world with the Zen “beginner’s mind”. Religion prefers that we view the world based on liturgy.
I read this exchange four times because I was so perplexed --and still am. I'm pretty sure it is Quixote who says, "Look at the guillotine on top of the hill - or the gallows if you prefer." And the Mayor who says, "I see a cross." Not sure what this means.
Ohhh, now I am confused too. I went back to re-read the passage and remain uncertain (a continuing theme - uncertainty and its relation to meaning - in this book). I think that whomever sees "a guillotine/gallows" and whomever sees a "cross," both remain uncertain about the the tensions inherent in faith, and the ways in which different strands of "faith" have often been used to validate violence, stoke fear, and contradict the foundational precepts of the faith. Where does that leave those "tilting at windmills" and seeking a path to a more elevated world in which everyone can find, claim, and live with meaning?
You're right about the theme. But I'm still pretty certain it's Quixote who says the guillotine/gallows line because the line right after the "I see a cross" is, "That's more or less the same thing, isn't it? Where are we Sancho?" That would be MQ. It may be that he is referring to the cross as an instrument of execution, which it was.
This chapter felt like the moment at which the story—unlike Rocinante—kicked into a higher gear. The presence of the Guardia Civil introduced physical danger, ratcheting up the tension provided by the psychological menace of the bishop and Herrera and the Opus Dei clothiers. And I suddenly had an understanding for the role Sancho will play: the provocateur, who can’t help but talk when he should stay quiet. That scene really cranked my anxiety for a pair of characters for whom I’ve already developed affection.
Love this parody of Biblical exegesis. "You read Jone carelessly..." and "They get the better of you every time with their quibbles."