Quixote feels inadequate in dealing with the undertaker’s confession, offering a canned formula as absolution. He leads a confused and uncertain life, struggling to determine whether the theft of the brass handles was indeed a theft. This ambiguity continues the theme of his uncertain beliefs and occasional confused moral ethics. The farcical setting undoubtedly adds to Quixote’s confusion.
Midway through this novel's journey...we come to the vaudeville bit where the clowns switch hats! Moreover, we are followed by--and flee comically from--someone we think is a threat...and IS, but instead of the secret police, he's a representative of death himself! But a dry, unimpressive death, death without the capital letter, or the pomp of the church. Which, indeed, he's literally stealing.
I recently watched a silent film adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Victory...a very abstract novel that I thought was lost entirely in the translation to the screen, but reading today's chapter I was thinking how much more easily this novel would adapt into a silent film. And reflects Greene's place as one of the first great novelists who wrote in terms of both the page and the screen almost from the get-go.
I'm still loving the easy comedic play of the book (and, yes, yes, the themes are often heavy) but this is a comedy Greene is having so much fun with, the chase scene an easier going version of Holly Martens fleeing from the two thugs across the bomb shattered landscape of Vienna...only to be bitten in the dark by a parrot. I need to rewatch The Third Man. Or the very low comedy of the Alec Guinness adaptation of Our Man in Havana. It's been too long. It's funny, unlike Ms. Li, I find this book to be very solidly a citizen of Greene-land, but perhaps it is disorienting as a distillation of the lighter side. The comedy without the darkness pressing down quite so much. At least so far?
The obsessive guilt of the undertaker that leads him to confess a "no harm sin" to Father Quixote in the bathroom highlights one of the darker sides of the Christian religion.
The role of memory as it pertains to—creates—unhappiness: “Ah, but Sancho, I’m trained to forget what I’m told.” A few pages later: “Wars…[come from] unhappy memories too. That’s why I’m glad to have the short memory of a priest.” Fascinating to consider that the “catch-and-release” vocation of the priest, particularly within the confessional, is presented as an antidote to politics & global suffering, even suffering in general. I don’t think of detachment as a doctrine of Catholicism! And then, in the toilet confessional, MQ laments the “mist” of his faith, versus the “certitude” of Jone et al. So he must remember *some* things, if only his own scruples. Would that he could confess those, & forget…!
“Do you think God cares about a small thing like that?”, MQ says to the man confessing the theft of brass handles. MQ has great instincts and is able to separate the harmlessness of the man from his deed (which actually was stealing). Yet when MQ believes he is about to die, “ Hastily, too hastily, he began an act of contrition under his breath: "O God, I am sorry and beg pardon for all my shoes. . .". MQ is much harder on himself.
Yes, I loved this compassion mixed with tough love ("You're not that important!"). Thanks for bringing my attention to the fact that MQ doesn't extend the compassion part to himself.
“How dangerous it always is to try to recapture in middle age a scene from one’s youth.” Yes! I have wandered around so many sights, especially in Europe, to revisit my first trips there. Always disappointing.
Although in this context I think it's referring to Sancho's sexual prowess... I liked how since he'd disappointed himself the previous night, he was hoping that Monsignor Quixote's disapproval would give him something to preen about, and when he didn't get that either he was very grumpy!
I loved this chapter! I like that we get to see Father Quixote out there fending for himself for a bit and practicing his religion (in a lavatory!). He seemed, in some ways, without much agency or verve prior to this chapter. Maybe it's his switch to quinine water.
"There are many holy words written which are not in the Bible or the Fathers." How well said. Isn't that why we do APS Together? :)
I can remember so many bookish first loves -- that were disappointments (or worse) of one kind or another when I returned to them. The Golden Notebook. A Hundred Years of Solitude. Gone With the Wind (!! be kind--I was only 10 when I read it, in the 70s.)
"Father Quixote could not restrain the fatal curiosity which was his recurring fault in the confessional." Confessional curiosity: one of my favorite of Father Quixote's features.
We’re always hoping for a formula that will provide us with the right thoughts and words and deeds for every situation. And so we have our holy books and philosophy and constitutions and decrees. Father Quixote reads Marx and tastes tonic water for the first time and hears confession in the lavatory and discovers the old formula has failed him.
MQ says Marx got it wrong when he said “The modern labourer , instead of rising with the progress of industry, sinks deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class. He becomes a pauper”. I think that 80 million Americans would say Marx got it right. They would be horrified to think that a Marxist is on their side.
"Father Quixote seemed to remember that in the case of theft the gravity of the sin had to be judged by the value of the object stolen--if it was equivalent to one seventh of the owner's monthly wage it must be treated seriously. If the owner were a millionaire there would be no sin at all--at least not against justice." :) Marx would likely agree with Heribert Jone on this.
"What would Father Gonzalez have earned monthly and indeed was he the true owner if he had only come into possession of the handles after death? A coffin surely belonged to the earth in which it was laid." Contemplation of sin always good for some mental acrobatics.
I kept thinking about Balzac in this chapter, and his ambitious project to define the human comedy in 90 odd novels (of which I’ve only read a few). The chapter begins and ends with two men, seeking confession for their petty sins, and the confessor- who feels he has in both cases failed to provide the necessary antidote. (Just as Fr Quixote explains how Marx’s manifesto despite its good intentions failed to rise above the realities of economics). And GGreene is having a good laugh at them all.
Reading this book has definitely made me want to binge read the gospels all in one go, as well as the communist manifesto!
I've had a similar reaction! And Father Jone!
Quixote feels inadequate in dealing with the undertaker’s confession, offering a canned formula as absolution. He leads a confused and uncertain life, struggling to determine whether the theft of the brass handles was indeed a theft. This ambiguity continues the theme of his uncertain beliefs and occasional confused moral ethics. The farcical setting undoubtedly adds to Quixote’s confusion.
Midway through this novel's journey...we come to the vaudeville bit where the clowns switch hats! Moreover, we are followed by--and flee comically from--someone we think is a threat...and IS, but instead of the secret police, he's a representative of death himself! But a dry, unimpressive death, death without the capital letter, or the pomp of the church. Which, indeed, he's literally stealing.
I recently watched a silent film adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Victory...a very abstract novel that I thought was lost entirely in the translation to the screen, but reading today's chapter I was thinking how much more easily this novel would adapt into a silent film. And reflects Greene's place as one of the first great novelists who wrote in terms of both the page and the screen almost from the get-go.
I'm still loving the easy comedic play of the book (and, yes, yes, the themes are often heavy) but this is a comedy Greene is having so much fun with, the chase scene an easier going version of Holly Martens fleeing from the two thugs across the bomb shattered landscape of Vienna...only to be bitten in the dark by a parrot. I need to rewatch The Third Man. Or the very low comedy of the Alec Guinness adaptation of Our Man in Havana. It's been too long. It's funny, unlike Ms. Li, I find this book to be very solidly a citizen of Greene-land, but perhaps it is disorienting as a distillation of the lighter side. The comedy without the darkness pressing down quite so much. At least so far?
The obsessive guilt of the undertaker that leads him to confess a "no harm sin" to Father Quixote in the bathroom highlights one of the darker sides of the Christian religion.
Graham Greene does seem to be having a lot of fun.
The role of memory as it pertains to—creates—unhappiness: “Ah, but Sancho, I’m trained to forget what I’m told.” A few pages later: “Wars…[come from] unhappy memories too. That’s why I’m glad to have the short memory of a priest.” Fascinating to consider that the “catch-and-release” vocation of the priest, particularly within the confessional, is presented as an antidote to politics & global suffering, even suffering in general. I don’t think of detachment as a doctrine of Catholicism! And then, in the toilet confessional, MQ laments the “mist” of his faith, versus the “certitude” of Jone et al. So he must remember *some* things, if only his own scruples. Would that he could confess those, & forget…!
“Do you think God cares about a small thing like that?”, MQ says to the man confessing the theft of brass handles. MQ has great instincts and is able to separate the harmlessness of the man from his deed (which actually was stealing). Yet when MQ believes he is about to die, “ Hastily, too hastily, he began an act of contrition under his breath: "O God, I am sorry and beg pardon for all my shoes. . .". MQ is much harder on himself.
Yes, I loved this compassion mixed with tough love ("You're not that important!"). Thanks for bringing my attention to the fact that MQ doesn't extend the compassion part to himself.
“How dangerous it always is to try to recapture in middle age a scene from one’s youth.” Yes! I have wandered around so many sights, especially in Europe, to revisit my first trips there. Always disappointing.
I underlined this too. How I wish I could revisit a state of mind.
Although in this context I think it's referring to Sancho's sexual prowess... I liked how since he'd disappointed himself the previous night, he was hoping that Monsignor Quixote's disapproval would give him something to preen about, and when he didn't get that either he was very grumpy!
I loved this chapter! I like that we get to see Father Quixote out there fending for himself for a bit and practicing his religion (in a lavatory!). He seemed, in some ways, without much agency or verve prior to this chapter. Maybe it's his switch to quinine water.
"There are many holy words written which are not in the Bible or the Fathers." How well said. Isn't that why we do APS Together? :)
I can remember so many bookish first loves -- that were disappointments (or worse) of one kind or another when I returned to them. The Golden Notebook. A Hundred Years of Solitude. Gone With the Wind (!! be kind--I was only 10 when I read it, in the 70s.)
Loved those three so much back then. But I will not attempt them again.
"Father Quixote could not restrain the fatal curiosity which was his recurring fault in the confessional." Confessional curiosity: one of my favorite of Father Quixote's features.
We’re always hoping for a formula that will provide us with the right thoughts and words and deeds for every situation. And so we have our holy books and philosophy and constitutions and decrees. Father Quixote reads Marx and tastes tonic water for the first time and hears confession in the lavatory and discovers the old formula has failed him.
MQ says Marx got it wrong when he said “The modern labourer , instead of rising with the progress of industry, sinks deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class. He becomes a pauper”. I think that 80 million Americans would say Marx got it right. They would be horrified to think that a Marxist is on their side.
Some of the books I most love I have been unable to re read because the emotions they aroused were so strong.
This little exchange I like
Time will show
Time will never show our lives are too short!!
However in opposition to this I did read somewhere that the best way to defeat a dictatorships is to put live it. Seems to work on many levels!
Out live it
"Father Quixote seemed to remember that in the case of theft the gravity of the sin had to be judged by the value of the object stolen--if it was equivalent to one seventh of the owner's monthly wage it must be treated seriously. If the owner were a millionaire there would be no sin at all--at least not against justice." :) Marx would likely agree with Heribert Jone on this.
"What would Father Gonzalez have earned monthly and indeed was he the true owner if he had only come into possession of the handles after death? A coffin surely belonged to the earth in which it was laid." Contemplation of sin always good for some mental acrobatics.
I kept thinking about Balzac in this chapter, and his ambitious project to define the human comedy in 90 odd novels (of which I’ve only read a few). The chapter begins and ends with two men, seeking confession for their petty sins, and the confessor- who feels he has in both cases failed to provide the necessary antidote. (Just as Fr Quixote explains how Marx’s manifesto despite its good intentions failed to rise above the realities of economics). And GGreene is having a good laugh at them all.