Ollie (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
commonpeople1) wrote2011-01-24 08:25 pm
commonpeople1) wrote2011-01-24 08:25 pm
The Judges
Thoughts and questions on Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible.
Some questions to kick things off:
- Anatole and Leah: what do you think of their relationship? Is it hopeful? Is it appropriate? Is it misunderstood from one side or the other?
- I loved the girls discovery of magic in this section - from Ruth May's necklace that can take her somewhere safe just before death to the villagers various outlooks on ghosts, curses and so forth. What did you make of it? I also thought it was funny Adah's explanation of how her father was using the wrong word when speaking of God - conjuring the wrong mood for the bemused villagers (all there because magic had failed in their lives and they thought this Jesus was their last resort.)
- Has your opinion changed on any of the sisters? The mother or the father? I liked Anatole's development in this section, and his revelation to Leah that the villagers were secretly helping her family - giving them eggs and so forth. Another Kingsolver irony: they are more Christian than the Christians themselves!
My opinion of Anatole has changed. I thought before he was someone who would bring death into the village with the militia, but now I see that he's a teacher and represents what the father should strive for but is too blind to see - he truly understands the people he is trying to help and he is also willing to put himself at risk to help others (like rescuing the family from the ants.) He would never put others in risk, unlike the father.
(On a side note, the passage with the ants made me think of that video recently censored in America, by gay artist David Wojnarowicz - Fire in My Belly. Christian groups asked for it to be banned because of its depiction of Jesus covered by ants...)
I worry what's going to happen to Rachel - she's too dumb and easily trapped by Axelroot. My guess is that the mother will try to make a break for it in the next sections with her daughters - I'd be surprised if she didn't! How can she stand much longer being with that crazy husband of hers?
Some questions to kick things off:
- Anatole and Leah: what do you think of their relationship? Is it hopeful? Is it appropriate? Is it misunderstood from one side or the other?
- I loved the girls discovery of magic in this section - from Ruth May's necklace that can take her somewhere safe just before death to the villagers various outlooks on ghosts, curses and so forth. What did you make of it? I also thought it was funny Adah's explanation of how her father was using the wrong word when speaking of God - conjuring the wrong mood for the bemused villagers (all there because magic had failed in their lives and they thought this Jesus was their last resort.)
- Has your opinion changed on any of the sisters? The mother or the father? I liked Anatole's development in this section, and his revelation to Leah that the villagers were secretly helping her family - giving them eggs and so forth. Another Kingsolver irony: they are more Christian than the Christians themselves!
My opinion of Anatole has changed. I thought before he was someone who would bring death into the village with the militia, but now I see that he's a teacher and represents what the father should strive for but is too blind to see - he truly understands the people he is trying to help and he is also willing to put himself at risk to help others (like rescuing the family from the ants.) He would never put others in risk, unlike the father.
(On a side note, the passage with the ants made me think of that video recently censored in America, by gay artist David Wojnarowicz - Fire in My Belly. Christian groups asked for it to be banned because of its depiction of Jesus covered by ants...)
I worry what's going to happen to Rachel - she's too dumb and easily trapped by Axelroot. My guess is that the mother will try to make a break for it in the next sections with her daughters - I'd be surprised if she didn't! How can she stand much longer being with that crazy husband of hers?
no subject
and here is something i found on ants:
Proverbs 6:6-8
Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.
what do you make of it?
no subject
The ant in that passage is unlike the ants that infested the village, yet it's very similar to the villagers themselves and their symbiotic relationship to nature. They are so entrenched in the world around them, so in tune to their reality. I just remembered one thing: how one of the girls realised that they weren't the first white people the villagers had seend, how Brother Fowles was that person (who also happened to easily slip into their culture) and I suppose that revelation casts a shadow over their perceptions up until then - how they completely misunderstood the people.
Back to the quote: somewhere in The Judges they talk about the village's politics and how a decision only is reached when 100% agree, how a majority of votes - say 55% - doesn't mean a victory because they'd still be concerned by the 45% who disagreed. In that sense, there is no chief or ruler because final decisions can only be made by the entirety.