| | Sorry for the lack of updates here; school has kept me busy! In hispanic lit, we were assigned to read this story, and it is an excellent one. It's called San Manuel Bueno, Martir, and I recommend it. Here's a link to the english version (the spanish version is too complicated for me) http://personal.ecu.edu/mayberryn/sanmanuel.htm
It's basically a woman's memoir of how her life was affected by a very well-intentioned catholic priest, but the priest doesn't quite accept what he preaches. He feels that religion is necessary to keep people happy. Anyway, a good read, certainly a classic. An excerpt or two from said priest:
"Yes, I know that one
of those leaders of the so-called social revolution said that religion
is the opiate of the people. Opiate,...opiate...opiate, yes. Let us give
them opium, that they may sleep and dream. I myself with this crazy activity
am administering opium to myself. And I don’t succeed in sleeping well
and even less in dreaming well. ...This terrible nightmare! And I also
can say with the Divine Master “My soul is sad unto death”. No Lazaro,
no nothing of unions on our part. If they form them it will seem fine to
me, because they will be distracted. Let them play at unions if that makes
them happy.”
"My life, Lazaro, is like a continuous suicide, a combat against
suicide that is the same, but let them live, let our people live. Here the river eddies into the lake for a while, going down
to the tableland, then hastening into falls, rapids and torrents through
the ravines and gorges next to the city, and so does life eddy, here, in
the village. But the temptation of suicide is greatest here, next to the
eddy that mirrors the stars at night, not next to the falls, that make
one frightened. See, Lazaro, I have helped poor villagers in the last rites
who were ignorant, illiterate, who had scarcely left the village, and I
have been able to know from their lips, and when I didn’t guess it, the
true cause of their mortal illness, and I have seen there at the head of
their death bed, all the blackness of the abyss of the tedium of life.
A thousand times worse than hunger. Let us continue then, Lazaro, committing
suicide in our work and in our people, that they may dream this life, like
the lake dreams the sky.”
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| | Posted 2/4/2007 4:41 PM - 54 Views - 2 eProps - 1 Comment
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