Paradiso- Dante (1321)
Continuing through the third book (canticle) of the Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Canto 19
The sixth sphere: Jupiter- justice
The souls, still in the arrangement of the eagle (symbolizing justice), begins to speak to Dante as a single entity, using “I” and “mine” in place of “we” and “our”. Dante then asks the eagle a question concerning justice: how can God justly condemn someone who has never had the opportunity to hear the gospel, but who has lived an absolutely righteous life?
The answer is that God, who has imprinted some of himself throughout creation, could never imprint so much of himself in anything, that Jesus wouldn’t be infinitely superior to the creation. Lucifer, the highest created being, even fell, and so how much more deficient would any lower beings have been in comparison? Since any man can only understand what he can perceive, he is far short of God’s knowledge. Like a man looking at the ocean, you can see the bottom when you look from the shore and it’s only a few feet deep, but you can’t see the bottom in the open sea. It’s there, but the depth conceals it. So likewise man is unable the true depth as God can, so it would be foolish for any man to think he can understand what God knows when he cannot see as God sees.
The eagle finishes by noting that no one is admitted to heaven without confessing Christ, but…. Dante should also understand that there are many who confess Christ with their words, who will be separated from Christ on judgment day even further than the pagans who never knew of Christ.
The Eagle then lists several earthly kings who would claim to be Christian kings, yet their lives and deeds will show that they were nothing of the sort.
Canto 20
The sixth sphere: Jupiter- justice; cont.
The souls, still in the form of the eagle grow brighter while singing praises, and then sound forms from the neck and moves through the beak as words, where the eagle points out 6 other notable souls in this sphere: David, Trajan, Hezekiah, Constantine, William the Good, and Ripheus. Dante is perplexed at how Trajan and Ripheus could be there since neither were Christians. This gives the eagle occasion to explain how God’s predestined will works with human free will. The eagle explains that neither died as pagans, but both were Christians. Trajan was brought back to life by the prayers of St Gregory, who preached the gospel which Trajan accepted, then when Trajan died shortly after for the second time, it was as a believer. Whether this story is to be believed or not, it is likely representative of the grace of intercessory prayer and the salvation of people we may consider unlikely.
Ripheus is a different story. the Trojan warrior would have lived one thousand years before Christ. Yet, he represents the full cooperation with whatever divine grace is given, and as such, God caused faith, hope, and love to appear to him and show him the future Christ, so that he could profess faith and be saved. Here Dante praises God’s predestination, the understanding of which can’t be fathomed by men who can’t see God, who is the first cause of all. We are warned to be careful not to judge who will be in heaven. This comforts Dante, the two souls slip back into place and the canto ends here.
Canto 21
The seventh sphere: Saturn- contemplatives
The canto starts with Dante’s eyes fixed completely on Beatrice. This time she does not smile, because to do so would overcome him, reducing him to ashes. The more they ascend, the more beautiful she becomes, but her beauty has increased so much that he would be in danger of being destroyed.
They have ascended to Saturn, the seventh sphere, where the contemplatives are revealed.
Here Dante sees a set of steps that goes so far upward his eye can’t follow it. He sees so many souls moving up and down the steps that it seems to him to equal the amount of stars in the sky. They are moving each in different directions, but one spirit comes closest to Dante and stops.
Dante wants to ask a question, but stops himself since Beatrice has given him no sign as of yet. Finally, she encourages him, and he asks the spirit 1) why he has come to him, and 2) why he doesn’t hear the music here a he has in the lower spheres. The spirit, Peter Damiano, responds that he is unable to hear it for the same reason Beatrice can’t smile at him: Dante would be unable to withstand it in his mortal capacity. He also explains that he has not come because of his own personal love of Dante- meaning of his own volition, but that God has moved him to do so, for it is their purpose and will to do what God wills.
Dante accepts that but then wonders why he was particularly sent, rather than one of the others. Peter responds by explaining that God’s light penetrates into his own and raises him up to the point where he can see God, and this in turn, causes him to shine as brightly as the amount of enlightenment that he has been granted. But…. even the highest created being in heaven cannot see so deeply into God’s wisdom because this is beyond any to see. Then he tells Dante that when he returns to the world, explain to them not to enquire into this anymore since men are always thinking they can see into causes, but they are unable to recognize that they simply can’t see as deeply as they think.
Dante accepts this and contents himself with asking who the spirit is. He gives his name at this point, and explains that he was hermit in a cloister not too far from Dante’s hometown. That place once produced many souls fit for the sphere of Saturn, but no longer. While Peter and Paul went about hungry and barefoot, today’s shepherds demand servants, drivers, and even need help getting up since they are so fat and lazy.
At this point, more souls surround Peter, and begin spinning, then stop and shout so loud that Dante can’t tell what they are saying.
Canto 22
The seventh sphere: Saturn- contemplatives
Dante is left dazed and stunned by the shout, so he turns back to Beatrice, who hits him with the truth that everything that happens here in heaven is done from a zeal for the good, and their prayers were lifted up against the prelates that were condemned in the last canto. She explains that the judgment over them would come before Dante’s life is over. Heaven’s judgment always come at the appropriate time, even if it might not seem so to those on earth. Then she directs Dante’s eyes to the other spirits on the steps and explains that there are some illustrious souls among them. Dante wishes to ask something, but again is hesitant, when one of the spirits lets him know that they are more than willing to answer. Then he explains he is St Benedict. He gives some of his personal history, then introduces St Macarius of Egypt and St Romuald. Dante asks if he might see St Benedict unveiled from his light, appearing as he would have in his human form. He is told this desire would be fulfilled up higher, where every desire is perfected, matured and complete, because in the Empyrean, there is no more time or place, for it doesn’t turn as the inner sphere’s do.
Benedict mentions that the staircase they are on was seen by Jacob, the patriarch, but now, those of his order no longer strive to reach this sphere. They are so taken with money, that the extract from the poor, rather than using the means of the church to give to the poor.
Benedict mentions that Peter began his work without riches, Benedict himself started with prayer and fasting, and St Francis began humbly with his convent, but looking at the state of orders today, they have moved far from their original intention. But God has done greater miracles than would be needed to help the situation. At this, everyone closed ranks and ascended upward in a whirlwind.
Beatrice then signals Dante to ascend to, and he is immediately whisked up beyond what would be naturally attainable.
The eighth sphere: the fixed stars- the mystics
Dante implores the constellation of Gemini, thought to be propitious to artists and poets, to endow him with all the gifts necessary to be up to the task set before him. Before moving on, Beatrice tells him he must be clear and sharp, so first look at where he has come from: Dante looks past all seven spheres, even down to earth, then returns his gaze to Beatrice.
Canto 23
The eighth sphere: the fixed stars- mystics cont.
Dante had been staring at Beatrice when he notices she is intently looking upward. So he pulls his attention away from her and stares too, when she declares the procession of the triumph of Christ and his saints gathered through the ages. He is given a glimpse of Jesus and at this, his eyes are strengthened to now see Beatrice’s smile, as well as what this sphere contains. Dante pleads with the reader to understand that he is unable to the greatness of what he is seeing because it is beyond words.
He sees Mary and the apostles, and the ranks of shining souls with them. Mary is the most resplendent of the souls, having been the greatest both on earth, and here in heaven, of humans. The angel Gabriel crosses the space and surrounds Mary with what appears as a crown, but which emits a music more beautiful than Dante can describe. At this point, Mary and Jesus ascend upwards, with the rest of the spirits calling out the name of Mary. Dante is unable to see the Primum Mobile, where they ascend to, so they disappear from sight, but the remaining souls watch and lift their flames towards Mary in deep love for her.
The canto ends with a description of the souls as a rich abundance, those who now experience the treasure they had forsaken on earth, with Peter, holding the keys to such glory.
Canto 24
The eighth sphere: the fixed stars- mystics cont.
Beatrice leads this canto off by asking the spirits there to allow Dante to taste of what they know since he ardently desires to know. The souls group into circles of dancers, some moving slowly and others quickly, and the brightness and rapidity of their dancing is due to their worth. Out of these, St Peter presents himself as the brightest, and Beatrice tells him to question Dante on matters of faith.
He begins by asking Dante what faith is, to which Dante responds with the formulation of Hebrews 11:1- Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.
Peter accepts the standard answer, but only on the grounds that Dante understand why faith was first seen as a substance, then as evidence. Dante responds that faith is our foundation, therefore a substance, but once accepted, we argue from it, so it takes the form of evidence.
Peter accepts that Dante understands what it is, but then wants to know if Dante himself has faith, and when Dante proclaims yes, Peter asks where Dante’s faith came from.
Dante responds that the Bible is the basis of his faith.
Peter asks Dante why he accepts the Bible as the word of God, and Dante responds that the miracles that followed it could not have been produced by men, therefore it must be divine.
Peter pushes him on that though, and asks how Dante knows the reports are true, since it is the Bible itself that says those things. Dante answers that the men that produced them had nothing to gain from it, and more than that, it cost them dearly to follow it.
Peter accepts this, but then wants to know about Dante’s personal faith: how did Dante come to it?
Dante responds that he believes in one God, creator of everything, of which Dante himself has both physical and metaphysical proofs, that show through every part of the bible: He believes in the Trinity.
This pleases the heavenly company and Peter rejoices.
Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples- Hajime Nakamura (1964)
The Eastern Peoples covered in this book are: India, China, Tibet, and Japan, since these are the major influences. These are radically different peoples and cultures however, but one particular influence has settled over them and provides a distinctiveness: Buddhism. It is really how the influence of Buddhism, and how each of the cultures influence the practice of Buddhism, that the author is looking at.
India
The Indian philosophy schools saw the Universal Self behind everything, and the individuals as only temporary and particular illusions. Indian character was influenced by this generally in a stress on the universal over the particular, minimizing individuality, alienation from the objective natural world, the introspective and metaphysical character of Indian thought, and tolerance and conciliation. Indian thought influenced ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.
China
The Chinese did not accept Buddhism in its Indian form, and after its introduction, it was modified under the influence of Chinese thinking. The Chinese put more emphasis on the individual and particular than the universal so the universal was downplayed in Chinese Buddhism. Their focus on the particulars made them much more focused on the past and antiquity, which they saw as being the more important. The Chinese also placed more emphasis on the individual so that he could purify himself and not depend on anyone else.
The Chinese way of thinking has influenced Korea and Vietnam.
Tibet
Tibet is a huge area of land north of the Himalayas and Myanmar and covering the entirety of southwest China; completely mountainous in geographic terrain, and very isolated. The harsh conditions of the climate and geography bred tough people, that were focused on meeting material needs, but also were bound up to each other. This manifested in an absolute adherence to the Lama, their Buddhist leader, but this absolute submission was the opposite of Indian Buddhism, which stressed the need to let go of all earthly attachments.
Tibetan Buddhism influenced the vast inland area of Asia, including the interior of China, Mongolia, up into Manchuria, and central Asia.
Japan
The author is Japanese, so this section is by far the largest and most detailed. The Japanese did not accept the Indian concept of getting past the material. They instead believed the phenomenal/material world WAS everything. They also used Buddhism to stress roles within the traditional Japanese society, which went from family to clan, to nation, and finally even to emperor worship. This was due to the Japanese emphasis on propriety within the group.
The History of Milan- Ella Noyes (1908)
This is a 250 page book, about 130 is dedicated to the actual history of Milan, the rest is dedicated to architectural descriptions of some of the major sites, which didn’t interest me. The history itself is thin up until about the eleventh century, where apparently the author had enough material to start fleshing things out a bit more. It then covers the Visconti and Sforza families up until the French and Spanish. Once the Spaniards arrive in the late 1500’s she stops worrying about it, and that’s where the history ends. She simply mentions that they were there, the Milanese had lost their independence, and therefore there wasn’t much to report.
Envy- Helmut Schoeck (1969)
This may turn out to be one of my favorite books. It’s certainly one of the top two anthropology books I’ve read. So in America, we sometimes use the word envy in the sense of admiration: “I really envy you. You got a great job, etc”. But the older sense of the word is the resentment aroused by someone else’s possessions.
At root, we have an ability to perceive and analyze things, AND a visceral gut-level reaction to them. It’s the combination of intellect and emotion. If we see something that is unjust, we not only recognize it as unjust, we feel it as unjust, which will often prompt us to action against it. Envy is that ability, but turned to a negative. Our capacity for envy is, the book argues, a necessary building block for society. Because of our capacity for envy, we aim for fairness and regulate behaviors when necessary.
In more recent times (the last few centuries…), social movements have arisen with the idea of eliminating envy, by eliminating the causes of envy- inequality. But unfortunately, this is misguided. The author goes through many particular instances of exceptionally egalitarian tribal societies, and finds that envy is even more rampant in those places, because envy is something that springs from man’s heart. The social movements have misdiagnosed the problem. One can’t build an envy-free society if the capacity for envy is necessary to build a society in the first place. And once envy is unleashed in men, it knows almost no boundaries. It cannot be appeased.
The envy in many developing tribal or larger societies is a barrier to development. If the equality of all members is rigidly enforced, so that any member who gains any kind of advantage is seen to have brought social disharmony, then stagnation is incentivized and rewarded, innovation is ruthlessly punished.
Various schemes have been devised to mitigate envy: fate and the idea of an impartial distribution of luck goes some way towards mitigating envy; many religions carry the concept of settling accounts in the afterlife, which encourage those in this life to let go of envy. There is no culture throughout history that did not consider envy a serious threat to social cohesion.
Fingersmith- Sarah Waters (2002)
Had I known what this novel was before I bought it, I wouldn’t have, not because it wasn’t a good read, but it just isn’t what I’m normally after in a book. That said, the story was really engaging. I’m not going to bother going into the plot here, since it’s kind of involved and would take some time.
The Glass Castle- Jeannette Walls (2005)
This is a memoir of writer Jeannette Walls’ childhood. Her mother and father are um…. heterodox characters. Her father is smart, too smart for his own good, as my own mother would have said; and her mother is a free-spirit who’s addicted to excitement. They have 4 kids, but since their dad can’t keep a job, and they need to skip town frequently in the early years to keep ahead of trouble, they live a troubled lifestyle. The portrayal is as balanced as it can be. The parents’ shortcomings aren’t glossed over, but you get a feel for their side of things too. But as the kids grow older, the shortcomings just increase, and what may have seemed harmless as small children continues to mount up until all the kids have one goal: get free from the parents.
The thing that sticks out to me is the stories we tell ourselves. The father is smart, but he thinks he is so much smarter than everyone else that he can’t hold a job for more than a few months at a time. He manages to piss off everyone around him, but in his own mind people who work at jobs are conformist tools or corrupt. He’s also increasingly a drunk, and his refusal to submit himself to any authority lands him time again in the gutter.
The mom would be called lazy, uncaring, and selfish. But she sees herself as allowing the children free reign to learn for themselves, and not wanting to box them in. Mom too will work at times, but considers it too restrictive for her own artistic personality, and shirks her responsibilities, preferring to rely on someone else to provide for her.
Consequences for our actions- reality, should eventually hit us hard enough, that when we repeatedly make bad decisions, we should figure out- don’t to that. But here is where the stories come in. The parents had told themselves their own stories long enough that they immunized themselves to the consequences.
The consequences were neutralized: homelessness was freedom; so that they were unable to learn from their circumstances.
The Other Boleyn Girl- Philippa Gregory (2001)
Historical novel about Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn, who was Henry VIII’s second wife, and the cause of his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and his break from the Roman Catholic Church to form the Church of England, in order to obtain that divorce.
Mary and Anne are sisters in the powerful Boleyn family, fully ensconced in the English court as ladies in waiting to the Queen. But Queen Catherine has not given Henry a male heir, and has miscarried several times, and further, is no longer young. Mary catches the eye of the King and becomes his mistress, bearing him two children- a daughter and a son. The family plots for Mary to supplant the Queen, but Anne, the more vivacious of the sisters, slowly supplants Mary as Henry’s favorite. Anne schemes to have Catherine discarded and make herself Queen. Anne does become queen, but is unable to produce a male heir and three years later is sidelined, falsely accused of adultery, the marriage is annulled and she is executed.
The novel was primarily of interest to me for its portrayal of power, and what it does to the people around it.
Mary accepts her role as a tool of the family to be used for power plays. When she has her own kids though, she sees a life beyond the court. When Anne takes her place and schemes to have Catherine removed, she sows the seeds for her own downfall, by removing the protections the queen had against the whims of the king. In the end, it’s hard to feel sorry for Anne, even if the mechanism for her downfall is false accusation. She was (at least in the book) a power hungry, extremely arrogant and abrasive hypocrite who overplayed her hand and gained too many enemies in the process. That said, even the good Catherine had lost her place, so there was never going to be any room given for failure to produce a male heir.
At the end, most of the players who had given their lives for power, in fact, lost their lives for power.
A Man Called Ove- Fredrik Backman (2012)
Story of Ove, a grumpy old man in Sweden, who is 6 months widowed, and just recently forcefully retired from his long time job. He is intent on committing suicide so he can join his wife, but life keeps interrupting him. A new family moves in across the way: Patrick, Parvaneh, a 30-year-old very pregnant Iranian immigrant, and their two daughters. Parvaneh continually imposes on Ove, who grumpily tolerates the disruptions, but slowly Parvaneh draws him into situations he would never get into himself and Ove becomes someone that his neighbors begin to appreciate, rather than avoid.
I watched the American movie remake: A Man Called Otto, and the Swedish movie remake as well.
All the Light We Cannot See- Anthony Doerr- (2014)
Marie-Laure is a blind French girl who flees the German invasion, moving to Saint-Malo on the northern coast of France. Werner Pfennig is a German soldier with a genius for mathematics and radio. The German army uses his skill to establish the whereabouts of resistance fighters. As the war draws to a close, he is called to Saint-Malo to try and locate a nightly broadcast by Marie-Laure’s uncle, Etienne. When he is taken prisoner, she takes over. The briefly meet, but must separate since the German’s are on the run, and he doesn’t want her caught up in whatever might happen to him. He is soon captured by the Americans, but wanders off and steps on a landmine, which kills him. There are some loose ends tied up in 1974, and again in 2014.
The White Tiger- Aravind Adiga (2008)
This was a fantastic novel, which provided something I’m always looking for in life: an extra angle that helps me fill in some missing truth; gives me one more piece of the puzzle. The story is about a boy from poverty stricken rural India, which he calls the Darkness. The ‘Light’ is that realm of untouchable people- politicians, businessmen, etc, that exploit the rest. But Adiga notes that it is in essence society, and particularly family ties that often hold those in the servant class down, and one could break free, but it would cost him his family.
Combined with the Envy book I had read earlier, this fits with the description of tribal life as a barrier to innovation, because anyone that innovates and begins to improve their life is seen as a problem, leading to most people refusing to attempt to stand out. But the insight I felt like I gained from this story was that, while exploitation of others is not a good thing, perhaps it is structurally useful in order to break the tribal mentality that bars societies from getting to the point where individual disparity is allowed, which is the necessary ingredient that allows innovation and progress to growth.
Of course, as the author notes, India is still stuck in this intermediate stage, which is not where we would want society to be. Ultimately, we want to see society allow individuals to excel so that everyone can benefit, even if not everyone benefits equally. So the insight I feel like I got wasn’t spoon-fed by the author, but the book helped me make the connection.