Christmas Tales - 2019

The Magi honored the Christ child with three gifts.

and in honor of the magi, I read three Christmas tales each December. My Christmas reads are also part of A Literary Christmas – sponsored by In the Bookcase.

At Christmas Time by Anton Chekhov is an extremely short short story – six pages. It is divided neatly into two parts – two separate settings. In the first, an illiterate peasant woman hires someone to write a letter to her only child, a daughter who married and moved away four years earlier. The woman is heartbroken that she hasn’t heard from her daughter. The second setting is the daughter overjoyed to receive her mother’s letter, but then plunged into despair at her plight – married, three small children, in a small apartment, very nearly trapped by her husband, a heartless brute who carelessly forgets to post the letters his wife writes to her parents. 

It’s a pretty depressing tale, but quite poignant. Mother and daughter each feel forsaken by the other, but the foibles of human communication hide the truth – that they are loved, remembered, and missed, which would surely be of some comfort in the midst of their dismal lives. 

And although I liked At Christmas Time, it left me longing for something a bit cheerier.

Fortunately, next up was Dickens’ The Trial of Life, the fourth of Dickens’ five Christmas tales: A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain. It is the least popular, least known, and barely qualifies as a Christmas Tale – there is only one scene at Christmas that could have just as affectively been at any time of the year. It is the only one of Dickens’ Christmas tales with no element of supernatural.

It is about Doctor Jeddler who was a great philosopher, 

...and the heart and mystery of his philosophy was. To look upon the world as a gigantic practical joke;

But the good Doctor’s philosophy is challenged by the fates and fortunes of his two daughters – beautiful and virtuous as you would expect from Dickens heroines. 

And after all, Doctor Jeddler is compelled to change his philosophy…

“It is a world full of hearts,” said the Doctor, hugging his youngest daughter, and bending across her to hug Grace – for he couldn’t separate the sisters; “and a serious world, with all its folly – even with mine, which was enough to have swamped the whole globe; and it is a world on which the sun never rises, but it looks upon a thousand bloodless battles that are some setoff against the miseries and wickedness of Battle-Fields; and it is a world we need be careful how we libel, Heaven forgive us, for it is a world of sacred mysteries, and its Creator only knows what lies beneath the surface of His lightest image!”

I found it to be a marvelous little tale about love and sacrifice, and in true Dickensian fashion, sublimely happy in the end, but yet…

There was an unexpected development. I’ve read quite a bit of Dickens, and thought I knew where he was going, but in the end, he “Wowed” me. Everything was NOT as it seemed. It’s a bit like David Copperfield meets A Tale of Two Cities, much shorter of course, which is high praise since those are two of my favorites by Dickens.

And finally, the best known of the three, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E. T. Hoffman.

You probably know something of the story, of a marvelous nutcracker who comes to life to battle the evil mouse king. It is a fairy tale in the truest sense – there is a mysterious portal between our world and another, that opens at infrequent times and to select few, usually it seems, the innocent and unspoiled.

In this tale, young Marie is the privileged traveler, whom no one believes, except perhaps with a wink and a whisper her eccentric Godfather Drosselmeyer, the clockmaker, toymaker, and almost it seems the director of this drama.

It’s an excellent tale. If you’ve only experienced the ballet based upon this fairy tale, I’d recommend reading the story. There is much more going on than the ballet can reveal.

Merry Christmas

          ~ The Wanderer

May you be blessed with

the spirit of the season, which is Peace,

the gladness of the season, which is Hope, 

and the heart of the season, which is Love

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The Trial by Franz Kafka (46 down 54 to go)

This is the first time I’ve read The Trial or Franz Kafka. It is a modernist era novel, allegorical, existential, and I'd say somewhat satirical. A precise time or place is never set, but a few clues suggest Northern Europe, early 20th century. Other elements are similarly vague such as the main character, Josef K., whom the omniscient narrator refers to simply as K. The lack of detail is probably an intentional device of the author to make the underlying meaning of the allegory relevant in any generation or culture

My rating: 3 1/2 of 5 Stars

This novel satisfies square I4 of 2015 Classics Bingo: Translated Classic

Several factors tempered my experience. First, I didn’t realize it was an allegory (it is not universally believed to be so, but I am convinced) until well into the story and this left me confused in the beginning. Second, I’d read a synopsis about a man arrested by agents of an unknown jurisdiction who is brought to trial on unspecified charges by a mysterious and aloof authority. I was expecting a mystery, crime drama, maybe magical realism, but of course my expectations were never met. To be fair, I need to reread The Trial, and I will someday. I think a better understanding at the beginning will lead to a better overall experience. Finally, certain portions are incomplete. One chapter ends with the publisher’s note: “this chapter was left unfinished.” No reread will ever solve that.

The story is compelling from the very beginning. Josef K. is arrested, but the charges, proceedings, rules of evidence, etc. are all very vague. For instance, K. is told he must not fail to appear in court, but he is not given the precise time or place. This is all confusing, but what was maddening was K.’s resignation to the process as if it was all quite normal. That all made better sense when I realized the story is an allegory.

I think the major theme is fairly obvious: guilt, and ultimate responsibility for that guilt to an unseen authority. That’s probably not a very popular message today, but I thought it was an astute and telling commentary on the human experience. The story is rife with symbolism and caricature. In spite of what many would call a religious message, there is very little reference to any specific organized religion.

At one point, a court insider asks K. what type of acquittal he wants, and explains there are three types: absolute acquittal, apparent acquittal, and deferment. He explains that the only way to get absolute acquittal is to be innocent and that 

"Only the highest judge" can give absolute acquittal, but his court is "quite out of reach for you, for me and for all of us."

Apparent acquittal gets the defendant off the hook temporarily by the assertion of innocence of influential persons, but the defendant will one day assuredly be brought up on new charges. Deferment, is the process of unceasing motions and procedures simply meant to put off judgement indefinitely.

Of course, these circumstances are ludicrous on the temporal plane, but in an eternal and spiritual context have more meaningful implications.

I have not studied Kafka’s personal life in any detail and it would be grossly unfair of me to attempt to explain his world view, though I believe The Trial gives the reader a glimpse. On certain points, it certainly resonates with me, while on others…particularly the conclusion of the matter, my own belief is as different from Kafka’s as hope is from despair.

Film Rendition: The 1962 film starring Anthony Perkins as Joseph K is a pretty faithful rendering. If anything it was even more maddening. I think if I had watched it without reading the book I would have been completely lost.

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