Hind’s Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard

Hind’s Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard

The Lord God is my strength, and he has made my feet like hind’s feet, and makes me walk on my high places. ~ Habaukkuk 3:19

Hind’s Feet on High Places is the tale of Much-Afraid and her journey to the High Places. Much-Afraid is crippled, deformed, and unattractive; she lives in the Valley of Humiliation with similarly miserable relatives such as her aunt Dismal Foreboding, cousins Gloomy and Spiteful. Most of all, she is plagued by her cousin Craven-Fear who intends to make Much-Afraid his wife, even against her will.

But Much-Afraid senses that her life should be something more meaningful. She has one friend, the Good Shepherd, whom she meets daily at the trysting place. She speaks to him of her desire to leap on the mountain heights like the wild deer. The Shepherd promises to help her reach the High Places, and make her beautiful and whole, if she will but trust him. 

She is beset by fears and doubts, reluctant to set out on such a hazardous and impossible journey, but she does eventually trust the Shepherd and he plants the seed of love in her heart, an initially painful process, which immediately produces resolve and hope. 

The Good Shepherd provides companions for Much-Afraid – companions she is none too glad for – Suffering and Sorrow.

The journey is begun, but indeed not without suffering and sorrow. At each difficulty however, Much-Afraid learns to lean more completely upon the Good Shepherd and he brings victory and a new lesson.

Hind’s Feet is a Christian allegory, describing the journey from unbelief to childlike faith, to mature faith, to faith that serves others. 

The High Places, are not to be mistaken for Heaven, but rather the place of submission and obedience that produces peace and joy, and a servant’s heart. Much-Afraid is given a new name, Grace and Glory, and in her rapture, she thinks of her suffering relatives and countrymen in the Valley of Humiliation. She determines to return to the valley, along with her companions who have been transformed to Peace and Joy, in order to share the hope and good news of the Good Shepherd’s transforming love (the Christian’s Great Commission).

The title: Hind’s Feet on High Places is taken from Habakkuk, but many portions of the narrative are derived from The Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon), which is a tender and intimate love story, which in turn is a good description of Hind’s Feet on High Places.

I look forward to reading more of this tale, in the sequel: Mountains of Spices.

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Dante's Inferno

Inferno by Dante Alighieri                                                                                  (translated by Robert and Jean Hollander)

ABANDON ALL HOPE, YOU WHO ENTER HERE.

Inferno is the first part, of Dante’s epic poem The Divine Comedy, which is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. It describes Dante’s journey through Hell, guided by Roman poet Virgil. It isn’t precisely clear why Dante is appointed to this journey – only that he is appointed by divine will, and Virgil is his guide, presumably because Virgil, now only a shade, has made the journey himself, and is much revered by Dante.

Hell is described as nine circles. Less serious crimes are punished less severely in the higher levels and as Virgil and Dante descend they discover more heinous criminals and greater punishment culminating in the ninth level, the lowest pit of Hell, where they encounter infamous traitors Judas, Brutus, and Cassius, who are tormented by the chief of traitors Satan himself.

It’s grim reading.

At the very outset, before entering the netherworld Dante writes…

     In middle of the journey of our days

     I found that I was in a darksome wood

     The right road lost and vanished in the maze.

I particularly like this, as he uses first person singular “I”, after previously using the plural “our”. I believe this signifies both an individual and collective conscious and conscience. 

As they prepare to enter the Gates of Hell, Dante sees the fearsome sign…

     THROUGH ME THE WAY TO THE CITY OF WOE,

     THROUGH ME THE WAY TO ETERNAL PAIN,

     THROUGH ME THE WAY AMONG THE LOST.

     JUSTICE MOVED MY MAKER ON HIGH.

     DIVINE POWER MADE ME,

     WISDOM SUPREME, AND PRIMAL LOVE.

     BEFORE ME NOTHING WAS BUT THINGS ETERNAL,

     AND I ENDURE ETERNALLY.

     ABANDON ALL HOPE, YOU WHO ENTER HERE.

Each level of Hell is guarded a different demon. They challenge Dante’s right as a living soul to enter, until they are rebuked by Virgil…

     Hinder not his destined journey.

     It is so willed where will and power are one,

     and ask no more.

And with that, they are suffered to pass.

In the early going, Dante feels pity for the souls he sees, but Virgil reminds him that the souls all enjoyed free will and a season to repent. Or, as one commentator put it…

…the time for mercy is here in this world, while in the world to come it is time only for justice. ~ Guido da Pisa

One of the more striking things about the punishment meted out, whether to the lustful or gluttons, violent or blasphemers, hypocrites or thieves, was that the punishment fit the crime. They were punished by their own vices. 

As Hollander put it…

What they did above, they do below…

Or as the narrative describes…

     And she to me: “There is no greater sorrow

     than to recall our time of joy

     in wretchedness – and this your teacher knows.

Or…

     How many now above who think themselves

     great kings will lie here in the mud, like swine,

     leaving behind nothing but ill repute!

Or…

     Every evil deed despised in Heaven

     has as its end injustice. Each such end

     harms someone else through either force or fraud.

Or…

     Then my leader [Virgil] spoke with a vehemence

     I had not heard him use before: “O, Capaneus,

     because your pride remains unquenched

     you suffer greater punishment.

     In your own anger lies your agony,

     a fitting torment for your rage.”

It was, as I said a grim, but fascinating read. 

I often had to remind myself: Dante’s Inferno is literature, not Christian doctrine. And although there are a great many particulars on which I disagree quite strongly with Dante’s conception, there is a profound theme that I believe is true…

God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. Galatians 6:7

A word about this translation. I can only imagine that translating poetry is a tremendous challenge. I am not qualified to comment on the quality of this translation, but I can say I found it quite accessible, and I think the team makes good sense: Dante scholar Robert Hollander and his poet wife Jean Hollander. My unscholarly opinion: they did a marvelous job of maintaining the great power and terrible beauty of the message.

Finally, when I read Shakespeare, I keep watch for those little sayings of the Bard’s that have passed into modern English vernacular, such as Neither here nor there or Mum’s the word. I noted such a saying by Dante in Inferno. Virgil tells Dante he has not seen enough yet to form some opinion. Virgil’s words are (keep in mind the circles of Hell)

…you have not come full circle

Ironically, this saying, is misattributed to Shakespeare as he uses it in King Lear.

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If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino (novel #142)

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

“The novels I prefer,” she says, “are those that make you feel uneasy from the very first page…” ~ Ludmilla

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler is a very unusual novel. It is a frame story, employing metafiction. It is the story of a reader, two readers actually, trying to read. Philosophically, I’d say it is a story about the love of reading.

It is marvelously clever, though a bit confusing on first read. Each chapter begins with second person narrative explaining something to you, the reader, about the nature of your reading. It is filled with wonderful advice about how to enjoy the reading experience, such as…

…having your feet up is the first condition for enjoying a read.

Or asking before you begin…

Do you have to pee? 

After the second person narrative, begins a metafictional first chapter – about a reluctant traveler, on a clandestine mission, who misses his contact in a foreign train station. It’s quite compelling, leaving you wanting more, but next comes another second person narrative explaining why you cannot continue reading that story. The pattern continues throughout the book: second person narrative, a completely new metafictional first chapter, again interrupted, continued reading impossible, followed by another second person narrative and another new metafictional first chapter.

The second person narrative is the real story.

Though I have to admit, each of the metafictional first chapters are quite captivating.

The frustrated reader meets a fellow frustrated reader, and the two share a wild and ridiculous adventure continuously trying to find the next chapter.

The you reader, is male, and believe it or not the fellow frustrated reader is female, young and beautiful. Go figure. She, Ludmilla, has some insightful ideas on reading:

“The novels I prefer,” she says, “are those that make you feel uneasy from the very first page…”

“The novel I would most like to read at this moment,” Ludmilla explains, “should have as its driving force only the desire to narrate, to pile stories upon stories, without trying to impose a philosophy of life on you, simply allowing you to observe its own growth, like a tree, an entangling, as if of branches and leaves…”

There’s a boundary line: on one side are those who make books, on the other those who read them. I want to remain one of those who read them, so I take care always to remain on my side of the line.

The pattern continues, and comes to a very pleasing if not quite complete closure. It’s brilliant. If you read this blog with any regularity, you probably love reading, so if you have not – you ought to read If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler. This was a reread for me. I’ll definitely read more of Calvino.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book satisfies square G-2 in the 2020 Classic BINGO challenge

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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (novel #141)

To reject that part of the Buddha that attends to the analysis of motorcycle maintenance is to miss the Buddha entirely. ~ narrator

 

This book is a bit difficult to categorize. It is a fictionalized autobiography told in story form by the first-person narrator, Pirsig of course, though he never identifies himself, not by that name at least. Pirsig has this to say about the book in the introduction:

…it should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. It's not very factual on motorcycles, either.

 

It is also difficult to synopsize. At first, it is very much what the title describes – the narrator’s application of Zen principles to motorcycle maintenance, set during a cross-country motorcycle trip with the narrator’s adolescent son Chris, and friends John and Sylvia Sutherland.

 

The narrative recounts the places, people, and events of the trip, interrupted frequently by the narrator’s Chautauquas – philosophical discussions on numerous subjects, but mostly on the concept of “Quality”.

 

Slowly, the reader realizes the trip is revisiting old places, people, and events from the narrator’s past – from before he went insane.

 

The narrator recalls these vestiges through the memories of who he was before – before insanity – the person Phaedrus.

He [Phaedrus] was single-mindedly pursuing a truth he felt was of staggering importance to the world.

All he had left was his one crazy lone dream of Quality, a map of a route across the mountain, for which he had sacrificed everything. Then after the electrodes were attached, he lost that.

I think his pursuit of the ghost of rationality occurred because he wanted to wreak revenge on it, because he felt he himself was so shaped by it. He wanted to free himself from his own image.

 

The narrator, perfectly sane now opines…

I think there is such a thing as Quality, but that as soon as you try to define it, something goes haywire. You can’t do it.

 

And professes that his purpose for the trip and the Chautauquas is to...

bury him [Phaedrus] – forever.

 

The trip is also an attempt by the narrator to re-connect with his son Chris, who clearly has memories of his father before, and his father now. At times the trip seems to be having a gentle and reassuring effect on their relationship, at other times it seems only to drive a wedge. 

 

And then – a stunning end. Who was mad? Phaedrus or the narrator? Who would survive? What would it mean for Chris. Recommendation: Read the final two chapters in hard-copy. my eReader did not include an all-important font change, that differentiates between the narrator’s words and those of Phaedrus. Fortunately, I have a tree-book as well, and had some forewarning of this nuance. 

 

Mixed emotions. I think Pirsig did a marvelous job of telling his story, and the ending is very clever. He offers intimate and honest insight on his philosophy. I enjoyed the travelogue and the narrator’s interaction with his son. But the philosophical discussions? Some were fascinating, but my biggest – not so much complaint, but – my biggest meh? It was a good deal too much navel-gazing for me.

My rating: 3 ½ of 5 Stars

This book satisfies square I-2 in 2020 Classic Bingo Challenge.

It also satisfies The Classics Club Spin #22

 

Excerpts (all words of the narrator):

 

Although motorcycle riding is romantic, motorcycle maintenance is purely classic.

 

I suppose if I were a novelist rather than a Chautauqua orator I’d try to develop the characters of John and Sylvia and Chris with action-packed scenes that would also reveal inner meanings of Zen and maybe Art and maybe even Motorcycle Maintenance.

 

To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top.

 

What Phaedrus has been talking about as Quality, Socrates appears to have described as the soul, self-moving, the source of all things.

 

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Back to the Classics Challenge 2020

Books and Chocolate is hosting Back to the Classics Challenge 2020

My selections (subject to change) Oops! my original post had three works that do not meet the rules of being published 1970 or earlier. I've replaced the translation, woman author, and adapted classic categories with older works and am now in compliance with the rules :)

 

19th Century Classic: Nicholas Nickleby * (1838)

20th Century Classic: Where the Red Fern Grows * (1961)

Classic by a Woman Author: Under the Net (Iris Murdoch)

Classic in Translation: The Stranger * (French)

Classic by a Person of Color: The Tale of Genji * (Murasaki Shikibu, Japanese)

A Genre Classic: Phantastes * (fantasy) 

Classic with a Person's Name in the Title: Jude the Obscure *

Classic with a Place in the Title: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall *

Classic with Nature in the Title: Wide Sargasso Sea *

Classic About a Family: The Castle of Otranto *

Abandoned Classic: Riders of the Purple Sage *

 

Classic Adaptation: The Sign of the Four  (numerous film renditions)

* also used in the 2020 Classic Bingo Challenge)

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2020 Classic Bingo Challenge

Goodreads group, Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) hosts a Classic Bingo Challenge each year. The categories change each year. There is no deadline for joining in, so feel free. The categories this year are:

I’m shooting for Level Four Bingo: Filling out the entire board. The following are the titles I’ve chosen (subject to change):

B1: The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu *

B2: Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy *

B3: The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story by Horace Walpole *

B4: George Washington: Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Leader by Robert F. Jones

B5: Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens *

I1: The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle *

I2: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

I3: All’s Well that Ends Well by Shakespeare

I4: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

I5: TheHouse on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson

N1: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë *

N2: The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch

N3: At Swim Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien

N4: Twenty-six Men and a Girl by Maxim Gorky

N5: WideSargasso Sea by Jean Rhys *

G1: Phantastes by George MacDonald *

G2: If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

G3: Rudyard Kipling: Selected Poems

G4: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

G5: The Stranger by Albert Camus *

O1: Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

O2: Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey *

O3: Wherethe Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls *

O4: Greenmantle by John Buchan

O5: Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow

* (will also be used to complete the Back to the Classics 2020 Challenge)

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