So how’s it going for you? How far have you read?
Pages 100 through 136 provide the context for the funny, ugly scenes approaching in pages 137-165. Tracks 4 Babbino Caro and 5 Nessun Dorma provide a sort of ironic, but not really, counterpoint to the illustrations and revelations. I won’t spoil it, but I will give my thoughts.
I think ‘Ironic, but not really” sort of covers it, for me.
I mean, the crazy new agey stuff Esquivel has Anacreonte and Mammon saying about life and their respective charges, well. It should be at best silly and at worst annoying baloney. But I find myself reading passages like
“When one forgets one is a part of the whole, that one bears the Divine Essence within; when one ignores the fact one is connected with the Cosmos– like it or not– one ends up foolishly lying in bed dwelling on nonsense.”
or
“One act, however minimal, unleashes a chain reaction in the world around us… One person’s inaction paralyzes the world.”
or
“The kind of alignment I’m talking about consists of getting oneself in syntony with the loving energy circulating throughout the Cosmos. This is achieved by relaxing and letting life flow among all the cells of the body. Then Love, the cosmic DNA, will remember its genetic message, is origins, the mission assigned it… her entire being will breathe cosmic energy, and will remember it is not alone– much less, without Love.”
and feeling myself agreeing and being comforted.
Whoa!
So in this cynical era, this work is sort of funny to me, but I have to be honest. I think this work has potential to be uncovered thousands of years from now and mistaken for an exalted philosophical and moral text, perhaps much like we see the writings of the ancients we have uncovered. And that perception would not be a bad thing, at all. Butterfly effect, Conservation of Energy, String and Chaos theories, whatever… I don’t want to give a light, ironic yet also soulful literary fun run short shrift just because it isn’t so highbrow.
What do you think?
Next time : Beginning at Track 6, page 167.