The Way of All Flesh

Two more "How yuh doin's" since my last post.

Here's how I'm doing. I have been thoroughly enjoying, and been much stirred by, a somewhat obscure novel. Highly recommended. Here's a review:

Samuel Butler's, The Way of All Flesh

It is baffling to this reviewer that this great work does not appear on most lists of "the greatest novels of all time." For any reader interested in Victorian fiction, it certainly rates along with anything by James, Dickens or the Brontes.

Though the novel goes to some length to prepare us for its main character by providing two thoroughly interesting generations of family history, the meat of the story begins with the introduction of Ernest Pontifex, whose lifelong character could not be better described than by his own first name. He is earnest to a fault in all that he endeavors; indeed, in all that he thinks, feels, regrets and dreams.

He is thus a perfect sort of movie screen on which the author may project his themes. Primary among these is a thorough and passionate exploration of virtually any entity in his time that might have gone under the label of "Christianity."

Herein is every denomination, movement, belief or direction that was available to the "eanest" Christian of Victorian England. The story itself, however, remains primary; and before that story has completed, we have come to know with some intimacy virtually every Victorian type as each can embody that major strain.

Earnest's parents represent wickedness covered over with religious hypocrisy. Their actions and motivations often leave the reader in a condition of palpable tenseness and subtle horror. They are drawn a little heavy-handedly, but certainly far less so than Dickens' villains.

Earnest's parents are generally contrasted by the novel's narrator, who is also Earnest's godfather, who observes and works diligently in the background in ways that provide Earnest with a "salvation" that, though quite unlike that of explicit Christian faith, seems to combine practical humanity and divine inspiration that is not unlike the very idea of incarnation.

In our own time, the novel - indeed all fiction - must compete with more immediate visual media, and therefore must always be pressing the story forward. It is the rule of the day that ideas are to be expressed only by action. This was not the case in 19th Century England, and Butler very often takes a break from the action to allow his narrator to comment and philosophize. To this reviewer, the practice, though now considered old-fashioned, only adds to the quality of this work. One who disagreed with the comments thus offered would likely take a different view.

It seems that, for Samuel Butler, "The Way of All Flesh" means that all people - at various times, in various ways, and with varying degrees of destructiveness - use the ideas of religion and righteousness as a cloak for mere manipulation and the forcing of one's will. It is an unpleasant idea, and would be almost unbearable if the novel itself did not hold out the possibility for hard-won growth toward genuineness - and perhaps even toward genuine Christian faith.

published 12/4/04 - www.abacci.com

Copyright © 2004 Donald L. McIntyre All Rights Reserved, except as stated below
Permission is hereby granted to the user to read, download and/or print one copy of any item for personal use only. Beyond that, all rights are reserved under international and pan-American copyright restrictions, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Send direct permission requests to don@donmcintyre.com, or to the address below. Include:
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An Eager Plea: I'm a big believer in making good stuff available to people who might benefit from it. But like most people, I need to take my finances seriously. It is relatively easy to copy, publish, and otherwise widely use these works without paying for the privilege. Such abuse of author's rights certainly does not encourage the continued availability of past, present or future works. Therefore, please, either order multiple copies of desired works from me for a reasonable price, or send a healthy donation - checks made out to "Words and Music."
D. L. McIntyre
don@donmcintyre.com
www.donmcintyre.com
www.wordsnmusic.com

Anybody who was alive in the vicinity of Earth two weeks ago and had a television, got to see the pre-Monday Night Football promo of "Desparate Housewives" - complete with current conventional outrageous athlete and current conventional blond B actress - replayed at least a thousand times. Why? Because somebody, no doubt a bunch of those Fundamentalist Conservatives - and what the heck were they doing watching MNF with their kids anyway? - were offended. As usual, everybody *except* Bill Clinton, the Unibomber and France, felt they needed to offer hypocritical apologies and hand wringing condemnations.

But none of that was the real show. The real show came afterward, when everybody and his or her favorite token illegal alien used the stupid thing as a Rorschach test for their own pet agenda addictions, as follows:

If you see everything through the eyes of racial prejudice, it was all about a white woman's involvement with a black man.

If you see everything through the eyes of gender politics, it was all about (choose one): a. an empowered woman in a male-dominated locker room, or b. sexual exploitation of the female form for the brutish football fan, or c. both.

If you see everything through the eyes of sports, it was all about delaying the start of the game.

If you see everything through the eyes of thinly veiled Marxism, it was all about using popular images to get more money out of the poor.

If you see everything through the eyes of alcohol consumption, it was all about getting the audience's attention away from the athletes and poorly clad female bodies in beer commercials.

If you see everything through the eyes of Left Wing ideology, and if your pet agenda has not yet been covered, it was all about recruiting more poor soldiers for the Republican military machine. (How, you ask? When did logical connections matter to these people?)

If you see everything through the eyes of Right Wing ideology, and if your pet agenda has not yet been covered, it was all about the ridicule and destruction of traditional and/or family values (even though the two participants were clearly on their way to starting a family. O'm'gosh! Do you think it might have been about mixing the races? After all, aren't all conservatives just Nazis who hate everybody except other Nazis? What the heck were they doing watching MNF? And what team were they rooting for?)

Finally, if you see everything through the ideas of an ugly underachieving middle-aged fan of good literature, unconventional Christianity and post-modern philosophy it was all about being fustrated that my beloved Buffalo Bills hardly ever get to be on national television, or deserve to. I guess I was just being shallow.


Copyright © 2004 Donald L. McIntyre All Rights Reserved, except as stated below
Permission is hereby granted to the user to read, download and/or print one copy of any item for personal use only. Beyond that, all rights are reserved under international and pan-American copyright restrictions, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Send direct permission requests to don@donmcintyre.com, or to the address below. Include:
-your full name
-your permanent address and phone number
-the specific content for which you are requesting permission
-a brief description of how you wish too use the content
An Eager Plea: I'm a big believer in making good stuff available to people who might benefit from it. But like most people, I need to take my finances seriously. It is relatively easy to copy, publish, and otherwise widely use these works without paying for the privilege. Such abuse of author's rights certainly does not encourage the continued availability of past, present or future works. Therefore, please, either order multiple copies of desired works from me for a reasonable price, or send a healthy donation - checks made out to "Words and Music."
D. L. McIntyre
don@donmcintyre.com
www.donmcintyre.com
www.wordsnmusic.com