February 12, 2004 - 11:24 a.m.

Ridiculous and Sublime

I had two rather odd dreams last night. The first involved me hocking up a whole bunch of huge, sticky loogies (I have no idea if that's how you spell that). I ended up with my cupped hands overflowing with blobs of the stuff - eww. I think I must have been feeling congested in my sleep or something... Then I dreamt that I was out in the big SUV with the kids when someone backed into the side of it twice. Somehow, in the process, they not only scratched up the car but took off about half of the back tire. The remainder of the dream consisted of me trying to figure out whether I could drive home or if I would have to stick around with the kids waiting for a tow truck or something. Neither dream was particularly pleasant, obviously.

That was the ridiculous, now to the more sublime. I just finished reading The Poisonwood Bible this week, and I simply must rave about it a bit. It was a phenomenal book for many reasons. First of all, it was extremely well written. There are five different narrators, and Kingsolver captures each of their individual voices brilliantly without detracting from the story in any way. In fact, I think the tactic is necessary to capture how each character experienced the events of the book in her own unique way. The book also provides a fascinating commentary on both Christian fundamentalism and African colonialism. I learned a lot from the details included in the narrative about America's role in the curruption that was rampant in central Africa in the 60s and 70s. It disgusted me, frankly, and made me wander what dirty little projects the U.S. has its hands in these days. I am hopeful that our government isn't quite as secretive or colonialist as it was then, but I am not so naive as to think there aren't any current instances of America looking out for its own interests (primarily monetary ones) at the expense of native welfare and culture. Of course there were parallels between the more arrogant missionaries in the story and the Europeans who took over much of the Congo. Both were blind to the richness of culture and history in the area and obliterated much of both, often leaving the people behind with no means of supporting themselves spiritually or financially. Still, the book isn't entirely depressing and is utterly fascinating. I highly recommend it!

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flutter back - fly ahead