I wasn’t sure what I was getting into once I began turning pages of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 1995 novel. Soon it became clear that I was reading very fine prose soaked in a surreal melancholy. But I was also caught in a dream sequence lasting over five-hundred pages. I couldn’t wake up. I couldn’t get out. But I found amazing and unbelievable shortcuts in time and space.
The characters were worse off–the dreaminess was natural to them–no wonder at which to gape. It was a curious experience to watch them lament their mistakes, especially in relationships, but then plunge headlong into further alienation with the people they love. And they can’t stop.
Marriages run into trouble here. Just as in real life, and in television sit-coms, people don’t talk. Therefore, small alienations grow and fester for decades. Small and insignificant vulnerabilities are protected at the cost of honesty. All it would take, I was thinking, was for this husband to confess one important thing to this wife, and healing would take root. But that would violate the unwritten rules of this strange universe. And so people there remain unconsoled.
I suspect that the author operates from a worldview of people trapped in their tragedies. Hence the title, which seems to reflect everybody in this nameless European city. My wife asks me why I read depressing books like this. In the final pages, the wife and son of Ryder, the main character, are within his grasp. Say something, my wife would urge. (She didn’t read it, but she would shout it out in the middle of the night.) Adopt the path of healing and reconciliation. The woman and boy move on. And Ryder does too, to the next recital in the next city. His sad little boat weathered its wave. Now it’s righted and it’s time to move on.
I read these books with the lens of my faith. I like this author, and I respond to his well-traveled sojourn into melancholy. But personally, I don’t believe I’m a captive of my personality, my life’s mistakes, and my fears of self-disclosure. I will choose to blunder headlong into admissions, confessions, and such. While I might not be able to work out my redemption any more than Mr Ishiguro’s sad and surreal characters, it is not required I remain adrift in life, fluttering back and forth between the occasional angry or frustrated outburst and long periods of steady state lamentations.
Read this book; it’s quite good. It’s not the best he’s written. The long monologues might have deeper meaning, but I’m not sure. Sometimes they’re just boring interludes. I was looking more into the motivations and the failed interactions between the characters. Depression and narcissism make worse bedfellows than estranged spouses.
The following section, while not footnoted, contains some common sense advice for how the Church is presented to the neighborhood.
§ 98 § When constructed and maintained well, the outside of a church can proclaim the Gospel to the city or town in which it is located. Even before the members of the worshiping community enter through the doors of the building, the external environment with its landscaping, artwork, and lighting can contribute to a gracious approach to the place of worship. Creative landscaping that separates the entrance to the church from the parking area as well as well-placed religious art can facilitate the spiritual transition as people move to a sense of communal worship. Appropriate signage can provide information and can offer hospitality and an invitation to enter the space for worship. Walkways with well designed patterns of stone or other materials subtly contribute to the awareness that believers are about to enter holy ground. When choosing a site for a church, consideration should be given to the possibility of landscaped setback so that the church building is not completely surrounded by the parking lot.
An appeal for real bells would have been nice. But the point of bells is largely lost on modern Catholics in my country. Synthesized bell sounds pushed out hidden speakers seems more the rule.
§ 99 § It is an ancient practice to summon the Christian people to the liturgical assembly or to alert them to important happenings in the local community by means of bells. The peal of bells is an expression of the sentiments of the People of God as they rejoice or grieve, offer thanks or petition, gather together and show outwardly the mystery of their oneness in Christ.
All texts from Built of Living Stones are copyright © 2000, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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Jodie Foster’s character conceded, “They should have sent a poet.”
Will a singer do?
I wonder if they’ll dispense with the missoin control wake-up music and have Ms Brightman sing for her supper.
Can she sing it like Diana?
Are there boundaries which we may not cross? Apparently not, according to the Gospel and the bishops:
49. Jesus’ last words in St. Mark’s Gospel confer on the evangelization which the Lord entrusts to His apostles a limitless universality: “Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation.”[Mk 16:15]
The Twelve and the first generation of Christians understood well the lesson of this text and other similar ones; they made them into a program of action. Even persecution, by scattering the apostles, helped to spread the Word and to establish the Church in ever more distant regions. The admission of Paul to the rank of the apostles and his charism as the preacher to the pagans (the non Jews) of Jesus’ Coming underlined this universality still more.
As the “new” evangelization invites us, perhaps, to something of a penitential outreach to inactive or indifferent believers, it is good to keep in mind that the Lord urged the Church forward. This would not negate the need for believers to seek out and inquire about those missing from the Sunday assembly. But let’s not lose track that we were once called to higher things, in even more dangerous times.
More than a social area, and a bit more than a transition space between the world and the realm of liturgy …
§ 95 § The narthex is a place of welcome—a threshold space between the congregation’s space and the outside environment. In the early days of the Church, it was a “waiting area” for catechumens and penitents. Today it serves as gathering space as well as the entrance and exit to the building. The gathering space helps believers to make the transition from everyday life to the celebration of the liturgy, and after the liturgy, it helps them return to daily life to live out the mystery that has been celebrated. In the gathering space, people come together to move in procession and to prepare for the celebration of the liturgy. It is in the gathering space that many important liturgical moments occur: men and women participate in the Rite of Becoming a Catechumen as they move towards later, full initiation into the Church; parents, godparents, and infants are greeted for the celebration of baptism; and Christians are greeted for the last time as their mortal remains are received into the church building for the celebration of the funeral rites.
Space for other rooms is provided:
§ 96 § In addition to its religious functions, the gathering space may provide access to the vesting sacristy, rooms for choir rehearsal, storage areas, restrooms, and rooms for ushers and their equipment. Adequate space for other gatherings will be an important consideration in planning the narthex and other adjoining areas.
Doors to the sacred:
§ 97 § The doors to the church have both practical and symbolic significance. They function as the secure, steady symbol of Christ, “the Good Shepherd and “the door through which those who follow him enter and are safe [as they] go in and go out.”(Book of Blessings 1229) In construction, design, and decoration, they have the ability to remind people of Christ’s presence as the Way that leads to the Father.(Book of Blessings 1216) Practically, of course, they secure the building from the weather and exterior dangers, expressing by their solid strength the safe harbor that lies within. The appearance and height of the church doors reflect their dignity and address practical considerations such as the accommodation of the processional cross or banners.
The consideration of church doors is not usually given the attention it deserves.
All texts from Built of Living Stones are copyright © 2000, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
