Dark Like Blood

"'Holy wisdom is not clear and thin like water,
but thick and dark like blood'" (50).
C. S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces (1956)

Points for Reflection

The Bible: Proverbs 1:1-19

1. is this passage concerned with wisdom's transmission through teaching, experience, or intuition?
2. is the author addressing primarily the young and immature in the Book of Proverbs (v.4-5)?
3. why might instructors in the Jewish and Christian traditions (as well as other world religions) speak often in challenging parables as well as more direct proverbs (v.6)? What is gained by expressing something indirectly?
4. apparently, the various Hebrew words translated today simply as "fear" (yirah, yare, and pachad) denote reverent fear, terror, and dread. The similar word yirat is used in Proverbs 1:7 instead of the Hebrew word for mere respect and honor (kabad). Some readers of The Bible, drawn to the idea of a loving and benevolent God, are uncomfortable with the notion of an awesome, omnipotent, and holy deity. How do you read Proverbs 1:7?
5. does the writer of Proverbs encourage his male audience to primarily respect male authority figures (v.8-9)?
6. what does the writer of Proverbs suggest will happen to those who perpetrate violence against others (v.10-19)?
   

P. D. James' Children of Men, chps. 9-16

1. do our characters find more solace in silence than in sound?
2. does sex provide a reliable pleasure for any of the characters we meet?
3. is science utterly impotent in the post-Omega world?
4. do the female characters evince the same agency as their male counterparts?
5. has the future world envisioned by P. D. James managed to transcend the racism and nationalism that beset her own era?
6. how efficacious do the Arts prove at tempering sadness and depression?
7. Julian tells Theo she’s involved with a secret group calling for social change because God has called her to this course of action (109 bottom).  Has the novel, to this point, exploded religious ideas so completely that Julian’s faith sounds either misguided or crazy?
8. do the rules of morality governing Britain owe their fundamentals to tradition, or do they hinge on radically new criteria?
9. Theo notes that the current government’s primary goal is to provide the people with freedom from not only fear and want but boredom--something Xan also hopes to avoid by continuing to lead the country (89, 101).  Does such ennui seem to be a pervasive problem in the lives of those characters we have met thus far, or are they successfully staving off boredom?
10. given the responsibilities and temperaments of the four members of Xan’s council, does there appear to be a neat balance between “masculine” and “feminine” sensibilities?
11. do the council members’ justifications for their decisions hold more merit than Theo’s calls for reform?
12. how does the government deal with criminal behavior?
13. of the three reasons Xan cites for rising to power as Warden, and staying in the position, which does he claim is the real reason he has stayed in power for so long? Given what we learn of his character, do you think his claim valid?
14. have class divisions dissolved alongside humanity’s ability to procreate?
15. is Theo the misanthrope he believes himself to be?
16. does Theo slowly undergo an emotional renaissance, or do his feelings remain buried and undeveloped?
17. do Theo’s memories buoy him, or drag him down?
18. is Theo beginning to better understand himself, or does he grow increasingly adept at hiding important truths from his conscious mind?
19. does Theo’s aesthetic sensibility assess only inanimate things, or the living as well?
20. does the omniscient narrator provide any evidence that Theo is practiced at self-deception?
21. what did Theo’s parents do well in raising him?  Can you identify any mistakes they may have made?

Mannequin (Barcelona Mannequin) (1926-27)
oil on canvas
Salvador Dali