Word: religion
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Rendille tribesmen resting under a tree. He then wanted to know, "What do they do ail day long?" Told that they tended cattle, he persisted: "Yes. But what do they do while they're tending cattle?" And later he wondered whether "these local people have a pagan religion." To such questions posed by California Governor Jerry Brown, his African hosts could only smile...
IRONICALLY just these observations allow the reader to understand what Matthiessen means and how he can come by his beliefs and his escapes. The Himalayan world he depicts is the enactment of his religion. Seen through Western eyes the Himalayan people calmly progress through prayers and days alike, buffetted by little and infrequently alarmed. Their life isn't meaningless, but neither is its meaning marked. It just is, which is precisely Matthiessen's point...
...among wonders. Whether he is able to become one with them or not is immaterial to the working of the book, though it is not immaterial to the working of the man. Through his descriptions, observations and perception, Matthiessen is able to blend history and culture, religion and nature ceaselessly and perfectly. Nothing is out of place, nothing is missing...
...telling us who he is, what he did and where he went Matthiessen makes the expedition, and the country and the way of life he visited so briefly, tangible and real. He has explained a religion as well as he has described his journey, and he has described his trek as well as any explorer could ever hope...
Harold Bloom's earlier studies of William Blake and W.B. Yeats, both impressive works of literary criticism, should have taught him to beware these dangers. But in The Flight to Lucifer. Bloom's latest work, the author's zeal to communicate an obscure but not inherently tedious theory of religion overwhelms him, and he does not live up to his chosen role of myth-maker. Bloom clothes his doctrinal argument in a flimsy mantle of epic fantasy. He would probably have done better to write an essay than this dreary mess...