tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5297306090706424134.post2375881296881483686..comments2023-08-15T02:21:46.775-07:00Comments on Things and Also Stuff...: The Untenable Missionary PositionUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5297306090706424134.post-10388386284350847252011-01-13T05:49:09.550-08:002011-01-13T05:49:09.550-08:00Uncannily accurate analysis and interpretation tha...Uncannily accurate analysis and interpretation that,<br /><br /> but they were hamsters not ferrets.Darren Maherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00035977231087809840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5297306090706424134.post-3721475043997848642011-01-13T05:15:00.612-08:002011-01-13T05:15:00.612-08:00I presume(having never read it) the story is actua...I presume(having never read it) the story is actually the story of the Lawyers redemption.<br /><br />So it may read like this,<br /><br />Capitalist = Corrupt<br /><br />Missionaries = Corrupt<br /><br />Lawyers = Saints<br /><br />So all parties begin as corrupt, the obviously corrupt capitalist kids, the not so obviously corrupt but tis there all the same, missionary lady, and the lawyer whose corruption is witnessed through his alcohol abuse - self corruption.<br /><br />I presume at the start of the novel, he is having one of those Dark Nights of the Soul that we all know that solictors an lawyers are prone to(ahem), then through his actions acting as an advocate/diciple of the Law he is redeemed and purified, coming out all apple cheeked and holy?<br /><br />I dont know, but perhaps thats the point, for Grisham's purposes, the law, or in this novel, the Law, resides above capitalism or religion, that is to say the physical and spiritual which are both found to be corrupt/corrupting.<br /><br />Actually, to add another level to it, it seems, from your discription, that the society of primitives that the missionary is preaching to might also be viewed as being already corrupt even before the arrival of 'civilization'.<br /><br />It is only the Law, in its disinterested purest form, that has the power to purify and instill righteousness in its advocates.<br /><br />Which would probably plant Grisham with Kant rather than Rousseau who knew?!<br /><br />(Well, thats a shot in the dark for all i know maybe the lawyer goes on a moonshine bender and comes to to find that he has smothered a family of ferrets in his pants and tops himself with remorse)Solictous in Sallynogginhttp://www.karmel.at/ics/john/dn.htmlnoreply@blogger.com