First Sunday of Advent and Kristin Lavransdatter

Proclaim the good news among the nations: Our God will come to save us. - Antiphon from the First Sunday of Advent

"May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones." - I Thessalonians 3:13



Salvete all!

Happy First Week of Advent everyone! I hope you all have had a lovely November. Happily I managed to complete a good bit of the projects I had set out to get done in November. I have a lot more to do of course, and lots that I'm working on now, and lots of other things besides, but hopefully we can all enter into this season of joyful expectation with great faith and peace. This week belongs to Hope, so let us turn to Him who is our Hope, despite (and especially in the face of) the anxieties of our lives.

I know for myself right now I've been really anxious about figuring out what the heck to do with my life, and, even in the more short-sighted picture, what to do for next semester! I suppose my problem is that I know what I want to do and I have the end in sight, but I have really no idea about how to get there. And that's not even just in the spiritual life. That's pretty much the story of my life in everything I do, whether it be planning out a picture, how to sew a surcoat or construct something, etc, etc. I should be getting my Associate's Degree upon the completion of this semester, but I'm not quite sure what I want to do with my next two years. Should I double major in art and history? I looked at graphic design and I really don't think that's what I want to do. UGH. I just wish I had a little bit of direction and advice, because I feel like I'm stuck in a quagmire.

But enough of that. I want to share with you all a very cool homily by Saint Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) that I just came across today:

"Beloved, now is the acceptable time spoken of by the Spirit, the day of salvation, peace and reconciliation: the great season of Advent. This is the time eagerly awaited by the patriarchs and prophets, the time that holy Simeon rejoiced at last to see. This is the season that the Church has always celebrated with special solemnity. We too should always observe it with faith and love, offering praise and thanksgiving to the Father for the mercy and love he has shown us in this mystery. In his infinite love for us, though we were sinners, he sent his only Son to free us from the tyranny of Satan, to summon us to heaven, to welcome us into its innermost recesses, to show us truth itself, to train us in right conduct, to plant within us the seeds of virtue, to enrich us with the treasures of his grace, and to make us children of God and heirs of eternal life.

Each year, as the Church recalls this mystery, she urges us to renew the memory of the great love God has shown us. This holy season teaches us that Christ's coming was not only for the benefit of his contemporaries; his power has still to be communicated to us all. We shall share his power, if, through holy faith and the sacraments, we willingly accept the grace Christ earned for us, and live by that grace and in obedience to Christ.

The Church asks us to understand that Christ, who came once in the flesh, is prepared to come again. When we remove all obstacles to his presence he will come, at any hour and moment, to dwell spiritually in our hearts, bringing with him the riches of his grace.

In her concern for our salvation, our loving mother the Church uses this holy season to teach us through hymns, canticles and other forms of expression, of voice or ritual, used by the Holy Spirit. She shows us how grateful we should be for so great a blessing, and how to gain its benefit: our hearts should be as much prepared for the coming of Christ as if he were still to come into this world. The same lesson is given us for our imitation by the words and example of the holy men of the Old Testament."

The first purple candle in the advent wreath symbolizes hope.

Advent Wreath
   

  

I also finished Kristin Lavransdatter this past Friday (November 30th 2012) so now I'm going to do my promised review of it.

And now, TO THE REVIEW!


:+: LORD SHADOWBLADE DISCUSSES: Kristin Lavransdatter:+:

:+: REVIEW AT A GLANCE: :+:

TITLE: Kristin Lavransdatter (published from 1920-1922 A.D.)
AUTHOR: Sigrid Undset (May 20th 1882 – June 10th 1949)
TRANSLATOR: Tiina Nunnally
GENRE: Historical Fiction
LENGTH:  1168 pages
DENSITY RATING:
OVERALL RATING:

:+: SUMMARY :+:

Kristin Lavransdatter is a book that follows the life of Kristin Lavransdatter, a woman of not inconsiderable lineage in medieval Norway (in the case of this book, she is born early in the 1300s, and dies around 1350-ish). This book is divided into three parts: The Wreath (1920), The Wife (1921) and The Cross (1922). The Wreath follows her in her youth, up until the time where she gets married. The Wife follows her during her early married years while she is mistress of the estate of Husaby and The Cross concludes the trilogy with her later years and finally her death.

If you are interested in a more complete sketch of the full plot, Wikipedia (as always) has a good one. I assume many of you are not familiar with the book (I know I'd never heard of it before in my life), so I will give a basic outline of the book here. In The Wreath Kristin is born to two loving parents at her home in Jørundgard, close to the Norwegian town of Sil. Her father Lavrans is a very pious, kind and good man who wants what is best for her. As a teenager she is betrothed to a man named Simon Darre. Kristin is fond of him, but does not love him. Simon, however, is genuinely in love with Kristin. She asks to spend her last year before the wedding in a convent near Oslo. While there, she falls in love with a knight (much older than herself, if I recall correctly he's about 18 years older than her) named Erlend Niklausson who has a dubious reputation at best. At the time he meets her he is an excommunicate living openly in an adulterous relationship with a woman named Eline whom he no longer loves. Erlend and Kristin conceal try to conceal their relationship from her father and her fiancée Simon. However, Simon eventually finds out about their not-so-discreet relationship (he actually walks in on them while they are doing their thing), and while he is greatly hurt and embarrassed and angry, eventually decides to release Kristin from the engagement since it is obvious to him that she prefers another man over himself. Simon, however, having a great respect and love towards her father Lavrans, asks her that she keep this a secret from him. Later, under some rather confusing circumstances, Eline is killed with Kristin and Erlend complicit in the killing, but the two put it out that she committed suicide and hush the incident up. Eventually, Lavrans (still believing Kristin is a virgin while in fact by this time she is with child) reluctantly agrees to allows Erlend to marry her. The Wreath in this novel refers to the bridal wreaths that Norwegian brides would wear to their wedding as a sign of their virginity (sort of how white wedding dresses represent virginity and purity).

The Wife follows Kristin in her married life. She lives on Erlend's estates at Husaby and begins to take over the farming there. As it turns out, Erlend (while a dashingly handsome and courageous knight) is incompetent, irresponsible and wasteful when it comes to managing anything. Kristin is very bitter about this, and tries to take everything into her own hands while she and Erlend have seven sons together. In the meantime, Kristin's younger sister, who is in love with Simon, wants to marry him. He is reluctant to marry her because she is so young and also because he is still in love with Kristin. He eventually agrees to marry her, and in the meantime, Kristin's parents die. Erlend is also in the midst of a secret plot with some other powerful nobles to upset the current king's position. The plot is discovered because of Erlend's indiscreet adulterous affair with another noblewoman while he and Kristin were angry at each other, and is imprisoned. Through the help of Simon Darre, however, Erlend is finally released. Husaby is confiscated by the Crown, and they are forced to live back at Kristin's parent's old estate at Jørundgard.

The Cross follows Kristin's life from then on until her death. At Jørundgard, the now middle-aged Kristin is forced to work hard to keep the farm going so that her sons will have an inheritance. By now her sons are teenagers and she spends much of her time worrying about their future. Erlend is greatly disliked because of his reputation and because of his arrogant attitude and is unhelpful with keeping the estate running. He and Kristin get into a heated argument and he leaves to go to a smaller estate that he had inherited from his aunt. Kristin eventually goes and seeks reconciliation with him since it was the last dying request of Simon Darre. She does so, but he puts off coming back to Jørundgard. During her stay with Erlend, she conceives another child. Nine months later, the child is born but is sick and weak and dies. Because Kristin and Erlend have been openly estranged, people believe that Kristin is having an adulterous affair with her overseer. Erlend comes home at the request of his son to put these rumors to rest, but is killed in a scuffle with the people. After Erlend's death, her vision shifts from her husband to the welfare of her sons. She struggles to let go of both the management of the estate and managing her sons' lives and eventually decides to become a nun in Nidaros. She is there for several years before the Black Plague strikes. She spends her last months trying to help out those stricken by the disease, but eventually succumbs herself. The end.

Wikipedia's summary is much better and concise, but there you are.

:+:My Impressions:+:

My thoughts on this book are a bit less concentrated than for other books, partially because I still don't quite know what to think of it. I think I get the book, but at the same time I'm not sure if I do. Or perhaps the author and I are just on very different wavelengths, which is also entirely possible (like musical taste).  

So, I shall try and untangle my own thoughts as I tell you my general impressions of the book.

Let me just say, first of all, that I didn't really like it. I mean…eh…not that I hated it, or flat-out disliked it, or anything else, but it's more that the general impression that the book made on me was not…how to say it…? Agreeable? I'm not quite sure what to think of it, and I don't think thinking on it any longer will really change that. *sigh* I'll try and be plainer.

What I didn't like was more stylistic choices of the author and how the story was told, as opposed to the story itself.  I think the story had a lot of good potential but because of the author's style and choices of what to write and how to write it…it kind of fell flat on it's face.

The book was first described to me as a sort of Scandinavian Anna Karenina. Now, if you haven't heard me rave about it before, then hear it now. I Anna Karenina (not the character, the book And no, I am not terribly eager about seeing it be butchered by Keira Knightley. ). It's sort of similar, but not really, at the same time. Kristin is the focal point of the book; everything else revolves around her and her actions. The same is not true of Anna Karenina. The latter has two parallel stories going on that—while both very much connected—are also separate and distinct. I loved Levin and Kitty's story; I tolerated Anna and Vronsky just because I wanted to get to Levin and Kitty. But I also really liked the style of Tolstoy's writing; the way he focused on the characters so that they seemed like living and vibrant and animated people that you could meet down the street. At least in the Russian novels that I have read, there's really a great sense of realness and of the humdrum and mundane and of the 'homey', but at the same time there's really this sense of something deeper and richer that I love. The beautiful and the ugly, the horrifying and the hilarious and all extremes of human life can be felt very vividly in them, and co-exist in a way that I've rarely seen outside of a Russian novel.

But I digress. We're not talking about Russian novels; we're talking about Kristin Lavransdatter.

My main criticism of Kristin Lavransdatter is that (like Anna Karenina) it is a character-driven book, as opposed to a plot/action driven one, BUT it does not do an adequate job of developing the characters, which kind of kills it to start off with. There are various reasons why I think this is so, and that's what the rest of this review will be about.

The Writing

The number one reason I think this book lacks compelling, book-driving characters is because of the writing. One of the major flaws of this book in my eyes is that the whole book is written in a "telling" style. Remember the age old rule of "Show, don't tell"? Yeah. This flies right in the face of that. I understand that most books have to have a lot of telling in them, but this book had very, VERY little showing. I didn't get the sense of grief, or anger or the overall tone of anything while reading this book. It was all straight-up told to you. Kristin was sad. Erlend was angry. This story is about these characters and we are rarely ever invited in to share their thoughts about things, their griefs, their worries etc. And it's not like this book lacked for space. It had 1168 pages of space. And what's worse is what all of those pages were filled with: Filler. And for that reason the style that this book is written in is not terribly gripping. I might be tempted to perhaps place some of the blame for this on the translator, except that it's not so much in word choice or sentence structure than in the pacing of the novel and in the choice of scenes that the author decides to show us.

I'll give you an example.

Numerous times in the book the reader is treated to a somewhat lackluster but potentially poignant description of the landscape of medieval Norway and then…the scene ends. Or we have the description and a character does something completely insignificant (like picks some flowers) and then the scene ends. One prime example of this is towards the beginning of the book when Kristin is a little girl. She travels up to the mountains with her father and during the evening she thinks she sees an elf or a fairy and is terrified and is apparently scarred by this experience. This scene is several pages long (longer than most individual scenes in the book) and nothing comes of it. It just ends. It neither established mood, or developed her character or developed her relationship with other characters or anything. The scene might be mentioned in passing (in Kristin's thoughts) once or twice in the rest of the book. And there are numerous scenes like this that have little to do with anything; they don't move the plot along or develop character, and that was one of the more interesting scenes. The bulk of the book was just a bunch of filler of farm chores that Kristin did. Seriously. Farm chores. But it was written all in passing, so that the reader neither felt the toil or drudgery of the farm work, or felt any kind of connection to what they were doing. It was like "Kristin did X and Y, and then later did Z."

Now, I understand that this is a long novel, and that it covers the whole span of her life, but for that reason alone I think Undset should have been a whole lot more careful about what scenes she did decide to include in her book. Most of the time I felt like I was reading pointless filler. It might have been a lot more compelling if all of this seemingly pointless filler actually had a plot purpose behind it, in which case it would have made the book incredibly compelling, because then the reader would be on the look out for clues to what was going to happen next. But no, that's not what happened.

As for the filler itself, I can understand using lofty descriptions of mountain peaks or landscapes or farm chores, etc. to establish mood and the setting of the story, but my problem was that it didn't do much of either. I never felt like I was in medieval Norway. I didn't feel immersed in the time or the culture or the setting. She did, however, create the impression that she knew what she was talking about, even if she didn't quite convey that felling of informational immersion to the reader. I think she did an impressive job with her research and definitely had the potential of making a gripping historical fiction novel, but the writing just got in the way.

The pacing was weird in that Undset chose a bunch of seemingly pointless scenes over scenes that could have had great emotional impact, both for the reader and for the characters interacting. There were so many times in the course of reading this book where I was really puzzled by why Undset decided to include a brief, casual conversation about, say, the rain (or rather, not the description itself, but a description of the conversation about the rain) and leave out major scenes that are implied but aren't present.

For example (though the above example about Kristin works for this as well). One of my biggest peeves about reading this book was the handling of Erlend and Kristin's courtship/falling in love/nightly escapades. Especially considering how important these particular scenes were for the rest of the book (like, establishing their later love and married life and relationship and all), it was incredibly disappointing. Here's what happened in the book. Kristin and some other girl staying at the convent get lost out in the countryside and can't find their way home. They chance upon some guys loitering by a house and ask them to escort them home and they'll pay them. Well, someone didn't think that out all the way. The men walk them part of the way back toward the convent, and then decide that it'd be a better course of action to have their way with the two young women and take the money and run. Fortunately for them, Erlend and some of his fellows come riding up and kick the crap out of the guys. Then he escorts the girls home. Understandably, Kristin is charmed (really, what girl wouldn't be?) but from Undset's descriptions she seems no more than that: charmed and grateful and certainly not head-over-heels smitten. And I don't think she is. Later she sees him at a dance. They talk a little. They go behind a fence and she eventually falls asleep in his arms (innocently—no sex scene here) and when she wakes up he tells her that he loves her. Okay, cute. She's in love by now, but—like the way a lot of this book is written—we're just told this in a laundry list, ordinary kind of way. Then they meet again a little later. It begins to rain, and suddenly they're having sex. Wait. What? Literally the thought that went through my mind was this: images.wikia.com/dragonage/ima…

The reader was just told all of this in the most hum-drum way in the course of a couple of pages. There was no suspense or Kristin being like, "Oh crap, my dad, my fiancée, my life, who is this guy and why do I love him and oh hey maybe I should get to know him slightly more…" Nope. Chuck Testa. Everything is written like just one long shopping list of Kristin's life.

And what really grills me is that the whole rest of this book is the consequence of this and it's not treated like it's a significant aspect of the book! It doesn't seem to me like any of the scenes in this book were treated significantly! A lot of scenes like this that could have been explored a lot more deeply with greater psychological intensity were just…squandered. There were some here and there that seemed like they were given their proper significance, and then those were really good parts, but for the rest of the book? Gah. Frustrating. And here's where I get back to my earlier point of not exactly being sure of what the author was getting at. Was that one of her points maybe, to show that this really wasn't a significant part of her life despite all appearances to the contrary? I don't know! I'll say the best portions of the book were Kristin's various spiritual experiences/conversations, because those actually were treated as if they were significant. Which I appreciated. Thank you. At least something is important in this novel. *facepalm*

Back to the showing and not telling: even though Kristin is the main protagonist, I felt like I was shut out of her head for most of the book. The times when the reader was actually with her and her thoughts were the better parts of the book. But most of the time the book just had this kind of awkward 3rd person omniscient style where the omniscient narrator was smothering the characters with random things thrown in here and there. Occasionally the reader would be able to be with a character (and most often it was Simon Darre, which is one reason I probably liked him more than most of the other characters). Another thing that really bugged me while I was reading the book was the lack of dialogue. Not only meaningful dialogue (though there was a dreadful dearth of that as well) but just dialogue. One of the best ways to develop characters is through their dialogue. Namely, through what they say, what words they choose to use, how they say it, when they say it, who they say it to and why they say what they do. That's a big part of showing and not telling. BUT NO ONE FREAKING COMMUNICATES IN THIS BOOK. Seriously. That's probably one reason why everyone's relationships were falling apart all over the place because they didn't talk to each other. And the reader wasn't privy to the scant conversations that they did have. That was a big frustration for me. I love listening in on character's conversations in a way that I feel like I'm in the room with them, listening, and like I could just pop in and express my opinion too (and it's even BETTER when one of the characters expresses your opinion or thought in a better way than even you could express it. I love it when that happens. ).

I also found the descriptions of things/landscapes/settings/etc. lackluster as well. They weren't particularly memorable, like most of the book (I mean, what do you expect when the characters are doing farm work all the time?). The book had a lot of potential to be gripping but the writing just steam-rolled that right over. In the same way, I didn't feel immersed in the setting either. The reader was just told everything so it all came off as bland and boring.

Oh, and another thing. Another reason why I felt like this book fell flat was because the novel did a lot of time exploring a bunch of different themes and then…didn't tie them up. It was like the book was trying to do too much (even with this length!) and then ended up doing very little. Especially in terms of the themes of this book. I mean, there were a bunch, like betrayal and envy and human pride and the nature of love and family bonds and honor, and the relationship between parents and their children and the relationship between humans and God, etc, etc. but none of them were explored as well as they could have been. This book is certainly not neat or concise, and maybe that's the point? It's messy, like life? Is that what the author was trying to say? But I don't necessarily think that makes a good story, and that's what this is.

As for the characters. I didn't like Kristin. She was okay sometimes (especially when she got older, towards the end) but she was bitter and would randomly start snarling at people (especially noticeable when people barely talked in this novel) and would literally hoard up every bad thing anyone had ever done against her and use it later to hurt them. Especially the people she loved most (like Erlend). Seriously woman. You are the definition of shooting yourself in the foot. Erlend was…meh. I got the sense that he was supposed to be charming, but he never really gave me that vibe. Their children were sorely neglected (in terms of character development) so one didn't even get the chance to see their thoughts and feelings. Sira Eiliv (Kristin's priest and confessor), Gunnulf (Erlend's brother, also a monk and a priest), and Brother Edvin (also a monk) were probably the best characters in that book. They had the best dialogue and said the most thought-provoking things in the novel, even though they were all relatively minor characters. .

But before I wrap up, I must say that the last couple of chapters in the book were probably the best. In fact, I think they could have easily stood alone as a novella or something with all of the baggage that the rest of the book was in comparison. The last few chapters really changed in terms of style, I thought, which is one reason I liked it. They were much more purposeful, poignant and meaningful that most of the book had been. So the ending redeemed the book a great deal in my eyes to the point where I don't think one would even have to read any of the previous parts of the book to try and get a better sense of her character. The last chapters were the best sense you're going to get of her character or her world.

Density rating:

Not too hard of a book to read. It'd dang long though. Someone with a competent reading level could manage it well enough. I can't guarantee they'd find it a riveting read though.

Overall:

I think you all probably get the gist of what I thought. I'm kind of "Meh" about it. It wasn't horrendous, and it wasn't great either. It was slightly better than mediocre, if only for the obvious amount of thought and research that went into writing the book and also because what the book tries to say about life but, meh. It didn't too a terribly great job of that either. It wasn't particularly entertaining or compelling, but I didn't hate it either (except when I just wanted to freaking be done with it), though I did feel frustrated and confused, which is probably not what one wants one's readers to feel after they've finished reading your book. I wouldn't particularly recommend it though. It's too darn long to waste your time reading it if you're just in it for a good thumping read and it's not thought-provoking enough to waste your time on for the  thin-pickings that this book offers.

Annnnnd now the book trade is complete! Huzzah!


Pax Vobiscum!
Valete!
~Omnes ad Iesum per Mariam~

Your Sister in Christ,

* ~ Lord Theophilia Shadowblade ~ *



Art for Other Deviants:

1.) St. Sebastian for ZhaneAugustine
2.) Pope Gregory the Great for alcuin18
3.) Arthur and Morgaine for Alois-Noette
5.) Ballad of the White Horse Project with FireFiriel



My Book List

1. Poetic Diction - Owen Barfield
2. On the Field of Glory– Henryk Sienkiewicz
3. The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follet
4. The Confessions -  St. Augustine
5. Chronicles of the Crusades - Joinville and Villehardouin
6. Theology of the Body– John Paul II
7. The Chronographia– Michael Psellus
8. Seven Pillars of Wisdom - T.E. Lawrence
9. Woman - Edith Stein
10. Wisdom and Innocence - Joseph Pearce
11. The Crusades - Reginé Pernoud
12. King Lear - Shakespeare
13. Saint Thomas Aquinas - G.K. Chesterton
14. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
15. Til We Have Faces– C.S. Lewis
16. Ascent to Mount Carmel– St. John of the Cross
17. The Man on a Donkey - H.F.M. Prescott
18. Democracy in America - Alexis de Tocqueville
19. Those Terrible Middle Ages: Debunking the Myths - Reginé Pernoud
20. City of God – St. Augustine
21. Titus Andronicus - Shakespeare
22. Edmund Campion – Evelyn Waugh
23. The Deluge – Henryk Sienkiewicz
24. Fire in the Steppe/Pan Wołodyjowski – Henryk Sienkiewicz
25. Summa Theologica– St. Thomas Aquinas
26. Collected Works– Anton Chekov
27. The Decameron– Boccaccio
28. Chronicles– Jean Froissart
29. The Letters of the Younger Pliny– Pliny the Younger
30. Pensées– Blaise Pascal
31. The Philosophy of Aristotle
32. Doctor Zhivago– Boris Pasternak
33. The Spirit of Thomism– Étienne Gilson
34. The Philosopher and Theology– Étienne Gilson
35. The History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages– Étienne Gilson
36. Notes from the Underground– Fyodor Dostoevsky
37. The Histories– Herodotus
38. The Rise of the Roman Empire– Polybius
39. The Gallic Wars– Julius Caesar
40. The Letters of the Younger Pliny– Pliny the Younger
41. The Annals of Imperial Rome– Tacitus
42. The Space Trilogy– C. S. Lewis
43. Two Lives of Charlemagne– Einhard
44. Lost in the Cosmos– Walker Percy
45. The Problem of Pain– C.S. Lewis
46. A Grief Observed– C.S. Lewis
47. Reflections on the Song of Songs– St. Bernard of Clairvaux
48. Why Catholics Can't Sing– Thomas Day
49. Happiness and Contemplation – Josef Pieper
50. Art and Contemplation– Josef Pieper
51. Practice of the Presence of God – Brother Lawrence





My Deviant Friends:



Other Great Artists I Enjoy Visiting:







Create your own visitor map!