Sunday 28 August 2016

Parallel Reading

Poul Anderson writes young female povs convincingly:

Wanda Tamberly;
Diana Crowfeather;
Valeria Matuchek -

- as does Stieg Larsson (and here) with Lisbeth Salander.

I turn from Anderson's Operation Luna to Larsson's The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo when I want to read fiction without posting to the blog. However, I find interesting parallels. Anderson's Steve Matuchek tries to rescue his teenage daughter, Valeria, while Larsson's Mikael Blomkvist investigates the disappearance of the teenager, Harriet Vanger.

The Matuchek's Jewish neighbors are good-hearted and reliable and practice their beliefs. (Chapter 42, p. 379) Larsson's Inspector Bublanski attends synagogue for congregational worship and fellowship. However, when he wants to talk to God/think about his work and life, he sits in the back of a Catholic church because he knows that no one will disturb him there! How many people find uses for two different places of worship? (I meditate in any, provided I am confident that this is acceptable to the owners/habitual users of the building.)

(It is time to watch an episode of Smallville.)

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Interesting, that a reasonably observant Jew likes to sit and think and TALK to God in a Catholic church. I've seen other writers doing analogous things with Catholic churches.

Sean