Furnishings:
a decorative scroll;
screens;
white flowers and a stone in a bowl;
a blindfolded wooden idol holding a lamp;
warm breeze through a window;
canal garbage smell drowned by incense.
Now we see the blindfolded house god mentioned by Kemul to Flandry. Ubiquitous religious images convey the sense of divine omnipresence or of an all-pervading transcendent reality. However, unfortunately, that sense does not prevent life from being a grim struggle for survival. Flandry must persuade Luang and Kemul not to turn him over to Biocontrol.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But it's also plain many Unan Besarans had a naive view of that "...sense of divine omnipresence or of an all pervading transcendent reality" if they thought blind folding idols of their gods would keep those gods from observing what was going around them.
It was Flandry's bad luck to first make contact with the criminal element of Kompong Timur at a disadvantage, getting captured by Kemul. That puts even more stress on the need to use his wits and guile to survive.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Symbols can be read on different levels:
a child or naive adult might think that the god can't see because he is blindfolded;
to Luang, the blindfolded idol might mean that the upper room is a venue for secret plans and activities which she hopes that no one, not even the gods, will know about;
a skeptic will say that of course the gods do not know anything because they do not even exist;
a devotee might hope that the god will turn an indulgent blind eye to some transgressions;
maybe the idol represents justice which is supposed to be blind?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, I can see things like idols being understood differently by various persons.
I have to wonder if most Unan Besarans may have thought blindfolding an idol would keep the god from seeing what was going on. The naive view, IOW.
Luang was much better educated than most of her people, so the second view might have been hers.
I agree with the third view, no pagan gods EXISTS, only the one God.
The fourth view seems a variant of the naive opinion.
Ad astra! Sean
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