As I read this section of the book, the idea that I continually saw to be satirized was the idea of the gods. In my personal beliefs, 1) I only believe in one God and 2) He's omniscient. So in my personal life, I carried that over as I was reading this book, and I took it to be fact that the gods in this book would be omniscient as well. But, as I read a lot of the scenes where the gods were involved, it seemed that they themselves didn't know what was going to happen even more than any other character would. This happens several times, but the exchange between the gods and Wong on page 40 is where I really started to have doubts:
Wong: It does. She's doing good deeds all the time.
First God: Ah? What sort? What sort of good deeds, Wong?
Wong: Well, she has a kind word for everybody.
First God (eagerly): And then?
Wong: Hardly anyone leaves her shop without tobacco in his pocket--even if he can't pay for it.
I decided to just put a snippet in there, but really what I was trying to say is that if they don't even know what's going on down on earth, what makes them such an authority to tell what's good and bad, or who's a good or bad person? For me to believe that you're some kind of "god", then show yourself approved. Maybe I need to know a little bit more about this culture before I say that, but right now, I'm not convinced that they're true gods and true judges of character. That doesn't mean that I don't believe Shen Te is a good person because I think she is a wonderful person. In fact, I think she's the best and most moral person in the book so far.
So, personally, I think the whole idea of the omniscient quality of a god is being satirized in this section of the book.
Showing posts with label omniscient. Show all posts
Showing posts with label omniscient. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
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