Popular books on religious themes - a trivial post :)

Bear with me, blogger pals. :) Today is one of those days when I am close to cursing the very technology I normally find enriching. For example, need I remind any of you how tiring it can be, when one is on 'automatic payment' with a vendor, and is being hit with unprocessed payments and late fees... though clearly they had the account information the last time a payment went through, and nothing has changed? Internet forums can be highly enriching, but I often muse that the saddest part is that 'loud mouths' and others who have little to contribute but do so in a bullying fashion now have an entire world to abuse... and people must like it, because they return. Remember when there was something resembling 'customer service' out there, with people who were well trained? It would seem to me, considering all those dreadful years I spent with telecommunications, that my reporting a problem with service (complete with details and diagnostics - hardly your typical home customer), would lead to a response other than 'we can only check if you have a dial tone.' What about when one wishes to order something or remedy a problem, needs to mention a particular consideration or report a problem, and is either sent an email linking to an FAQ which has nothing whatever to do with the difficulty, or is placed 'on hold' with repeated messages in one's ear about looking at the blasted FAQ which was of no value in the first place?

Yes, it is one of my irritable days. Winter is always the worst time of year for me - I think my brain freezes, and my natural warmth doesn't keep my chilly (figurative) side from predominating. So, here I am, with little of any value to contribute, but utterly frustrated because I'm unable to focus enough to produce things which are of value for the moment.

I review books for Amazon, a number of which I receive in 'pre publication' form. A number of them (surprise!) are on religious topics - though that covers a wide scope. It appears, and I say this with dismay, that the same people who haunt the Internet forum where they can play at being mentally ill (or display that indeed they are... though the ones who are remain unaware and think themselves enlightened) must enjoy purchasing books which could be sub-titled "Chronicle of one who was and is totally crackers but can manage to blame it on a religious upbringing." (I don't know which is worse - this or "I was and am a nut case but am enlightened since I 'got religion.'")

One book which I recently reviewed was written by a comedienne (whose words admittedly are wickedly funny, though the content is largely tragic) who apparently sees having obsessive compulsive disorders (cutting her arms, counting telephone poles, needing to regularly wash the walls) as resulting from having been a Jehovah's Witness. Another, written by a former RC Sister who admits to being bipolar but loved the flattery and attention when (at least in her mind) men all were trying to chat her up, would make it appear Catholicism was to blame.

I am not suggesting that many devout Christians (or Jews, or Muslims, or Buddhists - though that last might not use the term devout), who were extraordinary or even saintly, might not have been a bit bent - neither Francis of Assisi nor Catherine of Siena, just to name the two who first come to mind, would have passed psychological tests, and I thank divine providence that there were no shrinks then to make them doubt their own integrity or think awe-inspiring love was a pathology. Nor would I question that some 'nuts get religion,' considering I heard, on two occasions in the past, of rather bizarre characters, both of whom thought they were the pope. But what is the attraction for reading of people who have illnesses that are quite tragic, as if this were the result of belief?

There have been some excellent, even brilliant, works of biography or literature on religious topics. For example, just to mention one that is fairly recent, Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose" was a superb mixture of humour, logic, history, and detective story. I think I would enjoy having tea with many of Trollope's characters, even if, in their time or place, were I written into a novel it would have to lean more towards Dickens. There also are outstanding films, whether adaptations of history or fictional treatments of truths, in the religious genre. Perhaps the ones I find just as trying as the 'let me out of my straitjacket and I'll tell of my religious upbringing' are those which were totally silly.

I sometimes will watch films for pure relaxation, and, of all things, I saw that "The Singing Nun" was on the television a few days ago. I remember well when the real Singing Nun was a one-hit wonder with Dominique (it is unfortunate that her life ended very tragically, with a suicide during the 1980s.) A few of her songs were quite lovely ("Beyond the Stars" would qualify) - and the words to "Dominique" are a nice prayer, though the accompaniment and arrangements are beyond basic, and she was not a gifted singer.

The film version, based on Sr Luc Gabriel's music, not her life history, was quite a sensation in its day. I suppose that, in 1966 when 'updating' was first on the agenda, a nun going about on a motor scooter, or being crushed to hear a rock version of her song as she passes a local discotheque, seemed intensely relevant. (Lots of things were relevant in those days - Planet of the Apes was huge social commentary, for example. I once commented on the "Singing Nun" film to the effect that I'd call it "Peanuts Goes to the Vatican," except that Charles Schulz's comic strip had more depth.) Seeing this film again made it seem sheer camp. Even the great Greer Garson had such horrible dialogue that she couldn't redeem it - and Ricardo Montalban, whom I think was not only very handsome but the utter soul of style, hardly rises above the cartoon character guise. I never cared for Debbie Reynolds (even if her singing was somewhat better than Sr Luc Gabriel's), but her character was so exaggerated (and over-acted) that a film which I suppose was to have shown great depth is unintentionally hilarious. About the only redeeming factor was the vague theme that one new to religious service often has great zeal and no prudence (and should be careful about waving to either giraffes or boat captains, especially when she is riding a scooter and can whack into an innocent vendor's horse, or driving a Jeep and likely to have to watch the curves on the dusty Congo roads.)

I shall add, however, that I think it best for viewers to have some, vague idea that "Dominique" was written about a saint of whom you must have heard (though the French words are rather a finer prayer than the English version in this film)... not about a poor man's gamin, aged four perhaps, who enchants Sister when he kicks her in the shin. His sister, posing nude to earn money to support Dom and his low-life father, does reach a moment of redemption when Sister Anne gives her the guitar... and turns aside from worldliness. And here I thought music was a prime way in which to make a joyful noise...

Hold it... cancel that... there's 'joyful' and there is 'noise,' and the latter sometimes masquerades for music. When I recall what sort of liturgical music was being cranked out in 1966 and beyond, perhaps we would have been better off if some people had given their guitars away to the poor and devoted more time to dodging giraffes...