Reading 1001 discussion

Hi all interested in joining this one! This book is available as a free ebook on both Gutenberg and OpenLibrary for all wanting to join.

To get us started off on this buddy read for The Quest by Frederik Van Eeden, here is a short book summary and author bio (taken from Amazon and Kobo):

Summaries:

"The Quest is a fantastical adventure of an everyman who grows up to face the harsh realities of the world around him and the emptiness of hopes for a better afterlife, but ultimately finding meaning in serving the good of those around him. This ethic is memorialized in the line "Waar de mensheid is, en haar weedom, daar is mijn weg." ("Where mankind is, and her woe, there is my path.")"

"The most widely read of modern Dutch novels, this story of the life of “Little Johannes” is perhaps the most successful of the many attempts that have been made to portray the coming of Jesus into the modern world. Johannes is a boy of good family, who meets a strange, homeless workingman, to whom he becomes devoted, and whom he calls his “Brother.” In the present selection Jesus has been held for examination as to his sanity."


Author Bio:

Frederik Willem van Eeden (3 April 1860, Haarlem – 16 June 1932, Bussum) was a late 19th-century and early 20th-century Dutch writer and psychiatrist. He was a leading member of the Tachtigers and the Significs Group, and had top billing among the editors of De Nieuwe Gids (The New Guide) during its celebrated first few years of publication, starting in 1885.


Pre-Questions:

1) There are many "life of Christ" and "Christian parable" novels on the list (this one, Our current annual "Joseph and his Brothers" Life of Christ, Last Temptation of Christ, Quo Vadis, Ben Hur, Marius the Epicurean, I think there are a couple more I'm forgetting). Have you read any of them, and what have been your thoughts on them if so?

2) Do you have any wishes or expectations for this book? Anything you are maybe hoping for not a lot of?

3) The book starts with an interesting warning:

"I will tell you something about Little Johannes and his quest. My story is very like a fairy tale, but everything in it really happened. As soon as you lose faith in it, read no farther, for then it was not written for you. And, should you chance to meet Little Johannes, you must never speak to him about it, for that would grieve him and make me sorry I had told you all this."

What are your thoughts on this (pre-reading)? what are you expecting in terms themes, tone, etc. Are you going to take the book's advice once you start reading it?

Also! bonus question for fun: the 'life of Christ' novel is a recurring 1001 'trope' I've found ...are there any others that you've noticed throughout your reading (I've also found 'who IS postwar Germany?" to be another common one as an example lol).

Questions:

1) What are some of the biblical parallels you identified in the story? How successful do you think they were? Are there any elements you weren't sure about the purpose of?

2) What was your take on Little Johannes as a character? Did any other characters make an impression on you?

3) Other than the biblical references, what seems to be some of the main themes of the work?

4) The book styles itself as a fairy-tale in the opening paragraph. Did you notice any style, tone, setting, symbol, theme, etc choices that contribute to the feeling of a fairy-tale? What purpose does the fairy-tale serve in this work?

5) Re-evaluate the opening paragraph now that you've read the book. Do you have anything more to comment on it now?

6) and of course...what did you think of the book? Do you think it deserves its place on the list?

Discuss!

Pre-Questions.
I had never heard of this book and really did think it was largely a "fairy tale" so I was somewhat apprehensive. I would likely not stop reading when I stopped believing but the introduction does make me think immediately that I will need to suspend some disbelief while keeping myself open to the "truth" in the book.
I have read Life of Christ but found it to be largely an orthodox interpretation rather than anything new. I have not read the other books mentioned. However, I loved The Master and Margarita. It comes at the story of Jesus from the point of view of the devil and that was very thought provoking as well as imaginative. In addition, I am currently reading Jospeh and His Brothers. It took me some time to warm up to this book but now I am loving it.

I Forgot about Master and Margarita being one of those books! I loved that one as well. Sadly, I am still not enjoying Joseph and his Brothers, but glad that you are!

I did finish this one yesterday and really enjoyed it. For those possibly considering joining the read, it's not a heavy-handed (most of the time) slog and the fairy-tale sense does come on heavy. It is more reminiscent of "Chronicles of Narnia" than anything else, in my opinion.

Which is a positive for me, because some of my pre-reading thoughts were that I didn't want it to be a dry slog (how I feel about Joseph and his Brothers), or too heavy handed (like what I consider to be the less interesting half of Ben-Hur).

I don't intend to DNF any books on the list, but even though I never had any real faith like the intro seems to suggest, I continued because I was enjoying the whimsy. Would that have been enough for the author? I dunno.

Now to answer some questions:

1) Some of the biblical parallels are Little Johannes as the kind-of Jesus figure- pure, and becoming aware of human suffering on his quest to be reunited with his father. His assembled crew (of his everyman friend, a former nurse, an eccentric countess etc) become kind of apostles. It's not a 1-to-1 parallel as Johannes is instructed to learn the teaching of Jesus, and at one point seems to meet God &/or Christ...I think he is supposed to more immediately be an example of living in a Christ-Like way. He also literally meets the devil and I found it quite funny actually.

Some of the other things...hanging with a group of trolls (in a very hobbit-esque scene), being involved with the politics of the Orange dynasty, and being part of an intelligentsia conference are less clearly part of the biblical ideas to me (although I suspect there was something of Christian Nationalism being valid and the heresy or emptiness of secular intellectualism being explored there, which I don't really vibe with personally).



2) He is a bit of a pure little empty slate at first to reflect what he experiences onto him. He does have a strong sense of empathy for the most part, and a sense that he truly needs to know the divine. I thought the eccentric Countess he becomes something of a ward to was really interesting (she gets him the shoe-in to meet the European Intelligentsia) , loved the trolls scene, and Marjon (a spitfire girl who disguises herself as a boy) who is Johannes companion when they try to eke out a living in Germany.

3) Some of the main themes other than biblical teaching seems to be maintaining a sense of wonder (perhaps religious or not), having empathy for the suffering of others (Johannes does spend time with nursing in a sick-house), and being warry of the evils tied up into power, control, and claims of expertise (its literally Satan at some points in this book, but I don't think the intention is entirely literal).

4) So much! This is what predominately came through, in the prose style, the 'different side-quests' style of the narrative really does lend itself to fantasy, It actually takes place in the real world - a lot of Netherlands and Germany- but the characters and their events of the novel cast a fantastic light over everything, as do some mythical creatures and characters. It seems to serve the purpose of asking the reader to believe in things that are not part of empirical reality (as the intro explicitly does), which extends to religious faith.

5) I think what I said for the above question mostly covers this one.

6) I actually found it compelling on a 'experiencing wonder' and moral parable about empathy level, so my lack of identifying with faith themes wasn't really a problem. I would broadly recommend this book, and would likely keep it on the list.

Now I'm curious to see what others thought of this one :)

One of the most interesting things for me about this book was that it centers on the Netherlands rather than Europe in general or the countries of the West. Although our characters travel to Germany and in a dream of the future all countries have been dissolved, still the plot revolves around the specific Dutch national character, the Dutch language and even the marriage of the queen. I do not usually think of the second coming as being centered in the Netherlands which made me think that this tale was one which may be taking place all over the world, with specific twists and turns based on the country of origin. It was an interesting perspective.


1) What are some of the biblical parallels you identified in the story? How successful do you think they were? Are there any elements you weren't sure about the purpose of?

The events in the tale call to mind some of the calling of the apostles in the New Testament. There is a specific: "let he without sin throw the first stone" moment. Also there is something of the doubt and then belief that occur with Paul of the New Testament. However, the activities of the unfolding tale do not really parallel the Biblical as much as the overall belief system finds a parallel in the New Testament.

2) What was your take on Little Johannes as a character? Did any other characters make an impression on you?

At first I thought Little Johannes was a twit. He seemed to be so arrogant and selfish in his desires even though he was only a small boy and small humans, or maybe all humans, are self centered. The beginning of the book in which the beauties of nature were pitted against the ugliness of the human environments called to mind a different belief system than christianity with Mother Earth being a radiant being. I thought we were going in that direction but then we moved over to sparing with a small demon Pluizer and his attempting to make all people cogs in the larger machine. Ultimately, Little Johannes was less of an everyman and more of The Searcher, or The Seeker. Or as Wistik calls him Vraagal ( a person who asks many questions).
I enjoyed Marjon's character and I liked this particular depiction of Death. Markus, of course, is a problem. I did enjoy his socialist, every man leanings, but it is very difficult to draw a modern Christ like figure and put words in his mouth. The parables worked but they were not genius. Perhaps Markus was more of a John the Baptist than Christ himself but it is difficult thing to pull off.

3) Other than the biblical references, what seems to be some of the main themes of the work?

The beauty of nature that man is destroying, the need for empathy and caring for your fellow human beings regardless of their "beauty", class or refinement. The title "quest", is also an important theme. Little Johannes is constantly working to evolve his belief system, to search for the truth and slowly learns to care for all beings rather than just the beautiful ones.

4) The book styles itself as a fairy-tale in the opening paragraph. Did you notice any style, tone, setting, symbol, theme, etc choices that contribute to the feeling of a fairy-tale? What purpose does the fairy-tale serve in this work?

The tale is told as if it is a fairy tale. The trolls and mini wonderous characters are depicted as real if not more real than some of the humans in our line up. The side adventures of flying, falling, being able to hold off fear and make friends with death all are very much like a fairy tale or as Amanda mentions, a Narnia tale, in which our main characters learn along the way. The reader is shown that the established churches have a hubris and arrogance about them, or rather the leaders of the churches do and the book would have us open our mind to other wonders than those of the Dutch establishment.

5) Re-evaluate the opening paragraph now that you've read the book. Do you have anything more to comment on it now?

I did not put the book down although at times I wished to. The opening paragraph is asking upfront for our being open to different versions of Truth.

6) and of course...what did you think of the book? Do you think it deserves its place on the list?

I gave it four stars for building a very different world and making that world compelling. However, I can't say that I enjoyed reading the book. There were moments of real delight, when evil is overcome and when Little Johannes conquers some of his fears. However, the pacing was slow and the characters were too loaded with double meanings to make it flow.