Ben-Hur

I started this 600-page religious epic just before Christmas, and when it became clear that it was a slow read and that I wouldn't have it done by Christmas, I decided to postpone it until Easter or so. But the thing about logging is that it not only gets put off; it happens prematurely, too. And when I decided to make March a month largely devoted to finishing current projects, I knew Ben-Hur would have to be one of the first to fall. And it was. And that's fine. No need to schedule my logging around the Christian calendar, right? Anyway, Ben-Hur made for a very interesting read. Although the subtitle is "a tale of the Christ," Jesus only plays a background role for most of the narrative. The main character is Judah Ben-Hur, a Roman Jew turned galley slave turned chariot racer turned heir of great fortune turned Jewish rebel turned Christ's disciple. His story is one of vengeance, which struck me as particularly odd given that Jesus was all about forgiveness. And make no mistake - this book is no satire, and is incredibly pro-Jesus. It is the only piece of fiction ever to have received a blessing from the Pope, according to Wikipedia. I was kind of disappointed that - spoiler alert - Judah Ben-Hur did in fact enact his revenge against the man who had done him wrong. I was totally expecting him to become a devout follower of Jesus and then learn to forgive his rival and forget all past transgressions. Instead, the narrative almost seems to celebrate the foe's demise. But on the plus side, I really appreciated the historical fiction aspect of Ben-Hur. I've never sat down and flipped through the New Testament for the story, but Ben-Hur gave me a decent account of the political strife going on between the Romans and the Jews and also the strife between the Jews and the specific sect of Jews that followed Jesus (early Christians, I guess). I feel more educated from the experience! By the way, quick aside, and not really directed at anyone who reads this blog, but can we all agree to stop saying the Jews killed Jesus, and using that to label all Jews Christ-killers? It's as silly as saying "the whites killed Abraham Lincoln," if you think about it. Anyway, one last gripe about Ben-Hur: the prose. Time and time again on this blog, I have lamented the inability of 19th century writers to create sentences that are even somewhat palatable. Lew Wallace's issue wasn't excessively fanciful language; his was an unreasonable obsession with describing every detail of every scene in the book. And he would do so in the second person, trying his hardest to plant the reader right in the middle of the narrative at all costs. "Picture yourself at a four-way intersection of roads," he'd say. "To your left, an old and cracking mud house, baked for decades by the harsh Israeli sun. On your right, a man with skin made leathery by countless summers under the same sun sells goat meat." Every chapter began like a text-based adventure game. "Charred wood in the fireplace still glows red-orange; a fire has recently been put out." Suffice it to say, that got old. But, as far as 19th century writing goes, Wallace was actually much more potable than most of his contemporaries. Reading this book definitely piqued my interest in seeing the famous 1959 film adaptation with Charlton Heston. To others, I'd suggest starting with that movie and only going back for the full book's worth of narrative if you love the story enough to do so. And that wraps up another logging post. This Abe-killing white boy is off to watch some TV.