Readers Guild
A moving and disturbing book
1 and 2
A moving and disturbing book, Silence was not a difficult read. I found myself lost in the voice of the book-as though I was listening rather than reading. The characters of the book were vivid, maybe not in image but in psychology, and they have continued to stick with me even after putting the book away for a couple of weeks now. Kichijiro, as I interpret him, is reminiscent of the court jester. The part of the fool is so much of what he is about but I found him to serve as an example of human nature at its basest form. He represents so much of the failure of human character-the continuous cycle of sin/repentance, reform and relapse. I don’t really see him as a bad person or the literary villain but more as a pathetic reality.
3
The interaction of East and West in Silence is incomplete with both parties seeking the conversion of the other. The cultures bump up against each other but seldom truly merge. Even the conversion of the Japanese is discussed as being an incomplete, hybridized Christianity due in part to translational issues. The priests themselves undergo a transformation as they realign their expression/or lack of their faith and become themselves a hybrid.
4
I can say-without hesitation-that if I were asked to “trample on the fumie’, and most especially if it involved the sparing of others-I would do it. This gets into a delicate area for some and I mean no disrespect but it was an object-always had been and continues to be. The intimacy of my faith is such that I cannot imagine it being embodied by something-it is an indwelling of the Spirit within my life and therefor to ‘trample the fumie” would change nothing. I think this is the area where the dichotomy of my faith history caused the most conflict in my reading. I could understand the devotion to the idea but not to the object. Oddly, it was reading the next book for the guild that I came across a quote that added some clarity to my thoughts. On page 20 of Robert Cappon’s The Supper of the Lamb he says “Every time he diagrams something instead of looking at it, every time he regards not what a thing is but what it can be made to mean to him—every time he substitutes a conceit for a fact—he gets grease all over the kitchen of the world. Reality slips away from him; and he is left with nothing but the oldest monstrosity in the world: an idol. Things must be met for themselves. To take them only for their meaning is to convert them into gods—to make them too important, and therefore to make them un-important altogether. Idolatry has two faults. It is not only a slur on the true God; it is also an insult to true things”. Granted, these books are wildly different and address vastly different topics but this summation provided an immediate moment of recognition to my reaction in Silence to the ‘trampling’. Another thing I struggled with, much like the ‘fumie’, was the continual visualization of Christ and the idealized Warner Sallman-like image with “clear blue eyes” (pg 106). This autoclaved image of Christ was present throughout the book but evolves at the end when Rodruigues recalls trampling on the “fumie” and the immediate, yet inexplicable “joy” he felt. Though he didn’t understand it at that moment, he came to understand the full breadth of the presence of Christ in his life did not come from this imagery and his love for Christ was now truer than it had ever been.
5
The word silence appears numerous times throughout the book and represents many different forms. The silence of the people in order to protect themselves and the ones they loved. The silence of the martyr’s in an attempt to preserve their salvation as well as the perceived silence of God. The wake of silence left behind by so many unanswered questions of the faith continues to resound but in Silence it is Rodruigues’ dawning understanding, when he consents to hear Kichijiro’s confession at the end, that Christ had been there all along that allows him to find this ultimate truth.
Through the eyes of Rodrigues, we see ourselves
Perhaps a question of calling?
IAM Readers Guild, Endicott, NY
Exactly ten people attended our first gathering of the IAM Readers Guild (Endicott, NY). Ten people bringing a wonderful assortment of snacks and beverages capped by the thoughtful addition of Japanese-inspired wasabi peas and gummy koi fish.
Although it is most likely a discussion group taboo, I couldn’t help myself by asking right at the top of the evening: “Thumbs up or thumbs down?” The answer was predominantly, “Thumbs in the middle.” The explanation many of the readers gave was that they felt the book was written and very readable, but they were disappointed by the story and feeling weighted down by the subject matter.
This was an honest response and a perfect way to launch almost two straight hours of discussion. For starters, most of us found we did not have a lot of sympathy for Rodrigues or Ferreira, and only a tiny bit for the decidedly, Gollum-like Kichijoro. Many of the readers wished we could have spent more time with Garrpe. While most did not identify with a character so much as an identification from our own struggles experiencing the silence of God. We represented a few different faith backgrounds and there seemed to be a direct correlation between where we had come from, where we were now and what we believed about the silence of God. Is He not listening? Not answering? Answering, but saying no? Are we trying to hear Him through religious practices or a living, breathing relationship?
Several expressed a sense of sorrow for Rodrigues, thinking that he was missing an understanding of relationship with the God he was so desperate to hear. Others expressed something like a frustration that Rodrigues insisted God was silent in the midst of the suffering around him, when, in fact, there were several descriptions of very clear communication from Christ. The pinnacle description of this Voice is written in Chapter 9: “It was this concave face that had looked at the priest in sorrow. In sorrow it had gazed up at him as the eyes spoke appealingly: ‘Trample! Trample! It is to be trampled on by you that I am here.’ “
The second half of the evening we discussed the conflict Rodrigues – and his fellow Western missionaries – face introducing the God of their religious conviction to the Eastern values and beliefs of the Japanese people. This discussion included thoughts about the motivation for the mission: to love and serve the people or to satisfy their curiosity about Ferriera’s rumored apostasy. This line of conversation was related to Mako’s podcast comments about Endo’s lack of description of the priest’s sense of call.
We wondered together if this would have affected the outcome. Had his purpose been to introduce the suffering Christ he often imagines during his confinement, would the younger priest been less easily-influenced by the existentialistic judgments of former mentor priest: “‘They did not believe in the Christian God.’ Ferreira spoke clearly and with self-confidence, deliberately emphasizing every word. ‘The Japanese till this day have never had the concept of God, and they never will.’ “
Toward the end of our discussion time, we wondered aloud if a differently motivated Rodrigues would have resulted in a different outcome. Perhaps, he would have been more willing to resist trampling the fumie if he had more fully believed the suffering Japanese would become martyrs given over to a present God. Rather, he seemed to conclude that God was not listening and that their fate was in his ineffective hands. He eventually behaved as if he had no option but to “love” the suffering Christians by performing an act of apostasy. The fruit of this decision is that he goes on to live a solitary, self-loathing life, giving paltry aid to the Japanese magistrate. As our time ran out, we couldn’t help but talk about the contrast between Garrpe’s response to coercion and Rodrigues’. Two kinds of torture, yes, but only one had to go on living with that torment.
Endo masterfully depicts a stark and silent world -- in the subtle descriptions of buzzing insects, withering heat and rotten food, dark water and crimson blood stains on dusty courtyards. His storytelling had a sobering effect on us all and we were grateful for the chance to come in from the cold January evening and cheer each other with brisk conversation, merlot and gummy fish. It was a good evening and we are looking forward to gathering again.
New York Readers Guild Group
Along with other Readers Guild groups around the globe, we'll discuss Shusaku Endo's Silence. Drinks and light refreshment will be served as we get to know one another and grapple with Endo's masterpiece.
The book is available at fine booksellers everywhere; find it at Amazon, or buy it from an independent bookseller via Indiebound.
Want to join the group? Email Alissa at alissa@internationalartsmovement.org so we know you're coming.
The Readers Guild Blog