My 2010 Readings: Lenoir, Kant, and the Latin Americans

L'Oracle della Luna
and the Value of
Historic Religious Novels

Yesterday was the day signaled by some living Christian prophets and Bible teachers as the judgment day or the day that would mark the end of the world, based on their interpretation of the biblical scriptures. A few weeks ago, I visited the New York Public Library next to Bryant Park, at 42^nd Street at Fifth Avenue, to donate a copy of my book Alma Mater I. I then encountered an on-going event called Three Faiths, related to Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths. The exhibition was quite interesting as I got the chance to see original biblical documents such as scrolls, polyglot bibles, and learned about impressive religious art, where I can recall colorful bibles with gold ornaments, Egyptian Coptic crosses and bibles magnificently decorated, Ethiopian bibles and documents, and Muslim and Hebrew scrolls of great historic value. Historic religious books on the other hand have become more popular, as much as there are more historic religious movies, either to somehow criticize or convey a message to individuals or entities involved, usually for good.

Like in America, in France, there are many writers, and very few will become well-know world-wide. I had personally briefly met writers such as the former Colombian Ambassador Pierre de Boisdesffre (author of Histoire de la Littérature Française), Jacques Gillard, a well-know critic of García Márquez, and Dominique Lapierre, then a young French novelist. A few months ago, I was greatly impressed by one of my 2010 readings: L'Oracle della Luna, a novel by French novelist Fredéric Lenoir, whose title reflects the syntax of the relevant time. The novel narrates the tragic life of Giovanni Trattore, a peasant and then an initiated monk, and his love for Elena, his disgraceful marriage to a Jewish woman, and the changes he undergoes after he kills in self-defense, for love, and is condemned to death by fire. The story develops in XVI century era, over several parts of the world, including Europe (Venice), North Africa (Algeria and Chipre), and the Middle East (Jerusalem). The story overlaps with the presentation of scrolls and somewhat encrypted messages that attempt to describe the astral chart of Jesus, focusing on the straight alignment of the moon, the sun, the earth, and all planets in the solar system known until then. Giovanni Trattore sees himself as the carrier of a secret message. This astral view is considered a heresy within the book, and only five of the scroll messages are revealed, leaving the reader with the intreague about the message in the other two.noir is the author of about 30 books some of them with in conjunction with other Christian Catholic writers and philosphers. However, he has converted to the Tibetan Buddhism, in my opinion a way to search futher spirituality and a pragmatic method to attain a higher stage of the mind and the spirity, in contrast, to our Western perception of spiritual growth and belief. L'Oracle della Luna certainly shows his great belief in Jesus, and contemplates the overlapping astronomical events, including the revelation of the new messenger of the time, Martin Luther, around the year 1484, who is described in contrast by monks and priests as a “personnage altier et grossier”. The narrator also suggests in relation to the Prophet Mohammed that indeed he encourages Muslims against Christians, which is not really accounted for in detail. And Muslims in the area disagree with this point of view. My only reading of the Koran occurred at 14, on one or two days when I visited the Normal School Library in Barranquilla, where I encountered a copy, which I read in great portion. It seemed to me just a book of worship, with a style close to that of the Psalms. When I visited the Three Faiths exhibition, I got the chance to see various copies of the Koran, mostly, historic ones in its original language. While Giovanni Trattore's story is the central story, the leit motif is still relevant to the Oracle of the Moon, in relation to Jesus astral chart. Also, the narrator gives the moon as special meaning as an earth satellite.

While I am deeply Catholic, and this is a core value of my education and spirituality, I thought that the message is interesting in the sense that the author seeks to provide a historic explanation on the perception of Christian belief, and the nature of cosmic value in that belief, and presents the religious leaders confronting such a perception that fortunately did not diminish their faith.

The other readings of the 2010 that I can highlight, include, my review of Kant's philosophy, in particular, Critic of the Practical Reason, and other books on Kant by other authors, giving him great responsibility and value to modern European and Western philophies in general. However, a recent reading of the current issue of a leading French literary magazine, suggests that Hegel is in fact the most important German philosopher to Western philosophies since G. Leibniz, based on the value of his humanism on Phenomenology of the Spirit, the finite nature of man, and his object-oriented view of cognitive psychology, opposite to that of Kant where subject is the measure of knowledge in learning.

2010 also allow me to review Latin American writers like Cortázar (Rayuela), García Márquez (Memoria de mis Putas Tristes), and Nerudas poetry in a comprehensive fashion.

It took me several months to read L'Oracle della Luna in French; it took Lenoir about 20 years to write his 700-page novel. This novel has been compared in nature to Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. Lenoir's website is: http://www.fredericlenoir.com.