Discussion - Week One - Pantagruel - Ch. 1 - 11

[Jim]

This discussion covers Pantagruel - Prologue and Chapter 1 – 11, pp. 1 – 85


“Who begat Garnet-cock, Who begat Grandgousier, Who begat Gargantua, Who begat the noble Pantagruel, my master.” And so we enter the Rabelaisian world of Pantagruel.

We begin with a few scenes from his ravenous childhood and adventurous college days. Pantagruel arrives in Paris, peruses a library and receives a letter from his father, Gargantua. On the streets with his cohorts, he meets the multilingual Panurge and they become fast friends. Pantagruel unties a knotty legal dispute and Panurge suggests a cunning way to build a wall.

So here we are in Reformation Europe with nobles and clerics squaring off over the Roman Church versus Protestant movement. As funny and bawdy as the scenes are, there seems to be some tension underlying the humor. Any thoughts about this?

Pantagruel is supposedly giant-sized, but with few exceptions, he seems to fit into most normal-sized situations. Are you sensing him as giant?

[Matthew]

Certainly the verbiage and scatalogical humor is gigantic. I actually was reminded of Bunuel somehow (Bunuel wash a fan of the church either if I recall) in Panatgruel's birth and his mother's subsequent death.

Concerning giants, aren't they supposedly the children of angels who chose to come down to Earth to sleep with human women? Having a giant as a hero in Rabelais's book in itself could be considered blasphemous on that alone by the church. That made me wonder if the choice of using a giant was deliberate for that reason.

The Conversation with the Limosuine was a fun chapter with enough language humor and footnotes that I thought it was almost Wallacian. (Certainly Wallace is Rabelaisian enough)

[Jim]

Matthew wrote: "The Conversation with the Limosuine was a fun chapter with enough language humor and footnotes that I thought it was almost Wallacian. (Certainly Wallace is Rabelaisian enough) .."

Who begat Rabelais
Who begat Joyce
Who begat Wallace