Discussion - Week Five - Fathers and Crows - Part VI, p. 479 - 595

[Jim]

This discussion covers Part VI, Glory, p. 479 – 595

[Larou]

In part VI, there finally is confluence and all the brooks and rivulets run together into a single unified narrative stream... well, more or less. But even though there are still eddies and rapids, I think "Glory" is the closest we have come to seeing Vollmann write a "normal" novel so far. There still is a multitude of voices and characters, but we get some comparatively clear-cut factions and some old-fashioned conflict - in parts, it was almost like reading a modernist version of James Fenimore Cooper.

There even is something like a love story, between Brébeuf and Born Underwater, even though it is quite twisted and likely one-side. On the side of Father Brébeuf,I think Vollmann makes it pretty clear that he is having feelings for the Indian woman he should not have, and I seem to remember he even as good as admits at one stage that he might be in love with her. On part of Born Underwater... things seem more complicated. One would have to really look at the details and the way their relationship develops - I for one feel inclined to think there might be some attraction or fascination, but that this fades over time, not least because of the way Brébeuf attempts to Frenchify the Indians (and one can't help but wonder if this is not driven at least to some degrees by his feelings for Born Underwater).

And of course, their relationship mirrors very closely that of Jesuits and Indians in general - the Jesuits do care about the Indians and believe that they are beneficial to the Indians, while the Indians are becoming increasingly disillusioned with them, which drives the Jesuits to redouble their efforts to convert them which in turn alienates the Indians even more. Throw in an increasing number of epidemics (which I assume, although Vollmann never states so explicitly, are carried by the Europeans) and you have an unrelenting and ever-accelerating current running towards unavoidable disaster.