Surprising Sentences, Part 12: A Hero's Tears

In the Book of John, chapter 11, verse 25, rests the well-known shortest verse in most English versions of the Bible, although it is not as short in the texts of original languages:

Jesus wept.

Before describing what makes this sentence so surprising to readers, I want to make clear I am not professing religious ideologies. Rather, I am positioning this sentence in the context of literature. I ask that you imagine a personal heroic figure, whether he or she be Muhammad, Thor, Harriet Tubman, or Malala Yousafzai. 

The first 34 verses of John 11 total 652 words in 37 sentences, 17.6 words per sentence, a typical word count for this book. For examples, chapter 1 averages 16.7, and chapter 9 averages 18.6. After reading the book from its beginning, a reader would be unsettled simply by the brevity of a two-word sentence.

The human drama of the sentence makes it far more surprising. We expect our heroes to exude righteous precision and finality in righting wrongs, resisting injustice, comforting victims, and conquering villains. At this point in the story, Jesus has already converted numerous people to his worldview, endured several stand downs with his severest critics, performed many miracles, and expressed outrage over impious actions. He has served as a consistently steadfast model of holy behavior for his friends and disciples. We do not expect our heroes to show emotional weakness in times of distress. They have no time for mercy toward evil adversaries or tenderness toward weakness, and Jesus has lived up to these expectations. In addition, we already know that Jesus will "awaken" from the dead his dear friend Lazarus. He intentionally lingered far from his dying friend for two days (11:6), returned to a hostile area at his own risk instead of visiting Lazarus's family in a safer place (11.7), and intimated he would soon do something big to reinforce his disciples' faith (11:15). We are prepared for the resurrection of Lazarus, thanks to the superhuman powers that Jesus has well established at this point in the book.

What happens next comes as a complete surprise, not because Lazarus's sister proves her faith in Jesus's powers by proclaiming only he could have saved her brother from dying (11:32), and not because she and all those who try to comfort her break down and cry when they see Jesus (11:33). Indeed, Jesus's initial matter-of-fact response, "Where have ye laid him?" (11:34) shows he is all business. Then comes the unexpected famous two-word sentence, showing a lovingkindness from Jesus that surfaces in the midst of all the mourning, a reminder that he too, is human.    

BOOK BRIEF: The Colors of a Region’s History

Colours of the North: Reġjun Tramuntana, Malta’s Northern Region by Natalino Fenech. Reġjun Tramuntana, 2020. 216 pages.

 What do an archivist, baker, banner sewer, beekeeper, blacksmith, boxer, carpenter, cheesemaker, chicken farmer, cobbler, conservationist, engraver, fish-trap weaver, goldsmith, strawberry harvester, military historian, painter, potter, sacristan, sculptor, and vintner have in common? They and many other artisans, clerics, and diplomats serve as central characters in Natalino Fenech’s remarkable Colours of the North, a tribute to twelve towns that populate the northern main island of Malta. Those towns, each with a dedicated chapter, are Mdina, Dingli, Għargħur, Mellieħa, Mġarr, Mosta, Naxxar, Pembroke, Rabat, St. Paul’s Bay, Swieqi, and Mtarfa.

    Fenech, deeply aware of the enormous changes these charming towns have experienced in his lifetime, aims to preserve disappearing aspects of Maltese culture for posterity. He succeeds prodigiously by introducing each chapter with fascinating detail about the region’s unique history, folklore, and commerce, and by asking the right questions of his interview subjects, steering clear of reducing them to sentimental caricatures. He skillfully balances their nostalgic introspection with their generally positive and realistic outlook on the island’s present and future. Each interviewee offers a particular perspective that complements Fenech’s well-researched narrative. Indeed, all of them serve as witnesses to the century past and present, bridging contemporary Maltese values with their descendants’ cultural mores.

Readers can enjoy the book in any of the three ways Fenech has weaved throughout the chapters. First, the narrative section unveils distinctive topographical, agricultural, and architectural features of the towns, going back centuries wherever historical context best explains their current situation. Next, the eyewitnesses to Maltese history establish a down-home flavor so singularly regional in content yet universal in spirit. Finally, the radiant 160-plus full-color photos scattered throughout the book, more than three-fourths taken by the author, constitute a standalone photo essay full of satisfying surprises. Those pictures can be enjoyed two ways: as an appetizing prelude to the rich storytelling contained around them, or as a review of the abundant information that was read, as this book will surely be picked up many times after a first reading.

Fenech brings all his powers to bear as an imaginative writer, journalist, historian, geologist, ethnographer, ornithologist, interviewer, documentarian, environmentalist, professor, and photographer extraordinaire. His first book, Fatal Flight: The Maltese Obsession with Killing Birds (1992) showed his commitment to striking a national balance between the Maltese pastime of bird hunting and preserving wildlife. His Richard Ellis: The Photography Collection, Volume 1 – Valletta and Floriana (2007) illustrated his appreciation of an artist’s profound contribution to Maltese photojournalism, and it earned Fenech his first Malta National Book Award. A Complete Guide to Birds of Malta (2010) is Fenech’s beautifully illustrated encyclopedic compendium of all birds that are permanent residents of the island or resting on their perennial journey to three continents. It won him his second Malta National Book Award and affirmed his reputation as the John Audubon of Malta. His range in Colours of the North exudes not only his passions but his insightful vantage points, making his latest work a veritable page-turner.

As a bonus, an introductory chapter by Ray Cachia Zammit and Jane Caruana covers the Victoria Lines, Malta’s seven-mile Great Wall built as fortifications from encroachers by the British when Malta was a crown colony.

Having visited Malta 9 times over 55 years, I have seen much change in the island. Fenech reminds us that some small Maltese wonders have not and others that soon will, leaving one with a sense of gratitude that he has documented them all. Even lifelong residents of Malta will find numerous pleasures in Colours of the North.

 

 

Surprising Sentences, Part 11: Lincoln at Gettysburg

Abraham Lincoln's legendary 268-word, 10-sentence Gettysburg Address is best remembered for its 30-word opening sentence ("Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."), and for its 82-word closing sentence ("It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.") So famous is Lincoln's speech that it is etched verbatim at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, and that Gary Willis dedicated to it an entire book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America. Yet I am most surprised by this 21-word sentence, slightly more than midway through the speech:

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

Of course, we have long remembered what Lincoln said on November 19, 1863 at the site of a Pennsylvania battlefield that has since become a National Cemetery. We also know that many of the 51,000 soldiers who died in that three-day bloodbath likely killed before they were killed. So what is so surprising about saying the world can never forget what the Union and Confederate dead did on that hallowed ground? An examination of this brother-against-brother four-year war in which an estimated million men gave their lives would open a window of understanding. Beholding the sheer humility of the sixteenth United States president two-and-a-half years into his term over only half a divided country he was elected to serve would also explain the sentence that precedes this surprising one: "The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract." 

Indeed, the American spirit of the Civil War, in all its glory, shame, and courage, 31 months in duration at the time of the Gettysburg Address, is embedded in this two-minute speech.

Surprising Sentences, Part 10: Frederick Douglass on the Character of Slavery

In Chapter  8 of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845), Frederick Douglass writes this sentence on page 47:

If any one thing in my experience, more than another, served to deepen my conviction of the infernal character of slavery, and to fill me with unutterable loathing of slaveholders, it was their base ingratitude to my poor old grandmother.

By this point in the book, Douglass has described in graphic detail slave sales, family separations, whippings, and murder, as well as their routine deprivation of education, clothing, and food. What could possibly be worse than these? Over the next two pages, he injects into the story of what happened to his grandmother a stunning mix of cold journalism, historical perspective, heartrending exposition, profuse literary allusion, and a hopeless plea for divine intervention. Rather than summarize the woman's fate here, which would do an in justice to this American masterpiece, I urge you to read the book, whose tragic narration and life-affirming power have intensified 176 years after its publication, and upon my second reading of it, a half-century after the first.