The Samurai, Shusaku Endo - Review
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- Опубліковано 3 чер 2024
- (The Priests name is Velasco, not Velasquez, I got it mixed up all video.)
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I will be beginning a new series of videos, different from the book reviews, about what it is like to be a 50 year old university student in Canada. I will be testing it out for reactions on Patreon only, so now would be an excellent time to get see some videos that might never otherwise become public.
0:00 - Intro
0:26 - Synopsis
7:59 - reading 1
9:19 - synopsis continued
10:25 - conversion of the Japanese
12:46 - synopsis continued
16:55 - reading 2
21:06 - I love this book!
22:27 - reading 3
24:40 - Book/Mag Raffle
Such a journey you've been on, Grant! Sounds good. Thanks.
Thanks Deb, always appreciate your support with the channel!
Wonderful video. I really appreciated the synopsis portion since I needed the refresher. I read this after The Silence, loved it even more. Showing the similarities between Shinto and Catholicism I remember liking the most. The Samurai turned to be the most devoted Catholic. The trip to Mexico and the time there I really enjoyed, funny and engaging. Hapless yet stoic. Duty is fate and faith. Astute analysis. Thanks!
Thanks a lot Tim, I'm glad you liked the video. I really wanted to do a good job with this one. I loved that book, thought it was a lot better than Silence.
Thanks a lot for cheering me up today!
Hi Grant last week I mentioned I was going to read the sheltering sky I’m half way through it and I’m enjoying it but i feel some shit is about to go down after this I feel I need to read Endo
Hello Steven, Good luck with The Sheltering Sky, I was just talking about that today with a professor. I said, 'I think this might be one of the most difficult books to describe to someone when they ask, What's it about?' It's really a strange one. But I like those strange books, even if they are not as good as something that is really well-rounded and entirely complete. There is something fun about something so divergent and outside of North American society. Let me know how you manage! The Samurai is an amazing novel! I don't know if religious themes is a good subject for you, but I like the philosophical struggles.
One of the books I have for ages and haven't read.
It is a little slow the first little bit, setting the scene of the samurai and the village he lives in, but once it gets going, it really goes.
Deep philosophic questions of religion and faith and duty. I much preferred it to Silence. There are more characters with different perspectives on religion and what it means.
And, it's hard to believe, but based on a true story.
@@grantlovesbooks Maybe I'll take a look soon. I'm currently suffering from a cold and can barely read or anything like that. Plus, I'm in the middle of a book that you'd probably hate, and I'm actually surprised that I'm so gripped by it (well, I actually only read it on the tram on the way to work and back, but it won me over): Jin Yong, The Legend of the Condor Heroes (In the German translation they are for some reason Eagle Heroes). I'll just blame my excitement on the movie phase I've been going through for the past week, where I've been watching a lot of weird wuxia movies.
@@the3rdpillblog934 I hope you are feeling better soon! I had a look at Condor Heroes. Looks a little strange, but it was published in 1959. I think even pulp books, when they reach a certain age, can become interesting for the representation of the time when they were written. I really don't like Philip K Dick, but I can enjoy it a little more wondering about his ideas, and how he might have come up with them in the 70's.
And besides, don't care what other people think about the books you like. If you like it, that's good enough.
@@grantlovesbooks Hah, oh ... I love(d) Philip K. Dick. I even wrote my diploma thesis on his work (almost 30 years ago, I wanted Borges but the Prof wanted my second choice: PKD. It was a blessing and a curse. I loved to work on that thesis, but after that when I published my own works avery one drew comparisons to PKD. I heard it so often "ah, that's like Philip K. Dick" that I can't hear it anymore. On the other hand, that was better than the thing a translator who translated one story into English, said: "Wow, that's like Haruki Murakami!". I don't like Haruki, I like Ryu. 🙂 The cold is getting better but it's stubborn ... Hope my English makes sense.
The conversation between Velasquez and the Cardinal...if in searching for one lamb the other sheep are exposed to danger the shepherd has no choice but to abandon that lamb ... (etc)
It seems to me a rather pernicious sentiment. It can be used to justify all kinds of atrocities such as the Inquisition and other witch hunts.
I loved that scene. I was quite surprised at Endo's handling of these two characters. It wasn't what I would have expected from a devout Catholic.
I would highly recommend this novel. I think Silence gets all the credit for being his best, but I enjoyed this one much more.
Hope you are well Ned!
Wonderful review!
Thanks a lot!
This is the one Endo I haven't read. His book, Silence, has never left my mind and it's been probably 15 years since I've read it. He's one helluva writer!
I am a Christian but religion (I was born Catholic) has done more to make me doubt the goodness of God and Jesus than any other earthly thing could. I have had so much doubt and shame upon leaving the Church and heck i had so much doubt and shame even when i was in it bc I never felt worthy to be a child of God. Religion can make one never ever feel good enough and that does nothing by knock earnest-seekers off the path.
Today, I don't worry too much about finding a church, tho I still try, but I am a firm believer in Jesus's death and resurrection and how he gave his life for me( as utterly unworthy as I am). Religion sullys the message of Jesus so often and I swear, it's on purpose very often. That's why I very often hold it in disdain. Heck, many modern churches don't even preach the Gospel so really what's the point?The church has become too much like the world, not set above it(as I believe it was intended to be).
If this came off preachy, I certainly didn't mean for it to. Thank you, Grant, for this awesome review!
Hello Nikki, it feels like it has been a while since I've heard from you, hope you are well.
I would strongly recommend this novel if you are a fan of Silence. I think Endo, with more characters and more ways he explores the relations the characters have with their faith, and the conflicts they have with one another. It is really quite a great book. I am honestly surprised that Silence is considered his best work.
In the original video that was 55 minutes! I talked about my own feelings and religious upbringing. It was nice to talk about. And also it was nice when I realized that cutting it out of the video was also a good idea. I think that the way I was exposed to religion made it inevitable that I would feel the way I do today.
I hope you are well. It's nice to hear from you again!
@@grantlovesbooks it's been too long since I've spent time on YT. It's so good to talk to you again, Grant. How is Uni going? Are you going through the summer?
@@nikkivenable73 Hello Nikki, University just gets worse and worse. If it isn't the teacher being kind of an airhead and jumping all over the place because they don't plan their lessons and think they can just 'wing it.' Then it is another student. We have one who constantly interrupts the class to add his opinion. He interrupts the other students and even the teacher. I hope the teacher sends him an email to tell him to not be so obnoxious, or I certainly will.
Otherwise things are good, but I'm stretched a little thin this summer.
@@grantlovesbooks it's like these so-called adults are sctually more like children. I bet you are counting the days until you get out of there.
Have you read anything for uni that has really impressed you? Also, you're so well-read...perhaps even moreso thsn your teachers. I'm sure you're sitting there with your eyes rolling back in your head watching all that goes on around you.
@@nikkivenable73 I am counting the days!
This is the sadness, I really haven't read anything that was a revelation for me.
I like the really old stuff, the Shakespeare and Marlowe classes, because that is quite unknown to me. But it's hard to get excited about.
Otherwise it's the typical, obvious choices, Mrs. Dalloway and James Joyce.
Or some really modern nonsense that ticks all the current politically correct boxes. Which I know will be lost and forgotten in 10 years when the new wave of politically correct philosophy comes into effect.
This semester we will read Paul Auster's New York trilogy, but only the first book, which seems rather pointless if you don't read the other two books in the series.
It might be the mickey-mouse school I attend, or it might be the teachers have given up trying to teach anything interesting because the students don't have enough knowledge of the basics.
I think the most significant thing I have learned at university is how awful modern Canadian writing is. This is quite a sadness for me.