A Vendetta Of The Desert

Author : John Harris
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781973339434
Total Pages : 121 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (394 download)

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Download or read book El Moreno, Vendetta Di Dio written by John Harris and published by . This book was released on 2016-09-08 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seven centuries after its appearance, Dante's Inferno fascinates readers. The punishments of Hell have kept a gruesome hold upon our imagination, whether or not we believe in a world beyond this one. Indeed, Underworld myths are immensely older than Christian theology; traditions all over the world tell of heroes who journey to strange places where normal rules are topsy-turvy and where eerie inhabitants seem to know a different reality.El Moreno, Vendetta di Dio has not only drawn upon Dante's vision of eternal punishment; it has also resurrected the mythic world of tales where miraculous events are reported with a child-like simplicity. The book's narrator has practically died on the inside as the story opens, going through his daily grind in a numbed state of amnesia that he never thinks to question. In his daze, he stumbles upon a desert space (perhaps Chihuahua or some other region of the Southwest) where points of the compass literally reverse and where the sun brightly, torridly "sleeps" as night covers the land of the living. Here he is taken in by a kind of Grim Reaper: El Moreno, The Dark One, a pistolero from an earlier era who torments roving gangs of damned souls while always evading their dogged pursuit of him. The narrator is oddly soothed by the austere beauty of the wasteland--but also by a new peace that helps his mind confront horrible recollections. As he witnesses the lasting punishments suffered by evil men, he comes to understand that the universe forgets not a single violated child or a single butchered innocent. Mass graves and the faceless statistics of ruthless totalitarian regimes are made to balance with the lives they have destroyed, person by person. In this land of endless cruel chases through cactus breaks, arroyos, and salt flats, the debt is paid in full.The colorful, stunningly imaginative action has something of the Hollywood Western, and even the comic book, about it. This is fully in keeping with the style of folktales and legends, which deliver wonders in the plainspoken manner that we associate with dreams. The style, besides respecting the same arid simplicity, sparkles with similes that Dante would have admired for their way of fusing the impossible with the familiar. While not written in verse, the poetic effects of El Moreno are easily powerful enough to call it an epic.Here, then, is no escapist cartoon. Those who care to read beneath the surface will discover that Harris is pursuing a passionate mission to recognize the real evil in the human world and to insist on real damnation. In his preface, he argues that "a person who cannot distinguish an error of judgment or a surrender to impulse from a willful, exultant decision to inflict life-altering anguish upon the innocent and the defenseless is a moral imbecile." He mentions cases of kidnappers enclosing children's fingers in ransom notes and ISIS-arranged crucifixions. As an organization, the Christian Church has largely stopped condemning such acts as needing anything more than understanding and forgiveness. It's not hard to see what the author thinks of equating faith with complete passivity in this way.Whether the demand for a more muscular faith implied in El Moreno's explosive symbols comes closer to the heart of Christianity is up to the reader's judgment, of course. Does mercy to the confused and adrift preclude justice to the deliberately wicked? Would you find heaven a place of peace and bliss if Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were all seated at your table?