Cathedrals of Bone by Waldmeir John C.;

Author:Waldmeir, John C.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Published: 2009-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse

The correlation of an abstract sense of otherness with the tangible realities of an institutional Church—from clothing to crucifix—is a persistent feature of the third novel considered here, Louise Erdrich’s The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse.40 Interestingly, it is another dream that introduces the comparison. When Erdrich’s central character, a priest on a North Dakota Indian reservation called Little No Horse, dreams, worlds appear that clearly come from beyond the dreamer. All indications are that the dreams and the characters who populate them are sent to Father Damien Modeste, and the best evidence of this “objective” reality is the fact that others are able to participate in the realities they bring. This is how the priest’s housekeeper, Mary Kashpaw, is able to follow the priest into a “series of dreams” that open up after the gloom of a deep psychological depression. The dreams are “tunnels of brilliance snaking into the low hill, then out, then further back—through unknown swamps,” and Mary Kashpaw follows them until she is able “to guide [Father Damien] back.”41 Like the earlier vision of a devil who comes to the feverish priest in the form of a dog and actually sets its foot into a bowl of soup on the priest’s dinner table, this and other manifestations of psychological and physical trauma in the novel cannot be limited exclusively to the inner realms of Erdrich’s characters. The experiences are broader, and they leave their marks on the larger world outside the self (the uneaten soup, for instance, is poured back into a pot and served again, giving all of the nuns on the reservation who eat it terrible nightmares).

In Chapter 11, approximately halfway through the novel, Father Damien emerges with Mary Kashpaw from these dream travels and immediately begins another journey, this one through the woods that stand thick across most of the reservation. The motivation for this excursion is similar to the intended purpose of Sebastian Taggart’s trip to the smokestack: Father Damien intends to commit suicide. But just as Sebastian’s intentions change as he becomes aware of the sacramental context that embraces his life at this moment—the memory of the Mass from the previous day and the anticipation of Reconciliation—Father Damien’s proposed reason for the trek changes when the priest enters a section of the narrative within Chapter 11, a portion of the novel entitled “The Sacrament.”

Although the pattern of suicidal depression and sacramental redemption is similar for both characters, there is an important difference in how the two are rescued. Sebastian’s decision to continue his life coincides with his capitulation to the recognized sacramental rites of the Church. In this way, Alcorn is able to dramatize how an expression of otherness from the institutional Church can influence and transform the life of his character. Vestments is both clear and consistent on this point: the “other” comes to the self sacramentally, which in this case means from the outside in a manner as tangible and obvious as a chasuble, a hand-wrapping, or a suit of clothes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.