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A review by the_daydreamologist
The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye
1.0
Before you start reading this review, let's establish a few things:
1) I'm a Muslim, and I know my religion well.
2)I'm Asian ( I'm not Indian, or from anywhere near India, in fact, I'm from the West, but that does not change the fact that I'm from that continent, and I get its people pretty well).
3) I'm not going to answer any comments unless they're really worth answering, so don't try to pick a fight with me. If you need something explained, I'll be glad to explain it, but other than that, no thanks.
Now, to business.
First off, this is not my first time reading M.M. Kaye, and her writing, regardless of other things, is rich, captivating, and just plain worth reading.
I began The Far Pavilions expecting nothing less, and I wasn't disappointed, at least not in that area.
Yet despite that, I had many issues with this book. Most were of a moral nature, but not all.
Number One:
All those refrences to sex, brothels, affairs, mistresses.....the list doesn't end. I mean, do we need more of that in this world?!?
And for some reason, the author belived that going to brothels would've done Ash good. A great deal of it. Wow. Just wow.
He advised Ash to abandon any
thought of marriage for at least five years, and suggested instead a
visit to one of the better-known houses of ill-fame in Peshawar or
Rawalpindi.
Ash was strongly tempted to accept, and it would probably have
done him a great deal of good, for the life of an unmarried subaltern
in the Indian Army was a monastic one.
And we do get that Lily Briggs was an "amoral slutt" , but I don't see how Ashton is much better. He went to brothels, had any number of mistresses, and wasn't above sleeping with another man's fiancé.
Number Two:
We're still talking about the content here. About that sex scene in the cave. The author tried to make us believe that it was right, that there was nothing wrong about cheating on your fiancé (yes, they've never even seen each other, but that doesn't change the fact that Anjuli is another man's fiancé ) , or committing fornication.
Just because of 'Love'.
Should I clap my hands, or do you prefer a whistle?
Love is great, people, but there are greater things. And really, love and lust are quite different from each other. That scene was about as beautiful as an overflowing garbage bin that's been decorated for some celebration.
Number Three:
.....beautiful; Krishna the Beloved, Hanuman the Ape, and pot-bellied Ganesh with his elephant head who was, strangely, the son of Shiv and Parvati. These and a hundred other gods and godlings must all be propitiated by gifts to the priests. Yet Koda Dad said that there was only one god, whose Prophet was Mohammed. Which was certainly simpler, except that it was sometimes difficult to tell who Koda Dad really worshipped – God or Mohammed – for God, according to Koda Dad, lived in the sky, but his followers must not say their prayers unless they faced in the direction of Mecca, a city where Mohammed had been born. And although Koda Dad spoke scornfully of idols and idol-worshippers, he had told Ash about a sacred stone in Mecca that was regarded as holy by all Muslims and accorded a veneration equal to anything offered by the Hindus to the stone emblems of Vishnu. Ash could see little difference between the two: if one was an idol, so was the other.
The author seems to think we worship the Black Stone, or "the shrouded rock in Mecca" (the author's words). We don't. Its just a stone, but blessed by Allah (God). It was first positioned in Mecca when Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ismael (Ishmael) first built the Ka'aba. And we don't face Mecca because the Prophet (PBUH) was born there, that actually has nothing to do with it. At all.
We face the Ka'aba, which is located in Mecca. The Ka'aba is The Sacred House Of Allah ( Bait Allah Al-Haram).That is why we face it. We'll still face it, even if it was located in the North Pole.
And for the billionth time, Prophets. Are. People. H-U-M-A-N B-E-I-N-G-S. You can't worship them. But you have to believe in them, all of them, from Adam to Jesus to Mohammed, because believing in Allah means believing in all the Prophets He ever sent to humanity. That's what we have in Islam. Take it, or leave it.
Oh, and we don't make offerings to Allah ( or to that stone). He owns The Earth and Skies and all in between. What makes people think He'd want offerings? He gives those thing to people, not the other way around.
There were a lot of these kinds of mistakes scattered throughout the book (not that I finished it), but they all probably just stem from ignorance, and basing things merely on what you see, or hear, and not what you know to be the truth.
I was mistaken in thinking this book safe to read just because it was written so long ago. I'll be sure not to make that mistake again. Though I feel betrayed by the author.Trying to subtly sell immoral, wrong thoughts and ideas to unsuspecting readers who have put their complete trust in you.......that's shameful.
When we read books, we like to be on the side of the main characters. We like to support them, even if what they do doesn't always agree with what we believe. But when things go too strongly against what you know is right, you find yourself having to withdraw that support. That's what I found myself doing here, so I couldn't finish this book. It's hard to read about characters you no longer care about.
What you write reflects what you are. Somebody once called that asinine. It's not. It's perfectly true.The author herself committed fornication. Whatever made me think her characters would have better morals or principles?
1) I'm a Muslim, and I know my religion well.
2)I'm Asian ( I'm not Indian, or from anywhere near India, in fact, I'm from the West, but that does not change the fact that I'm from that continent, and I get its people pretty well).
3) I'm not going to answer any comments unless they're really worth answering, so don't try to pick a fight with me. If you need something explained, I'll be glad to explain it, but other than that, no thanks.
Now, to business.
First off, this is not my first time reading M.M. Kaye, and her writing, regardless of other things, is rich, captivating, and just plain worth reading.
I began The Far Pavilions expecting nothing less, and I wasn't disappointed, at least not in that area.
Yet despite that, I had many issues with this book. Most were of a moral nature, but not all.
Number One:
All those refrences to sex, brothels, affairs, mistresses.....the list doesn't end. I mean, do we need more of that in this world?!?
And for some reason, the author belived that going to brothels would've done Ash good. A great deal of it. Wow. Just wow.
He advised Ash to abandon any
thought of marriage for at least five years, and suggested instead a
visit to one of the better-known houses of ill-fame in Peshawar or
Rawalpindi.
Ash was strongly tempted to accept, and it would probably have
done him a great deal of good, for the life of an unmarried subaltern
in the Indian Army was a monastic one.
And we do get that Lily Briggs was an "amoral slutt" , but I don't see how Ashton is much better. He went to brothels, had any number of mistresses, and wasn't above sleeping with another man's fiancé.
Number Two:
We're still talking about the content here. About that sex scene in the cave. The author tried to make us believe that it was right, that there was nothing wrong about cheating on your fiancé (yes, they've never even seen each other, but that doesn't change the fact that Anjuli is another man's fiancé ) , or committing fornication.
Just because of 'Love'.
Should I clap my hands, or do you prefer a whistle?
Love is great, people, but there are greater things. And really, love and lust are quite different from each other. That scene was about as beautiful as an overflowing garbage bin that's been decorated for some celebration.
Number Three:
.....beautiful; Krishna the Beloved, Hanuman the Ape, and pot-bellied Ganesh with his elephant head who was, strangely, the son of Shiv and Parvati. These and a hundred other gods and godlings must all be propitiated by gifts to the priests. Yet Koda Dad said that there was only one god, whose Prophet was Mohammed. Which was certainly simpler, except that it was sometimes difficult to tell who Koda Dad really worshipped – God or Mohammed – for God, according to Koda Dad, lived in the sky, but his followers must not say their prayers unless they faced in the direction of Mecca, a city where Mohammed had been born. And although Koda Dad spoke scornfully of idols and idol-worshippers, he had told Ash about a sacred stone in Mecca that was regarded as holy by all Muslims and accorded a veneration equal to anything offered by the Hindus to the stone emblems of Vishnu. Ash could see little difference between the two: if one was an idol, so was the other.
The author seems to think we worship the Black Stone, or "the shrouded rock in Mecca" (the author's words). We don't. Its just a stone, but blessed by Allah (God). It was first positioned in Mecca when Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ismael (Ishmael) first built the Ka'aba. And we don't face Mecca because the Prophet (PBUH) was born there, that actually has nothing to do with it. At all.
We face the Ka'aba, which is located in Mecca. The Ka'aba is The Sacred House Of Allah ( Bait Allah Al-Haram).That is why we face it. We'll still face it, even if it was located in the North Pole.
And for the billionth time, Prophets. Are. People. H-U-M-A-N B-E-I-N-G-S. You can't worship them. But you have to believe in them, all of them, from Adam to Jesus to Mohammed, because believing in Allah means believing in all the Prophets He ever sent to humanity. That's what we have in Islam. Take it, or leave it.
Oh, and we don't make offerings to Allah ( or to that stone). He owns The Earth and Skies and all in between. What makes people think He'd want offerings? He gives those thing to people, not the other way around.
There were a lot of these kinds of mistakes scattered throughout the book (not that I finished it), but they all probably just stem from ignorance, and basing things merely on what you see, or hear, and not what you know to be the truth.
I was mistaken in thinking this book safe to read just because it was written so long ago. I'll be sure not to make that mistake again. Though I feel betrayed by the author.Trying to subtly sell immoral, wrong thoughts and ideas to unsuspecting readers who have put their complete trust in you.......that's shameful.
When we read books, we like to be on the side of the main characters. We like to support them, even if what they do doesn't always agree with what we believe. But when things go too strongly against what you know is right, you find yourself having to withdraw that support. That's what I found myself doing here, so I couldn't finish this book. It's hard to read about characters you no longer care about.
What you write reflects what you are. Somebody once called that asinine. It's not. It's perfectly true.The author herself committed fornication. Whatever made me think her characters would have better morals or principles?