Stephen O'Shea

Ye gods and little fiishes, what a ghastly thing the Catholic Church is. Reading this book about the treatment meted out to the unquestionably heretical Cathars, or "the Perfect" as they called themselves, makes me feel sorry for the "saints" and "holy" men involved in the brutal and complete suppression of this dualistic religion.

Hell, in which they seem to have believed unquestioningly, must resound with their cries and pleas for mercy and understanding.

The political threat of the show more anti-clerical, anti-authoritarian Cathars could not be tolerated. The Church would have been suicidal to ignore the appeal of the Manichaean world-view in a priest-ridden, anarchic world just clawing its way out of a devastating few centuries of almost simultaneous economic and population collapses beginning in the sixth century. Imagine, after quite a looong time of answering to your overlord and only vaguely to the local priest, having to *ask* the *Church* for permission to get married! The very idea! That the Church, where one went for spiritual uplift, should suddenly interest itself in who you sleep with!

It was one of many means the Church used to make itself the replacement for the vanished Roman Empire. It caused a bitter backlash. It was viewed as unChristian (Heaven, after all, is the Church's stated model for life, and in Heaven there is neither marriage nor giving in marriage, right?). And along come these religious guys, doing the work of the world along side you, saying scrupmtious things like the entire physical world is a snare of the Devil, so what's a "Holy Mother Church" doing trying to tell you what to do in it, instead of telling you how to get out of it?

I would've loved the Cathars. They said that all the Heaven and woo-woo stuff was codswallop, and the best you should do in this world is Not Hurt Nobody Nohow. As you, o creature of flesh, learn more and more and more to follow that rule, you *step off the cycle of rebirth* and cease to be flesh.

In fact, I *do* love the Cathars.

So anyway, their commonsensical view of the teachings of Jesus caused no end of angst in Rome, and the Holy Office of the Inquisition was invented to cause these right-thinking Perfect as much pain and suffering as possible.

It worked, as viciousness and evil routinely triumph over good, at least in the short run (though 800 years don't seem so short to me, but then I'm only a Devil-created human, ain't I?). It was painful to read this book because I knew how it would end, it was painful to read because I felt such compassion for the Perfect, and it was just damn good and depressing to be reminded of the horrors humans visit upon each other in the name of their big-bully imaginary friend in the sky.

If this is what "God" really wants, I say screw him. Fortunately, I don't for one single instant believe such a "God" actually exists. The Divine might not be susceptible to our limited reasoning power, but active evil such as the Crusades, the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation play no part in its wishes.

The author pens a creditable sentence, and tells the well-known tale with such true compassion that it's as though he feels the flames and screams the screams. I'd recommend it to the anti-Christian/Catholic contingent, the spiritually honest Christians, and the stout of heart. Not for True Believers or those seeking peace. show less

Back to the Front recounts a walk along the WWI Western Front, from the Channel coast in Belgium to the Swiss border. This is partially a not bad history (although organized by geography rather than chronologically) and partially author Stephen O’Shea’s travel monologue:


"The icy glares turn the summer morning cold; the animosity is almost palpable … how else could I have offended all of these people? One reason is war; not just the Great War, but every war. This fertile swath of France show more has known the tramp of armies since its forests were first cleared by the farmers of Gaul. This morning’s route, for example, was not only the trace of the trenches – it also carried Henry IV’s (sic) men to nearby Agincourt in 1415, and who knows how many other wild-eyed armies on their way to binges of the id. … Such a legacy must seep down into some murky collective well, from which people instinctively draw when confronted with the unfamiliar. Here, at the Somme, the well must be bottomless."


The aforesaid bottomless well is difficulty O’Shea overcomes. All wars have their share of military and political stupidity, but WW I must have gotten its own allotment plus all the extra pieces that were left over from the others. The first major battle (we are reminded that the British army lost 7000 men a week during “quiet” periods when there were no major battles) O’Shea walks through is Ypres (in fact, First, Second and Third Ypres, which gives some idea of the futility). The British Army spent weeks dropping shells on the German trenches (107 kilotons, to borrow a term from a later war) then sent soldiers forward through the now explosively impassable terrain, in the rain, in the face of countershelling and machinegun fire. Then they did it again. Then they did it again. And they did it at the Somme. And the French did it at Verdun. And at Chemin des Dames. Thus, the problem is once you get through describing what happened at Ypres (and you’re not even out of Belgium yet) how do you have enough words left to go on without horror overload? Mostly O’Shea avoids this by interspersing his own comments on travel in modern France with the history (as said, mostly; he does run out of unpleasant epithets for Douglas Haig).


O’Shea doesn’t provide any details on tactical engagements – it’s just the big battles. Surprisingly, that makes the book a pretty good history of the Western Front, especially if it’s your first one. Armchair military historians tend to get interested in weapons and tactics, individual battles and unit names; O’Shea’s switching between a walk through peaceful, if not scenic, countryside and a landscape Dante would have rejected for Hell as too implausible gives a perspective that will stay with you through any number of scholarly military histories. show less

Неважно, какой из альпийских курортов вы соберетесь посетить на новогодние каникулы, — это именно та книга, которую стоит взять с собой. Автор снует вдоль заснеженного хребта, как челнок ткацкого станка: к северу — к югу, начав с Женевы и продвигаясь постепенно на восток show more до Словении. По пути он постоянно пересекает границы миров: Lard line, разделяющую Европу на готовящих на животном жире и на оливковом масле; Рёштиграбен, поделившую Швейцарию на любителей и противников драников рёшти (то есть немецко- и франкоговорящие кантоны); и даже оказывается в гиперреальности — швейцарском Хайдиланде. Если вы, как и я, подумали, что Хайди из названия книги относится к имени любимой овчарки фюрера, то вы ошиблись. Хайди — это девочка, героиня детской книжки и один из крупнейших брендов Швейцарии в Восточной Азии. Китайцев и японцев автобусами привозят в эту декоративную деревню. Путешествие на машине позволяет автору увидеть места, куда автобусами не завезут: потрясающие скалы Тре-Чиме-ди-Лаваредо и перевал Стельвио, названный ведущим передачи Top Gear самым живописным местом в мире для автопоездки. Общение с местными жителями помогает узнать регион лучше и не покупаться на их байки о даху, животном с ногами разной длины для устойчивости на склонах. show less

Catharism was a Christian sect in south France that defied most everything the “Church” required of its believers. Christians should strive to be like Jesus, a poor man who respected men and women. Cathars reincarnated until they are “Perfect” and finally are released from their corporal bodies to join Christ. This heresy in the 11-1200s was so antithetical to the Church that it called on a crusade to kill them all, ultimately succeeding. O’Shea is an excellent writer and show more historian, making ancient primary sources accessible. I was confused by the first few chapters but as the story of the crusade developed it was almost impossible to put down. I learned so much about a fascinating Christian sect I knew nothing about and which predated Protestantism. Trigger warnings: the Church and its henchmen were cruel and brutal. Many thousands died cruel, painful deaths. show less