Splinter

I have mixed feelings, and overall I'm not sure how I feel about the book. It makes some interesting remarks about the Catholic Church that mirror my own vision of the Church, and to a certain degree it portrays self-flagellation and some aspects of faith as fetishes. It's almost as if it's trying to bring together the spiritual with the physical, and show us that these two can't be separated and that instead, they feed off each other. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it and I'm doing it through my own bias because I've always thought that the Catholic Church has an obsession with death, pain and blood that's more than borderline fetishistic.

But all these thoughts aside, this is a story about a troubled young woman and the man show more who takes advantage of her. It's particularly troubling because 1. he's a symbol of both power and a safety, and 2. he justifies it by declaring himself helpless when it comes to her. Worse, it would appear that his actions actually helped her, and that's what truly bothers me.

It's an uncomfortable story, and I don't know what to make of it. show less