Q

I smile. No plan can take everything into account. Other people will raise their heads, others will desert. Time will go on spreading victory and defeat among those who pursue struggle.


There is a scene in Alan Bennett's History Boys where the instructor tells his students, if you want to know about Stalin you should study Henry VIII. I felt similar illustrations throughout this sprawling epic. Recurring tensions and responses proliferate through history. Well over a month was spent with Q, a month occupied otherwise by the World Cup and numerous intrigues into the depths of Derrida and Foucault. The baggy novel concerns millenarianism but in the befogged era of the religious wars and the Reformation. Street Fighting Men battle princes show more and papal guards, while revolutions orange and velvet give way to failed Springs and betrayed Thaws. The narrative as such concerns two men, equally unknown with protean noms-de-guerre: they act observe and operate for the opposing forces in this weird rethink of early modernity.

Luther Blissett is the pseudonym for four politically radical Italian novelists who will later in another incarnation be known as Wu Ming. This creative endeavor finds its historical subject in a most messy marriage, one that gleams even as it oozes. show less

We were diligent sowers of the seed, lighting the spark of war against those who had usurped the Word of God, the tormentors of His people. I saw scythes hammered into swords, hoes becoming lances and simple men leaving the plough to become fearless warriors. I saw a little carpenter carving a great crucifix and guiding Christ's troops like the captain of the most invincible army. I saw all this and I saw those men and women take up their own faith and turn it into a banner of revenge. Love seized our hearts with that one fire that flamed within us all; we were free and equal in the name of God, and we would smash the mountains, stop the world, kill all our tyrants in order to realise His kingdom of peace and brotherhood.

The protagonist show more starts off as a radical student at Wittenburg University, and becomes a soldier in the cause of religious reform, moving through Northern Europe, travelling under many different names and sometimes having to go into hiding. Despising the Lutherans as having become as much a part of the establishment as the Catholic church, he hooks up with the more extreme Anabaptists, travelling with various preachers and agitators, inciting peasants and townspeople to rebel against the aristocrats and merchants who oppress them. In later years, his methods become more indirect, as he perpetrates a fraud on the bankers who finance the people in power, and becomes involved in publishing and distributing a banned book, "The Benefit of Christ Crucified", in the hope of influencing the opinions of Catholic intellectuals and the more moderate cardinals and ensuring the election of a sympathetic pope, who will curb the powers of the inquisition.

Decades of intrigues and attacks, betrayals and retreats, rashness and remorse, are rushing together all of a sudden. The prophets and the king of a single, tragic day; cardinals and popes, and new popes; bankers, princes, merchants and preachers; men of letters, painters and spies, and counsellors and pimps. Everywhere, involving everyone, the same war.

The story covers nearly forty years of the Reformation, portraying it as social revolution as much as religious reform, if not more so. It skips backwards and forwards in time, but each of the short chapters is dated, so I found it easy to follow. Gert from the Well's story is interspersed with letters from the Catholic spy known as Q or Qoelet, who is working for the Vatican to counter the plots of its foes, whether they be Anabaptists, Lutherans or indeed the Holy Roman Emperor himself.

The name of the footballer Luther Blissett was used as a nom de plume by various artists and radicals around the world during the 1990s, as part of the loosly organised "Luther Blissett Project. "Q" was written by a collective of four Italian anarchists, who have since written another novel under the name Wu Ming.

It is an utterly fascinating story, which leaves the reader with lots to think about - what happened in Munster really reminded me of "Animal Farm". While I was reading the early parts of this book, I was also reminded about the pet hen in "Sredni Vashtar" by Saki. The Houdan hen was never drawn into the cult of Sredni Vashtar. Conradin had long ago settled that she was an Anabaptist. He did not pretend to have the remotest knowledge as to what an Anabaptist was, but he privately hoped that it was dashing and not very respectable. I think Conradin should be very satisfied with his choice. show less

How can someone make money out of a book like this? It is released under Creative Common license, which means everyone can spread it, also in parts, as long as it is clearly stated who the author is. But there is no clear author. Luther Blisset is not a physical person; it is a collective name behind which several authors are hidden. I have read other things from Luther Blisset, but this is definitively something different, and something better. This is a novel about the dark era of Reformation. It is clear that Luther's ideas worked only because they served the interests of some german princes. Luther trait was clear to everyone from the beginning. He revolted to the pope only to create his own church. Others continued with his ideas, show more added some better. In the Netherlands communions were formed were goods were shared among everyone, and where unions were not formalized by weddings. Kids would not be baptized, because it does not make any sense to force a faith on them. But all these theological disputes, all the battles in Münster, the Concilio in Trento, were just a big farce. Everything actually revolved around the power battles between Carl V and the Pope, the Sultan Suliman the Greatl behind them the bankers, as always.

At the end of the book, only the consciousness that religion is the food for the stupid, and that history commands our acts much more than we would like to. show less

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1995663.html

This is a novel set between 1518 and 1555, mostly in Germany with excursions to surrounding countries, about a radical Anabaptist and the papal agent who pursues him through the sixteenth century's wars of religion. It has had a lot of attention particularly in Italy ("Luther Blissett" is apparently a pseudonym for four Italian writers) and is seen by some as a metaphor for modern global politics, and/or in the Umberto Eco tradition of The Name of the Rose.

I wasn't completely satisfied with it. I thought that the nameless hero's story of shifting identity and conflict was quite well realised, with lots of grim and effective contemporary detail, even though it wasn't really clear until close to show more the end that this was going anywhere, but Hilary Mantel pursued a similar idea rather better in Wolf Hall. The Q sub-plot, however, annoyed me; much of it is told in letters ostensibly written by Q to his patron in Rome which totally fail to get the contemporary idiom (and necessarily include much info-dumping); and the final revelation of Q's identity was disappointing. show less

It's a long book,and I sense could have been shorter to its own advantage. I happen to know a little about the radical Reformation players who populate its pages. I can't understand the authors' portrayal of Hans Denck, who based on everything I've read was a gentle soul and perhaps much more of an influence in moving Hans Hut and others like him away from the violence of Thomas Muentzer. I did not understand why the authors mentioned Obbe Philips only briefly and somewhat dismissively, since his (and his brother Dirk's) connection to Menno Simons will be very important to subsequent Anabaptist history. Menno isn't even mentioned. I think the authors had it right in that David Joris for a moment attempts to combine Anabaptist visions show more and include the remnants of Muenster. As I understand it he has to leave the north fairly quickly to flee to Basle. The authors have him operating openly there under his real name, but this seems very unlikely. As I understand it, he directed the DavidJorist sect from afar, clandestinely under the name of Jan of Bruges, and that even his own family was unaware of his former life and the deception which was discovered after his death. I hope it isn't too much of a spoiler (quit reading immediately if you are very sensitive), to say that

I loved the surprise ending. show less

I am in awe! An amazing, historical tour de force which brought to life the turmoil of Europe of the Reformation, the incredible incestuous politicking of the factions, the long view the Vatican takes (to this very day) built within a brilliant spy novel at the top of the genre. I'd pay a great deal of money to have lunch with the authors - 'course I'd have to learn Italian or they'd have to speak English.

Non mi è piaciuto granché. Sì sì, si legge bene, ritmo incalzante (anche grazie alla furbata dei capitoletti brevissimi, 2-3 pagine), ma...
Troppo netta l'antistorica demarcazione fra "buoni" e "cattivi". Cattolici e luterani sono tutti avidi, malvagi e oppressori, gli anabattisti tutti idealisti che si battono per i diritti di tutti...
Un accumulo talmente esagerato di personaggi e fatti storici, in cui guarda caso il protagonista si trova sempre in mezzo, da apparire inverosimile e francamente ridicolo: basta dire che uno degli episodi più stupidi è l'incontro fortuito con il cardinale che di lì a poco diventerà papa, nientemeno. Perché non anche Carlo V allora, già che c'eravamo?
Una scrittura che a volte, per voler essere a show more tutti i costi "moderna", esagera e stanca con il turpiloquio, cerca sempre di shoccare il lettore in modo troppo compiaciuto, altre, quando vuole essere "poetica", è troppo pretenziosa.
La voce narrante, poi, è straordinariamente odiosa, con quel tono da autocommiserazione continua, "quante ne ho passate, quante ne ho viste"... e che noia! Senza contare che lui è sempre forte, intrepido, dalla parte dei deboli e del bene, si mette solo (ovviamente) con donne "bellissime" e coraggiosissime, ecc ecc.
Alla fine, il più simpatico di tutti è proprio il povero Q.

I didn't like it very much. Yes, it's easy to read and has a good rhythm (partly because of the fact that the chapters are really short, 2-3 pages), but...
The unhistorical separation between "good" and "evil" ones is too strong. Catholics and Lutherans are all evil, greedy and oppressive, Baptists are all good and caring for the rights of poor people...
There's such a monstrous mass of historical characters and events, in which, guess what, the main character is ALWAYS involved, so exaggerated to become frankly ridiculous. Just an example: one of the stupidest episodes is when the hero meets by chance the cardinal that is to become the next pope! So, why not making him meet the emperor Charles V too, while we're at it???
The style at times wants to be "modern" at all costs and shock the reader, and turns to be really annoying, at times, when it tries to be "lyrical", is too pretentious.
Also, the main character is unbearable, always complaining "how many things I've seen, how many things I've gone through...", just shut up! And he's obviously ALWAYS strong, brave, on the good side, he always falls in love with "beautiful" and intrepid women...
In the end, the best one turns out to be poor Q! show less