The Naked Pilgrim rolls on

[William Marques]

Im sorry that I left writing about the last two episodes so long and was
only able to give a brief outline from memory. I know this discussion will
not be of interest to many on the list though I suspect the series will be
available more widely later.
I suppose my disapointment with the series was that it was so much art
history and so little camino.  I enjoy art and architecture but Brian could
have done a series on churches without attaching it to the camino.  Some of
the most atmospheric stretches are sped past in his Mercedes and apart with
the occasional chat with a pilgrim outside a church or cathedral there is
very little contact with the people walking, cycling or living on the
route. I know it is difficult to put across the landscape and what may be
going on in the mind of someone walking on the meseta but it was not even
atempted.
I got a different reading of his emotions:
 "a kind of non-stated or silent honesty which said it all" I saw as an
understanding of the others motives but they were not ones he beleived in.
 "where one of them said "Jesus is just waiting for you, at the door of
your heart, waiting for you to open the door!"... I saw as a refusal to
open his heart unlike the French girl who was infectious in her enthusiasm.
I did not see him finishing the camino as a changed man but as a man who
had seen what it could do to others and one who is sorry that it has not
worked its magic on him.
William

On Tue, 12 Aug 2003  Sally Haden wrote:

>Thanks William for your comments.
>Though I don't really see it like that!
>Yes, if you appreciate Brian Sewell as an art critic, then maybe it drops
>off for you.
>I didn't know him at all before the programme and so when I watched, I was
>quite startled by his approach, which was as a formidable critic with wit
>and intellect.  I hadn't expected such a person to make the programme. In
>fact I thought it was rather silly early on.
>So I was moved by his reactions as the miles rolled by, his depressed mood
>and almost loss of interest in the middle.  I feel that in fact he opened
>himself to the Camino much more than he was willing to admit. There was a
>kind of non-stated or silent honesty which said it all, I thought.  The
fact
>that he had those conversations with the two French girls at the end, where
>one of them said "Jesus is just waiting for you, at the door of your heart,
>waiting for you to open the door!"... that tells me that he was affected,
>even if he refused to acknowledge it.  And the final moment where he runs
>into the sea naked is the final curtain, leaving a space where you can't
>help but think a little "wow", cos he leaves you suspended.
>
>Okay, I haven't been on the Camino yet myself, but I feel sure there must
be
>many different kinds of conclusions and effects on people... so can we say
>what it means to open oneself to the Camino?  And isn't the point of a
>pilgrimage - at least one point - to leave behind what one is, to stop
being
>how one has been accustomed to be, so that one can discover the new?
Sewell
>stopped being an art critic!??....and became a confused, frustrated and
>emotional human being.  Great.  For me that is an achievement, cos that
>requires honesty and courage.
>Sally