THE HOLY GRAIL

(Quoted from the book:) The legend of the Holy Grail... There is a lot to say about this legend, Blanca, and, although I will do so mainly in another letter, I can start by saying that the Grail symbolises the original state of the human being, his lost Integrity. It appears in an enchanted castle, a castle of uncertain location and difficult access, inhabited by a King who has lost his Integrity as well as his Kingdom. The scenography of these apparitions has the magic, supernatural quality of dreams. And maybe that is precisely it, you know? The expressing of the dream, the expressing of the diminished King’s nostalgia, the Fisher King who dreams of restoring his lost Integrity.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TO DIE OF LOVE

Image
(Quoted from the book:) Talking about the Arabic ideal of chastity, Blanca, is talking about Udhra love, which is how courtly love is known in the Arab world. The name comes from a tribe who flourished between the seventh and eighth century in the Southeast of the Arabian Peninsula, in a remote valley in Yemen. The Bedouin tribe of the Banu Udhra, the “Sons of Virginity”, produced many poets; with the peculiarity that Udhra poetry is monothematic: it deals with one single issu e, spiritual love. But, in addition, the Udhra poets practiced what they preached: they became famous for cultivating the type of love they put into verse; a pure and chaste love, so intense (its intensity came from its purity) that it was said they “died of love”. The Arabic chronicles of the time tell about Udhras dying of no particular infirmity, but of love towards their lady. Otherwise, my dear, Udhra love verged on mysticism, on religion, to the point that orthodox Muslims denigrated and accused it of inter...
Read more

INTRODUCTION by Xavier Perez-Pons

Image
ANNOUNCEMENT AND DISCLAIMER On a spring afternoon in the year two thousand, I happened to wander into a bookshop in the old Barri Gòtic in Barcelona. The owner was busy taking books from two large wooden boxes. I was curious, so I asked him if I could have a look. The books were in Catalan, Spanish, French, and English, some of them illustrated, most of them filled with underlinings and pencil notes on the margin; there were also a couple in Portuguese and some other in Italian. They were of all sorts of literary genres, although I could spot a common subject. I asked the owner where he had gotten these boxes. They had belonged to a man that had recently died; that is all he knew. He had bought them at an auction, along with other private libraries and lots from all over the place. I asked him to give me a price, and I took the whole lot home. Actually, that is not true. There was more to the lot than those two boxes. There was a third one. A third box, which...
Read more