Till we have faces...

Forget to mention that I finished reading "Till We Have Faces". I really wanted to note this too, because I was just entralled by it.

I finally discovered what the title means in the final pages. The book concerns itself with the presense/or not of the gods, love, and life/death. A character, Orual, has put a charge before the gods, but receives no answer. She then discovers that the questions that humans have - which seem to matter then - will only die away once we have foudn ourselves for what we truly are - and only then are our questions answered by knowing ourselves. I think she also learns that we cannot see ourselves until we let others see themselves, or until we see what they've become. And finally, there is a difference between scared and profane love, or selfless and selfish.

Here are a few quotes from the book:

"The complaint was the answer. To have heard myself making it was to be answered ... When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you'll not talk about joy of words. I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openely, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? how can they meet us face to face till we have faces?"

All around a great book. It's so nice to read something with meaning.