{"id":3826,"date":"2015-08-11T13:09:20","date_gmt":"2015-08-11T20:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/i81.a52.mywebsitetransfer.com\/?p=3826"},"modified":"2015-08-11T13:09:20","modified_gmt":"2015-08-11T20:09:20","slug":"the-pilgrim-of-love-a-ludibrium-by-charles-davis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dactylfoundation.org\/?p=3826","title":{"rendered":"The Pilgrim of Love: a ludibrium by Charles Davis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cI was pleased to discover in myself an uncanny knack for interpreting the hermetic language of alchemy, as if my book learning had been but a preparation for decrypting enigmatic texts, reading meaning into that which, on the surface, seemed meaningless.\u201d<\/p>\n

So says the unnamed narrator of Charles Davis\u2019 The Pilgrim of Love: a ludibrium, an obsessively researched and elaborately plotted parody of an historical romance. (Parody, as I understand the term, is best written by an author who actually loves his target, but who can put some ironic distance between himself and his subject.) The story is set in the abbey of the legendary Mont Michel in 1621, when the absence of roadway access meant visiting pilgrims had to make their way around quicksand between dangerously unpredictable tides. The landscape always plays an important and often symbolic role in Davis\u2019 novels. The pilgrims must interpret the patterns in the sand to avoid sinking in the lise.<\/p>\n

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