--- About your comments on "Christ"

Some interesting questions came up in your comments and I will try to clarify some of the points.

COMMENT to this post: write more questions you had about obscure or difficult aspects of Christ.



1) Why did Geremio/Annunziata have so many children.
a)  By their standards it wasn't unusual for women to get pregnant every year or so. What was unusual was for all those children to have survived. Mortality rate in USA for children under 3 was about 50%.
b) Why did they conceive so many children? This is not to bu cute, but they didn't have television. TV has proven to be the most effective birth control method in the world. It is addictive and after watching TV for 5 or 6 hours at night, first it's late and you have to get up to work the next day, second your brain is turned to mush and doesn't even know what the other signals are.
c) The Catholic church made it a sin to use the only contraception known at that time, namely, coitus interruptus.
d) There were no birth control methods. Folk remedies existed (you can find them on google) but many rejected them as being gross, or because of shame in dealing with one's body.
e) Nobody knew that women are fertile only a few days during their cycle, therefore they didn't know that by abstaining during a certain period, it would reduce the chance of pregnancy.
f) The method of abstaining during probable fertility was discovered in the 1910s by two doctors, aJapanes, Ogino, and an Austrian, Knaus. The Ogino-Knaus method (also known in Italy as "oggi no, Knaus"  [not today, Knaus]) took years to become known in the scientific community -- no internet back then, and the media did not cover these topics out of shame. Finally, after it became known, it was the only method approved by the Catholic church. BTW, it doesn't work that well.

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2) The initial scene shows a gang of brick layers, all adults, working and chatting, teasing each other. They are friends, and like all male friends when they get together it's part of their way to relate to one another.
a) Nicknames are very common in Italy. Once I remember sitting down with family and a few friends after a big lunch party and for fun we started listing nicknames in our town. We came up with over 100 names, and we were far from finished. Some nicknames are used openly, some are used behind the person's back as they are insulting or the person is especially sensitive.
Nicknames is one of the reasons why Italy has one of the highest number of different lastnames in the world. Nicknames eventually, with time, became last names, centuries ago. In comparison, in Vietnam about 50% of the population has the last name Nguyen. In China about a dozen last names cover over 60% of the population.

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3) Geremio and Annunziata. 
Aside from their goal of buying a house together, aside from the fact that they have 8 children, the nature of their relationship emerges clearly in the pillow talk they have, when Annuziata noticed that Geremio hasn't told her anything about the job they are working on. Normally he does. Annunziata by intuition understands that there is something wrong and wants Geremio to confide in her. They trust each other, the love each other.

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4) I expected more of you would pick a detail from the gruesome scene of Geremio's death. It's frankly one of the most terrifying passage in literature ever to be found. If you skipped (the last two pages approx of the chapter) I would recommend that you go back and read it. You will never forget it.