Paradise seen as a feast

I enjoyed Ginzburg’s The Cheese and the Worms; it is an interesting take on the ideas of religion and the afterlife. The portion of the book that I found of interest is Menocchios’ idea that paradise was the equivalent to a feast. It seems that this plain miller could grasp concepts from different religions and use them to understand his own religion. While those who were committed to the Catholic standards could not allow for this depiction of heaven or paradise, I can understand how Menocchio would perceive this concept.

Menocchio tells the inquisitors that “Paradise is a feast – the end of work, the negation of daily toil” (72) which is easy to understand. Menocchio and the people that he surrounded himself with were people who toiled at work without much return for that work. To imagine that paradise is a feast with an abundance of food and drink is not that foreign an idea, because paradise is that which we can’t access on a daily basis.

I would also like to comment on the way that Ginzburg writes which makes this much more accessible compared to Montaillou. By focusing strictly on Mennochio, and not on such a wide group of people I feel that I can better understand what he was going through. With Montaillou I spent a significant amount of time getting lost in the “family tree” which took up a big portion of the book, whereas with The Cheese and the Worms I felt like I could concentrate more on the concepts.