Final Paper, "Don't Wanna Be Your Slave"

God, Sarah, the Jewish faith, Jan Bzik, passionate lust, the ten commandments, the Polish robbers, Wanda, and true love. In Isaac Bashevis Singer's novel, “The Slave,” Jacob is a slave to all of these people and entities throughout the story. It can be seen that Jacob never becomes a free man in certain respects because he always submits himself to powers other than his own. Jacob remains in some sort of captivity throughout the entire novel, initially his slavery is characterized by disgust and a sense of betrayal. As the story goes on however, he becomes a slave for the right things and his sense of captivity turns into one that is full of enjoyment and passion. This can be illustrated by analyzing how he acts in responses to each one of the captivities he is involved in. In the beginning of the narrative the reader learns that Jacob is a slave for Jan Bzik. He farms and milks the cows for the village down the hill. As Jacob begins his introductory prayer he says, “ 'Thou hast not made me a slave,' he paused. Could these words be spoken by him? He was Jan Bzik's slave.” This illustrates Jacob's unusual position regarding his enslavement in the village. His thoughts are not the typical reflections one would expect to see from a slave, in that they characterize a forgetfulness of his condition. It is as if he has to remind himself he is bound in captivity. Later on in the book when Jacob is called down from the mountain for harvest time he again has an atypical sense of enslavement. “How painful it was for the slave to leave his solitude! He had already scratched forty-three commandments and sixty-nine interdictions into the rock.” Jacob's sense of duty and faith paint and interesting picture when it comes to analyzing his thoughts. He recognizes his enslavement yet he does so in a way that seems to contradict his faith in himself. Arguably Jacob shows more discipline to his religion than his enslavement by Jan Bzik. It seems he would rather scratch commandments into a rock by himself than be a slave for the people of the village. It can be seen that he gets more satisfaction by being a slave to God, than a slave to Jan Bzik. He does so in a way that seems to allow no room for free will, he feels as if all is preordained and he is a slave to his life. The way he feels about Wanda and the lust he has for her at the beginning of the story carries a similar kind of feeling. “Yet Jacob knew that all this had been contrived by Satan; throughout the day he missed her and could not overcome his longing.” Jacob has essentially illustrated a recognition that he has no free will. Where he should see passion for Wanda he characterizes it as lust because it came from Satan and not himself. He sees himself, again, as a slave to sin, where he should see himself as a slave for love, much like Wanda does, “She had fallen in love with the slave at first sight...It was said that the slave had bewitched her.” Others in the community see Wanda as a kind of slave to Jacob. The difference is that Wanda embraces this kind of love as a beneficial power. She illustrates this when she says, “I have done this for you” on the night they sleep together. She submits herself to Jacob and recognizes that he is in control of the situation. Wanda basically becomes a slave to Jacob, who is a slave to his religion, she shares the same sense of duty to him that Jacob shares to God. Jacob's devotion to his religion develops as his relationship with Wanda progresses and only until he fully devotes himself, does it start to be beneficial. Initially Jacob feels that Wanda is pulling him away from his relationship with God, he sees his actions as blasphemy and his feelings for her are like “... a snake, passion lay curled at the bottom.” This image presents the passion for Wanda as a negative force, one that make him feel shame for his actions, because he is still so much a slave for God, he has not yet recognized the captive power of love. As the story goes on, however, and the two of them move to Pilitz, and Jacob begins to recognize this power. “Teaching others, Jacob realized, one also instructed oneself; correcting Sarah's behavior, answering her questions, eradicating her errors, many problems about which he would not have otherwise thought were clarified for him.” His teaching of both Sarah and the children in the town have allowed Jacob to embrace his religion in a more profound way. In his relationship with Sarah he is bringing himself closer to God because he is talking about it and thinking about it with someone other than himself. His slavery is no longer characterized as lonely, but rather as fruitful because he can share it with someone else. In these ways he is becoming a slave for the right reasons, characterized as compassion and discovery. His attitude begins to shift because he begins to recognize his own power to accomplish things and not seeing his actions manifestations of uncontrollable sin. Jacob sees that he can do good on his own in the light of God, he is his own man, still a slave, but one with power. After Sarah's death and Jacob's escape from the Cossacks he get a clears sense of how he should feel about his condition as a slave. He meets with the ferryman named Waclaw, who talks to him about being a slave, like a man is to his wife or like cows are to their herders. He says, “When I hear such things, I say to myself Waclaw not you You'll be nobody's slave...Here at the ferry I'm free as a bird. I think what I please.” Waclaw's sense of freedom does not come from being able to do anything you want, rather it comes from one's thoughts. He sees this as a true manifestation of freedom one's will to think for themselves. Jacob several times cursed his thought and his desires. He saw them as slave like because he did not recognize his own power for having them. The way Jacob should have been thinking all along is presented to him by the Jewish elder he meets towards the end of the novel. When Jacob inquires about what he should do about his son and his wife he learns a valuable lesson about the ways of the world. Jacob insists he has no power to act any other way. Then the elder tells him, “It seems it was not, Free will exists, but so does foreknowledge. 'All is foreseen but the choice is given.' Each soul must accomplish its task,or it would not have been sent here.” This is not unlike slavery as it illustrates a kind of submission to a higher power. The key however, comes in analyzing how one should feel about his life on this earth. Jacob should have understood his free will was not a burden but rather a catalyst for accomplishing his task in life. When Jacob dies his bones are taken to be buried on top of the hill where they also find Sarah's remains. Upon discovering her body the people of the village recognize Sarah as a Jew. “The cemetery had ordained it; Sarah was a Jewish daughter and a sanctified corpse.” The foreknowledge of the universe and God are prevalent in this passage as communicated to the reader. One sees that although people make choices in their life they must always be willing to submit to a higher power. This submission should not be looked upon negatively because in light of Jacob's life. His accomplishments became more profound though this sense of ordainment. It can be seen that Jacob transforms throughout the course of the novel he never stops being a slave he just learns how to be one correctly. He knows this from the beginning, “His years of enforced slavery had been succeeded by slavery that would last as long as he lived.” This slavery that would last the rest of his life should be seen as a manifestation of his own self imposed slavery. His constant submission to the higher power is a choice he makes throughout the book. However, after talking with the elder he sees that he had the power to choose all along. He wanted to be a slave to God, he wanted to be passionate with Wanda, and he wanted to live life as a good person. The important realization by Jacob comes at the end of the book when he sees the power he has had his whole life. “Sometimes Jacob was amazed at the burdens he required his body and his soul to carry.” This sense of amazement is spot on with how Jacob should feel about his choices. The decisions he made as a slave, whether it was to God, Wanda his lust, or the Polish robbers, were his own and because they were is own they were the right choices and they lead him to led a life full of servitude and reverence for his family and all things holy.

We Are The Furnance

When I was first assigned to be part of the Furnace group I did not know quite what to expect, and after reading the chapter for the first time I really didn't know what to expect. But when we started meeting as a group I kind of got an idea of what Frye was talking about. It may have been destiny that Orsi was part of our group, because his infatuation with Beckett fit perfectly in with the group theme. Frye argues for a kind of complete sacrifice of the self, a burning of everything until there is nothing left. The furnace is the perfect image for this as it gets rid of impurities and offers a more profound return. I can't help but think of the low brow movie "Friday" in which the father of Craig gives him life advise saying, "You win some you lose some but you live, you live to fight another day." I think this a great representation of how we should feel about the furnace. Going into the furnace like Job of the Bible and Jacob of the Slave did is a fight they lost, but they did live, and they lived to fight another day. Without this deprivation of their luxuries, their lives would not be as profound. Because it is when you are down at rock bottom and the world has taken it all, that you have the chance of a lifetime to win everything back and live, yes live to fight and fight for another day, it's the only way.

The Word, Slave

Before I began to read the Slave Dr.Sexson told us that one good paper topic might be explaining why the novel was entitled, the Slave. I thought about this and decided I would try to investigate this notion. So upon beginning to read the novel I had a pencil by my side and every on every occasion I saw the word "slave" I underlined it. I was surprised to see that the word did not appear as often as I thought it would, perhaps less than two dozen times. I have yet to total these numbers up. However just recently as I was looking over my markings in the book. I noticed an interesting pattern emerging. I feel that Jacob never ceases to be a slave at any point in the story, he merely becomes a different kind of slave. Another notion I started to pick up on during this process was how Jacob's life in this book is very similar to a Dark Romantic Quest. For my capstone with Dr. Morgan this is the major theme we are dealing with as it occurs in texts such as the Hobbit, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Harry Potter. In any case the quest has several elements that I found to exist in Jacob's journey in the course of the novel. One being that the quest must be an impossible one, one where the quester would not succeed without the intervention of a supernatural force. Another aspect is overcoming death, or in Jacob's case a great loss. The most important element of the Dark Romantic Quest, is the sense of inevitable and irreplaceable loss that characterizes the end of the journey. I have found all of these elements or at least similar comparisons in the novel, and I feel my paper will be about one of these two ideas, either the word the slave or Jacob's quest as a Dark Romantic manifestation.

Furnace Script So Far

-Furnace
Scene One opens with Jacob and Job running away from Cossacks they have torn clothes and are dirty
Jacob: “What will I do now we just escaped, from captivity?”
Job: “We are merely runaway slaves, we have lost almost everything”
Jacob: “My wife is dead and my son has been taken away, I have nowhere to go”
Job: “My wife still alive we can try to get to my house for refuge”
Jacob: “God willing we will find salvation there”
Job: “Before I was taken away, we had a prosperous house with many servants we can recover there”
Jacob: “It's good to warm my bones beside the fire”
Job: “Let us make way to the woods, our journey will begin there, come quickly”
Jacob and Job stumble off stage into the forest
Scene Two Jacob and Job are wandering in the Garden of Eden they see Eve and Adam under the tree of knowledge
Job: “Hello good people have you any food?”
Jacob: “We have been traveling many miles and are hungry”
Adam: “There is only the tree of knowledge, but its fruit is forbidden”
Job: “Why is it forbidden?”
Eve: “God has demanded so”
Jacob: “Does not want us to prosper? We should eat of it.”
Job: “We should obey God’s word be has provided us with so much to disobedient would be heresy”
Adam: “Job is right to say so”
Eve: “The serpent told me that we would be equal with God if we ate of it”
Jacob: “If that is true eating the fruit would make us stronger and we would no longer suffer.
Job: “Everything God has created so far has been great, is this not one of his creation also”
Adam: “This is right to assume perhaps we should eat of it”
Eve picks up the pomegranate: “Thanks be to the Lord” and takes a bite, passes it around and all eat it
Adam: “I feel different now” looks at Jacob and Job “I know everything from Alpha to Omega”
Eve looks up wide eyed: “Ma ma lou jo”
Jacob turns to Job “These two now seem changed, perhaps we should go by a way in which there is NO ecstasy” they leave

A Furnace Inside

With the presentation date coming closer everyday, I prepared for my group meeting by reading the Fourth Variation: The Furnace in Frye's book. At first I was a little overwhelmed, mostly by all the allusions he makes to numerous texts. I had a hard time following his train of thought as he referenced a diverse amount of works. So initially I skipped to the second section of the chapter where he begins to talk about the imagery related to the furnace. He characterizes it as having two different qualities a one and a negative one. I agreed with this notion because as I see it a fire can be both destructive and creative. The positive image of the furnace he illustrates to be, "purgatorial, a crucible from which the redeemed emerge purified like metal in a smelting operation." The negative is, "the traditional hell which is a furnace of heat without light." I think that both of these sides of the furnace can be analyzed in the light of Job. Arguably like metal, Job had to experience the heat and pain of the furnace in order to emerge as a purified person. I think that the positive is that he learned about God's ways and became a more humble person as such. And yes I do think that the negative is essential to this transformation. Job was able to experience the light in a more profound way because he was deprived of it for so long. So like a hot piece of metal being taken out of the darkness of the furnace so Job is taken out of his suffering by God and shown the light.

Prodigal Son

My notes from class last week read, verbatim...

"Good Stories violate you
attack on your structure of explanation
Parabole

BE INSPIRED

Prodigal Son"


I have recently had some time to reflect on this notion of being violated from a story, yesterday I posted up in my room for an hour and a half just to finish "The Slave." In certain respects I felt violated and asked myself why did Sarah and Jacob have to die at such times in their lives. Sarah during after child birth, Jacob on his return to Pilitz. I felt violated because so much could have happened differently to make it a happy story. But in some respects it was a happy story, the love Jacob and Wanda had for each other was nothing short of inspirational. The fact the Jacob was able to raise his son to become a prosperous man, was simply fantastic. But why the suffering? That might be cause for some inspiration too, the fact that they had to endure so much yet were able to come back from it stirred something in my being. I in a sense reflected on my life thinking. If I could have loved and been devoted to something as much as Jacob was, to Wanda and his religion, then I can do the same in my life and receive a kind of unmatched satisfaction.

I'll now switch gears to talk about the last line of my notes from class I have posted. "Prodigal Son" is a song by the Rolling Stones, which appears on their 1968 album Beggar's Banquet. I listened to it again and pulled up the lyrics, and sure enough it was about chapter 15 in Luke. Each part of the song's verses end with either the line, "And that'll be the way to get along" or "Cause that is no way to get along" This kind of commentary gets at the notion of being violated. It almost seems to ask which is right and which is wrong, in the case of the story it is what is wrong that occurs, and that's what make it a good story, because it attacks us and complicates things, making us question the world, like we should.

Here is the complete lyrics for those who are not familiar.

Well a poor boy took his father's bread and started down the road
Started down the road
Took all he had and started down the road
Going out in this world, where God only knows
And that'll be the way to get along

Well poor boy spent all he had, famine come in the land
Famine come in the land
Spent all he had and famine come in the land
Said, "I believe I'll go and hire me to some man"
And that'll be the way I'll get along

Well, man said, "I'll give you a job for to feed my swine
For to feed my swine
I'll give you a job for to feed my swine"
Boy stood there and hung his head and cried
`Cause that is no way to get along

Said, "I believe I'll ride, believe I'll go back home
Believe I'll go back home
Believe I'll ride, believe I'll go back home
Or down the road as far as I can go"
And that'll be the way to get along


Well, father said, "See my son coming home to me
Coming home to me"
Father ran and fell down on his knees
Said, "Sing and praise, Lord have mercy on me"
Mercy

Oh poor boy stood there, hung his head and cried
Hung his head and cried
Poor boy stood and hung his head and cried
Said, "Father will you look on me as a child?"
Yeah

Well father said, "Eldest son, kill the fatted calf,
Call the family round
Kill that calf and call the family round
My son was lost but now he is found
'Cause that's the way for us to get along"
Hey

Jacob, The Slave?

Having just got through the first section of the book, entitled "Wanda", I'm contemplating this notion of Jacob and his existence as a slave. Obviously he was a literal slave in the beginning of the book until the Jews ransomed him back and took him to Josefov. But I question his underlying feelings and actions as he farms and herds for the village. He loved what he did he even loved his lust for Wanda, waiting to see her come over the hill. He admired her in a way only unconditional love could accurately describe. I think an important aspect to notice is how Jacob is a slave to himself in the light of his worship. There are many instances when I was getting mad at Jacob for being to helpless. He seemed to attribute all occurrences and feelings in his life to the creator not his own humility. In these ways he became a slave on his own accord, the village had nothing to do with his mental enslavement. He comes across to me as a very intelligent and thoughtful man, but not when it comes to Wanda. He seems to put too much faith in his religion and not love. When it is clear to anyone reading this Wanda has nothing but love and admiration for Jacob. The fact that he did not wait to hear if his family had been killed before lying with Wanda illustrates, I think, his recognition of the love they share for each other. And going back to his place in Josefov showed him what an empty existence he had before he loved Wanda. He literally could not function right without her. At times he felt repulsed by his previous actions regarding her, but through it all she never left his mind. I think one line can sum up how Jacob should think of Wanda and all other characters in the book alike. "The evil ones destroyed, the Jews created." This thought comes to Jacob as he sits waiting to meet the woman who many become his new wife and he looks around the new house that has rebuilt. He should see that Wanda is not evil but like a Jew, in that she helped create so much when she was with Jacob, she helped him learn more about his religion and its values. She made him a better Jew and he made her a better person. Now that they have just run off together I'm curios to see what this relationship will develop into.

Turn to Ecclesiastes

Today in class after Prof. read the end of Ecclesiastes and I noticed how short the book was I decided I would read it. Initially I was confused about who was talking and checking back to the end of Proverbs did not help but, on I read. One common theme, among, others I noticed right away was the mention at the beginning, end, and middle of almost every book was the phrase, "under the sun" I wonder still why this particular group of words was selected to preface many of the prophetic statements that filled the book. Perhaps it was used to communicate a kind of oneness and objectivity with which the views of this book should be applied. In any case I found the tone and phrasing of the words in this book to be enjoyable. I was interested to see how these views either conflicted or melded with some of my own values. Overall the one theme I liked to see discussed was the labor of men and how we should feel about it and what others after us will do with the fruits of our labor. In the second chapter the speaker says, "Yea, I hated my labor which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me." This I found puzzling for two reasons, one- that the man hates his labor because he does not like the fact that he has to leave it for someone after him, I wonder why this hatred for hard work in the light of the inevitable mortality of men. And two- that he does not want this labor to go to the man after him, I think that if anything one who works hard today should be glad others can benefit and the generation after them can do the same. Another interesting theme I saw in this book was the mention of science in relation to the human existence. "As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all." I find this equation of the lack of knowledge regarding God's plan and science to be perplexing. It seems to throw the complexities of something that we know well today, science, and something we still have no concrete grasp on, religion, under the bus, to be left alone without inquiry. But why? Is there some kind of element of deception going on, do they not want us to discover more about nature and evolution. I can see that when one embraces science they distance themselves from God. But do the two have to be mutually exclusive, I do not think so, for if we are to look at this Bible as a book of stories and morals them they can, and maybe it's just me but that makes great sense.

Folklore for Thought

Today I decided it would be a good day to read some of Frazer's book about the Old Testament. I was not quite sure what to expect as I opened it and began reading. I assumed it would be a dense work filled with big words and very hard to follow one thought from sentence to sentence. However, my reaction to the book was quite the opposite. I found it to be very easy to follow and reflect upon as I read. I chose to read the first part about the fall of man, I related it to the way Plotz talks about his reading of the Bible, in that it followed the story along chronologically and analyzed it as it went. Frazer, although, has a different approach to Plotz in what he relates his reading to, where Plotz looks at his life, Frazer looks at history and human existence in general. It is a great way to get more out of the Biblical readings in an understandable and concise way. In this chapter I learned more about the fall of man than I had known before, even considering my own readings of Genesis. Perhaps I missed it in class and other places but Frazer talked much about the existence of two trees in Eden. One was the tree of knowledge and the other the tree of life. Frazer looks at this book with an etiological lens, claiming, "The gist of the whole story of the fall appears to be an attempt to explain man's mortality, to set forth how death came into the world." He goes on to assert that man was given a choice to either die or live forever. He picks up on the notion that God gave man encouragement to eat from any other tree, suggesting that when the tree of knowledge was picked death was assigned and immortality was missed. Another interesting topic Frazer touched on was the idea that only one tree could have been picked, otherwise if both trees were eaten from man would be comparable to God, in that he would be all knowing and immortal. The other interesting lacuna Frazer discusses is the purpose of the serpent in the Garden and his deceit of Eve and Adam. He questions the serpents motive for deceiving Adam and Eve, saying he had nothing to gain from it and as a result of his actions he came out losing, by being doomed to crawl on his belly. He goes on to argue that the serpent actually is immortal because he can cast his skin and renew his life. All of these ideas I found to be very compelling and gave me a new way to look at reading the Bible. Frazer's sense of witty playfulness and knowledgeable insight showed me the light that is the Bible, and I hope to use it as I read on.

Music in Peter Quince

Wallace Stevens' poem offers an intriguing account of the story of Susanna besides it's vivid imagery and cringe inducing word choice, what I liked most about it was it's discussion of music and respectively its notions on beauty in this world. "Music is feeling, then, not sound" is a perfect characterization of what music should mean to us. Yes it is at its base sound but what would it be if there were no feelings provoked by it. Personally I listen to music because it makes me feel a certain way, a way that reflects the feelings I have inside me, life is music. This idea is furthered later in the poem when Stevens writes, "A breath upon her hand Muted the night.She turned--A cymbal crashed,And roaring horns." There is no sound at this point in the story, only the feelings the emotional reflection of how these sounds make us feel. A symbol crash communicates a kind of shock, and instantaneous fear that dissipates slowly. Stevens goes on to use more musical allusions in the poem writing, "Soon, with a noise like tambourines,Came her attendant Byzantines." Again this a perfect characterization of human action being illustrated by music. I can hear and see the maid dashing over with a kind of hurried and worried like rhythm in her step, the personification of music is profound in this poem. Stevens finishes of the poem by bringing music, beauty, and rememberance into one idea, Now, in its immortality, it plays On the clear viol of her memory, And makes a constant sacrament of praise." This idea that beauty exists not only in the moment it is witness but with a sense of eternity, like music, is a insightful notion about the human experience, even though those elders were just being dirty old men, Susanna's beauty can exist in a time beyond her own so that twenty two year old English majors can pick up on this description of true beauty without missing a beat.

Oh, Susanna

I found the story of Susanna to be quite compelling, I found my self glued to the pages as I read this intriguing little tale. The first element of this book that struck me was the word choice in describing the events surrounding the plot. Susanna is obviously a beauty to look upon I gathered this from two sentences in particular. One goes, "And albeit they both were wounded with her love" and the other, "that they may be filled with her beauty." The key word in these sentences are wounded and filled respectively. As I was reading I stopped, circled the word, and read them again. I was in awe how these two seemingly simple words conveyed so much to me about the story. The word wounded reminds me of a Shakespearean sonnet, I can't remember which, or maybe it was an Edmund Spencer poem, in any case the speaker of the poem is wounded by his lover's eyes, because, as the poem tells us, there is a little army of cupids sitting on her eyelashes that shot their arrows at his heart. Haven't you ever felt like this when gazing upon something of beauty, I know this feeling all to well, when it happens it feels as if you have lost something like you will always have this pain that hurts you like there is an overwhelming desire to honor it but you feel like you are unworthy of its beauty. The word filled also gets at this idea in that when something fills you, you have nothing else inside that takes dominance, you are what you see, you swim in it as it covers you with its beauty, and its a trap almost one that has you transfixed and numb. Maybe its just me but I'm fascinated with the Bible in how it uses these words to communicate its meaning, in any case it takes the reader to put it all into context. Another aspect of this story that in a way puzzled me was the two different ways in which Susanna's faith is described. In the beginning of the story we are told she is "one that feared the Lord" and later that "her heart trusted in the Lord" To me fear and trust cannot exist in unison. They have so many conflicting attributes, fear implies a kind of weakness felt in its presence, were as trust communicates a feeling of honor and faith. Is this how we are to feel about God, be fearing and trusting, maybe its his powers that we can feel this ways about, but how could we fear and trust the personification of God. I'm reminded of the film "A Bronx Tale" were a mob boss is asked if it is better to be feared or loved. To which he responds, "It's great to be both, but fear lasts longer than love" I think this has some merit in the case of the Suzanna story because there is this static sense of fear when we talk of God, and the love we have for him weavers depending on various factors, so the question is does God want to be feared is it part of this masculinity that we speak of in class that characterizes him. I think it would be better to be loved because there is an element of exchange and compassion in it that fear will never be able to capture.

Epiphany

The professor's requests that we go out and have an epiphany, have been ironic to say the least. Knowing the nature of epiphanies they come at you in a uncanny manner, one that is very profound and usually life changing. Upon this subject I can at least tell you of one epiphany that I had that changed my life in a way.

It happened when I was in the sixth grade at the approximate age of ten or eleven years old, maybe I was tweleve. In any case I was at home listening to the AC/DC that was being projected from the Bose radio that sat in the kitchen. I think I was playing the album "High Voltage" which I had recently purchased from a cd outlet that week. If I remember right the song that was playing at the time was "It's a long way to the top" I remember I had the radio at a high level of volume, as is necessary when listening to AC/DC, and I was playing my air guitar. As I reached my hand above my head to strike the strings with the air pick, I waited for the chorus to begin. One cue as Angus Young's guitar roared so did mine I hit the strings and felt strange. A chill went up my spine and I felt slightly numb all over my body, and I remember thinking one thought. One thought in particular. "I've got to learn how to play guitar"

The following weeks I began to play on my father's neglected acoustic regularly, and eventually convinced him to pay for guitar lessons. Looking back I can't help but think about how different things would be now if I hadn't been playing air guitar that night. I've no doubt I would have made different friends, brought different things, and been a different person.

Gener Rules, Roles?

The guest speaker today I thought was a refreshing change of pace, I liked the fact that while we did drift around to several parts of the Bible, we maintained one theme throughout. The specificity of the class topic I think allowed us to drive a bit deeper into the content and context of how women are depicted in the Bible. I thought the distinction between the Feminine and Women rolls to be an accurate one. Because the implications of each one are symbol and social respectively. This is important to consider because the Bible is to be looked at as stories and characters in stories. And sometimes they are to be taken at face value and sometimes not. Either way both of these types of women teach us something, a moral.

One idea that really stuck with me even after I left the classroom, was the notion that gender is about roles. The simplicity of this statement is in fact so complex. What confuses me first about this is that if gender is concerned our roles doesn't that make it about our places in society and not what distinguishes us as individuals? I'm not really sure where I'm going with this. Perhaps I'll blog again later.

Fryen' On Emerald Lake

Yesterday around eleven o'clock would find me sitting on the bank of Emerald Lake with my dog Bo by my side and Words With Power in my hands. I started reading the chapter entitled Identity and Metaphor and I was intrigued by his notions in regards to writing and reading. As far as I understand it Frye was looking at the relationships that exist between the reader and the text. Arguing that the writer unlike a painter, "must use the same words that everyone else does" it can complicated to, through poetry, get at the meaning you want all to experience. He writes, "The inference is that there may be something potentially unlimited of infinite in the response to poetry" He goes on to make this idea even more complex arguing, "What we 'see' when we try to comprehend the totality of a literary structure is a large number of juxtaposed images." In regards to the Bible I think these two ideas are inherent throughout given that we all try to get different meanings from the same words. And even when we do get a similar idea we have numerous different ideas we can relate it to. So what is a writer to say, is nothing concrete and static, does is world of literature a never ending cross reference? Probably

Nature/Self/Bible

I really look forward to getting my copy of Frye's book after reading Emily's latest post about the self and how nature is the content of art's form. This notion reminded me of some of the themes we are talking about in the capstone class with Dr. Morgan. As some of you may know the class's theme is Dark Romanticism and it deals with these ideas in regards to how we as people and artists are to feel about and sequentially describe nature in our lives and our art.

I am one to argue that, yes, most of what art is and means comes from the inside of us, obviouly the inside of us is influenced my numerous and diverse sets of stimuli. However, this notion of the self should not be diminished especially with a text as significant as the Bible. Again I think we all come to this text with, to say the least, different points of view, but we can all talk about it in a somewhat objective basis. This can be done it we wade through the overwhelming allusions we make when reading the Bible and get down to how each part of it is a story with a non-detachable moral. Here I think is the key to reading and enjoying the Bible in regards to nature. We must look at how the Bible speaks to us in the way that it is a story, and then we can take this point of view and apply it to our world which is the most worthy context.

Blog Reflection

After reading Trish's blog about the movie the Ten Commandments and her mention of The Prince of Egypt, I'm reminded of a notion I first encountered in high school. An English teacher I had for the first two years of my literary studies at the time, he is probably the reason I'm an English major, used to talk about the "Disneyfication" of Greek myths. He boasted that when Disney makes a movie about these topics, they dumb it down and do it a real injustice. In particular he mentioned the film Hercules in which his quest to do good through out the land was a journey to find his parents. However, the "real" story involves a journey educed by Hercules murdering of his family. Crazy right? I used to watch that movie all the time without knowing its real basis of reference.

In regards to how we approach the Bible I think a similar element is in play, this idea that we can't talk about certain parts in certain contexts, or we talk about these parts so they play to our liking. All the raping, murdering, and warfare chapters were left undiscussed in my confirmation classes. And in doing so we were presented with the "good" version of the Bible. Is this the right way to go about it? Maybe. I think that a lot of what makes the Bible, and literature in general, great is its subjective nature, the way we discover it for ourselves.

Frye 'n' Frazer

It's official I, within 4-14 business days, will have copies of Frye's and Frazer's books to help me read the Bible. I was able to find the cheap, used, paper back copies, totaling less than eight dollars from Amazon's online store.

After class the other day, and reading Alexa's blog I'm hopeful that these works will aid in making sense of the Bible as I read it this semester. I like the notion Alexa advocated in her recent post saying that collectively the Bible seems a mess of words with little coherent meaning. But by focusing on one book even one line it seems to become clear. This in a sense gives it a literal meaning one, again, I hope will come through via Frye and Frazer. Because after all that's the idea of this class to read the Bible like just another book.

Ready for Judgement

My plan thus far this semester has been to read complete chapters of the Bible in a seemingly random order. First I read most of Genesis, then all of Revelation, and last night I committed myself to the books of Judges and Ruth. I find that by reading the Bible in this manner I'm able to focus more clearly and really get a lot out of the individual books than if I were to keep reading chronologically. Plus After reading Plotz's chapter on Leviticus I thought it best to skip that one, for now.

Judges contains much warfare and seizing of land, and taking control of slaves. I thought about Plotz's comment that God is like a real-estate king, and it showed in this book. As there were several occasions in which God either rewarded or took land from people. One thing I noticed consistently through out were the lists and the repeated lines. "And the children of Isreal again did evil in the sight of the Lord" and "In those days there was no king in Isreal" start of many books in
Judges. I found a certain rhythm to it almost as if this was the chorus and all the other actions were verses.

Although I'm still very fuzzy about who is in command of what, and who killed who to get it, and the reasons for it all, I did find several little, "Oh shit" instances of literary excitement. Book 3 around verse 20 goes, "And he arose out of his seat. and Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. And the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so that eh could not draw the dagger out of his belly; and the dirt came out" It reminded me of something you might see while watching an action film, but certainly not the Bible. The other thing that surprised me was the quickness to anger of God, he seemed more like an irritated mother trying to get the kids to behave more than a deity. The story of Samson and Delilah was one of the more interesting parts of this book. Again I found it a little hard to follow but I think that Samson was getting tricked and Delilah was bait, to get a hold of his land, maybe. Anyway I found this line particularly enticing, "And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death." She sounds like an earful. I'm puzzled by the end of this book, considering all the vengeance for wrong doings previously discussed it seems odd that, "In those days there was no king in Isreal: every man did that which was right in his own eyes" should be that line. The word "right" what context does that have after all this death and betrayal?

The Laws Of Leviticus

I rather like the notion of Plotz being an additional classmate to this endeavor of reading the bible. I see him as that kid who does all the reading and you can just read his notes for a general idea of any particular chapter. I'm very glad I read his notes on Leviticus, because I doubt I could have made it through on my own without some basic sense of what was happening. Throughout this reading I was constantly reminded of an episode of "The Simpsons" in which Marge asks Rev. Lovejoy if she should get a divorce from Homer. To which he responds with a simple, "Get a Divorce" a nervous Marge inquires, isn't that against the Bible. The Reverend then pick up his own copy asking, "Have you ever read this thing, technically we're not even allowed to go to the bathroom." This I think is the same attitude with which Plotz approaches his reading of the Bible. In this respect are we to have a bowl of salt next to us as we read this thing. Or should we take it literally, because it sound like it might be impossible to do, especially with all these contradictions.

One quote from Plotz's chapter three really spoke to me it goes, "We talk about the Bible as if there is only one. But if there's anything I've learned from these months with the Good Book, it's that we all have our own Bible. We linger on the passages we love and blot out, or argue, or skim the verses that repel us." You think of the extremeists who insist the Bible hates gays. You think of the exteremists who disragard the whole thing and live by thier own codes. Which is right, is there a right? Probably not, but maybe, who are we to decide. I think if anything is right, it has to be right in our own heads first, and then see if it fits into the world, cause we are all in this together. I'll leave you with a quote from a Steppenwolf song called "Rock Me"

"I don't know where we come from
Don't know where we're goin' to
But if all this should have a reason
We would be the last to know
So let's just hope there is a promised land
Hang on 'til then
As best as you can"

I know I will, will you?

Holy Shit, Revelation

So far the Book of Revelation is my favorite book of the Bible, I can't even believe I'm writing this but it's true. The language and the word choice of these biblical events had me entranced underlining passages and rereading some as I went. Verses 10 through 16 were awe inspiring. I could not help but visualize this man and I can only imagine the sound his voice made. "and his voice as the sound of many waters." reminds me of a passage from the Quartets "I don't know much about gods; but I think that the river / Is a strong brown god-sullen, untamed and intractable" Much like the Clark Fork river that runs through Missoula, and very unlike the Bozeman Creek that runs through this town. Regardless this man was not untamed or intractable, he was everything.

The whole notion that this was a written account of John's experiences reminds me again of Blake's Heaven and Hell, he writes, I can't find the passage now, but it's something along the lines of a 'prophecy is only a prophecy to the first one who sees it', and I think that this is people's main problem with the Bible, because it is said to be divine however it is only truly divine to the first person to the rest it's just hearsay.

Throughout the book there were dozens of references to the number seven and to the Lamb of God, which, as I understood it to be, was the creature of salvation the greatest spirit of them all. Another thing that entered my mind as I read this book was several references to music. The "Bottomless Pit" reminded me of Bob's "Redemption Song" were he sings that he was taken from this pit before he gets sold to the merchant ships. In book six the men of the earth, could clearly hear Jimi Hendrix saying "Fall mountains just don't fall on me" when the men ask for the mountains to fall so they will be hid from the face of the thrown. There were numerous other allusions I made while reading this book but the overall feeling I get about the Bible is captured in Verse 12 of the last book asking John to let people be for they will be judged in time, and that's what I should be about I think. It's a to each his own kind of world. Coexist. Can't we all just get abong.

Reflections on "The Good Book"

After having just read most of the first chapter of the book and the introduction, I found Plotz's viewpoint to be quite refreshing. Several times I laughed out loud at his satirical commentary on the book of Genesis, and the Bible in general. I remember last semester in Emergent Lit, the Bible was mentioned to be the most popular book in the world, but on the flip side, it's one very few people actually finished or understood. My experience with the Bible, as I found to be similar to Plotz's, is one of general hearsay if you will. I compare it to my knowledge of the book my Herman Melville's Moby Dick. In that I knew the book existed and I knew its basic premise but never actually sat down and read it. Until last semester when I actually did sit down and read the whole thing. I found it to be a kind of second reading, due to my knowledge of it prior to this occasion. As I read the Bible for this class I find it also to have this kind of impact on me but with a more profound sense of interest. Not only will I read about the classes reading experience, but also Plotz's, and my own as well and this will all relate to me prior knowledge of this epic book. I find that Plotz's way of describing his thoughts and reflections on the Bible to be a way lowering it from the pedestal I knew it to reside on. The way he relates it to his life, television, shows, and society in general to be a refreshing look. With this in mind I feel I'll be able to better understand this daunting text, and furthermore relate it the my life and this beautiful world around me, because that's what books are supposed to do right?

Good Genesis

Having just finished reading the first seventeen books of Genesis, I had several surprises. My first reaction was how compelled I felt to read this thing, I mean actually sit down and read it. I have been exposed to bibles due to my Christian heritage, and even received a copy on my confirmation, a book that remains unopened. Sitting on my porch with a pencil in hand I began to read the words of the lord. Reading through this beginning section I found myself eagerly looking for the verse that the Boondock Saints recite before some glorious action, or Jules's favorite passage to say before killing the next target.

In any case I didn't find it to be boring at all, maybe a bit dry at parts, but most of all I looked at the names. Cain, Abel, Enoch, Hagar, and most notably Shem. Finnagain, eh. I'm finding the writing style easy to keep up with I enjoy the constantly moving plot of the book, a refreshing change of pace. Genesis 2 verse 7 And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. This reminded me of a concept discussed in Blake's Heaven and Hell the notion that God is at fault for making man body and his soul one entity. And I agree with Blake, to a degree. Because we need a body so the soul can take form, yet the soul cannot do all it is capable of because of the restrictive nature of a body. I'm reminded of a line from Blind Melon's song Hell that goes, "Cause I'll designate over time if I expect my body to try and keep up with my mind"

A New Beginning

Well here we are a new semester and my last one, it's crazy to think I'll have a little piece of paper in a matter of months that says, I read and wrote alot over the past few years. But to me of course it's more than that. This is my second Sexson class and I'm excited to learn about the bible with his unique style of teaching. Last semester one of the books he had us read was The Four Quartets he told us to keep it with us always and produce it when we saw him. This summer I took it with me when I went hiking or really anywhere, reading it on top of mountain peaks, or on lake shores, I still read it at work. It seems I'm becoming addicted to this stuff, and the Dr. is the one to blame, and I thank him.

I personally have never read the bible just heard passages of it read at wedding and what not. I remember my dad reading me sections from the book of revalation, there was a part about a man who came and had a voice like rushing water, that passage stuck with me, I'll look for it as I read on. Needless to say this class will be a profound experince, one that like, emergent literature will alter my perceptions of the world and literature alike. My advice for the Sexson virgins, hold on tight, there will be a lot to see and think about, sometimes an overwhelming amount, but it will make sense if you take your time with it, read the blogs, and express your feeling in the blogs, and it will be one of the best classes you take in college.