The Slave: A beautiful tragedy

I am pleased to announce that yesterday I finished Isaac Beshevis Singer's The Slave. What an amazing story. Interestingly enough I didn't find the plot to be that "original", but something about the writing itself lends to the powerful and moving effect of the story on the reader. Lovers are destined for pain and suffering endured by the prospect of true love (e.g. Romeo and Juliet, Harold and Maude, Adam and Eve, The Odyssey). I find myself almost being able to tie love directly to life. Being alive entails suffering almost from the day a life leaves the womb. Similarly with love. The stronger the love for one another the more suffering endured by the lovers. The "love story" really has become archetypal in its portrayal of love- that it is almost always a tragedy. For instance even in a love story where lovers endure no pain and suffering, death is always looming in the background. For in death the lovers will be separated. Bringing to light that in even the most heavenly relationship there will always be a "breakup"- pain and suffering. Just look at The Slave it is absolutely beautiful portrayal of life and love, and further more it is absolutely tragic. I could even go as far as to say that what is incredibly tragic also makes the story incredibly beautiful. The loss of life and the loss of love and the prospect of reuniting seems to me to be a powerful driving force underlying the creation of heaven in The Bible. Just think the existence of heaven doesn't just serve the prospect of eternal life catering to human fears of mortality, but it is a place in which the image of our loved ones can forever reside. It would be too painful to know that the one you loved so dear is nothing more than food for worms (which is true in the most scientific sense). Not only that but the afterlife holds with it the prospect of reunion with those that we have loved and lost. Death brings about purpose, for example in the end Jacob's faith is never so clear and concise. His servitude his enslavement to religion, god, and love all come to a head with his approaching death. In those last pages is where Jacob acknowledges that his spirit will be united with that of god, and his love Wanda/Sarah. At this point there is no questioning his faith or his actions all had been preordained for that final moment. That destiny is never so clear when, "the spade struck bones." This also is a beautiful use of cosmic irony, again making the story that much more tragic. Ah...my heart pangs for Jacob. Job eat your heart out.

Those who have truly loved will not fear the prospect of death.

Argue with someone about The Bible: FAIL

Yesterday I was at the gym. While at the gym I typically try to squeeze in some reading. On this occasion I decided to catch up on some Northrope Frye while I enjoyed the warmth of the sauna, you could say I was Fryeing in the sauna (I love bad puns). While I read a couple gentlemen entered the sauna and took up respective seats on the tiered benches. Then at random one guy asks me what I am reading. I reply, "Northrope Frye's Words with Power." He then asks me if it is a religious book and I ended up explaining that I was in a class that focused on reading The Bible. This prompted him to ask how far in The Bible I have read. I tell him, "Leviticus 10." He then scoffs and says, "You are in the thick of it my friend, nothing as thick as the pentatuc." When he says this I realize this is the guy. I am going to argue the meaning and writing of The Bible in a sauna with this guy. When I asked him about his biblical experience he went on to give me a rundown of his history growing up in kentucky with baptists, and how he had gone to bible school etcetera. Honestly at this point I was thinking,"Fuck. Picked the wrong guy to argue The Bible with." This guy knew his shit. For instance when I would reference a story he could tell me the book and the chapter. That is how good he was. I felt like I had picked a fight with the skinnest nerdiest white kid I could find only to find out he was a quadruple black belt in, "FucYu up." To my shagrin he was knowledgable but did not force his opinions on me. For instance we talked about Exodus and Leviticus and how the rules in there were practical for the survival of the people in there quest in the desert. I agreed on some aspects of his arguement and argued my points of thematic value of story and the integration of societal laws as a method of government and control. All the while the third guy sat there in silence shaking his head periodically, and nodding even less. Come to find out that the guy I had been talking to left the church in college to become and atheist and is now going back to a presbetirian chuch as an adult living here in Bozeman. So fourty five minutes later we end up having exit the suana for risk of heat stroke. He recommened a book called The Message a contemporary translation of The Bible. So all in all I was pleased with the outcome; no punches were thrown, no yelling ensued, actually the whole thing ended with a hand shake.

Psalm 51 and Allegri's Miserere

After hearing the piece in class last week I went out (iTunes) and bought a version of Allegri's Miserere. The version that I purchased was that performed by The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge (recorded in 1997). This version is much clearer than the more famous 1964 recording but lacked that really hair raising high C that we hear in the 1964 performance. The Cambridge choir does have the High C as part of the music however it just doesn't go to that breaking point that is so moving in the older recording. None the less the piece I purchased is still quite moving. That friday I sat down to do some homework which included reading Psalm 51, and as I read this I was listening to Allegri's Miserere. I read the Psalm and sat there with the Miserere Mei, Deus (Psalm 51) on repeat. I must have sat there for twenty minutes listening to the song. I was moved, I was in awe, I was speechless. Later that same day in the afternoon I went to my usual afternoon meeting (AA). Mind you up this point my day had been what I call typical not bad but not terribly exciting either. So the meeting continues as usual, people are speaking and saying useful things but nothing particularly revolutionary. Then as a person is sharing I start to tear up, then before you know it I start to cry. I start to cry in public out of nowhere. I am thinking what the he'll is happening to me? I ended up staying the course and sitting through the rest of the meeting instead of ducking out tail between my legs. People asked me what was up and I literally replied, "In all honesty I am fine". I ended up going for a walk to reflect. And what I came to realize is that I had come to terms at that moment with how fucked up my life had become and that I was the result, and that only a greater power than myself could restore me to sanity. I literally had a spiritual experience. What I think led to such moment of self realization was Allegri's Miserere. I honestly feel that the music had somehow found a chink in my emotional and rational armor making me vulnerable or susceptible to feelings and perceptions that I had defended against for so long and so furiously. Now this may sound extreme, farfetched, nuts, and impossible but it is what happened. This is the power of the word. Maybe Frye is right.

Leviticus 1-7: Sacrifice 101

In all seriousness I don't understand why sacrifice became as important as it did. I understand the premise of sacrifice as the performance of "sacred rights", but why? I know why according to The Bible: because God told Moses (like when children question there parents "Why?" "Becuase I said so."). That still does not satisfy my questions as to why? My question also brings into light how ritual sacrifice seems like a pretty pagan thing to do, and not only that but it would seem that most beleifs and religions across the board beleived in a kind of sacrifice in one form or another. The Aztecs used sacrifice, the Jews, the Scandanavian religions, and the Greeks. Some theorize that the sacrifice comes from hunting traditions as appeasment for the hunter having to have taken another living creatures life. I guess at the end of the day what is interesting is how sacrifice was so important in the Bible and today I think you would be hard pressed to find ritual sacrifice. I am pretty sure in might even be animal cruelty. Really if I think of modern day sacrifice I think of Satanic Worshipers, not bearded jews. Upon searching the internet for clues I stumbled upon a video from the BBC entitiled "Witch Doctors Reveal the Extent of Child Sacrifice." http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8441813.stm It is about modern human sacrifice, and what is interesting is how many similiarites sacrifice in the Bible have to those taking place in Uganda today. Look for the use of Children (kid/lamb) and Unblemished specimens.

Profesor Sexson blew my mind.

The wonderful thing about learning is that you slowly but surely find out how utterly ignorant you are. I came to realize that after Linda Sexson's lecture that I am an intellectual misogynist. I, through years and years of schooling have fallen into the patriarchy's pedagogical trap.

For instance this whole time reading The Bible I have almost entirely focused on the male characters, pushing the female ones to the side, dismissing them as shallow characters in the periphery of the great stories of Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark, Abraham, Moses, Joseph, and many more. I have come to the conclusion that The Bible really tells two stories at one time. The most obvious is the story of the men of The Bible, and the other is the story of women. The second being the one that you really have to read into, do to The Bible's focus on the righteousness of men and God.

The Bible in no uncertain terms has probably done more to denigrate, subjugate, objectify, and abuse women that any other text in the world. I cannot mention the whole Bible because I have not read it all, but so far it would seem to prove my point. I say this because roughly 168,000 Bibles are sold, and distributed every day. That means this book is quite literally every where. Now if those who have Bibles are being fed this notion of woman as being the cause for all sin (Eve), Harlots (Ghomer), Whores (The whore of Babylon), Incestuous schemers (Lots Daughters). That is just a few that I can remember, but the point being that women don't exactly get fair representation. What is important though is the implications this has on male views of women in our society, and how The Bible has helped perpetrate those misogynistic views.

God I took like four pages of notes I find that I must take a women studies class because this is like learning all over again. I thank Linda Sexson for coming in and sharing her incite with us. One thing that I really took away was Linda's Law #45: All gods are metaphors. Like Paul said in the new testament, "through a glass darkly." We will only have partial understanding.