"Oh Brave New World!" (The Tempest) Continued.....

.....Since I do not delight in modern currents of literature, I have taken to start all over in my literary education and the logical place to start is the Bible, not Cynewulf. As you have noted from the previous blog, I have begun reading Genesis from the Pentateuch and I have been shocked by all the sinning I have encountered; murders, assignations, incest, lies, and deceptions that would even make Tiger Woods blush. For example, Sarah allowed Abraham to bed down her handmaiden, Hagar, who gave birth to Ishmael who produced a whole nation of Arabs. But that's not the worst of the problems. God was not happy with the work he had done, probably because he did so much in seven days; haste makes waste, and God decided to "waste" the world and everybody and squiggly thing in it. But so it wouldn't be a total loss, he contracted Noah to build an ark and take two of every living thing inside of it, before God made it rain for forty days and nights. Finally the flood began to recede and Noah found himself and his ark doing a balancing trick atop Mt. Ararat rocking like a see-saw. And whatever happened to Cain? I do not recall his having been tried in court for having committed fratricide.

.....So, skipping right along in this narrative which reads like a combination of Desperate Housewives and Debby Loves Dallas. Then there is Lot, Abraham's nephew as far as I can tell, who was told by God to leave Sodom and Gomorrah and never look back because God would cause an earthquake to destroy these cities of sin, so much like Las Vegas. How sin got on Earth we don't really know--unless it was Satan; but then, who created Satan if not God? It's like the Time's crossword puzzle. Lot took to the road with his wife, two daughters and their husbands, but his wife looked back and promptly turned into a pillar of salt. Lot eventually boarded down in a cave but without the husbands, and that was another problem. The girls decided that no men would come along to bed them down, so they each put a couple of roofies in Dad's wine and while he slept they co-habited with him and each girl became impregnated. Now, I don't know how they could accomplish this while Lot was asleep, and I don't relish keeping the image of it in my imagination.

.....The primary values of the Bible, it is generally agreed, are spiritual. It is significant, however, that many of the books of the Bible are important not only as religious documents but also as works of literature. And that's how and why I am reading them. They may be read and studied for their literary values, just as HAMLET or PARADISE LOST, or the CANTERBURY TALES are read and studied. They are a part of world literature and, in their English translation, of English literature as well. And that is why I made it a reading requirement in my English Department's curriculum, years ago. And that is why I am satirizing some of the selections in Genesis--as literature. I do not mean to be disrespectful of those who read the Bible religiously. But, I suppose I am protected by the First Amendment, and by the police against tea party protests.