Descent into Hell

During one of the presentations last Thursday, Cave Group 1 discussed dreams as a descent into hell. I thought it was a compelling idea. But, you see, I rarely have bad dreams. When the presenters asked us to write down a memorable dream, I wrote about the dream I remembered from the previous night, in which there was a St. Bernard in bed with me and I was reading Wuthering Heights to him. Nothing special. But then, 5 minutes ago, I woke up from one of the weirdest, most terrifying dreams I've ever had.

It started out with me going to a very large auditorium with the kids I TA for in Hinduism. I knew I was at school, but it certainly wasn't MSU. In the dream, I think I thought I was in Gaines or something. Anyhoo, Bart Scott, the new religion professor walked in and began to lecture about something that wasn't Hinduism. I think it was more something like American history and British Romanticism. Not Hinduism. In the middle of  class, for some reason, I got up and walked out and Bart followed me up a very ornate staircase. The whole way he was lecturing me in a very menacing voice. I don't remember most of what he said, but, towards the top of the staircase he accused me of plagiarizing a paper and that he hated me more than he hated my pitiful analysis of Wuthering Heights (it's a theme in my dreams lately). Then there was a fountain and I got into this elevator that went down so fast that I was lifted off my feet and I hit my head on the ceiling. I turned myself into the dean of students or some such, who looked like Dolores Umbridge, but didn't act like her. She took pity on me and told me my punishment was to redecorate Sears, but it was really optional. Then she gave me a bunch of Barbra Streisand dolls.

Very strange. I'm thinking it all means that I'm terrified of not citing things enough or correctly. And that I'm secretly afraid Bart hates me. And that I dislike Sears and I subconsciously think it needs a make over.

Ode: Intimations on Immortality

What though the radiance which was once so bright

Be now for ever taken from my sight,

Though nothing can bring back the hour

Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;

We will grieve not, rather find

Strength in what remains behind...

 

Splendor in the Grass, directed by Elia Kazan in 1961 and starring Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty, is my favorite film. Of all time. Hands down.  The title of the film is derived from Wordsworth's poem Ode: Intimations on Immortality. I always liked it for it's intimate portrayal of gender roles in the Midwest just prior to and during the Great Depression. But, after reading Northrop Frye, I realized how profound loss of innocence is and can be. 

 

In the film, Deanie and Bud (played by Wood and Beatty, respectively) are teenagers and madly in love with one another. For a variety of reasons, they're told they shouldn't sleep together (nice girls don't want/do that, what if she gets pregnant?, etc.). They both have mental breakdowns and go their separate ways after graduation. The viewer can see how completely different both characters are. Deanie realizes it's okay to want and enjoy sex and Bud comes to understand that it's not okay to deny yourself access to someone you love. Frye mentions the connection in the poem and Man's Fall in the Garden of Eden. One can clearly see that parallel in Splendor in the Grass.

 

Elflock

It's the only word in The Slave I've come across that I wasn't so sure about. So I googled it. Apparently, it was a colloquial term for a scalp disease that's now known as Polish plait. Or this:

No wonder Jacob thought the peasants who rocked this look were gross. Here's the Wikipedia link. Elflocks are kind of like dreadlocks in that one doesn't wash one's hair to get the look; the hair is knotted up in congealed blood, pus, lice casings, and whatever else might be growing in the rat nest that is the person's hair. Hell, there might even be rat excrement in the hair. It was such a part of Polish culture that there are museums with cut off Polish plaits on display. Anyway, it's gross.

Test Review Day!

Hey everyone, here are my notes and shtuff from today. Enjoy!

Assignment: Blog about why you did or did not finish the Bible. If you did finish the Bible, how did you do it?

Things to think about:

Book of Luke (re-read)

-Parables

Corinthians 2:9, 13, 15

-Midsummer Night's Dream

-Shakespeare used the Geneva translation of the Bible; KJV had not been written

-Nick Bottom strongly misread Corinthians 2:9-10

Book of John

-Why does Peter keep coming up in literature?

-He's the 'straight' man, the square

Book of Acts

-Qualifies as Romance

Revelation

-Book for lunatics (eg Glenn Beck)

Questions for test:

1. What is temenos?

• A holy precinct; a sacred space within a secular landscape; the room in which the sacred things will happen

2. What does Sarah from The Slave pretend to be?

• Mute

3. According to Frye, when is the epiphatic moment in the Book of Job?

• When God speaks to Job out of the whirlwind in ch. 38
• Note: an epiphany is a manifestation of the divine
• Frye thinks the happy ending (a framing device) is the right one because the Bible is a comedy, not a tragedy.

4. What does 'Islam' mean?

• Submission, specifically in regards to God. The monotheisms are all submissive to God
• Read 'The Satanic Verses' by Salman Rushdie!

5. Why did Plotz think Gideon was so important?

• Plotz thought Gideon was one of the good people in the Bible; he questions God's motives and isn't up to the occasion to do what God asks him. He, however, rises to the occasion.

6. What tribe is Ruth from?

• She was a Moabite married to a Hebrew man.

7. Which book inspired 'Turn, Turn, Turn'?

• Eccesiastes

8. What psalm inspired Allegri's Misere?

• Psalm 51

9. Define parataxis

• A literary form in which all clauses carry equal weight; eg they have no subordinate conjunctions

10. What are the two types of Wisdom?

• Conventional, proverbial wisdom and speculative, dark, dooming philosophies

11. What book in the Bible never mentions God?

• The Book of Esther

12. Samson's act, after regrowing his hair, does what?

• Pulls down the Temple of the Philistines, killing many people and himself

13. What is the metaphor at the end of Ecclesiastes?

• A decaying house is comparable to the human body

14. Ecclesiastes is a what?

• A preacher

15. What is the central question of Job?

• Theodicy; where is wisdom to be found? Why do bad things happen to good people?

16. What does one father warn one against while traveling abroad?

• Wine, women, and song

17. In the parable that Jesus speaks in the Book of Luke concerning Martha and Mary, Mary is encumbered by many things. However, Jesus says she should be concerned by what?

• The needful thing

18. In the Book of Job: Le the day I was born be in darkness, for the doors be what?

• Shut

19. What apocryphal text does Wallace Stevens draw inspiration from?

• Susanna

20. Which Flannery O'Connor story is based on the burning bush?

• Parker's Back
• Obadiah Elaju was his biblical name

21. What was the conventional wisdom of the three friends of Job?

• Anyone who suffers must have done something to deserve suffering
• God says they don't speak the truth

22. What does Job's wife's advice?

• Curse God and die.

23. Read 116-119 in Frye
24. What is kerygma; kerymatic writing?

• One's message; how to live a fuller life, a life more abundant.
• Something that revolutionizes and transforms one's thinking and perception of the world so that everything in the world becomes palpable and real.

I feel like a Tanakhstar.

 בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃
And, for those of you who don't speak Biblical Hebrew:
Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz.
Or:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

That's right; I'm taking Hebrew! I'm pretty stoked. Hashem sheli Trish.

Anyhoo, I'm about halfway through The Slave. I must say, Singer never disappoints. Yentl, also written by Singer, inspired pretty much one of the best movies ever and Shadows on the Hudson, well, just read it for yourself. It's quite moving, but not for the faint of heart.