English 211

Jonah points

2006-12-06T12:04:00.000-08:00

1. How long was Jonah in the belly of the fish?
(3 days and 3 night)

2. What is often thought of as associated with Jonah?
(The whale, often understood as 'Jonah and the Whale')

3. What city does God send Jonah to, which represents the archetype of the wicked city?
(Nineveh)

Jonah

2006-11-29T17:51:00.002-08:00

Spinning through the chaotic mess of the internet, I was attempting the browse method, with the hope of finding something wildly unique on the book of Jonah, in which to inform the class.

One thing that stood out was the amount of art work portraying Jonah, together with commentary on the book.

One of the best lines I found was a comment declaring that YES, there has in fact been current evidence to prove that Jonah did not actually sit in the belly of a whale for 3 days and 3 nights. I decided to stop searching the internet.

Reading Jonah is simple, like reading a childs book. I probably portrayed the narration in a sarcastic manner, including the..and then.....and then......and then....and then God was angry, and then Jonah was angry.....but this is how the 2 page story is written.

And let's get 2 things straight:

1. a whale is never mentioned in the book of Jonah, it is a FISH

2. It is not a tree that God appoints over Jonah, but a bush, "Jonah was very happy about the bush" (sorry if you caught my mild sexual pun and found it offensive)

Anyway, the read of Jonah stood out most in my mind by it's simplistic style. I don't fully understand what is supposed to be taken away with it, as, like everything, there is room for an infinite realm of interpretation and possibility.

Like many of the biblical stories, Jonah again seems to envolve the notion of distributive justice, who God punishes any why.
Nineveh as the archetype of the wicked city..."a world that is full of ignorant humans and animals, leaving Jonah with a question about the role of divine mercy within the created order"

Yet.... God as concerned about social injustice? This sounds like hypocrisy on an axis (a straight line around which something rotates, constantly changing). What do I mean by this? Throughout the book of Jonah God makes extreme decisions in extreme ways, which completly contradict his prior thought. For example: his decision to destroy the city of Nineveh, to cast Jonah inside a fish, to save the city, to create shade for Jonah, then quickly take it away. Social injustice is definetly at play throughout. I suppose it is the word "concerned" I have a hard time understanding in reference to God's character throughout the story. Maybe confused?

FRYE

2006-11-09T14:58:00.000-08:00

Interesting (FRYE) Points

Christ and the question of his birth:

"The great rival of Christianity in the early days was Mithraism, which was a sun-god religion (96)". Most important date being the birth of the sun, the winter solstice...25 of December. Therefore, Frye states, "it's possible, Christianity has never established anything more than aquatter's rights on Christmas. It's been a pagan festival from the very beginning (96)".

On the natural:

"There are two levels of nature (159)". Man is born into physical nature, a place he does not belong. He can either move up, before the fall, or down into sin. Milton in short: education works to repair the fall of our first parents. The physical level man is born into, the human level he must earn (159).

On knowledge and wisdom:

"Knowledge is of the actual: wisdom is rather a sense of the potential (170)" And so, the wise man is not always the man with the answer, but the man who has had more life experience to deal with things that happen.

On wisdom:

"The bible insists all the way through that wisdom is not something you get or something you have: it is something that you are (175)".

On Jesus:

"The moral significance of the life of Jesus has been traditionally assumed to be his perfect conformity to a moral code, as the one man who did not sin. But perhapes equally important is his significance as a figure that no organized or established society could possibly have tolerated (183)".

On time:

"Time is the fundamental category by which we perceive everything: we perceive nothing that is real except time. And yet time as we ordinarily experience it consists of three unrealities, a past that doesn't exist any longer, a future that doesn't exist yet, and a present that never quite exists at all (217)".

11/3/06

2006-11-03T13:26:00.000-08:00

Revelation 22.17: "Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift"

Frye point:

Old Testament and New Testament unite through the references to water, as the Bible begins, and then ends, with the imagery of water.

Parable: Not conventional wisdom, rather that which is an attack on structure of our expectations....hmmm. The parable, Frye says, represents the truth.

I just(every time I use this word now, I think about it for several minutes afterwards, you are right, it does not make sense at all, how can we just do something, just go to the store, or just make a phone call? What an impossibiliy this raises) spilt tea all over my notes. Orange black tea. I will finish recovering the days notes once they are legible again.

The idea of the Apacolypse....but very off topic

2006-11-03T12:04:00.000-08:00

Literal eschatology and metaphorical eschatology, and defining the end. The end, controlling the mind in the respect that it is one of the two absolutes we have; if we are born, then we will die. Ending is everywhere, now, look, rotating around you in a relentless fashion. Abstact, yet Literal eschatology and metaphorical eschatology can be condensed into a small definition. The lieral historical date in which the apacolypse will come versus the idea that the world did come to an end, we just did not notice it.

What? Does this suggest, therefore, that the way in which we see can only be true to the extent of the reality we know? Without knowing, is it then that we become veiled, unable to see the changes, the endings happening around us?

As Apacolypse suggests a revelation, a removal of the veil, what then, are we removing the veil for? To see the truth? What is the truth? This seems like a post post radical view of palm reading in order to determine future destinations and well....ultimate endings.

I cannot help but instantly think of William Blake when the term 'removing the veil' comes to view. In Blake's mythical worlds, he suggests a world of Generation, which represents the fallen world of Adam and Eve. Generation is the material world, the death of the imagination. In order for redemption to occur, the world of Generation must unite together again to become one with Albion, who ultimately represents the universe. This higher state of existance therefore is the imaginataive powers we hold within us, but don't readily exercise. The material world acting as a block to our inner truths.

Re creating biblical imagery, Blake's concern with the interrelation between beginnings and ends ties into metaphorical eschatology, as if we must drain ourselves of secular thinking. With the veil drawn across us, we can only be exposed to one perception, and therefore are unable to attain an awareness of the divine.

Still, the Old Testament brings the secular views of thinking back into focus, as we see God acting as an authority figure, a God who is afraid to lose his power, and thus integrates destruction to prove his higher being. This can be seen in the book of Job, as well as the book of Exodus, where God even uses the term "jealous" as a personal description. Additionally, in Exodus, we are exposed to the story of Moses, who remains on Mt.Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights. The Israelites below, becoming impatient, make a collaborative decision to create a golden calf in which to worship. The Israelites create a religion with the idea that their leader Moses, had betrayed them. Here, the Israelites are looking beyond a secular view, into a realm of imagination and possibility. Of course they are punished by God for such an act, for by creating the calf, they placed God an a level without extraordinary power, like every other being. Multiple perception is sought with punishment, an evil act.

Perhapes this is reason into Blake's worlds, as he resented secular views. Perhapes this is why imagination becomes a point of focus, as it clashes so strongly with the authoritive voice of God in parts of the Old Testament such as Job, and Exodus. ???????

10/24 and 10/26 and....

2006-10-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

The Talmud is broken into two parts:

MISHNAH: Consists of the first recording of oral law by the Jewish people, the core text.
GEMARA: The Gemara is the analysis and the commentary which "completes" the Talmud.

The Talmud pertains to Jewish laws, customs, ethics, and history

"THE SLAVE" : What was Jacob before his enslavement by the pagans, and why does this matter?

Jacob was a teacher of the Talmud (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud for more on the Talmud)
Judaism VALUES teachers, who are reputable members of the community, scholars, charismatic persons, and teachers of the Gamara and Mishnah

Jacob has a son named Benjamin (child born of my sorrow), and this relates everything because Jacob names his son out of circumstance, but ultimately out of a tradition of the Talmud, which Jacob follows throughout the entire story.

Looking at the biblical story of Jacob, the son of Rachael and Jacob is also named Benjamin, proving how tradition is passed down and how the original story is everyones story, the storys after that are only archetypes of the first. By Singer taking Jacob out of the biblical reference into a new story, he is able to ask questions through Wanda. Question asking suddenly becomes acceptable in the form of a story, in which the character is out of its original context. This is an idea Singer appears to stress. As Frye states at one point, more importantly is, what is the question?

WISDOM LITERATURE: Ecclesiastes and Job

The word for wisdom in Hebrew is Hokmah

There are two types of wisdom lit. CONVENTIONAL and SPECULATIVE. what is the difference between the two?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conventional_wisdom

Specualtive wisdom, obviously then, is wisdom not taken as a truth by the general whole. Ecclesiates and Job are speculative works of wisdom.

"The Slave"

2006-10-23T20:00:00.000-07:00

A response to, “The Slave” by Isaac Bashevis Singer

What is most striking about Isaac Bashevis Singer’s novel “The Slave” is the intense beauty of love he intertwines through a dramatic account of the Jews struggle in seventeenth century Europe. Saturated with layers of meaning, the pages of Singers novel seep into your blood on many levels, and, no matter what you believe in, Singer leaves you in a trance like state for moments afterward. There is a level of irony that Singer exercises, that explodes his point of layered perceptions to every corner of our being. The irony Singer weaves is met by grappling with these very perceptions: our perceptions are limited by what we know and see. By limited perception, two groups of people are split in war by their belief of the word of God, the very thing that created them. Yet, ironically, this idealistic perception of living to serve your god has turned into severe conflict, while the passionate lovers of Jacob and Wanda, who represent each side of the Jews and Christians respectively, walk outside this idealistic perception and life, and find the realm where love overpowers the single glass wall perception. To demonstrate his point even further, Wanda is secretively created into a mute, who is unable to utter a word for several years. As a mute, the ironic idea is that Wanda is able to perceive more than the others. Yet this is not understood by the religious readers of the Torah, as they are disillusioned by their beliefs. Wanda is looked upon as an outcast, a nobody, and least of all deserving of a man like Jacob. The Jewish community views her on a surface level only, where in reality she is sweet, smart, and has promised her life to engage herself in the Jewish belief and in Jacob. By strictly abiding themselves to the words in the Torah, the community has turned themselves into the most hypocritical state of existence.
This is the point I will explore further in an essay: what perceptions can do to a person, perceptions on many levels including myth and history, being two ideas which are often discussed in class. In relation to perception, I will argue that Wanda represents a higher perception, as one who has sacrificed her Christian beliefs to give her soul to Jacob, and ultimately to the Jewish community. This is an act out of love, and, while the biblical story of Jacob is being constantly referenced throughout “The Slave”, we, as readers, are tossed back and forth into the biblical context. But, from yet another level of perception, that being myself as a reader, it is almost a relief to be back in the world of Jacob, because even though horrors of the unimaginable are being experienced, an overall exposure to a love story can be experienced. To conclude this point, many stories in Old Testament by contrast, are largely depicted with a god who appears to be obsessed with genocide, as can be seen in Exodus.
The language Singer uses is simple clear, and allows us to follow Jacob’s every move: from the mountain top, to the barn, the Jewish community, back to Wanda, and back again to the idealistic Jewish community. What we interpret, we own by our perception. Along the journey, Jacob demands nothing accept time to respect his god, while engaging Wanda in a full discourse of his religion, and devotion to both it and her.

10/10/06

2006-10-16T08:43:00.000-07:00

Today was spent listening to professor Sexton retell the story of Moses, who's story makes 'birth' interesting, alongside our history, which, to simplify the point, is, 'boring'.

What is significant history? What is myth? And......why does it matter?

Observing the difference between a history and a myth allowes us the ability to imagine and capture the two on a different level, and give life and extaordinary powers to something that did not always exist.
These are my words only as I find it difficult to record concrete material learned in class today, I have also decided to create an abstraction as well.

The Moses story re tells a pattern of male authority.

The ? events of Moses history include:
birth
attempt of murder
sent away in a box (or some object)
raised by foster parents

Jesus, Edipus, King Authur (to name a few) follow this pattern of being raised by foster parents.

DEFINITIONS:
Epiphany: manifestation of the divine
Heilgeschichte: Holy History (German word describing that history without holiness is insignificant)

9/26/06

2006-09-26T15:26:00.000-07:00

Discussed in class today:

Northrope Frye

concerned with metaphorical thinking in the bible
argues that one must read look at the bible as a whole to understand it at all

TYPES vs. ANTITYPES: the following web link explains this further http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/comment/horne.html

Frye state on pg.73 :"...rationalistic distortions of biblical imagry, which is essentially a metaphorical structure" The function of metaphor is to release imagination
Bible=Metaphor

BRIEF DISCUSSION OF KING JAMES:

King James: His "crime" (pissing against the wall) is a metaphor. Those who piss against the wall=all men.
The act by King James not to be understood "literally" but rather, as a metaphor for all MEN.

ALSO....

Discussion of David Rosenbergs translation in the "The Book of J": The story of Jacob and Isaac

Through the story of the brothers Jacob and Isaac J constructs a larger plot with psycologically rich developed characters.
J also uses repitition in the story which displays a story within another story
Lacuna (e): large gaps in a story exists frequently in this story
Rebeccas twins are a METAPHOR for 2 nations 1. superior nation 2. inferior nation

A very brief summary of the story highlights:

Rebecca plots with her son against his father
The father blesses Jacob instead of Esau and cannot take his blessing back
Jacob leaves, knowing that his brother Esau will kill him
Jacob meets Rachel (love at first sight) and works 7 years for her.
Jacob sleeps with Lea, Rachels sister instead, and eventually ends up with both sisters
From the womb of Lea sprang most of the tribes of Israel

Harold Bloom's comment about the J writer: the people are "real"

9/23/06

2006-09-26T10:50:00.000-07:00

(Just) A small side note:

While simultaneously taking a class of William Blake this semester, it "literally" blows me away how everything, I mean, everything can be traced back to the bible. We can only be as receptive to new material by how familiar we are with a given topic before that. I am not asking to replace my childhood with a brand new one that involves Sunday school and a nightly reading of Genesis, I am only amazed with the material of the bible that I can be exposed to now, while attempting to understand how I interpreted any piece of literature before this. That would be an interesting study, to shread pieces of literature of their biblical referances, and then read them....hmmmm.

Discussion of Woman and the bible and what I learned:

1. Phallocentrisism: Images of the phallus are central to myth of the culture
2.Yahweh represents husband/Israel represents wife...or the fallen woman
Marriage of the two.
3. The womb of a woman is owned, and passed from a father to a husband, in what we call a bondage of marriage... of course we continue to perform this practice, yet I never quite thought of it in exactly this manner before.
4. Yahweh appreciates the qualities of deciet, devious power, the "trickster" (qualities of a woman)
5. Bloom argues Yahweh was a woman because of the "story" she tells.

Interesting ideas learned and discussed in class....
Noah as representing the archetype of the first drunk while owning his vineyard.
- The bibles contradictions: The heavy use of incest is permitted, then why does God strike -down an entire city for this?
- TABOO: forbidden/powerful (that which is taboo is holy)....more ambiguity.
- Interesting thought: Why does God strike punishment on those who break the law, often times on innocent people?.........Response offered in class: There are no innocent people, we are all born of sin.

9/14/06

2006-09-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

Frye: Disscusion of U shaped curve in the bible (up, down, reversal)

6 U shaped stories in the bible from the creation to the second destruction of the temple.

U shape of Genesis: Creation, murder, exil, Noah, Tower of Babel

INTERESTING...

1.) Aristotle definition of "comedy": that which has a happy ending
2.) Garden of Eden: Geographic location, Iraq.

Israel: Overrun by more powerful countries.
Question this raises: Why does God let good people suffer?

THEODICY: Question of God's Justice

Abraham marks the start of probability. Parriotic religion begins, "The Father".

ARCHETYPE: Basic model or figure that we define other things by.

Example: The archetype of Cain is our idea of the fugative.

Abraham, Izaac, Jacob: Three great patriotic figures in the bible.

The story of Abraham's son: Ishmael. whom Hegar concieves, not his wife Sarai. Later, Izaac is born out of a miracle. Profound element in the bible. Izaac has a son named Jacob who has a son named Israel.

Frye: The great archetype in the bible is the trojan war (the face that launched 1,000 ships)

THE GREAT HERO IN J........DAVID

9/12/06

2006-09-13T08:13:00.000-07:00

Elohim (abstract)
Transcendent (way up there)
Kingdom of God outside, one cannot be saved except for the church
Faith
Lists/order
sky god

Yahweh (personal)
Immanent (in here)
experience
story
sky god

Naustic person: believes the divinity lives within yourself, nourished by knowledge.

Bloom vs. Frye:

Bloom: redactor in villam

Frye: redactor is Hero

Documentary Hypothesis

2006-09-08T08:03:00.000-07:00

Definition for Documentary Hypothesis (found on on-line dictionary):

Theory that the 5 books of Moses (the Torah) represent a combination of documents from different sources rather than a single text authored by one individual.

9/8/06

2006-09-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

Definition of Talmud found on on-line dictionary:

collection of ancient rabbinic writings on Jewish law and tradition (Mishna and Gemara) that constitute the basis of religious authority in orthodox judaism

Learned in class:

2 key events in the Greek and Hebrew myth that question history:

1. Greek - Trojan War
2. Hebrew - Exodus from Egypt

Author (P) interested in:

cultic over the story
organization
ideology's
explainations ex. why we rest on Sunday

P vs. J

Author (P) thinks of God as transdendent

Author (J) thinks of God as personal

BLOOM: argues about the "misreading" of the bible

Strong misreading: material of J (uses irony)
weak misreading: intolerable patriarchy

definition of myth: collection of stories etc. put together creates a culture, a myth is formed and everyone therefore understands who he or she is.

Greek: beleived myth related to the 4 dimensions of reality

up there
down there
out there
in there

Frye: antagonistic to three things

woman
snakes
nature

Most interesting idea heard in class today: the earlier creation stories than the bible include...

1. a female creating the world with snake

2. female creating world by herself

9/5/06

2006-09-06T08:27:00.000-07:00

Information learned in class today:

A quick way to sum up the bible in 7 stages according to Northrope Frye:

1. creation
2. revolution
3. law
4. wisdom
5. prophecy
6. gospel
7. apocalypse

(T N K) Torah. profets. writings

also....

discussion about "gaps" in the narrative (lacuna) e,
figures of speech, metaphor: Izaiah 63, metaphor for squishing grapes = blood of enemies
"grapes of wrath" this image appears over and over again in litarature.

2 ways to look at the bible:
1. model of behavior and instruction
2. mirror of identity: shows people as they are

Quote discussed:
"For everything that happens to you there is something gained and something lost"

Entry for 8/29/06

2006-08-31T18:51:00.000-07:00

Question presented in class: What have you learned today?

Since I am coming into Biblical Foundations of Literature with no prior experience or exposer to the bible, I have put this class off until my senior year. I was very hesitant taking this class, knowing I didn't have the basic knowledge I felt you should have before taking this class. But now I am down to my last English class and have finally changed my attitude, figuring I will learn much. Yes, that has already been accomplished. What I learned today is how much I actually do know about the basic storyline of Genesis. This is yet another realization of how powerful and influencial the bible is in many forms and ways throughout our culture and others at present. For someone that has never read the bible, I am surprised to find that I already knew the basic story elements, as we learned in class today, the J elements.