Notes for 09-26-06
Metephors.
Not logical.
Isreal is Gods wife.
Metephorical material has been revised, edited, changed.
Types and anti-types
"Your belly is like a heap of wheat"
J's writing full of repetition of plot, and psychologically rich character development.
Kings 14:10 "Those who piss against a wall" =Men.
J's Strong women: Sarah
Rebekah
Rachael
Ziporah
Hemar

Stories of The Well: Isaac and Rebekah
Jacob and Rachael

I have been thinking lately about the bible, and how it fits into the realm of literary criticism. since I am taking lit crit this semester, I am forced to see literature in those terms. But really, looking at the bible from a literary perspective is lit crit. So, if we are annoying Dr. Sexson by wanting to know facts, history, and rules, then clearly Sexson dosen't want to take a historical approach to the bible. Neither, may I add, should faith based religious people, since archeology proves that Noah's Arc couldn't have existed (Even though they do).

So how you recieve the bible depends on how you read it... And perhaps this class is jumping around in different literary theories.
So here are some questions we should be asking ourselves: How do I read the bible? What am I looking for? What do I take notice of? What bothers me? What interests me?

The following is the beginning of my own attempt to understand the different kinds of Literary criticism.

Strucuralism/Deconstructionism: the belief that texts work within certain structures. Structuralism emphasizes that elements of culture must be understood in terms of their relationship to the entire system
syntax and lexicon.

Levi Strauss:
"A general theory of the way in wich the exchange and circulation of women between families is used to knit cultures together."
"Another aspect of culture is used for exchange and circulation: language."
"Cultures with complex kinship structures, which gave the individual a smaller number of marital choices,tended to speak languages with complex syntax and a small lexicon, while cultures(like our own)with simple kinship structures, which give the individual a vast number of marital choices, tend to speak languages with simple syntax and a large lexicon."
-Richter

Syntax: the study of the rules, or "patterned relations" that govern the way words combine to form phrases and phrases to form sentences.

Lexicon: When linguists study the lexicon, they study such things as what words are, how the vocabulary in a language is structured, how people use and store words, how they learn words, the history and evolution of words, types of relationships between words as well as how words were created.
(Wikipedia)

Strauss focused on myths to do his research, "Myths are the way of the 'Savage mind'-not the minds of savages, but the untamed mind within all of us-gives order to the world." (richter pg.823)

Classical criticism- Lots of old guys: Plato, Aristotle, Plontinus, Wordsworth, Kant, etc...
Plato believed in the world of ideals, and focused his philosopy on ideas of imitation. He thought poetry was worthless unless it was an ode to the Gods, or if it did something to help society. Plato believed people like Homer to be frauds since they wrote about things they didn't expirience. He thought the world lived as copies of copies.

New Criticism
Formal criticism
Reader response theory
Marxist criticism
psychoanalytical theory
New historicism and cultural studies
Feminist literary criticism
Gender studies and Queer theory
Post colonialism and ethnic studies

Many things discussed today:
Why is Jeromiah adominable? Masogomist? Colorful punishments?
Contradictions
Incest
God's justice
Patriarch
Metaphors
The Book of Job
Hagglers
Does God admire people who stand up to him?
722 B.C.
Jewish people who kept a notion of beliefs while in exhile.
Rebuilding of the Temple
Exile...

And the idea of exile has lingered in my mind. First I'd like to point out that if hospitality is deeply valued in the time of the Old Testament, then exile must also be valued.

Exile: can be a form of punishment, or a self-imposed leaving of ones homeland. It means to be away from one's home (i.e. city, state or country) while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened by prison or death upon return.
-Wikipedia

-Adam and Eve are Exiled from the garden of Eden.
-Archetype of Cain: Exile.
-Tower of Babel, Exile from language?
-Noah and family exiled to Arc.
-Abraham and Sarah forced from land due to famine.
-Jacob forced to leave to escape Esau's revenge.
-Joseph sold as slave by brothers.
-Lot and daughters are sent away from hometown
-Hagar and Ishmael are sent off into the wilderness
-Moses' birth
-Moses and his people
-Lepers, "contaminated women"
-Jesus' birth
-Jesus' youth
-Jesus sent into the desert.
-Pilgramages to mecca
-Holocaust
-Foriegn Policy
-Refugees
-expulsion
-The U.S.
-Native Americans
-Chief Joseph
-Australia


-Archetype of hero:
The hero usually suffers a great loss, which makes him set off on a quest.
The hero generally has a mentor or helper who helps him on his quest.
The hero must face a set of trials, which allow him to overcome "evil".
The hero narrowly escapes death, usually more than once.
The hero escapes the "evil villain's" stronghold or destroys him.
The hero is then reintegrated into society with a new status, wealth, or marriage to the princess.
There has to be a happy ending.
(Recently a female hero or heroine has become accepted and very common.)

Been thinking of the similarities that I see between two characters in class, J and Jesus (Besides starting with the same letter).
They are story tellers.
They use parables.
They use wit.
Prophesies.
Humor.
Rebelliousness.
They have feminine qualities.
Appreciate women.
They both work from the inside to reach the outside.
Forgiving of human flaws.




I saw an interview with Bloom right after he wrote the Book of J. I hadn't taken this clss yet or read the book, and I really didn't understand much of what he was talking about. I did, however; pay close attention to his views on Jesus. After defining and explaining the major religions in the world and the differences between them, he said that Jesus was one of the most intriguing men in history. While Jesus was rebellious and detrimental to both the Jewish population, and the Romans, he was also unique in his inclusiveness of the individual. There was never a person in history whose religion was open to anyone who would accept it. This idea, acording to Bloom, is the reason Christianity has been so successful.

I find it interesting that Bloom believes that J's writing in the bible is the reason the bible has been so sucessful, and that Jesus Christ is the reason Christianity has been thus accepted.

And while I'm at it, may I add Shakespeare to the list? Doesn't Shakespeare have the same elements in his writings: wit, humor, prophesies,human flaws, compassion, character...

"She sang beyond the genius of the sea"
-Wallace Stevens

The voice of this poem reminds me one one of my favorite poets, Pablo Neruda.

The Saddest Poem


I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.

Write, for instance: "The night is full of stars,
and the stars, blue, shiver in the distance."

The night wind whirls in the sky and sings.

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

On nights like this, I held her in my arms.
I kissed her so many times under the infinite sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her.
How could I not have loved her large, still eyes?

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.
To think I don't have her. To feel that I've lost her.

To hear the immense night, more immense without her.
And the poem falls to the soul as dew to grass.

What does it matter that my love couldn't keep her.
The night is full of stars and she is not with me.

That's all. Far away, someone sings. Far away.
My soul is lost without her.

As if to bring her near, my eyes search for her.
My heart searches for her and she is not with me.

The same night that whitens the same trees.
We, we who were, we are the same no longer.

I no longer love her, true, but how much I loved her.
My voice searched the wind to touch her ear.

Someone else's. She will be someone else's. As she once
belonged to my kisses.
Her voice, her light body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, true, but perhaps I love her.
Love is so short and oblivion so long.

Because on nights like this I held her in my arms,
my soul is lost without her.

Although this may be the last pain she causes me,
and this may be the last poem I write for her.

-Pablo Neruda

Okay, so maybe they are very different. One talks about love, while the other talks about...Whay do you guys think? I found the following which I thought very interesting and relevant to this class thus far and our focus on perceptions. Marie Rose Napierkowsi wrote the following:

While the poem remains too complex to be easily explicated or paraphrased here, it is accurate to say that the poem dramatizes important conflicts for Stevens: imagination and reality, presence and absence, order and chaos, nature and civilization, the mind and the body. While readers never see the female singer or actually hear what it is the woman is singing, they experience what the speaker of the poem experiences: transformation. The woman’s song transforms the speaker’s experience of walking along the beach, and, what’s more, when he returns to town, he discovers that his perception of Key West has also been altered. Early critics cite the poem as an example of Stevens championing the creative process, but that is inaccurate, according to most recent criticism. These critics believe that the poem is about the need for poetry and the need for art. Thus, the emphasis of the poem is not so much on the song itself but what the song does to the listener. One can extend that, of course, to Stevens’ hope for his own poetry—that it has the same effect on his readers as the song does on the speaker of the poem


Read this, it is a colorful interpretation of Wallace Steven's poem!

What Sexson says:
written works, from many authors.
Prior creation stories to the Bible:
Babylonian creation story
Epic of Gildamesh
womans voice
woman with snake
dimembered body of godess
voice of male
Garden of Eden in Iraq (?)
Trojan war historically known at the same time as Exodus from Egypt
1200-1100 B.C. Goliath armor similar to armor worn by Trojan warriors
"Isrealites were never very lucky at the game of empire"

Extra Biblical material that has gained authenticity:
Lilith.
Mary Magdalene
Mark of Cain

Names (Author P)
Name change and Identity:
Adama- Earth
Abram- Contraction of Abraham
Abraham- Father of many-Patriarch
Jacob-Holder of heel, or, God protect- Patriarch
Esau- Hairy
Isreal-God contended
Ishmael- God will hear
Sarai
Sarah
Isaac- She laughed/He laughed. Patriarch.
Simon
Peter-Rock
Rachel- Ewe (sheep)
Repitition of names: Litany (List of things)
YHWH
Yaweh
Jahovah
Elojist
Logos- Divine, great power of voice to create a world.
God
Lord God
Jesus
Father
Son
Holy Spirit

Today we discussed Bloom's idea of misreading the bible. Bloom appreciates strong misreadings, but disproves weak misreadings.

Is J writing in Irony? Well let's see...I guess I am trying to understand J's sense of Irony. After Dr. Sexson's class on gender and the bible, I see the irony a little differently than I saw it before. I was stuck on words and meanings (a horrible thing to base any opinion on from the bible) and also morality from a modern perspective. But now I see differently. It is hard for people of this generation to avoid applying our own moral codes as universal rules. But if you really want to understand the Bible, you have to own the cultural beliefs of the time.

I thought I'd start with Solomon's Court, knowing nothing of it, but always hearing about it...The Songs of Solomon in the bible, refrences to Solomon's Court, and one of my favorite books, Song of Solomon (for example). But mainly, because Bloom believes that J resided in King Solomons Court. To understand J, dont we need to know what her life was like?

My questions were: Was King Solomon a real person, or a biblical character? Do we have evidence that any one individual from the Old Testament truly existed? What was life like in King Solomons Court? What were womens' lives like in the court?

after a bit of googling, I realised that I hit a controversial topic. The next link is authored by ADL, which seems a little dangerous to use in class, although it is a group claiming to protect all human rights (The Anti-Defamation League (or ADL) is an organization founded by B'nai B'rith in the United States whose stated aim is "to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience and, if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people. Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.") so I think it is okay. Please let me know it it's inapropriate. Thanks.

The Temple Mount

King Solomon's Court

Archeologist site on Washington Post

The myth of Solomon entails a wise King, who was blessed by God, who built a magnificient Temple, who had many lovers. But I haven't found what life was like in his courts. I need to read more of the bible, perhaps the answers are in there.

THE LAWS OF YIBBUM.
The Torah describes the practice of Yibbum in the Parsha of Ki Setzei (Devarim 25:5,7,9):

"If there are brothers, and one of them dies without children, the wife of the deceased man may not marry out to another man. Her brother-in-law (her deceased husband's brother) must marry her and thus perform Yibbum on her ... If the man does not want to marry her, she shall approach the elders and declare 'My brother-in-law refuses to establish his brother's name in Israel; he does not consent to perform Yibbum on me'

... Then she shall approach him in the presence of the elders and remove his shoe from his foot, and spit in front of him and proclaim "Such should be done to a man who would not build up his brother's house!"

Yibbum is a Halachic rite which must be performed when a man who has a living brother dies childless. If this uncommon situation occurs, the widow must not remarry unless one of two actions are taken - either she must marry the brother of the deceased or she must be released from the obligation of marrying her brother-in-law by having him perform the Chalitzah ("removing" of the shoe) ceremony.

It is obviously uncomfortable for a woman to be trapped in this situation, wherein she would be subject to the will of another man. Her brother-in-law may not be locatable, compliant or appealing.

There are several fundamental laws concerning the childless nature of the deceased and the age of the bother that control whether Yibbum applies:


LAWS CONCERNING THE CHILDLESS NATURE OF THE DECEASED
1. Rule #1: The man must die childless. According to the Talmud Yevamos 87b, Dying childless includes instances where a man once had children, but these children were already dead at the time of his own death.
2. Rule #2: Grandchildren: According to the Talmud Yevamos 70a, if the deceased man has no living children but he does have living grandchildren, he is not considered to be childless, and therefore, there is no Yibbum obligation.
3. Rule #3: Offspring: According to Talmud Yevamos 11 lb and Shabbos 136a, if the deceased left behind any offspring at all, there is no Yibbum - even if the offspring is only one day old. Even if the offspring is still a viable fetus at the time of the husband's death, its mother is exempted from being bound to the living brother. If the fetus is a stillborn or is aborted, or dies, or is killed before it lived for thirty days, it is not considered to have ever been a viable offspring, and Yibbum would be required.

LAWS CONCERNING THE AGE OF THE DECEASED'S BROTHER
4. Rule #4: Brother-In-Law: According to the Talmud Yevamos 17b, the widow is obligated to marry her deceased husband's brother. If the deceased husband does not leave a living brother, his wife is free to marry whoever she pleases.
5. Rule #5: Minor: According to the Talmud Yevamos 1 05b, if the brother of the deceased is a minor, the widow is still bound to him, and does not have the option of freeing herself through Chalitzah since a minor lacks capacity to perform the ceremony. Instead she must wait until the brother reaches the age of majority (Bar Mitzvah 13) in order for him to render Chalitzah at that time. Only then may she remarry. According to the Talmud Niddah 45a if she wants to marry him, she must wait until he reaches 9 years of age.



This information was taken from: Law Office of
Baruch C. Cohen, Esq.
A Professional Law Corporation






These were my first attempts at understanding irony:
Genesis 3:6
"but God said 'you should not eat of the fruit .... and he ate."

Genesis 10:6
"And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the begginning of what they will do; nothing that they will propose to do will now be impossible to them . Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech."

Genesis 16:3
"So, after Abraham had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. He went in to Hagar, and she concieved; and when she saw that she had concieved, she looked with contempt on her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my slave-girl to your embrace, and when she saw that she had concieved, she looked on me with contempt....Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she ran away from her."

Perhaps I should outline the major stories so far in Genesis.

Creation story


Second creation story

First sin and punishment
Very sexual
woman as trickster character.
Snake becomes smooth.

Cain murders Abel (God puts a mark on Cain)
?What is the mark of Cain?
?Why does God reward Cain with generations, after he murders his own bro?
A: God condemns Cain to generations of exhile.
Archetype of fugative

Noah’s Arc
Many flood myths.
Myths prevail until Abraham's story begins in Genesis.

Tower of Babel
Why does God divide all people?
Speaking in tongues?

Abram sacrifices animals to God, Lord gives land to Abram. (Land of Caanan).
?Why does God prefer blood sacrifices?
A:BBQ?

Sarai can’t have children.
Barreness is worst curse for women in bible.

Sarai gives slave girl to Abram, and then beats her when she concieves.
?Why is Hagar punished?
?Is Hagar giving Sarai a look of contempt because she was raped?
?Can this be read as ironic?
?Why does God support Sarai's vengence.
A:Sarai takes matters into own hands to ensure future generations. Surrogate mother.T
A:Hagar is vulva only.
A:Ishmael represents treachery of Sarai in the Koran.
A:Sacred well in Iraq where Hagar escaped dehydration.
A:Isrealites viewed themselves as the second child. Isaac had to be the second child who preveiled, so Ishmael had to be second best.

Angel names Ishmael and prophesizes his heavy hand.

Hagar gives birth to Ishmael.

Abram is named Abraham (ancestor of multitudes of nations).
God gives Abraham the rules: Males must be circumcised at eight days old “So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant” Genesis 17:13
A:Phallocentricism.
A:Isrealites as woman, or wife, to father: Yaweh.
A:What is more demasculating than circumcision?

Sarai is named Sarah and is promised a son: Isaac. Sarah laughs.
Sarah chuckles with wit, or Abraham laughs with praise.
Trickster eavesdropping.

God blesses both Ishmael and Isaac, but establishes covenent with Isaac only.
?Is God Calvanistic, blessing only the chosen ones?


Hagar and Ishmael are sent away into the wilderness.
Patriarchial God hostile to women, nature, and snakes.

Abraham circumcises the men.
Abraham questions God about sweeping the righteous with the wicked.
Sentimental me likes this alot. "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it." Genesis 18:32 It implies that for the sake of one, God will be merciful.

Angels test town of Sodom?Okay, the town of Sodom is mentioned, but what about the town of Gomorrah? It never explains where, what...anything about it. Is Gomorrah even a town? Just a little lacuna.
?Does this passage, as right wing christians claim, speak against homosexuality? Or is it sex crimes in general? Lot was punished for offering his daughters instead of the men. But, the problem with sexual promiscuity in bible, is that of ownership of future generations.

Lot offers his daughters in place of Angels.?Footnotes explain that Lot pleased God by protecting the angels, but also in trouble for not respecting his role as protector to his daughters. And that is why Lot is saved but exhiled. But Abraham and Isaac sacrifice Sarah and Rebekah by calling them their sisters, and they are favored by god.
? Is the difference: Abraham and Isaac rewarded for their tricksterness?

God makes men of Sodom blind.

Sodom and Gommorah destroyed, but Lot and daughters saved.

Lot’s wife looks back and turns into a pillar of salt.

Lot’s two daughters revenge father by raping him. (Sons: Moabites, and Ammonites).Female tricksters.

Abraham claims Sarah as sister, loses her, until God intervenes.God rewards trickster.

100 year old Abraham (and Sarah) bear son Isaac.Second Patriarch born.

Sarah forces Hagar and son to exile into the wilderness.
Abraham makes a covenant with Abimelech as an alien on Philistinian Land.

God tests Abraham.
Written by P.
Angel saves Patriarch's (Isaac) life.

Abraham buries Sarah at 127 years old.

Slave of Abraham finds Isaac a wife: Rebekah.
Isaac marries Rebekah.
Isaac in mourning over mother, Sarah.
Isaac consumates marriage with Rebekah in dead mother's tent.
First Well narrative.

Abraham remarries Keturah, and dies at 175 years old.Rebekah is with twins “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger.” Genesis:25:23
Twins fought even in the womb.


Esau and Jacob are born. Isaac loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Jacob: smooth, feminine, favored by Yaweh.
Esau: hairy, masculine, not favored by Yaweh.

Esau sells Jacob his birthright for stew.
Jacob and Rebekah as tricksters.
Archetype of mother and son plotting against father.

Famine sends Isaac to foriegn lands.

Isaac pretends Rebekah as sister, God protects them.Why theme of claiming wife as sister?
Crafty. Insult done to property is a very bad thing. Cleverness of tricking their way into new territory is favored by Yaweh.

Esau marries two Hittite wives, and makes life hard for parents: Isaac and Rebekah.

Rebekah tricks Isaac by having Jacob steal Isaacs blessing from Esau,
"By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you break loose, you shall break his yoke from your neck" Genesis 27:40.
?: Why does God favor the trickster?
?: What does this response mean?
A: Prophesy. Later, Esau vies to kill Jacob.
Myth: Once blessing is given, can't be taken away.
Archetype of brother conflict.


Rebekah sends Jacob away to escape Esau's vengence

Esau marries Mahalath, Ishmael's daughter.

Jacob dreams of God promising him land.
Jacob makes vow to give one-tenth back to the Lord.
pillar of stone

Jacob meets Rachael at the well.
Character developement by asking of Laban, again.
second well story
Love at first site archetype

Laban makes deal with Jacob
Leah has exquisite, or weak, eyes.
Rivalry between wives.


Jacob serves seven years, and is tricked into consumation with Leah.
Laban, Rachael, Leah trickster figures.
Shakespeare's bed trick.
Leah is given maid: Zilpah.

Jacob serves seven more years and weds Rachael and her maid, Bilhah.

Rachael is barren, but Leah is furtile because she is unloved.
Leah's sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah.

Rachel gives maid, Bilhah to Jacob as a third wife.
Son for Rachel is named Dan and second son is named Naphtali.
Rachel see's Bilhah's births as winning a competetion with Leah.

Leah cannot procreate anymore, so she gives her maid Zilpah as a fourth wife.
Zilpah has Gad, Asher,

Leah again is blessed with two more, Zebulun and Dinah.

Finally God has mercy and gives Rachel a son named Joseph.

Jacob wishes to take family and leave, makes deal with Laban.
Jacob as magician.
Jacob as trickster.
household god figures idolized and stolen from Laban.

Rachael sits on figure
Bleeding woman.
Rachael's cunningness.

Jacob stands up to Laban and deal is made.
Jacob can take no more wives, and neither party can intend to do harm to eachother.
pillar of stone

Jacob wrestles angel and prevails.
Jacob is named Israel, "For you have striven with God and with humans, and have preveiled." Genesis 32:22.
?As Jesus did?

Jacob and Esau meet and make-up.

Rape of Dinah
Dinahs brothers demand circumcision from Shechem and every male among them before giving her to them.

Jacob and two sons, Simeon and Levi murdered all Hivite males.

"A terror from God fell upon the cities of all around them," in order for Jacob's family to flee to Canaan.
God, again, promises blessings.
pillar of stone.

Rachel dies in childbirth; Benjamin is born.

Two major questions:
1.) What do I know that I didn’t know before?
2.) What difference does it make?

1.) peanut butter and Jelly. peas, prayers, practical. Jesus, journal, jovial, jazzy, and Jessica who is my sister who tells fabulous up close and personal stories. As we all know, it does not end with peanut butter and jelly, there are also E D and R.

2.) It makes a difference if Bloom’s hypothesis is correct and J is actually a woman. That makes a huge difference. But it is noteworthy also that if the documentary hypothesis is true, then the Bible cannot be expected to be read as “literal” which eliminates the option of blind faith.