The Coming About of a Myth

"That's not the true story, you know."

A raspy voice of criticism bound in arrogant delight.

It's coming from over there, somewhere behind the gentleman glossed with anxiety and arousal.

"The police never get it right you know."

Do you know?

"Well, I'm not supposed to say this. It's supposed to be a secret. Not many people even know about this."

She says. She says again. She adds dramatic affect. She's Probably curling little Suzie Cue's into her blonde hair. Smacking lips. Rolling eyes.

"But it was all set up by this girl with an Oxy addiction. You know Oxy-cottin. Well he has a prescription or something from when he was in the army. He hurt himself. But he never takes the pills."

She stressed Cotton, not sure yet very definite. Holes begin to Gape in her story. But is it her, or is it what she doesn't know? Or is it what we already know?

"Well this girl set it all up so they would get his pills for her. It didn't even happen on campus."

"Wait, didn't they ring the rape station?"

spouts another voice, female. Elongated. Pruned to carry every syllable.

"That's what they say, but I know. It didn't happen behind the gym. Who are you going to trust, some stupid police reports or me?"

-----------------------------------------------

We're supposed to be listening in on our peers turnings Kings into Gods are we not? Or is it the truth?

One Day Left. Thirteen-Hundred Pages.

In the Zend-Avesta, the ancient law book of the Persians, it is laid down that if "the mad dog, or the dog that bites without barking, smite a sheep or wound a man, the dog shall pay for it as for wilful murder. If the do shall smite a sheep or wound a man, they shall cut off his right ear. If he shall smite another sheep or wound another man, they shall cut off his left ear. If he shall smite a third sheep or wound a third man, they shall cut off his right foot. If he shall smite a a fourth sheep or wound a fourth man, they shall cut off his left foot. If he shall for the fifth time smite a sheep or wound a man they shall cut off his tail. Therefore they shall tie him to the post; by the two sides of the collar they shall tie him. IF they shall not do so, and the mad dog, or the dog that bite without barking, smite a sheep or wound a man, he shall pay for it as for wilful murder." It will be generally admitted that in this enactment the old Persian lawyer treats a worrying dog with great forbearance; for he gives him no less than five distinct chances of reforming his character before he enacts from the irreclaimable culprit the extreme penalty of the law.

Considering we have one day left to finish the bible I truly hope Sexson doesn't have any comparative measures of punishments to us, physically or grade wise. I'm still stuck in Kings, though I feel rather proud of myself for getting thus far in the bible within a month. I tried, I truly did. And then I decided I needed to continue living my life instead of being locked up like a recluse or Thomas Merton in some corner with my Bible and no life to show for it. This is not say I'm giving up on reading the bible. I will finish it by the end of the semester. But the next 14 hours will not be directed towards trying to read 1300 pages of 4 font.

Response to Alexa Hueser's blog

(Alexa's Blogposting)

When you say it is filled with more bad than good, I believe you are correct. In fact, God is constantly angry with his chosen people because they do not do as they are prescribed, and thus they fall victim.

But now let us take a look at how things work in life. We learn from failure. In fact in order to succeed we usually fail first, at least in the significant parts of life.

to quote Bram Stokers Dracula "We learn from failure, not from success!"

Thus we can look at the bible as a good "bad" example, or a good example of the reciprocal effects of not following the word of The Lord.

The bible by no means is a story about the grace the lord has put upon us. Instead it is a story of "our" constant plight to reconstruct the bridge, or piece together the circle that was broken between ourselves and The Highest of Gods, while suffering through the pangs of knowing OF good and evil which is in itself the Curse of Sin; to not know, to forget, to be of disconnect from the circle, or bridge or line or whatever word you can impregnate with the visual connection that once was whole but now is not.

How To Look at the Bible as Literature

We've all been reading Plotz (except for those of us who received Gomez) and while it's an entertaining read nothing along the lines of knowledge, at least of any depth, can be gained from him. He is merely an outline of the common misconception of how the bible should be read. He is a good "bad" example of the ways in which our conception of how things are supposed to be shape the way things were. More to the point, Plotz reads the bible how a history book now would be written to be read.

The bible is a book from which most (if not all) of the types of readings we have around today have sprouted. We have genealogies, Histories, Rhyme and Verse, Narratives, Parables, etc, etc, all as one.

Now some of you may be asking why we haven't made the bible more coherent and the fact is the problem is not with the bible but with ourselves. A good mind changes a text so as to be understood by everyone. A great mind changes itself to understand all the types of texts.

The mysterious mental maneuver we need to take in order to read the bible correctly is placed in Northwrop Frye's introduction on page xii and it is about the most dense introduction, let alone writing, I've come across.

Frye's critical position "revolves around the identity of mythology and literature, and the way in which the structures of myth, along with those of folktale, legend, and related genres, continue to form the structures of literature."-xii

He generalizes his thesis with this "central" point: " every human society possesses a mythology which is inherited, transmitted and diversified by literature. Comparative mythology is a fascinating subject, but it is quickly exhausted as a scholarly study if it remains simply a configuration of patterns. It is generally understood that it needs to be grounded in psychology or anthropology: it is much less understood that its central and most important extension is into the literature (along with the criticism of literature) which incarnates a mythology in historical context. In the opposite direction, a literary criticism that cuts off its own cultural and historical roots in mythology becomes sterile even more quickly. Some forms of it stop with an analytic disintegrating of texts as an end in itself; others study literature as a historical or ideological phenomenon, and its works as documents illustrating something outside literature. But this leaves out the central structural principles that literature derives from myth, the principles that give literature its communicating power across the centuries through all ideological changes. Such structural principles are certainly conditioned by social and historical factors and do not transcend them, but they retain a continuity of from that points to an identity of the literary organism distinct from all its adaptation to its social environment."-xiii

NOW THAT IS DENSE.

But it's also packed with knowledge.

(I will be, shortly, changing this into dot notes of how I should and should not read the bible and will be sharing it on my blog with whoever would like to read it as soon as my decoding is finished.)

The Golden Hemorrhoids

As the gentleman next to me is watching me search the google wide web for golden hemorrhoids something hit me. What in God's name must be going through his head, and how awkward he now feels for nosing in on other peoples business. Little does he know that if this were biblical times he'd be getting the golden treatment for penetrating my tabernacle with his dim, unclean eyes. His white blood cell count would plummet with the death of 50,000 of his helpers become devastated by the shivers and shakes of his changing body temperature that his sins have brought upon him.

 Will he know of his trespasses? Or the sacrifice so required? And where do you find a golden hemorrhoid these days? The Vein Proctologist? That Assman. Perhaps an overly Anal Arts Dealer? I can already see his tippy toes starting a dance soon to shake the foundation of his tract-rearing him soon to life. And I suppose he has Horses, and with them comes cattle, but will he know? Oh! how should he ever know! And where's he to find a bank in this valley supposedly brimming with promises?

Class Schedule

English 240-01 Biblical Foundations of Literature F 10 Schedule
Texts: Penguin KJ Bible ; Northrop Frye: Words with Power; David Plotz: The Good Book; Isaac B. Singer; The Slave. Frazer: Folklore in the Old Testament.  Note: This schedule is provisional only. Changes not only will but should be made as the course progresses.
Sep. 7-9	TNK, Authorship of Bible. Receipts. Read Plotz Chaps 1,2	OT: Genesis –Documentary Hypothesis, 7 Stages of Bible (Frye) Plot, chaps. 3,4
Sept. 14-16	The Stories of Genesis from Creation to Joseph and Bros. Group Assignments.  Plotz: Chaps. 5,6,7	Continued: Exodus to Samuel II w. emphasis on Ruth, tales from Judges, David stories in Samuel. Plotz: Chaps. 8,9, 10, 11
Sept. 21-23	Continued.  Read Frye, Words with Power, Chap 1:Sequence and Mode. Plotz, 10-12.	(Continued)  --findings from JG Frazer’s Folklore in the Old Testament.
Sept. 28-30	(continued) Read Frye, WWP: Chap. 2: Concern and Myth  Plotz, 13-16	(Continued) ---- Complete reading of Bible by Oct. 1
Oct. 5-7	F9 Catch-up & Review for Quiz	Quiz # 1 Oct.7
Oct. 12-14	Frye, Chap 3: Identity and Metaphor. Plotz: Chaps 17-20. Writings: Wisdom Lit: Job, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs. Song of Solomon	(Continued)
Oct  19-21	Wisdom Lit and Writings (continued)  Plotz: Chaps 2123.	Apocrypha: Susanna & Stevens
Oct. 26-28	Gospels of Luke, John	Acts, Corinthians
Nov. 2-4	Holiday – Read Frye, Chap 4. Spirit and Symbol	Book of Revelation 1—Prepare for quiz
Nov. 9-11	QUIZ 2	Holiday   “THE SLAVE” to be completed by this date.
Nov. 16-18	“The Slave” discussion	Catch up and Summations
Nov. 23-25	Groups 1-3: Mountain 1; Garden 1; Cave	No Class: Thanksgiving
Nov 30-Dec 2	Groups 4-6  Furnace, Mountain 2, Garden 2	Term Paper Presentations 1
Dec. 7-9	Term Paper Presentations 2	Term Paper Presentations 3; summary, conclusions evaluations.
Final Exam Thursday, Dec. 16, 1-115 Willson

Class Notes Day # 4 9/9/10

First
RE TITLE YOUR BLOGS!
1. Go To Your Dashboard.
2. Click On Settings
3. Re title the Section where it says Title of Your Blog
4. Write Your Name (Full Name? There is a lot of our names out there)
5. Scroll down (up? who knows with Sexson?) all the way to save settings.
6. Click Save Settings.
7. Pat yourself on the back! Congrats!

Second
We will be getting separated into 6 groups by Sexson according to Frye's 4 symbols/things.
Mountain 1
Garden 1
Cave 2
Furnace 2
NOTE TO GROUPS- Get together w/group and get your presentation over Frye's association with your images going NOW! This is where you build lifelong relationships! Right John?

Third
The King James Version is three Parts
1.Old Testament
2.The Apocrypha (which is not part of any movement, though it was included in the 1611 version of King  
       James' Bible. Shame on you James for not doing your homework and Thanks to Shaman Sexson.)
3.New Testament

Fourth
85% of Google Biblical Citation is not scholarly or literal but instead "read into from a personal or etc. etc. conviction.

Fifth
The Old Testament is Hebrew Scriptures to a practicing Jew.

Sixth
TNK-Acronym of the Sections of Old Testament biblical parts
T   orrah  (LAW)
N  ebiim   (PROPHETS)
K  etubim (WRITINGS)

Seventh
NT Literary Values
Mamalujo
1.Gospels
Mathew
Mark
Luke
John
       Bless The Bed I Lie On:)
-Matthew, Mark, and Luke are the Synoptic Gospels.
-John's Gospel is heavily gnostic and philosophical
2. Letters (The Epistles) -(Does that Make texting relationships Texticles?)

Eighth
To Read After This Class
Scrolling Forward
It will also be a required text for the Class "Mythologies of Text and Teaching" Next Semester(Sexson).

Ninth
Read the bible as a receipt in the mud
vs.
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

(Yet what's changed in our view/understanding of what's an eye of a needle?)

Tenth
The Act of Writing is important to the III Nations of the OT

Eleventh
For A Good "Freak-Out" Check Out
The Alphabet Vs. The Goddess

Twelfth
 St. Paul - The Spirit of The Law Giveth Life
The Letter of the Law Taketh Away.

Thirteenth
EMPTY YOUR HEADS ONTO THESE E-PAGES PEOPLE!

Fourteenth
The Joe's Parkway receipt is holy.
We live by the Joe's Parkway receipt.

Fifteenth
Frye's seven words to serve as a sum of the Bibel.
1. Creation
2. Exodus (Revolution)
3, Law (Torrah)
4.Wisdom
5. Prophecy
6. Gospel
7. Apocalypse (Revaltion)

NOTE
-First Five Words Refer to First Testament (OT)
-Last Two Words Refer to the Latter (NT)

Fifteenth-and-a-half
CREATE YOUR ACRONYMS

Ceres Eats Lads Who Push God Away

Ceres
Eats
Lads
Who
Push
God
Away

Sixteenth
(An Angel holds the passage to and from the biblical place where we've come to hold our studies)

Seventeenth
You need to be aware that their is difference between views of how the bible connects

An Instance:
Plotz= Bible is Incoherent = Normal Human Conception
Frye= Bible is Coherent= Symbolical and Literal Conception (Mysterious Mental Maneuvers)

Eighteenth
 Documentary Hypothesis


Nineteenth
NT is the response of the OT (Intertextuality)

Read all the Wiki Sources:)

Let's Slay some Virgins Levites?

Nbrs Ch.31 Vrs.17-8

Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.

Nbrs. ch.31 vrs. 25-29

And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, Take the sum of the prey that was taken, both of man and of beast, thou, and Eleazar the priest, and the chief fathers of the congregation: and divide the prey into two parts, between all the congregation. And levy a tribute unto the LORD of the men of war which went out to battle: one soul of five hundred, both of the persons, and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep. Take if of their half, and give it unto Eleazar the priest, for a heave offering to the LORD.


So after much researching and peering into the text again and again I've found that the heave offering does not require nor does it usually involve a sacrifice (death). This whole time I've been understanding this passage to mean that The Lord had Moses command Eleazar to Sacrifice 32 virgin Midianites to the lord, when in actuality The Lord was  giving unto the priests a tithe of the salvages of war which their people had know way of obtaining (due to the act that the Levitical people were priests, not warriors, unlike the rest of the twelves tribes of Israel)

Genesis in Shakespeare

Gen 28 vrs 17-18 (pgs.34-5)
And Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and he said, 'Surely the LORD is in this place, and I knew it not'. And he was afraid and said, 'How dreadful is this place? this is no other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven'.

(think of the storyteller motioning towards the dream a.k.a. the house of God, and then towards the gates of heaven a.k.a. Earth)

vrs. 20
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, 'If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace: then shall the LORD by my God.

Now Shakespeare:

The Tempest Act 3. sc. 2 vrs 148-56

Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometimes voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open, and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried to dream again. -Caliban


With some food for thought....

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep--While I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream? -E.A. Poe's A Dream Within A Dream

Additional note.- Everyone should probably go checkout Inception. Way better and more important that 2012.

p.p.s. Go watch Jacob's Ladder with Tim Robbins. It's a psychological thriller based upon....Well Jacob's Ladder.