tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post115587863814002314..comments2024-02-23T03:28:33.435-05:00Comments on Culture Industry: Scriptural TediumMark Scrogginshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01431113440875342809noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-1156256277644896262006-08-22T10:17:00.000-04:002006-08-22T10:17:00.000-04:00For me, Monty Python and the Holy Grail fundamenta...For me, Monty Python and the Holy Grail fundamentally altered my appreciation of the OT--far more so that a year of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield.<BR/><BR/>King Arthur: Consult the Book of Armaments. <BR/>Brother Maynard: Armaments, chapter two, verses nine through twenty-one. <BR/>Cleric: [reading] And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, "O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the Lord did grin. And the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths, and carp and anchovies, and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit-bats and large chu... <BR/>Brother Maynard: Skip a bit, Brother... <BR/>Cleric: And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it. <BR/>Brother Maynard: Amen.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-1156151565612793212006-08-21T05:12:00.000-04:002006-08-21T05:12:00.000-04:00Somewhere along the line the bizarre aesthetic app...Somewhere along the line the bizarre aesthetic appeal of long screeds of boredom got into modernism - someone got tired of books that were too straightforwardly digestible. I think it begins with Portrait of the Artist - that chapter where the hellfire sermon just goes on and on, (judged by the standards of what earlier novelists and readers would have considered tolerable - they'd have extracted about a page, merely enough to make the narrative point). Must have been a reaction gainst conventional ideas of what was considered proportional (I guess the that behind Joyce lay Flaubert, Bouvard and the Tentation... authors intoxicated with pursuing parodic lines far beyond the limits of anecdote - and then there was Ulysses... <BR/><BR/>What's striking about devout readings of the bible - I'm thinking of 17th c Independents here but many times and faiths would exemplify it - is the way they snowplough through all generic distinction, Leviticus as rewarding as the Psalms; religious reading is (as it seems) powerfully reconstructive of the text; or perhaps it's really secular reading that's reconstructive...hmmMichael Peveretthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17090710369630916194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-1156047624726746092006-08-20T00:20:00.000-04:002006-08-20T00:20:00.000-04:00There were some parts of the ritual observations t...There were some parts of the ritual observations that made for interesting reading--the ones that dealt with what was allowable sexually is what I'm mainly thinking of. I remember wondering when I was a kid at the Kingdom Hall why God needed to tell the Israelites <B>not</B> to screw the sheep.Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11057141977192915700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-1156000270486318752006-08-19T11:11:00.000-04:002006-08-19T11:11:00.000-04:00Pound doesn't have the excuse of multiple authors ...Pound doesn't have the excuse of multiple authors and wacky redactors, though he often gives that impression.Josh Hansonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04072181113771913036noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-1155913964468954102006-08-18T11:12:00.000-04:002006-08-18T11:12:00.000-04:00Reading the Bible is like entering an archaeologic...Reading the Bible is like entering an archaeological dig. What fascinates me is the mixture of extremely ANCIENT OLD things with the strikingly humorous, humane, sympathetic people & tales.<BR/><BR/>When I was 19, working on a ranch in Wyoming, I read it from cover to cover. Changed muh life, pard.Henry Gouldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06763188178644726622noreply@blogger.com