From Fresh Air. Maureen Corrigan reviews a new edition of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast
Interesting radio article about a new revision of Hemingway’s classic take on Paris in the 1920s. Fits well with my ongoing study of sacred texts. Not that I consider his book sacred. It just makes me think yet again about how survivors and “winners” may rewrite what is left to them to rewrite, with no one there to defend it. History is shaped by the winners and the survivors, often to suit their own agenda, ambitions, sense of mission, honor, etc. Sacred texts the world over have been revised over the centuries to suit new political and economic realities, new power centers, new leaders and their vanities. For that reason, and for many others, it’s always struck me as a mistake to view any work as inerrant. Too many editors, kings and queens, emperors and popes, widows and various descendants may well get between the reader and the original.…
Wright’s book is picking up steam. He writes with compression, gets to the point quickly, after marshaling his facts and evidence. And the story he tells is enthralling. Polytheism, to monolatry to monotheism. Some of it I already knew. But much of it is new to me, based upon recent excavations and readings of better, more accurate translations of existing scripture. Wright’s gift is to put it all together in a very accessible, organized manner.
There is much evidence to suggest that Yahweh evolved from at least two Canaanite gods before him, El and Baal. There is also much evidence to suggest that political and economic changes on the ground led to his merger with these gods and then to supplanting them outright. And the Hebrew bible itself provides some clues, but very close reading is necessary to uncover them:
Consider this innocent-sounding verse from the thirty-second chapter of Deuteronomy as rendered in the King James Version, published in 1611:
When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
About 100 pages into a fascinating new book, detailing the rise and fall of gods, goddesses, the religious impulse and its repercussions. The Evolution of God, by Robert Wright, is a general history, starting from the earliest hunter-gatherer societies, moving into chiefdoms after the discovery of agriculture, onto city-states in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and through the advent of Levantine monolatry and monotheism. I’ve reach the foot of Mount Monolatry and fierce storms are taking shape.
Wright reminds us how much religion permeated every culture, from the dawn of human time to the present. All things were tied to the gods, especially early on in our evolution. The fate of your hunts, your harvests, your health, your personal fortunes and the fortunes of your tribe, chiefdom and city-state were inextricably linked to them. He shows how important facts on the ground — political, economic, general welfare — were when it came to the ascendancy of this god or that god.…
I always had the feeling that the Beatles were otherworldly. That they were initially just trying to fit in to some idea they had of earthlings, especially screaming girl earthlings, when they made those girls crazy back in the early 60s. Just trying to fit in, when they sang I want to hold your hand eight days a week. When they sang help me on a hard day’s night. They were putting us on when they sang can’t buy me love so I’ll cry instead.
They were putting us humans on.
As time went by, the Beatles grew tired of their masks, their human masks, and little by little, they decided to go full out alien. It probably started with Revolver, picked up steam with Sgt Peppers, veered into new territory with The White Album, and culminated with Abbey Road.…
