Wed Reading Meme..and other things
Oct. 2nd, 2019 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Bible Study was rather interesting and rewarding. (It was a six person group including the Minister -- who is a UU Minister by way of Judaism. Unitarian Universalism is interesting.)
At any rate -- without going into too much detail (yes, well see if I can manage that - brevity is not what I'm known for, but I've less than 15 minutes to write this) -- we has the reading of Abraham binding Issac -- known as God Tests Issac?
And the Minister gave us an oral folk legend on Abraham that flipped the whole story on its head. None of us had heard it before. (Also as an aside the Torah translation and wording is quite different than the St. James or Catholic text, and has a completely different meaning -- the words you use do matter.)
The folk legend or oral story that has been passed down is that in his youth, when he was about the same age as Issac, Abraham's father made and sold gold idols. Abraham thought this was stupid and smashed all the idols in the shop with a stick, but one, with he put the stick in the hand of -- and told his father that this idol had smashed all the others. Abraham's father said this was impossible and Abraham, sort of felt he had a Gotcha moment. Furious Abraham's father took Abraham to the King to determine Abraham's judgement, The King had Abraham's father throw him into a burning furnace, which somehow Abraham escaped unscathed.
The Minister views this tale in conjunction with the other tale about Issac, as the voice telling Abraham to sacrifice Issac isn't God, but Abrahams own childhood demons and insecurities at play, while the voice telling Abraham to stop and use the Ram instead, which has been provided is God's voice. The test of Abraham is to trust the second voice, and let go of the first. In the Torah the first voice is given the word "God" while the second is "YVWEH" or "God's unpronounceable name" which in Hebrew means breath of life or love.
All this time we thought it was Abraham learning to be able to give a great sacrifice and in doing so, passing the test, and being granted his son's life. But what if that wasn't the meaning at all? Think what means? Oh. How a story can be completely changed when you look at it from another angle.
Wow. This blew my mind. I now want the Minister's Hebrew text and translation, although she did point out that the old legend isn't in that text. It's a Hebrew legend that has been passed down through the ages.
2. House of X #6 -- well, Hickman has managed to completely reinvision the X-men. I've not been excited about the series like this since... well the early 1990s.
And he's delved deeply into world-building, and doing things they never did before now.
3. How to Date A Dragon by Molly Harper -- finished this today. The writing is uneven and has a lot of unnecessary typos and plot inconsistencies that I kind of hand-waved. I have a feeling these are published on the cheap? Because there's not a lot of line editing in evidence.
It's better than expected. There's a mystery and it's urban fantasy, and it's amusing. But like I said, sloppy in the writing department -- if you are picky about this sort of thing, it will bug you. I personally found it less distracting then some others I've read...there's definitely a spectrum.
The plot is sort of wackadoodle. We have a serial killer killing humans that inexplicably become shifters upon being exposed to a rift or magical anomaly. Not all humans, just certain humans. Oh and he's eaten by a giant alligator -- the sheriff didn't get out and stop it fast enough. A sheriff who shifts into a dragon. A mayor who shifts into a bear. The dispatcher from Greece shifts into a giant Arachnid (thankfully the writer chose not to show all of that in the book...because ugh.) Oh, and the heroine turns into a red and blue flamed phoenix in the end...because she got exposed to the rift. (At least it's creative in regards to the shifters.)
The writer cannot write good sex scenes. She forgets stuff. And I find the sex scenes hard to envision. They are sort of well wackadoodle.
The Dragon also...has a horde. As in a horde of treasure in a cave. Apparently the writer was reading Lord of the Rings while writing this? Which he shows the heroine, to show her he can care for her and as a sort of pseudo-marriage proposal. But she doesn't get it at all -- even though they have wild sex on the treasure. (Honestly that can't be comfortable, but apparently it is. Which I found add. The descriptions in this book don't make a lot of sense. But the characters voices sound distinct. Maybe the writer was a frustrated screen or playwrite?)
Now, I'm reading a contemporary romance novel that appears to be an re-imagining of the Arthur Legend but in an American setting, with a Vice President(either Lancelot or Mordred - hard to say - Ethan Mowbrey), a President (Arthur - Ash), and the woman (Gwen - Greer) they both love. In this re-working, it's mentioned that Lancelot was created by the French scholars but didn't exist in the Welsh legend, in the Welsh, Mordred was the rival.
It's better written than the last book I read, I'll give it that. Granted that's not hard...
At any rate -- without going into too much detail (yes, well see if I can manage that - brevity is not what I'm known for, but I've less than 15 minutes to write this) -- we has the reading of Abraham binding Issac -- known as God Tests Issac?
And the Minister gave us an oral folk legend on Abraham that flipped the whole story on its head. None of us had heard it before. (Also as an aside the Torah translation and wording is quite different than the St. James or Catholic text, and has a completely different meaning -- the words you use do matter.)
The folk legend or oral story that has been passed down is that in his youth, when he was about the same age as Issac, Abraham's father made and sold gold idols. Abraham thought this was stupid and smashed all the idols in the shop with a stick, but one, with he put the stick in the hand of -- and told his father that this idol had smashed all the others. Abraham's father said this was impossible and Abraham, sort of felt he had a Gotcha moment. Furious Abraham's father took Abraham to the King to determine Abraham's judgement, The King had Abraham's father throw him into a burning furnace, which somehow Abraham escaped unscathed.
The Minister views this tale in conjunction with the other tale about Issac, as the voice telling Abraham to sacrifice Issac isn't God, but Abrahams own childhood demons and insecurities at play, while the voice telling Abraham to stop and use the Ram instead, which has been provided is God's voice. The test of Abraham is to trust the second voice, and let go of the first. In the Torah the first voice is given the word "God" while the second is "YVWEH" or "God's unpronounceable name" which in Hebrew means breath of life or love.
All this time we thought it was Abraham learning to be able to give a great sacrifice and in doing so, passing the test, and being granted his son's life. But what if that wasn't the meaning at all? Think what means? Oh. How a story can be completely changed when you look at it from another angle.
Wow. This blew my mind. I now want the Minister's Hebrew text and translation, although she did point out that the old legend isn't in that text. It's a Hebrew legend that has been passed down through the ages.
2. House of X #6 -- well, Hickman has managed to completely reinvision the X-men. I've not been excited about the series like this since... well the early 1990s.
And he's delved deeply into world-building, and doing things they never did before now.
3. How to Date A Dragon by Molly Harper -- finished this today. The writing is uneven and has a lot of unnecessary typos and plot inconsistencies that I kind of hand-waved. I have a feeling these are published on the cheap? Because there's not a lot of line editing in evidence.
It's better than expected. There's a mystery and it's urban fantasy, and it's amusing. But like I said, sloppy in the writing department -- if you are picky about this sort of thing, it will bug you. I personally found it less distracting then some others I've read...there's definitely a spectrum.
The plot is sort of wackadoodle. We have a serial killer killing humans that inexplicably become shifters upon being exposed to a rift or magical anomaly. Not all humans, just certain humans. Oh and he's eaten by a giant alligator -- the sheriff didn't get out and stop it fast enough. A sheriff who shifts into a dragon. A mayor who shifts into a bear. The dispatcher from Greece shifts into a giant Arachnid (thankfully the writer chose not to show all of that in the book...because ugh.) Oh, and the heroine turns into a red and blue flamed phoenix in the end...because she got exposed to the rift. (At least it's creative in regards to the shifters.)
The writer cannot write good sex scenes. She forgets stuff. And I find the sex scenes hard to envision. They are sort of well wackadoodle.
The Dragon also...has a horde. As in a horde of treasure in a cave. Apparently the writer was reading Lord of the Rings while writing this? Which he shows the heroine, to show her he can care for her and as a sort of pseudo-marriage proposal. But she doesn't get it at all -- even though they have wild sex on the treasure. (Honestly that can't be comfortable, but apparently it is. Which I found add. The descriptions in this book don't make a lot of sense. But the characters voices sound distinct. Maybe the writer was a frustrated screen or playwrite?)
Now, I'm reading a contemporary romance novel that appears to be an re-imagining of the Arthur Legend but in an American setting, with a Vice President(either Lancelot or Mordred - hard to say - Ethan Mowbrey), a President (Arthur - Ash), and the woman (Gwen - Greer) they both love. In this re-working, it's mentioned that Lancelot was created by the French scholars but didn't exist in the Welsh legend, in the Welsh, Mordred was the rival.
It's better written than the last book I read, I'll give it that. Granted that's not hard...
no subject
Date: 2019-10-03 10:13 am (UTC)Also, I'm fascinated by that oral story of Abraham! I want to know more, too.
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Date: 2019-10-03 12:48 pm (UTC)On Thu, Oct 3, 2019 at 6:13 AM wpadmirer - DW Comment < dw_null@dreamwidth.org> wrote:
no subject
Date: 2019-10-03 12:54 pm (UTC)Whoops, the other message got sent without anything in it by mistake. I'll try to fix when I get home tonight.
Agreed-- the Abraham oral legend suddenly made me rethink the whole Abraham story and become fascinated with it. Is it just me or is there a lot of child abuse in the Bible? Abraham's actions make a lot more sense with that back story. Such as his deep faith, and the view of sacrifice. Everyone in the room, but the Minister (who knew and had shared the story) had an A-Hah moment.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-03 01:17 pm (UTC)It is interesting to think about what made it into Bible canon, what didn't and why.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-03 01:57 pm (UTC)It is, isn't it? Because without that legend, the story has a different meaning. Also, it makes one wonder about the validity of what is in the Bible. Plus, we have the translations. The original Hebrew has the story using two voices -- one is "God" (internal) and the other is the unpronounceable name YVWEY (can't remember it that's it). While in the Catholic Translation it is "God" and the "angel of Lord". Note the difference.
Also is it fanfic? We don't know. The Catholic Bible has a bunch of items (the apocraphyal (?) ) that aren't in the other denominations Bibles. It's why when someone says -- it's in the Bible and this is the truth, I respond, okay, which translation, and how the frigging hell do you know you are going by the right one? People don't know. The Minister said it could be interpreted multiple ways, this was the interpretation she preferred, but we don't really know the correct one. And never will.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-04 01:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-04 02:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-03 03:50 pm (UTC)That's FASCINATING.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-03 03:58 pm (UTC)That's what we all thought -- it changed everyone in the room's take on a story that up to that moment none of us liked and had serious issues with. Now, with this interpretation...it has another meaning entirely.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-04 03:00 am (UTC)