The Bible as Literature and in Literature and the Arts (Engl 354) Grace and the Grotesque Dr. Paul Marchbanks

Transcription

1 The Bible as Literature and in Literature and the Arts (Engl 354) Grace and the Grotesque Dr. Paul Marchbanks

2 Parsing The Course Title The Bible : course touchstone Jesus in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet [was] without sin (Hebrews 4:15) As Literature : analysis & interpretation Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry (Matthew 4:1-2). and in Literature : fiction & poetry O brothers, let us leave the shame and sin / Of taking vainly, in a plaintive mood, / The holy name of GRIEF! holy therein, / That by the grief of One came all our good (ll.11-14, EBB s Exaggeration ) and the Arts : painting & film [e.g. pre-class film clip] Rodrigo García s Last Days in the Desert (2015)

3 Mapping Meaning reading requires interpretation [Dalí s painting] interpretation involves experience, affiliations, & ideologies such as: a faith in science & human perfectibility social justice & egalitarianism political affiliations, recreational interests personal morality & social ethics student & faculty as joint explorers Woman with a Head of Roses (1935) Salvador Dalí

4 Challenges to the Bible modern suspicion of authority; ubiquitous cynicism about Truth post-modern celebration of diversity & Inclusivity (values, behavior, identity) scientific empiricism: our senses as final arbiters of the real distrust of words themselves: agendas & biases compromise truth, translations alter original texts, culturally bound meanings change over time, etc. the malleable, imperfect human mind...

5 The Mind s Limitations: Through a Glass Darkly classical & operant conditioning mind-body connection perception limited memory imperfect finite awareness of the unnervingly unmappable The Persistence of Memory (1931) Salvador Dalí

6 Glimpses of the Ineffable: the Countably Infinite Music & the Visual Arts Sexual Ecstasy Cycle of Life: birth, death Nature: Green is good, Teleological design Story: fiction, metaphor, parable, paradoxes The Bible

7 Key Course Concepts

8 Sin & Redemption: Grace & the Grotesque grace: presupposes sin & human brokenness The Sacred Heart of Jesus (1962) Salvador Dalí

9 Sin & Redemption: Grace & the Grotesque grace: presupposes sin & human brokenness the grotesque: is difficult to contemplate Study for Honey Is Sweeter Than Blood (1927) Salvador Dalí

10 Sin & Redemption: Grace & the Grotesque grace: presupposes sin & human brokenness the grotesque: is difficult to contemplate what is beautiful, what grotesque? Corpuscular Madonna (1952) Salvador Dalí

11 Grace & the Grotesque grace: presupposes sin & human brokenness the grotesque: is difficult to contemplate what is beautiful, what grotesque? We ll Make These Distinctions Together, And Sometimes Disagree

12 Overview of Course Website

13 ENGL 354: Grace & The Grotesque Day #1: The Positive Negative

14 An essay excerpt, Bible passage, letter, and two poems just to get the wheels turning...

15 Flannery O Connor s Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction (1960; 1965) In these grotesque works, we find that the writer has made alive some experience which we are not accustomed to observe everyday (FO 815). [T]he look of this fiction is going to be wild, that it is almost of necessity going to be violent and comic, because of the discrepancies that it seeks to combine (FO 816). There are ages when it is possible to woo the reader; there are others when something more drastic is necessary (FO 820).

16 excerpt from Flannery O Connor s letter to Betty Hester (Aug. 28, 1955) Another reason for the negative appearance [of my writing]: if you live today you breathe in nihilism. In or out of the Church, it s the gas you breathe. If I hadn t had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now. With such a current to write against it (the result) almost has to be negative. It does well just to be.

17 Acts 5:1-11 (ESV) / 1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. 3 But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God. 5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. 6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. 7 After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter said to her, Tell me whether you [a] sold the land for so much. And she said, Yes, for so much. 9 But Peter said to her, How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out. 10 Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things. does the writer of Acts provide enough detail for the reader to understand--and perhaps sympathize with--the apparent duplicity of Ananias and Sapphira?

18 Acts 4:32-37 (ESV) / 32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. does this tale require extensive, imaginative elaboration to reconcile with the notion of God as loving and patient? Why include such an apparently discordant, enigmatic tale in a history of the early church?

19 Poetry Analysis one approach to Elizabeth Barrett Browning s A Musical Instrument (1860) Frederic, Lord Leighton s illustration for A Musical Instrument

20 1st reading: experience (pre-analytical) What was he doing, the great god Pan, Down in the reeds by the river? Spreading ruin and scattering ban, Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat, And breaking the golden lilies afloat 5 With the dragon-fly on the river.

21 1st reading: experience (pre-analytical) He tore out a reed, the great god Pan, From the deep cool bed of the river: The limpid water turbidly ran, And the broken lilies a-dying lay, 10 And the dragon-fly had fled away, Ere he brought it out of the river.

22 1st reading: experience (pre-analytical) High on the shore sat the great god Pan, While turbidly flow d the river: And hack d and hew d as a great god can, 15 With his hard bleak steel at the patient reed, Till there was not a sign of a leaf indeed To prove it fresh from the river.

23 1st reading: experience (pre-analytical) He cut it short, did the great god Pan, (How tall it stood in the river!) 20 Then drew the pith, like the heart of a man, Steadily from the outside ring, And notch d the poor dry empty thing In holes, as he sat by the river.

24 1st reading: experience (pre-analytical) This is the way, laugh d the great god Pan, 25 (Laugh d while he sat by the river,) The only way, since gods began To make sweet music, they could succeed. Then, dropping his mouth to a hole in the reed, He blew in power by the river. 30

25 1st reading: experience (pre-analytical) Sweet, sweet, sweet, O Pan! Piercing sweet by the river! Blinding sweet, O great god Pan! The sun on the hill forgot to die, And the lilies revived, and the dragon-fly 35 Came back to dream on the river.

26 1st reading: experience (pre-analytical) Yet half a beast is the great god Pan, To laugh as he sits by the river, Making a poet out of a man: The true gods sigh for the cost and pain, 40 For the reed which grows nevermore again As a reed with the reeds in the river.

27 2nd reading: comprehend (conceptual) Pan: 1) Greek god of Nature (fields, groves, & wooded glens); associated w/ shepherds, hunting, rustic music, fertility & season of spring. 2) considered the god of theatrical criticism ban: 1) a public proclamation, or edict; 2) a curse, having, or supposed to have, supernatural sanction, and baleful influence (OED) What was he doing, the great god Pan, Down in the reeds by the river? Spreading ruin and scattering ban,

28 2nd reading: comprehend (conceptual) limpid: free of anything that darkens; completely clear. Unclouded; pellucid, transparent turbid: cloudy (or a liquid), opaque, or thick w/ suspended matter The limpid water turbidly ran, ere: before And the broken lilies a-dying lay, 10 And the dragon-fly had fled away, Ere he brought it out of the river.

29 2nd reading: comprehend (conceptual) bleak: 1) pale, pallid, wan; deficient in colour (especially deficient in the ruddy bloom of health, or the full green of vegetation; of a sickly hue: also used like pale to modify other colors; 2) cold, chilly; usually of wind or weather (OED) And hack d and hew d as a great god can, 15 With his hard bleak steel at the patient reed, Till there was not a sign of a leaf indeed To prove it fresh from the river.

30 2nd reading: comprehend (conceptual) pith: a usually continuous central strand of spongy tissue in the stems of most vascular plants that functions chiefly in storage, as well as transport, of nutrients notch: to create an indentation or incision on an edge or surface Then drew the pith, like the heart of a man, Steadily from the outside ring, And notch d the poor dry empty thing In holes, as he sat by the river.

31 3rd reading: visualize (imaginative) What was he doing, the great god Pan, Down in the reeds by the river? Spreading ruin and scattering ban, Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat,

32 3rd reading: visualize (imaginative) Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat, And breaking the golden lilies afloat With the dragon-fly on the river. 5

33 3rd reading: visualize (imaginative) He tore out a reed, the great god Pan, From the deep cool bed of the river: The limpid water turbidly ran,

34 3rd reading: visualize (imaginative) And hack d and hew d as a great god can, 15 With his hard bleak steel at the patient reed, Till there was not a sign of a leaf indeed To prove it fresh from the river.

35 3rd reading: visualize (imaginative) Then drew the pith, like the heart of a man, Steadily from the outside ring, And notch d the poor dry empty thing In holes, as he sat by the river.

36 3rd reading: visualize (imaginative) This is the way, laugh d the great god Pan, 25 (Laugh d while he sat by the river,) The only way, since gods began To make sweet music, they could succeed.

37 3rd reading: visualize (imaginative) Then, dropping his mouth to a hole in the reed, He blew in power by the river. 30

38 3rd reading: visualize (imaginative) The sun on the hill forgot to die, And the lilies revived, and the dragon-fly Came back to dream on the river. 35

39 3rd reading: visualize (imaginative) Yet half a beast is the great god Pan, To laugh as he sits by the river, Making a poet out of a man:

40 3rd reading: visualize (imaginative) The true gods sigh for the cost and pain, For the reed which grows nevermore again As a reed with the reeds in the river. 40

41 4th reading: question (critical) Pan... river... ban... goat... afloat... river Why employ a recurring sestet so reliant on repetition? What was he doing, the great god Pan, Down in the reeds by the river? Spreading ruin and scattering ban, Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat, And breaking the golden lilies afloat 5 With the dragon-fly on the river.

42 4th reading: question (critical) What was he... Down in the... Spreading... Splashing Why might lines 1-4 open, not w/ pleasant iambic feet (unaccented, accented), but w/ more aggressive dactyls (accented, unaccented, unaccented) & trochees (accented, unaccented)? Isn t this, after all, a poem about sweet music? What was he doing, the great god Pan, Down in the reeds by the river? Spreading ruin and scattering ban, Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat,

43 4th reading: question (critical) He tore out a reed [...] (l.7) Does Pan s arrival alter the environment permanently? He tore out a reed, the great god Pan, From the deep cool bed of the river: The limpid water turbidly ran, And the broken lilies a-dying lay, 10 And the dragon-fly had fled away, Ere he brought it out of the river.

44 4th reading: question (critical) [...] the patient reed (l.16) Consider Pan s actions his scattering (l.3), splashing (l.4), breaking (l.5), and so on in light of the reed s apparent patience. Should we characterize this interaction as surgery, torture, rape, or something else? And hack d and hew d as a great god can, 15 With his hard bleak steel at the patient reed, Till there was not a sign of a leaf indeed To prove it fresh from the river.

45 4th reading: question (critical) He cut it short [...] (l.19) Does Pan alter the reed utterly & irrevocably, or preserve some part of its original nature? He cut it short, did the great god Pan, (How tall it stood in the river!) 20 Then drew the pith, like the heart of a man, Steadily from the outside ring, And notch d the poor dry empty thing [...]

46 4th reading: question (critical) This is the way [...] The only way [...] (ll.25-27) Why might Pan laugh (ll.25-26) while justifying his actions? This is the way, laugh d the great god Pan, 25 (Laugh d while he sat by the river,) The only way, since gods began To make sweet music, they could succeed.

47 4th reading: question (critical) Blinding sweet [...] (l.33) Does the impact of Pan s music validate his actions? Do the ends appear to justify the means? Sweet, sweet, sweet, O Pan! Piercing sweet by the river! Blinding sweet, O great god Pan! The sun on the hill forgot to die, And the lilies revived, and the dragon-fly 35 Came back to dream on the river.

48 4th reading: question (critical) Yet half a beast is the great god Pan (l.37) EBB calls Pan a great god six times. Does the poem uphold or interrogate this notion? Yet half a beast is the great god Pan, To laugh as he sits by the river, Making a poet out of a man: The true gods sigh for the cost and pain, 40 For the reed which grows nevermore again As a reed with the reeds in the river.

49 5th reading: reflect (personal) Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat (l.4) Do my past encounters w/ fictional fauns prime me to trust or to fear this faun-like god? What was he doing, the great god Pan, Down in the reeds by the river? Spreading ruin and scattering ban, Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat,

50 5th reading: reflect (personal) He tore out a reed [...] (l.8_ Does this all feel like an avoidable violation of Nature s sanctity? He tore out a reed, the great god Pan, From the deep cool bed of the river: The limpid water turbidly ran, And the broken lilies a-dying lay, 10 And the dragon-fly had fled away,

51 5th reading: reflect (personal) The only way [...] (l.27) Do I agree that Art has a high cost? If so, is excellent art always worth the sacrifice involved? This is the way, laugh d the great god Pan, 25 (Laugh d while he sat by the river,) The only way, since gods began To make sweet music, they could succeed. Then, dropping his mouth to a hole in the reed, He blew in power by the river. 30

52 5th reading: reflect (personal) The sun on the hill forgot to die [...] (l.34) Can Art work miracles in the imagination? Do I allow the Arts to suspend my disbelief? Sweet, sweet, sweet, O Pan! Piercing sweet by the river! Blinding sweet, O great god Pan! The sun on the hill forgot to die, And the lilies revived, and the dragon-fly 35 Came back to dream on the river.

53 5th reading: reflect (personal) The true gods sigh for the cost and pain (l.40) Do I believe I am putty in the hands of some hostile, or indifferent, divine force? Do I believe in a benevolent deity? Yet half a beast is the great god Pan, To laugh as he sits by the river, Making a poet out of a man: The true gods sigh for the cost and pain, 40 For the reed which grows nevermore again As a reed with the reeds in the river.

54 POETRY ANALYSIS AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO ROBERT BROWNING S SOLILOQUY OF THE SPANISH CLOISTER (1839; 1842)

55 Gr-r-r there go, my heart s abhorrence! Water your damned flowerpots, do! If hate killed men, Brother Lawrence, God s blood, would not mine kill you! What? your myrtle-bush wants trimming? 5 Oh, that rose has prior claims Need its leaden vase filled brimming? Hell dry you up with its flames! 1. RB s monodrams (dramatic monologues) often have an intended auditor/audience. Does the narrator of this poem direct his words at someone in particular?

56 At the meal we sit together; Salve tibia! I must hear 10 Wise talk of the kind of weather, Sort of season, time of year: Not a plenteous cork crop: scarcely Dare we hope oak-galls, I doubt; What s the Latin name for parsley? 15 What s the Greek name for swine s snout? 2. are the meal-time topics identified by the narrator introduced by someone other than himself (ll.9-15)?

57 Whew! We ll have our platter burnished, Laid with care on our own shelf! With a fire-new spoon we re furnished, And a goblet for ourself, 20 Rinsed like something sacrificial Ere tis fit to touch our chaps Marked with L. for our initial! (He-he! There his lily snaps!) 3. with what tone do you think stanza three (ll.17-24) is delivered? Does the opening "Whew!" (l.17) limit our options in determining tone? 4. where in the monastery is our narrator, and what is he up to while delivering this dramatic soliloquy?

58 Saint, forsooth! While Brown Dolores 25 Squats outside the Convent bank With Sanchicha, telling stories, Steeping tresses in the tank, Blue-black, lustrous, thick like horsehairs, Can t I see his dead eye glow, 30 Bright as twere a Barbary corsair s? (That is, if he d let it show!) 5. why does the narrator think it wrong to call Brother Lawrence a "saint" (ll.25-32)? What does his observation unwittingly reveal about the narrator himself?

59 When he finishes refection, Knife and fork he never lays Cross-wise, to my recollection, 35 As do I, in Jesu s praise. I the Trinity illustrate, Drinking watered orange pulp In three sips the Arian frustrate; While he drains his at one gulp! what does the narrator's claim in stanza five (ll.33-40) tell us about the nature of his own religious practice?

60 Oh, those melons! if he s able We re to have a feast; so nice! One goes to the Abbot s table, All of us get each a slice. How go on your flowers? None double? 45 Not one fruit-sort can you spy? Strange! And I, too, at such trouble, Keep them close-nipped on the sly! 7. why might the narrator dislike Brother Lawrence so much?

61 There s a great text in Galatians, Once you trip on it, entails 50 Twenty-nine district damnations, One sure, if another fails; If I trip him just a-dying, Sure of heaven as sure can be, Spin him round and send him flying 55 Off to hell, a Manichee? 8. what various strategies does the narrator mull over in his hopes of getting Brother Lawrence sent to hell (ll.49-70)?

62 Or, my scrofulous French novel On grey paper with blunt type! Simple glance at it, you grovel Hand and foot in Belial s gripe; 60 If I double down its pages At the woeful sixteenth print, When he gathers his greengages, Ope a sieve and slip it in t? 9. does the narrator get the Angelus (Hail Mary) prayer correct (l.71-72)?

63 Or, there s Satan! one might venture 65 Pledge one s soul to him, yet leave Such a flaw in the indenture As he d miss till, past retrieve, Blasted lay that rose-acacia We re so proud of! Hy, Zy, Hine 70 St, there s Vespers! Plena gratis Ave, Virgo! Gr-r-r you swine! 1. where in the monastery is our narrator, and what is he up to while delivering this dramatic soliloquy?