When putting together the Comic Book Siddur, I made sure that there was no "gratutious" violence, that is, instances of people hitting each other. The only violence I illustrated had to do with the weather, and those are Acts of God. Still, some of my critics feel that the very image thunderstorms, electrical energy, and cosmic fire is too violent, and thus "inapproprite", even though that imagery is very much a part of the Bible. You only have to read the upcoming parsha, Shemini, to see how graphic and gross the torah can get. This is where we see the preist Aaron preparing a sacrifice for God. He slaughters a calf, and when proceeds to dab the calf's blood at various places of the alter. It had to be pretty bloody, because Aaron then takes the calf's fat, kidneys and liver and burn them at the base of the altar as an offering. The pungent smoke that results is also part of the offering to God.
Now, without going any further into the details of this parsha, doesn't this strike you as a bit graphic? I can only imagine what one of my critics would say about this imagery, if it were to be illustrated in comic book form. Too gross? Too graphic? But this ritual is at the core of our religion. Even though later, it was substituted with prayer (prayer being a sacifice of ourselves to God), we still have this very graphic imagery as part of our literary tradition. I always get a kick out of watching a little old granny approaching the bima to read a portion such as this.
Recently, Aline Kominsky Crumb spoke at our local JCC, and she let out the word that her husband, R.Crumb, has finished working a comic book version of Genesis, warts and all. I can't wait to see it. Imagine what he'd do with Exodus, with it's graphic descriptions of sacrifices to God. This is not to revel in the gore, but rather, to ask the question "Who are we to censor God's language?"
Hey Howie,
ReplyDeleteYour first follower is a goy, but I am really happy for you in what you've done with your creative power in your spiritual quest. Not to mention, I think you're pretty good drummer. ;
I am culturally a Christian and marginally but deeply a believer -- in the sense that there are concepts, symbols, and visceral (a word you used about Passover) responses that I will always have with me, as a result with my upbringing.
At any rate, I wish I'd known that Aline Kominsky Crumb was gonna be at the JCC. I definitely woulda come. I had a chance to see the New Yorker preview of Robert Crumb's Genesis and found it intriguing. It's interesting to me that Crumb eventually gave up on trying to do some sort of original interpretation of Genesis and decided to just let the words speak for themselves.
The problem with the blood, gore, and sex in the Old Testament (as we call it) is a difficulty for Christians as well as Jews. I've made peace with it in a few ways.
First, it's simply great compelling literature -- you can get a lot of people to read the Bible who wouldn't normally come near it if you tell them the kinds of things they will read about.
Second, religions develop in societies -- and all societies at a similar level of development to the ancient Hebrews engaged in similar behaviors, had similar ethics, etc.
Third, sacred literature needs to be continually re-interpreted for every new or different culture. Yet Christianity of different denominations-- and I believe Judaism -- have different cut-off points of what they consider to be divinely inspired, sacred scriptures. Or there is a hierarchy. In Catholicism, you have the Bible, then the Early Church Fathers, then the stories of the Saints, and the teachings of the church doctors like Augustine and Aquinas. Judaism similarly has a hierarchy of the Torah, the books of history and poetry -- and then the Talmud and other rabbinic literature that are considered para-sacred (if I can coin that word -- and please correct me if I have this wrong).
I'm not sure how it works for you, Howie, but it seems like as part of your initiation into your religion, you were required to make your own personal interpretations of scripture -- Mishna, I believe. Moreover, this interpretation is part of what your comic book Siddur came out of. Christians on the whole really don't have this sort of initiation. You are instructed, say some words, get dunked or splashed with water and maybe chrismated (depending on denomination) and that's it. Then you basically let the clergyperson of your church tell you how to interpret scripture. It's ironic that the fundamentalist Christians came out of a tradition that rebelled against the Clergy being the only ones who interpreted scripture. Early protestants thought everyone should read the Bible and be free to interpret it as they wish. This developed into the idea that though everyone should read the Bible, there will be an authority who would explain what it means. Admittedly, the Bible requires lots of 'splainin' -- as Desi Arnez would say -- to the modern secular mind.
Anyway, I've written enough for now. As Roy Thomas would say, "'Nuff said."