Now Noah's Ark on the other hand, that is a memorable story too. Is it really logistically possible to fit two of every species of animal on one boat? I picture a pre Titanic moment occuring. Nonetheless, when I was little, I had a cartoon movie version of the story of Noah and needless to say I wanted to be on that boat so badly. I can only hope if God brings flood round two, he would pick me to build the boat and live.
Then of course there is Abram, and all his bunches of chilren. I guess you could say he and Pharaoh had a slight altercation in the course of that story. I never enjoyed these stories. They're too violent for my personal taste. A good example of that would be Sodom and Gomorrah. There's a reason sodomy is such a distasteful word/action. Just writing it makes me feel a little queasy. Now I'm getting ahead of myself in Genesis.
Another thing I noticed though was the cover. First of all I never knew there were 50 chapters in Genesis. I suppose going to Catholic school the majority of my life didn't do me much good. There's also the fact it states "Adult supervision recommended for minors". Crumb turned this portion of the Bible into such a dirty little thing. I'm sure he got a lot of controversy over these depictions.
I agree, I honestly don't like R. Crumb's drawing style, especially when he draws women; then again, considering his prior works, it'd be hard for any artist to completely betray their developed style, no matter how grotesque... When you say that Crumb turned the book of Genesis into such a "dirty little thing," I feel that Genesis has always been somewhat a "dirty" Biblical book. Crumb took advantage of the actual meanings behind the archaic phrasing in the text that Sunday schools of yore watered down and fluffed for younger Christian audiences. As mentioned on the cover, there really is "nothing left out!"
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what you initially said about gaining a whole new perspective on Genesis after having read and seen Crumbs illustrations. I too grew up being pretty familiar with the stories of Genesis, but I never fully realized the entire sentiment behind each story until I saw Crumbs illustrations. I definitely never imagined Eve being so robust, nor did I realize how much God was angry throughout the book. I definitely agree that some of the true meanings behind these stories have been covered up by flowery Sunday school teachings, but Crumb does an excellent job in capturing the true feeling behind these classic tales.
ReplyDeleteI think it is very interesting how each person can have a different interpretation of a story as old as the Book of Genesis. I do agree with how you spoke of R. Crumb's depictions being a little too "dirty." However, like Annie said, the majority of the Book of Genesis is "dirty." There is murder, rape, stealing, incest, and so many other things that, to me, are just horrible. In fact, from reading R. Crumb's version I often think nowadays of how lucky we were that the new testament was created. In many ways, I believe the new testament was out salvation from the evil ways of human beings in the old testament.
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