it's the Bible in comics lettering
Oct. 30th, 2009 07:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacAnyone in the Bay Area who's not going to World Fantasy Con could spend Saturday evening listening to R. Crumb discuss the Bible.
I saw his illustrated Genesis in a bookstore and spent some time looking at it. Crumb says a comics version might make this dense text easier to read. Wrong. A Classics Illustrated-style abridgment/retelling might be easier to read. But Crumb's captions and dialogue consist of a full translation of the entire text of Genesis, word by word. Only now YOU HAVE TO READ IT IN COMIC BOOK ALL-CAPS.
So my attempt at reading Crumb's Genesis in full did not get much beyond the Garden of Eden. Because God at the end of the temptation scene sends the serpent down on all fours, Crumb depicts it tempting Eve while standing upright with arms and legs. This does not work. It looks as if the serpent wants to sell Eve car insurance.
However, I would encourage anyone who thinks they're Christian, Jewish, or anything else that respects this text, and whose response to health care reform is that we should each take care of ourselves and not have to bear responsibility for other people, to read the story of Cain and Abel. Cain asks, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Hint: the proper answer is not supposed to be "No."
I saw his illustrated Genesis in a bookstore and spent some time looking at it. Crumb says a comics version might make this dense text easier to read. Wrong. A Classics Illustrated-style abridgment/retelling might be easier to read. But Crumb's captions and dialogue consist of a full translation of the entire text of Genesis, word by word. Only now YOU HAVE TO READ IT IN COMIC BOOK ALL-CAPS.
So my attempt at reading Crumb's Genesis in full did not get much beyond the Garden of Eden. Because God at the end of the temptation scene sends the serpent down on all fours, Crumb depicts it tempting Eve while standing upright with arms and legs. This does not work. It looks as if the serpent wants to sell Eve car insurance.
However, I would encourage anyone who thinks they're Christian, Jewish, or anything else that respects this text, and whose response to health care reform is that we should each take care of ourselves and not have to bear responsibility for other people, to read the story of Cain and Abel. Cain asks, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Hint: the proper answer is not supposed to be "No."
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Date: 2009-10-30 03:28 pm (UTC)