Skip to main content

The Wolverton Bible

By

My mind has been a bit scattered as of late, wrapped up in architectural projects, while engaging in silly political debates in the Melba forum. I was looking for some comic relief and came across Crumb's Book of Genesis and The Wolverton Bible while perusing amazon. It seems to me that religion does need to look at itself more humorously, getting off its high horse once in a while.

Comments

  1. avrdsOctober 16, 2009 at 4:01 PM

    I'd read about Crumb's Bible. I'm assuming it is as mad as he is (and I mean that in a positive way). Did you see the documentary on him in France? He's out there for sure.

    But whatever it takes to weather the storm, Gintaras. In the meantime, though, I wouldn't get too drawn into political arguments at the Escape. I miss Donot and Barton, and keep hoping we can lure them over here -- maybe if you asked them? Maybe we can get a different strand going on something of interest to them?

    At some point I'll see if we can't get Strether to show up here, too. She has her hands full at the moment -- she's just had a healthy baby boy! -- but maybe we can discuss some Henry James which I think I'm finally ready for (although I did just order the newest non-American Byatt novel which sounds fantastic).

    Fortunately all the others I enjoyed talking with at Elba are here at least on occasion. There are some really weird and crazy people over there..... Sort of like bad performance art.

    ReplyDelete
  2. James FergusonOctober 16, 2009 at 4:14 PM

    "..... Sort of like bad performance art."

    That's a good way of describing it, av. I guess it is the American History thing that keeps some persons from responding, which is why I'm opening it up a bit with these lead topics.

    Apparently, Crumb is quite reverent on the subject, from what I've read, not as daring as one would imagine, but I so loved his similarly packaged "Illustrated Crumb" and book on early Blues, Country and Jazz muscians that I felt compelled to add his "Book of Genesis" to my shelf.

    ReplyDelete
  3. avrdsOctober 16, 2009 at 4:45 PM

    You'll have to report back on how you like it -- I just saw illustrations of Adam and Eve who looked quite familiar..... In a profile in the New Yorker maybe? But then he's serious in his way about those characters of his.

    As for opening up the conversation, seems like there's a broad field here to consider -- literature, biography, history, public policy, and "current events" for lack of a better term. I still have an entire shelf of "Robert Whelan books" to tackle as well.

    With people as widely read as this group, I'm confident we'll come up with a common interest and some books to read together.

    ReplyDelete
  4. avrdsOctober 16, 2009 at 4:47 PM

    Interesting to read about if not read:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/books/16garner.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. James FergusonNovember 8, 2009 at 5:11 PM

    Graphically, the Wolverton Bible is much more interesting than Crumb's Book of Genesis. I haven't had a chance to read either yet, but it seems Crumb played his latest graphic novel pretty close to the bone, which is a little disappointing.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

By
  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, not...
228 comments
Read more

Dylan in America

By
Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan.  Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose.  Looks like only yesterday.  Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.
182 comments
Read more

The Age of Roosevelt: The Crisis of the Old Order

By
A quarter of a century, however, is time enough to dispel some of the myths that have accumulated around the crisis of the early Thirties and the emergence of the New Deal. There is, for example, the myth that world conditions rather than domestic errors and extravagances were entirely responsible for the depression. There is the myth that the depression was already over, as a consequence of the ministrations of the Hoover Administration, and that it was the loss of confidence resulting from the election of Roosevelt that gave it new life. There is the myth that the roots of what was good in the New Deal were in the Hoover Administration - that Hoover had actually inaugurated the era of government responsibility for the health of the economy and the society. There is the contrasting myth (for myths do not require inner consistency) that the New Deal was alien in origins and in philosophy; that - as Mr. Hoover put it - its philosophy was "the same philosophy of government which...
170 comments
Read more