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blackswaneuroparedux · 4 years

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Black Swan bookgasm review #1: War Music by Christopher Logue (1981)

This is the first in a series of random book reviews taken from my own hand written notes in my journal. Notes are re-edited to make it into a more coherent presentation with the hope others would read the book for themselves.

War Music by Christopher Logue (1981)

War Music by Christopher Logue comprises versions of Homer’s Iliad published over decades since 1981. It’s a modern, cinematic re-rendering of the Greek epic which manages to re-cast Homer’s battles for twentieth-century readers.

I first read parts of it when I went out on tour to Afghanistan as a combat helicopter pilot. It was a ragged dog eared copy given to me by one of my older siblings who had served in the armed forces with distinction and now he wanted me to have it since I was being deployed to Afghanistan.

In between down times between missions I would read it and just soak in its inventive use off language to tell a story birthed at the dawn of Western civilisation and teaching a lesson as old as civilisation itself: that all wars are the same wars.

The English poet Christopher Logue called himself a “Catholic atheist.” Were he religious, he said, he would look out for God in creation. “Did the ancient Greeks believe in their gods as I believe in the ancient Greeks?” he wondered. One of the Lasallian Brothers at his Catholic school in Southsea told him about the elaborate ornamentation hidden from view on cathedral roofs, “safe in the sight of God until Judgment Day.” This information convinced the young Logue to work from that day in the spirit of the medieval carvers: without justification. “That I did not know what I wanted to do was unimportant,” he wrote.

Logue, born in Portsmouth in 1926, described his father as “a devout Irish-English Catholic.” His paternal grandfather, a Catholic from Coleraine in Northern Ireland, spent twenty-two years in the British Army. His Irish aunt Margaret taught him to read and write. “Atheism?” she once admonished him. “There’s no such thing. A silly boast God finds no trouble in forgiving.” Logue never stopped believing in God, he said, because he had never started believing in Him. “I find the idea of a beginning as impossible to credit as that of an end.” His own atheism left him unimpressed. He preferred the company of people whom he knew to be religious.

Logue always envied people with a purpose. It was not until 1959, after a stint in a military brig and a period writing pornography in Paris, that he found his. In his early thirties and already feeling old, he was asked by the classicist Donald Carne-Ross, then working for the BBC, to adapt a passage from the Iliad for an English version he was broadcasting on the Third Programme. Doris Lessing, a close acquaintance, had told Logue that the Iliad, if not the task of its translation, suited him well: “Something to do with heroism, tragedy, that sort of thing.” But Logue found Homer boring. Carne-Ross proposed a section of Book XXI in which Achilles attacks the river Scamander, provided Logue with a prose crib and advised him to read published translations to get a sense of the story. “A translator must know one language well,” Carne-Ross told Logue. “Preferably his own.”

Carne-Ross also advised Logue to go away and “read translations by those who did. Follow the story.” Logue gave it a go, and the result sowed the seed of what was to blossom over the decades into the centrepiece of Logue’s working life; his ultimate creative endeavour.

For more than forty years the English poet Christopher Logue worked in fits and starts on his narrative poem War Music, subtitled An Account of Homer’s Iliad. The poem, which he was unable to complete before he died in 2011, was published in several sections titled War Music (1981), Kings (1991), The Husbands (1995), All Day Permanent Red (2003), and Cold Calls (2005), corresponding, respectively, to Books 16-19, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, and 7-9 of The Iliad. These books were brought together in a single volume by Faber publishers that tells the story of Logue’s fragmentary and highly original Trojan War.

Clearly the poem cannot be read outside of its relation to The Iliad, but we also cannot call it a “translation” in the familiar sense. To do so would suggest that it belongs in the same category as works produced with an aim of comprehensive fidelity to the original’s language and structure, texts such as those by Richmond Lattimore, Robert Fitzgerald, Robert Fagles, and Stanley Lombardo.

Is War Music, then, a form of loose translation, a “carrying over” of spirit, with all the liberty that implies? Is Logue, as Gary Wills wrote, the third in an exclusive tradition of English poets, after George Chapman and Alexander Pope, “to bring Homer crashing into their own time”? I think so.

Logue drew inspiration from a vast range of sources. The lines with which Zeus surveys the Trojan plain after a day’s fighting have been taken directly from a New Yorker piece on the first Gulf War: “He looks/ Back to the Ridge that is, save for a million footprints,/ Empty now”. When Agamemnon shouts Achilles down, his words are half-borrowed from Milton’s Lycidas: “Blindmouth!/ Good words would rot your tongue”. Snippets of the venerable translations by Pope and Chapman pop up at unexpected moments, amid the ultra-violence of Logue’s battle scenes.

War Music is a translation that takes no prisoners. No line of Homer’s survives un-annealed by the application of English. Like Homer, Logue is absolutely unapologetic about the business of bloodletting. This attitude complements his insusceptibility to beauty. “In verse (as elsewhere) beauty will serve any view and give it a glamour,” he wrote, pondering the case of Ezra Pound. “We should not be afraid to call it whorish.” Logue takes courage in this matter from the example of the Iliad. “The Greeks are not humanistic, not Christian, not sentimental,” Xanthe Wakefield told him on the occasion of his first looking into Homer. “Please try to understand that. They are musical.” Logue sets himself the challenge of converting the sounds of slaughter into the chimes at midnight. This requires an acute sensitivity to fate untinged by timidity. In one of his working notes Logue reminds himself to supply, at a certain point in the poem, a simile for “how far courage can take you.” In truth his whole work stands as an extension of that simile, almost to its breaking point.

Logue’s retelling of the Iliad plays with the idea that, when it comes to war, any sort of ending is an illusion. His decision to illustrate Homer’s story of brave men and bickering gods with flagrantly anachronistic combat imagery (“whumping” helicopters; Uzis “shuddering warm against your hip”) makes the point that, when it comes to war, the best humanity has ever managed is the odd break between battles. This is certainly how I felt in my down time between missions. The whumping sound of the rotar blades throbbed in my ear as I got into the cockpit of my helicopter - many times it made me think of Logue’s haunting lines.

War Music is incomplete because the war isn’t over. “Someone”, the last line reads, “has left a spear stuck in the sand.” It’s an ideal outgoing image: still, striking, but throbbing with potential; gesturing to the wars to come. As I left Afghanistan I thought about my colonial ancestors who had sought adventure and high service in this beautiful barren land and that I was but a passing present incarnation and then the chilling sad thought struck me that I know I won’t be the last in the wars to come.

It is, of course, frustrating that War Music will never be complete but the collected edition one can buy now gives us a definitive text of one of the strangest and most thrilling English poems since the 20th Century. It also confirms that Logue’s Homer deserves a place alongside those of Chapman and Pope.

#covid19 #book review #book #reading #logue #war music #christopher logue #history #classical #homer #poem #personal #bookgasm #literature

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meldelen · 4 years

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The Silmarillion - A (generic) review

Maglor casts the Silmaril into the sea, by Ted Nasmith.

The Silmarillion - or story of the Silmarils - is one of those must-see classics for everyone who is a Tolkien fan or wants to know more about the universe he developed, in much more detail, in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

It is important to note that we are not talking about a linear history but a compendium of myths and legends from Middle-earth that include the Ainulindale - "the song of the Ainur" - which would be like the Genesis or creation of the world (Arda), the Valaquenta - history of the Valar or gods that rule the world -; the Quenta Silmarillion - the history of the Silmarils, which gives its name to the complete compendium, but which is only a part, the largest, of it -, Akallabeth (or history of the rise and fall of Númenor, which comes to be as a reinterpretation of Atlantis, a la Tolkien) and for one, an epilogue briefly summarizing the history of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, which is really the basic content from which the history of The Lord of the Rings expands.

What is the problem - if you can call it that - that The Silmarillion has? It is not an easy read. Even those who have successfully completed The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings cannot guarantee that The Silmarillion will not completely defeat them. That is why I say that it must be borne in mind that it is a compendium of traditions, myths and legends, that Tolkien Sr. never managed to conclude and give it a publishable format, so it corresponded to his son, Christopher, who left us at the beginning of the year, give it this format that we know and that, although nothing easy, was at least somewhat readable.

Once you get the idea that this is not a fluid, linear, or fast reading, you probably find the most beautiful stories that the Professor imagined to give body and depth to his universe, and to which you must approach with the respect and daily dosage with which you would read the Bible - if you are one of those who still read the Bible -. Really, The Silmarillion has everything. Do you want a Creation story? Ainulindale. Do you want to read about the different gods and spirits of Middle-earth, both Valar and Maiar? Valaquenta. And with the history of the Silmarils you are already immersed in a world that has the same solidity and depth as the ancient epic poems of the north and why not, also of the old Mediterranean civilizations. Only instead of Vikings, Trojans, or Greeks, we have elves, humans, dwarves, and orcs.

Do you want the most beautiful love story? Read the legend of Beren and Lúthien. Do you want a heartbreaking tragic hero, a Greek drama in all its essence? There you have Turin Turambar and his cursed lineage. Do you want drama and fate and curse? Meet Feanor and her children, who for a damn trio of jewels - yes, okay, the Silmarils are the most valuable gems in the world, as they contain the light of lost paradise - BUT THEY ARE STILL A DAMNED TRIO OF JEWELRY, they make a an oath that will mean family annihilation and that, in the end, will only bring them pain and ruin.

Unforgettable moments of unique beauty are often yours, such as Fingon rescuing his cousin Maedhros hung and tortured in Thangorodrim (undoubted flavor of Prometheus Chained); Lúthien metamorphosed into a monster to the rescue of her mortal lover; Turin accidentally killing his beloved friend Beleg and later, unknowingly marrying his own sister, giant eagles, fire-breathing dragons, a Dark Lord before the Dark Lord that we all know who simply likes to punch mortals and immortals. ; all revolving around the mantra that the author liked so much to cultivate: absolute power corrupts. Absolutely corrupts. There is nothing in the world, neither the most glorious city nor the most valuable jewel, worth death and destruction.

Tuor arrives at Gondolin, by Ted Nasmith.

The Silmarillion is a song to paradise lost. Without a trace of humor and yes with a lot of melancholy and sadness, and beauty in abundance, yes, Tolkien was able to create a mirror of the past of our world that served in equivalence to his own world.

Recommended for Tolkien fans, yes, as I said, in small daily doses. And if you have the chance to get an illustrated edition, either by Alan Lee or Ted Nasmith (which was my case, better than better).

And if you can't handle it, leave it, you're not going to impress anyone either. There are specific editions on individual stories like Beren and Lúthien or the Children of Húrin that perhaps you can digest. As soon as this quarantine is over, I will see if I can get hold of them.

#the silmarillion #books #j.r.r. tolkien #christopher tolkien #reviews #my reviews #illustrator #ted nasmith #cover art

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amphitritie · 6 years

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MYTHOLOGY MASTERPOST

In response to an ask, I’ve compiled this masterpost of mythology resources. It’s by no means comprehensive, as myth is an extremely broad subject, and I’ve mainly focused on Greco-Roman mythology. I’ve tried to include a range of websites alongside books and original sources, so you can get by without spending anything. The upside to Classics being a kinda dusty subject is you can find so many texts online for free!

THE ESSENTIALS

If you’re just starting to get interested in mythology then it can be pretty daunting & it’s hard to know where to start. So, to help, here’s some recommendations for websites/texts that lay out the information without assuming any previous knowledge

theoi.com is an absolutely brilliant resource for anyone interested in mythology. It is stunningly comprehensive, with information on every god, goddess, nymph, monster and hero appearing in Greek mythology! Every entry has so much well researched information about the god and stories they appear in, and even includes excerpts from the original sources.

There are, of course, countless books dedicated to telling, or retelling, myths, and everyone seems to have their favourite. Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton is a popular one, and is really good at telling the stories without dumbing them down, and I really like the way Hamilton writes too. It also has some bonus Norse mythology at the end!

Alternatively, Robert Graves’ The Greek Myths is also really good, and very comprehensive, although fairly hefty at about 800 pages.

Stephen Fry recently released his own retelling of the myths, entitled Mythos, which I really need to get around to reading. It’s a bit of a random selection of myths, but includes quite a few of the LGBT ones from what I’ve seen. You can also pick up an audiobook of him reading it – if you grew up listening to him narrate the Harry Potter books, I would definitely recommend this.

INTERMEDIATE

If you enjoyed those, and want to learn more about ancient mythology, I would really recommend then starting to delve into the original source material.

Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a pretty good place to start. It’s a collection of over 250 stories from creation to Julius Caesar, all linked by the theme of transformation, but it’s fairly easy to dip in and out of – think of it kind of like a short story anthology. Here is the entire work online for free, and I also found another site here which is Dryden’s translation - a little more old fashioned but closer to the poetic style, so it just depends what you prefer. If you wanted to buy

Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca is another great ancient compendium of myths. It covers the gods taking over from the titans, Hercules’ labours, and finishes at the Trojan War. Which brings me to…

Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. With 24 books each, Homer’s epic poems can look pretty intimidating. But I would really, really recommend reading them. There are a myriad of different translations, which I will get into later, but to start off I would suggest either Fagles or Lattimore. I found full texts of both online, here and here although I'm not sure what translations they are.

EXTRA RECOMMENDATIONS

At this point I got a bit carried away. If you’re scrolling through this thinking you’ve already read a lot of these, here’s some extras.

I love the Homeric Hymns. Anddd I found a website here which has all the hymns – and displays with the original Ancient Greek and English translation side by side, which is really handy if you, like me, are attempting to learn Ancient Greece.

If you feel like you’re used to all the weirdness of Greek myths, boy have I got news for you. Ancient Egyptian myths make Pasiphae look tame. Try reading a very serious story about a god jizzing into a rival god’s salad in order to become king. If that sounds interesting: get help! Just kidding, read this book: The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt by Richard Wilkinson. It’s very comprehensive, and also has lots of fantastic illustrations.

If you want an original source to read for the Egyptian myths, I’d suggest The Egyptian Book of the Dead, translated by Raymond Faulkner and Ogden Goelet

Kevin Crossley-Holland’s The Penguin Book of Norse Myths: Gods of the Vikings is another good introductory book to another set of myths, this time Norse. He’s a novelist in his own right (anyone else read The Seeing Stone?) and this comes across clearly in the ways he tells the stories.

TRANSLATIONS

Please bear in mind that there are lots of different translations of ancient texts. I am not an authority in which one is best, and there isn’t a simple answer in any case, but I made my above suggestions based on either what I’ve personally read, or a translation I’ve heard good things about. That said, if you are interested in translation theory pls send me a message and we can yell about it together then here’s a few more recommendations.

Above, I recommended Lattimore or Fagles as a good starting point for Homer. If you don’t know which to pick, as a very broad generalisation Lattimore’s is more like poetry, and Fagles’ reads more like prose. (I may get people who disagree. Everyone has an opinion on translations.) Lattimore stuck to the original daxylyctic hexameter of the Ancient Greek text and, perhaps most impressively, stuck to the same line count as Homer. Fagles is more readable, but perhaps loses something in this. I honestly haven’t decided which I prefer yet. But for a first read of Homer, I would definitelty recommend one of these two – it just depends whether you are reading more for the poetry or for the story.* Robert Fitzgerald’s translation of the Iliad is also very popular, although it’s far looser a translation than the above two. This makes it kind of easier to read, but I personally think it’s a bit too loose to be perfectly honest.

Alexander Pope’s translation is a much earlier translation, published in 1720, and the language shows. However his translation is brilliant at conveying the drama and grandeur of Homer’s work.

There was a lot of excitement on Tumblr at announcement of Emily Wilson becoming the first woman to translate Homer’s Odyssey into English. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet (and I want to so badd) but from the excerpts I’ve seen and all the interviews and articles I’ve read it looks absolutely stunning. Please read this.

There is a super handy Wikipedia page which shows the first few lines of the Iliad/Odyssey as translated by every English translator ever. It makes for super interesting reading, but can also help you choose one to read that appeals to you!

For other texts: I’m currently studying The Aeneid using David West’s translation, Medea and Hippolytus as translated by Edith Hall, and Bernard Knox’s translation of Oedipus the King and Antigone. I’ve been enjoying all of these. If you’ve been following me a while, you’ll know I’m a big fan of Anne Carson. She translated Sappho, and some tragedies as well. Her translations focus more on conveying the poetry or feelings behind the words rather than an exact translation of the words themselves, which makes for electrifying reading if you’re used to perhaps more staid translations. Antigonick was a particular favourite of mine, probably because I knew the play so well so I was able to really appreciate the changes and decisions she made, although it was more an intepretation than a translation. This difference, as brilliant as it is, is why I would, however, suggest you read other translations first before attempting Carson.

I hope this was helpful! A second masterpost focusing on more general Classics resources will be coming soon.

#tagamemnon #masterpost #mythology #Greek Mythology #classics #tsoa #hellenism #yall this took me so long #but now i need sleep #mine #soz for dumping this in the tsoa tag ill take it out later i want Recognition

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thegeometry · 5 years

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Observing How God Cares For You

The word worry comes from the Old English term wyrgan, which means “to choke” or “to strangle”.

God wants His children preoccupied with Him, not with the mundane, passing things of this world. He says,

“Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2).

Fully trusting our Heavenly Father dispells anxiety. And the more we know about Him, the more we will trust Him.

Many rich people worry about necessities - that’s why they stockpile so much of their resources as a hedge against the future. Many poor people also worry about life’s essentials, but they aren’t in a position to stockpile.

The Scripture says,

“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33)“ and “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven (v. 20)“

We are not to lavish on ourselves what God has given us for the accomplishments of His holy purposes.

Jesus says, “Do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is life more than food, and the body than clothing?” The tense in the Greek text is properly translated, “Stop worrying.”

Furthermore, focusing on earthly treasures produces earthly affections.

“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt. 6:21)

It blinds our spiritual vision and draws us away from serving God. That’s why God promises to provide what we need.

As children of God we have a single goal - treasure in heaven; a single vision - God’s purposes; and a single Master - God, not money. Therefore, we must not let ourselves become preoccupied with the mundane things of this world.

Life comes from God - and the fullness of life from Jesus Christ.

Three reasons why not to Worry

It is unnecessary, because of our Father

It is uncharacteristic, because of our faith

It is unwise, because of our future

Worry is Unnecessary because of our Father

God is the Owner, Controller, and Provider, and beyond that as your loving Father, then you know you have nothing to worry about. Jesus said, “What man is there among you, when his son ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” (Matt. 7:9-11)

Jesus illustrates that with three observations from nature.

God always feeds his creatures.

In Matthew 6:26 Jesus says, “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?”

Matthew 10:29-31 says “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore do not fear; you are of more value than many sparrows”.

“Life is a gift from God. If God gives you the greater gift of life itself, don’t you think He will give you the lesser gift of sustaining that life? Of course He will, so don’t worry about it.”

But keep in mind, of course, that like a bird, we have to work because God has designed that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow (Gen. 3:19). If we don’t work, it is not fitting that we eat (2 Thess. 3:10). God provides for man through his effort.

Worry is unable to accomplish anything productive.

“Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

Not only will you not lengthen your life by worrying, but you will probably shorten it. Job 14:5 says of man, “His days are numbered, the number of his months is with Thee, and his limits Thou hast set so that he cannot pass.”

To worry about how long you are going to live and how to add years onto your life is to distrust God. If you give Him your life and are obedient to Him, He will give you the fullness of days. You will experience life to the fullest when you live it to the glory of God. No matter how long or short, it will be wonderful.

God arrays even the meadows in splendor.

28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (Matt 6:28-30)

Wildflowers have a very short life span. People would gather dead batches of them as a cheap source of fuel for their portable cooking furnaces. A God who would lavish such beauty on temporary fire fodder certainly will provide the necessary clothing for His eternal children.

An anonymous poem expresses this lesson simply,

Said the wildflower to the sparrow, “I should really like to know, Why these anxious human beings Rush about and worry so.”

Said the sparrow to the wildflower, “Friend I think that it must be, That they have no Heavenly Father, Such as cares for you and me.”

Worry is Uncharacteristic because of our Faith

If you worry, what kind of faith do you manifest? “Little faith”, according to Matthew 6:30

Words from the book Anxious For Nothing by John Mac Arthur.

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didanawisgi · 7 years

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A Divine Council is an assembly of deities over which a higher-level god presides.

Contents

1Historical setting

2Archaic Sumerian

3Akkadian

4Old Babylonian

5Ancient Egyptian

6Babylonian

7Caananite

8Hebrew

9Chinese

10Celtic

11Ancient Greek

12Ancient Roman

13Norse

14See also

15References

16External links

Historical setting

The concept of a divine assembly (or council) is attested in the archaic Sumerian, Akkadian, Old Babylonian, Ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Caananite, Israelite, Celtic, Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman and Nordic pantheons. Ancient Egyptian literature reveals the existence of a "synod of the gods". Some of our most complete descriptions of the activities of the divine assembly are found in the literature from Mesopotamia. Their assembly of the gods, headed by the high god Anu, would meet to address various concerns.[1] The term used in Sumerianto describe this concept was Ukkin, and in later Akkadian and Aramaic was puhru.[2]

Archaic Sumerian

One of the first records of a divine council appears in the Lament for Ur, where the pantheon of Annunaki is led by An with Ninhursag and Enlilalso appearing as prominent members.[3]

Akkadian

The divine council is led by Anu, Ninlil and Enlil.[4]

Old Babylonian

In the Old Babylonian pantheon, Samas (or Shamash) and Adad chair the meetings of the divine council.[4]

Ancient Egyptian

The leader of the Ancient Egyptian pantheon is considered to either be Thoth or Ra, who were known to hold meetings at Heliopolis (On).[5][6]

Babylonian

Marduk appears in the Babylonian Enûma Eliš as presiding over a divine council, deciding fates and dispensing divine justice.[7]

Caananite

Texts from Ugarit give a detailed description of the structure of the divine council, where El and Ba'al are presiding gods.[8]

Hebrew

The Council of Gods, Giovanni Lanfranco (1582–1647), Galleria Borghese

Loggia di Psiche, ceiling fresco by Raffael and his school (The Council of The Gods), Villa Farnesina, Rome, Italy, by Alexander Z., 2006-01-02

In the Hebrew Bible, there are multiple descriptions of Yahweh presiding over a great assembly of Heavenly Hosts. Some interpret these assemblies as examples of Divine Council:

"The Old Testament description of the 'divine assembly' all suggest that this metaphor for the organization of the divine world was consistent with that of Mesopotamia and Canaan. One difference, however, should be noted. In the Old Testament, the identities of the members of the assembly are far more obscure than those found in other descriptions of these groups, as in their polytheisticenvironment. Israelite writers sought to express both the uniqueness and the superiority of their God Yahweh."[1]

The Book of Psalms (Psalm 82:1), states "God (אֱלֹהִ֔ים elohim) stands in the divine assembly (בַּעֲדַת-אֵל ); He judges among the gods (אֱלֹהִ֔ים elohim)" (אֱלֹהִים נִצָּב בַּעֲדַת־אֵל בְּקֶרֶב אֱלֹהִים יִשְׁפֹּט). The meaning of the two occurrences of "elohim" has been debated by scholars, with some suggesting both words refer to YHWH, while others propose that God rules over a divine assembly of other Gods or angels.[9] Some translations of the passage render "God (elohim) stands in the congregation of the mighty to judge the heart as God (elohim)"[10] (the Hebrew is "beqerev elohim", "in the midst of gods", and the word "qerev" if it were in the plural would mean "internal organs"[11]). Later in this Psalm, the word "gods" is used (in the KJV): Psalm 82:6 - "I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] children of the most High." Instead of "gods", another version has "godlike beings",[12] but here again, the word is elohim/elohiym (Strong's H430).[13] This passage is quoted in the New Testament in John 10:34.[14]

In the Books of Kings (1 Kings 22:19), the prophet Micaiah has a vision of Yahweh seated among "the whole host of heaven" standing on his right and on his left. He asks who will go entice Ahab and a spirit volunteers. This has been interpreted as an example of a divine council.

The first two chapters of the Book of Job describe the "Sons of God" assembling in the presence of Yahweh. Like "multitudes of heaven", the term "Sons of God" defies certain interpretation. This assembly has been interpreted by some as another example of divine council. Others translate "Sons of God" as "angels", and thus argue this is not a divine council because angels are God's creation and not deities.

"The role of the divine assembly as a conceptual part of the background of Hebrew prophecy is clearly displayed in two descriptions of prophetic involvement in the heavenly council. In 1 Kings 22:19-23... Micaiah is allowed to see God (elohim) in action in the heavenly decision regarding the fate of Ahab. Isaiah 6 depicts a situation in which the prophet himself takes on the role of the messenger of the assembly and the message of the prophet is thus commissioned by Yahweh. The depiction here illustrates this important aspect of the conceptual background of prophetic authority."[15]

Chinese

In Chinese theology, the deities under the Jade Emperor were sometimes referred to as the celestial bureaucracy because they were portrayed as organized like an earthly government.

Celtic

In Celtic mythology, most of the deities are considered to be members of the same family - the Tuatha Dé Danann. Family members include the Goddesses Danu, Brigid, Airmid, The Morrígan, and others. Gods in the family include Ogma, the Dagda, Lugh and Goibniu, again, among many others. The Celts honoured many tribal and tutelary deities, along with spirits of nature and ancestral spirits. Sometimes a deity was seen as the ancestor of a clan and family line. Leadership of the family changed over time and depending on the situation. The Celtic deities do not fit most Classical ideas of a "Divine Council" or pantheon.

Ancient Greek

Zeus and Hera preside over the divine council in Greek mythology. The council assists Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey.[16]

Ancient Roman

Jupiter presides over the Roman pantheon who prescribe punishment on Lycaon in Ovid's Metamorphoses, as well as punishing Argos and Thebes in Thebaid by Statius.[17]

Norse

There are mentions in Gautreks saga and in the euhemerized work of Saxo Grammaticus of the Norse gods meeting in council.[18][19][20] The gods sitting in council in their judgment seats or "thrones of fate" is one of the refrains in the Eddic poem "Völuspá"; a "thing" of the gods is also mentioned in "Baldrs draumar", "Þrymskviða" and the skaldic "Haustlöng", in those poems always in the context of some calamity.[21] Snorri Sturluson, in his Prose Edda, referred to a daily council of the gods at Urð's well, citing a verse from "Grímnismál" about Thor being forced through rivers to reach it.[22][23] However, although the word regin usually refers to the gods, in some occurrences of reginþing it may be simply an intensifier meaning "great", as it is in modern Icelandic, rather than indicating a meeting of the divine council.[24]

See also

Sons of God

War in Heaven

References[edit]

^ Jump up to:a b Sakenfeld, Katharine ed., "The New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible" Volume 2, pg 145, Abingdon Press, Nashville.

Jump up^ Freedman, David N. ed., "The Anchor Bible Dictionary" Volume 2 pg 120, Doubleday, New York

Jump up^ E. Theodore Mullen (1 June 1980). The divine council in Canaanite and early Hebrew literature. Scholars Press. ISBN 978-0-89130-380-0. Retrieved 25 September 2012.

^ Jump up to:a b Leda Jean Ciraolo; Jonathan Lee Seidel (2002). Magic and Divination in the Ancient World. BRILL. pp. 47–. ISBN 978-90-04-12406-6. Retrieved 25 September 2012.

Jump up^ Virginia Schomp (15 December 2007). The Ancient Egyptians. Marshall Cavendish. pp. 71–. ISBN 978-0-7614-2549-6. Retrieved 25 September 2012.

Jump up^ Alan W. Shorter (March 2009). The Egyptian Gods: A Handbook. Wildside Press LLC. pp. 42–. ISBN 978-1-4344-5515-4. Retrieved 25 September 2012.

Jump up^ Leo G. Perdue (28 June 2007). Wisdom Literature: A Theological History. Presbyterian Publishing Corp. pp. 130–. ISBN 978-0-664-22919-1. Retrieved 25 September 2012.

Jump up^ Mark S. Smith (2009). The Ugaritic Baal Cycle. BRILL. pp. 841–. ISBN 978-90-04-15348-6. Retrieved 25 September 2012.

Jump up^ Michael S. Heiser. "Divine Council 101: Lesson 2: The elohim of Psalm 82 – gods or men?" (PDF).

Jump up^ ""Psalms 82:1"".

Jump up^ "godlike beings, in JPS 1917". Retrieved 18 March 2013.

Jump up^ "Psalm 82:6 KJV with Strong's H430 (elohim/elohiym)". Retrieved 18 March 2013.

Jump up^ "John 10:34". Retrieved 18 March 2013.

Jump up^ Freedman, David N. ed., "The Anchor Bible Dictionary" Volume 2 pg 123, Doubleday, New York

Jump up^ Bruce Louden (6 January 2011). Homer's Odyssey and the Near East. Cambridge University Press. pp. 17–. ISBN 978-0-521-76820-7. Retrieved 25 September 2012.

Jump up^ Randall T. Ganiban (8 February 2007). Statius and Virgil: The Thebaid and the Reinterpretation of the Aeneid. Cambridge University Press. pp. 54–. ISBN 978-0-521-84039-2. Retrieved 25 September 2012.

Jump up^ John Lindow (2002) [2001]. Norse Mythology: A guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals and Beliefs. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 26. ISBN 9780195153828.

Jump up^ Viktor Rydberg (1907) [1889]. Teutonic Mythology. 1 Gods and Goddesses of the Northland. Translated by Rasmus B. Anderson. London, New York: Norroena Society. pp. 210–11. OCLC 642237.

Jump up^ Samuel Hibbert (1831). "Memoir on the Tings of Orkney and Shetland". Archaeologica Scotica: Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 3: 178.

Jump up^ Ursula Dronke (2001) [1997]. The Poetic Edda (her translation of rǫkstólar). 2 Mythological Poems. Oxford, New York: Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press. pp. 37, 117. ISBN 9780198111818.

Jump up^ The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson: Tales from Norse Mythology. Translated by Jean Young. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1964 [1954]. pp. 43–44. ISBN 9780520012325.

Jump up^ Lindow, p. 290.

Jump up^ Lindow, p. 148.

External links[edit]

Translation of the Lament, from the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature

Michael S. Heiser's Divine Council Website

#divine council #council of the gods #mythology #egyptian mythology #Greek Mythology #roman mythology #sumerian mythology #norse mythology #chinese mythology #celtic mythology #druids #Hebrew #akkadian #mythology campaign #annunaki #extraterrestrial

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aftaabmagazine · 5 years

Text

Dialogue with Atiq Rahimi

By Nadia Ali Maiwandi

From the November 2004 issue of Aftaab Magazine

[caption: Atiq Rahimi on the set of his film Earth and Ashes in Afghanistan.]

Atiq Rahimi was born in Kabul in 1962. He fled the country in 1984, living in Pakistan for a year and then receiving political asylum in France. Rahimi studied film at Sorbonne and made several documentaries about his native land. Earth and Ashes is his first novel, and subsequently his first film in fiction. He currently lives in Paris.

Nadia Ali Maiwandi spoke with Rahimi in October 2004 about Earth and Ashes, the novel and film. The interview was conducted in English, and despite language barriers -- Rahimi was nervous about his English skills -- he was profoundly articulate and poignant, even funny.

Nadia Ali Maiwandi: So much of what's written about Afghanistan lately revolves around the Taliban and their oppressive rule. Earth and Ashes was published in 2000, before the world's awareness of so much of these atrocities. What inspired this tale, and its setting during the Soviet invasion?

Atiq Rahimi: I wrote the novel in 1996 when the Taliban had just come to power. I thought, "Why? Why this violence? Why so much destruction?" During the Soviet war, there was a lot of vengeance, much catastrophe. The Taliban came from this catastrophe. It is important to know where this came from. Also, I wanted to show the three generations of Afghanistan. Dastaguir, the old man, represents Afghanistan's past, its traditions, its customs, its honor. This is the older generation. His son is the present, my generation. He works in a mine; he is the mujahideen generation, the chaos. Yassin, the grandson, is the future. He is deaf, handicapped by war. It is always true that communication between generations does not exist. My generation, the generation of Mujahideen and Communist, has no communication with the past or future.

NAM: What strikes a reader about Earth and Ashes just as much as the story itself is the way it is told. I found the use of second person unusual and with great effect. I wasn't quite sure of your intent, though-- were you looking to draw us into Dastaguir's mind, or distance us from him?

AR: When you are thinking or talking to yourself, you always use "you" [in referring to yourself]. I used the second person to illustrate that Dastaguir is alone. He hasn't another person. This is introspection. Secondly, the use of this narrator creates a disassociation with the reader, but it is subtle. The words are specific, but the use of "you" makes the distance between the reader and the character.

NAM: Yes, sometimes the narrator is Dastaguir's conscience, offering him advice or scolding him. Other times it interrupts and speaks to other characters. It seemed to work as Dastaguir's inner voice at times, and the voice of God at other times.

AR: Yes, it is an experiment in narration, in each context the narrator changes. Anyone who listens becomes one of the characters and the narrator itself becomes one of the characters. It is like when you are writing a letter, you write about yourself and you change the narrator. The events you write are as you narrate them. Also, a lot of our great poetry is written in the second person. It was a tool that many ancient poets used who wrote in Farsi, especially when the poems are directed toward God.

NAM: There are many connections made in the prose to the ancient text of Ferdowsi's Shahnama (The Book of Kings). Why did you choose to include this work in Earth in Ashes and connect it so heavily to your characters?

AR: It is very similar to Shahnama-- Rustam knows his son only after the war. Shahnama is like the Greek story of Oedipus, who unknowingly kills his father in the war and then marries his mother. Except in Shahnama, the father kills the son. It is reversed. This illustrates the patriarchal society of Afghanistan. Women are absent.

NAM: I did notice there were no live women in your novel.

AR: Did you notice that? Yes, there is not one woman except for in dreams and in the past. Women are absent. Woman is imagined.

NAM: So you feel that Dastaguir is like Rustam because he has bad news to deliver to his son, which may kill him.

AR: Yes, the connection is made because what he says to his son might cause his own son's death.

NAM: I noticed a lot of symbolism in the story, especially apples. To me, I thought of the apples and the apple-blossom scarf to mean hope-- when you think of blossoms, you think of spring, of new life. Is this what you meant to convey?

AR: There is a lot of symbolism of apples. It is in a lot of our poetry. Apples were the first food of man and woman. The reader can interpret for themselves what these things mean because it means something different to each one.

AR: (Rahimi laughs) It was not at all easy to adapt to film. I worked on the film for two years. I had to find cinematic language, see how to show all these things in cinema.

NAM: How did you find actors?

AR: That was also not easy. All but one had no professional experience. I auditioned over 60 for the part of the old man and about as many children. I took auditions in Kabul and Pul-e Khumri. That's where it was shot, in Pul-e Khumri, northern Afghanistan.

NAM: How was the film received in Afghanistan?

AR: Very well, really. I had two conditions on showing it: One, that is must not be censored. There is a scene where a naked woman is running-- I did not want it censored. It is not pornographic-- it had a reason. Two, I wanted a mixed audience of men and women, no separation.

NAM: And both of your conditions were met?

AR: Yes.

NAM: How were you able to do that..?

AR: (He laughs) I don't rest until I get what I want.

NAM: Congratulations on your many awards. Winning the Cannes must have been exciting.

AR: Yes, thank you. We won Cannes, and also Best Film and Best Actor in the Osian Cinefan Film Festival held in New Dehli.

NAM: Are there any plans to bring the film to the United States?

AR: It is coming to the New York Museum, perhaps around March. Also in Berkeley, California for a film festival there.

NAM: What are you working on now?

AR: I have a new book, One Thousand Houses of Dreams and Terror, which was published two years ago in Europe, and has been translated into many languages-French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German, and many others. This one is about the women of Afghanistan-- and love and war and terror. I'm currently working on translating this novel into a film.

About Nadia Ali Maiwandi

Nadia Ali Maiwandi was born in New York City, New York. Maiwandi has a BA in English and Creative Writing.

#atiqrahimi #Atiq Rahimi #film #Kabul #Kabulistan

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tardisgirlepic · 7 years

Text

Ch. 2: “The Empress of Mars” Analysis Doctor Who S10.9: Friday, Odin & the Doctor; Missy’s 2 Faces; Etc.

Apologies for getting these 3 chapters for “The Empress of Mars” out after the airing of “The Eaters of Light.” I post first on Archive Of Our Own, which I did before the 10th episode. With photos, it takes more time to post here.

If you missed the 1st chapter, check it out Ch. 1: Fastballs, Mars-Not-Mars, Rassilon References, Etc.

NOTE:

TPEW = “The Pyramid at the End of the World” TRODM = “The Return of Doctor Mysterio” THORS = “The Husbands of River Song” CAL = Charlotte Abigail Lux, the little girl from the Library TOS = The Original Series of Star Trek TNG = Star Trek: The Next Generation

Norse Mythology & Vikings Have a Big Role

Roman and Egyptian mythology aren’t the only mythological references in “The Empress of Mars.” Norse Mythology, for example, has a huge role in the episode, as well as other Viking references.

Egil & Eagle

At NASA, we see a sign “EGIL” in front of the Doctor in the image below, which refers to Egill Skallagrímsson (Anglicized as Egil Skallagrimsson). The Doctor, The Ghost, is associated here with Egil. At first we see the sign without the Doctor.

According to Wikipedia, Egil “was a Viking-Age poet, warrior and farmer. He is also the protagonist of the eponymous Egil's Saga. Egil's Saga historically narrates a period from approximately 850 to 1000 CE and is believed to have been written between 1220 and 1240 CE.”

Egill was born in Iceland, the son of Skalla-Grímr Kveldúlfsson and Bera Yngvarsdóttir, and the grandson of Kveld-Úlfr ("Night Wolf"). His ancestor, Hallbjorn, was Norwegian-Sami.

Here’s another wolf reference, where the Doctor-mirror is the grandson of a metaphorical wolf.

When Grímr arrived in Iceland, he settled at Borg, the place where his father's coffin landed. Grímr was a respected chieftain and mortal enemy of King Harald Fairhair of Norway.

OK, the term “Borg” automatically conjures thoughts of several Star Trek: TNG episodes where alien cyborgs known as the Borg show up to assimilate people, turning them into Borg and absorbing them into the collective. They first show up in the episode “Q Who?” Um… I never thought about this before, but wow, just change Q to Doctor! Captain Picard gets converted to a Borg in “The Best of Both Worlds.” Part 1 was the finale to Season 3, while Part 2 was the premiere of Season 4.

Egill composed his first poem at the age of three years. He exhibited berserk behaviour, and this, together with the description of his large and unattractive head, has led to the theory that he might have suffered from Paget's disease. As professor Byock explains in his Scientific American article, Paget's disease causes a thickening of the bones and may lead eventually to blindness. The poetry of Egill contains clues to Paget's disease, and this is the first application of science, with the exclusion of archaeology, to the Icelandic sagas.

Here’s a reference to blindness.

Egil had a very bloody history. At times, he was marked for death, but his epic poetry, fit for kings, saved him. So words saved him, just like they have saved the Doctor time and time again.

“Egil” is another overloaded word, as its homophone is “eagle.” The Doctor is either a bird, being a proxy of Zeus, or Zeus, himself. Zeus’s Roman equivalent is Jupiter. In Norse mythology, Odin is the chief god. He’s not a one-to-one correspondence, though, to Zeus and Jupiter, like the typical Greek and Roman gods are to each other. Odin, among other things, is also a god of war like Mars. He’s a tyrannical leader who is not concerned with justice, and this sounds like Morbius, who may be the possessed Doctor.

Odin, too, was a shape-shifter and turned himself into an eagle. It’s one of his many disguises.

Valkyrie Has Multiple Meanings

The Martian probe Valkyrie, while probing the Martian ice caps, is named for multiple references.

Operation Valkyrie & “Let’s Kill Hitler”

Operation Valkyrie was a German plan during WWII to assassinate Hitler, take control of German cities, disarm the SS, and arrest the Nazi leadership. Although the participants made lengthy preparations, the plot failed. Of course, this also refers to the 11th Doctor episode “Let’s Kill Hitler,” where River was engineered to kill the Doctor. Of course, that lengthy plot failed, too, at least for the time being.

In “The Lie of the Land,” we saw the Doctor involved in a totalitarian government with the Truth logo, which looked like it could be a type of Nazi logo with an SS (mirrored Ss). Interestingly, Daleks were created as symbols of the Nazis.

Valkyries of Norse Mythology

In Norse mythology, valkyries are female figures who decide the fate of those who die in battle.

According to Wikipedia:

Selecting among half of those who die in battle (the other half go to the goddess Freyja's afterlife field Fólkvangr), the valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla, ruled over by the god Odin. There, the deceased warriors become einherjar (Old Norse "single (or once) fighters"). When the einherjar are not preparing for the events of Ragnarök, the valkyries bear them mead. Valkyries also appear as lovers of heroes and other mortals, where they are sometimes described as the daughters of royalty, sometimes accompanied by ravens and sometimes connected to swans or horses.

Ravens and horses are certainly significant. In fact, ravens are indirectly referenced at least 4 times in the current story. We’ll examine more about the raven in a few minutes. And we’ll look at them in more depth in regards to Clara and the Doctor in the next chapter.

Valkyries today tend to be romanticized in a way, but in heathen times, they were more sinister and sound like they have a connection to the 12 Monks. According to Norse-Mythology.org:

The meaning of their name, “choosers of the slain,” refers not only to their choosing who gains admittance to Valhalla, but also to their choosing who dies in battle and using malicious magic to ensure that their preferences in this regard are brought to fruition. Examples of valkyries deciding who lives and who dies abound in the Eddas and sagas. The valkyries’ gruesome side is illustrated most vividly in the Darraðarljóð, a poem contained within Njal’s Saga. Here, twelve valkyries are seen prior to the Battle of Clontarf, sitting at a loom and weaving the tragic destiny of the warriors (an activity highly reminiscent of the Norns). They use intestines for their thread, severed heads for weights, and swords and arrows for beaters, all the while chanting their intentions with ominous delight. The Saga of the Volsungs compares beholding a valkyrie to “staring into a flame.”

The Norns sound very similar to the 3 Fates, which we examined in my analysis in TPEW, where I likened the Monks to weaving a tapestry and compared them to the 3 Fates who weave destinies. It seems likely then that the 12 Monks may symbolize the 12 Valkyries, who are weaving the tragic destiny to come.

Valhalla & the Cloister Wraiths

Valhalla is a the hall where the dead are deemed worthy of dwelling with Odin, and it’s located on Asgard, which brings in the references to the Doctor and River picnicking on Asgard. This picnic entry in River’s diary came up in “Silence in the Library,” as well as “The Husbands of River Song.”

Wolves guard Valhalla’s gates, and eagles fly above it.

According to Norse-Mythology.org:

Odin presides over Valhalla, the most prestigious of the dwelling-places of the dead. After every battle, he and his helping-spirits, the valkyries (“choosers of the fallen”), comb the field and take their pick of half of the slain warriors to carry back to Valhalla. (Freya then claims the remaining half.)

According to Norse-Mythology.org:

The dead who reside in Valhalla, the einherjar, live a life that would have been the envy of any Viking warrior. All day long, they fight one another, doing countless valorous deeds along the way. But every evening, all their wounds are healed, and they are restored to full health. They surely work up quite an appetite from all those battles, and their dinners don’t disappoint. Their meat comes from the boar Saehrimnir (Old Norse Sæhrímnir, whose meaning is unknown), who comes back to life every time he is slaughtered and butchered. For their drink they have mead that comes from the udder of the goat Heidrun (Old Norse Heiðrun, whose meaning is unknown). They thereby enjoy an endless supply of their exceptionally fine food and drink. They are waited on by the beautiful Valkyries.

But the einherjar won’t live this charmed life forever. Valhalla’s battle-honed residents are there by the will of Odin, who collects them for the perfectly selfish purpose of having them come to his aid in his fated struggle against the wolf Fenrir during Ragnarök – a battle in which Odin and the einherjar are doomed to die.

From what we’ve seen in “Hell Bent,” the Cloister Wraiths are, at least in one way, like the dead who reside in Valhalla. As the Doctor said, they are the dead manning the battlements. We may be experiencing the unreality of the symbolic Valhalla right now. The relative calm before the Ragnarök storm.

The Ice Queen Mirroring a Valkyrie or Odin

The Ice Queen, Iraxxa, decided who died and who lived, especially when it came to Colonel Godsacre. (God’s acre actually means “a churchyard or a cemetery, especially one adjacent to a church.”) Therefore, Iraxxa is mirroring a Valkyrie or even Odin, given her position of leader of the hive.

Odin, Ravens & the Valkyries

According to Wikipedia,

In Germanic mythology, Odin is a widely revered god. In Norse mythology, from which stems most of the information about the god, Odin is associated with healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, battle, sorcery, poetry, frenzy, and the runic alphabet, and is the husband of the goddess Frigg. In wider Germanic mythology and paganism, Odin was known in Old English as Wōden, in Old Saxon as Wōdan, and in Old High German as Wuotan or Wōtan, all stemming from the reconstructed Proto-Germanic theonym wōđanaz.

BTW, WOTAN is a reference to a 1st Doctor story called “The War Machines.” According to the TARDIS Wikia, “WOTAN was one of the first artificial intelligences created on Earth by Professor Brett. Its name stood for Will Operating Thought ANalogue.” It goes on to say, “Deciding to conquer the world, WOTAN ordered the construction of mobile, armed computers which were designated War Machines. These were constructed in locations across London.”

Anyway, according to WizardRealm.com:

Odin (or, depending upon the dialect Woden or Wotan) was the Father of all the Gods and men. Odhinn is pictured either wearing a winged helm or a floppy hat, and a blue-grey cloak. He can travel to any realm within the 9 Nordic worlds. His two ravens, Huginn and Munin (Thought and Memory) fly over the world daily and return to tell him everything that has happened in Midgard. He is a God of magick, wisdom, wit, and learning. He too is a psychopomp; a chooser of those slain in battle. In later times, he was associated with war and bloodshed from the Viking perspective, although in earlier times, no such association was present.

Interestingly, Odin has ravens. And this is another example of how “The Empress of Mars” has quite a few indirect references to ravens. Because Clara is associated with a raven, it brings up a reference to her, too. However, there are very pointed Clara references, which we’ll examine in the next chapter.

Being the god of magic, wisdom, wit, and learning, Odin has a lot in common with Merlin. Odin actually disguises himself as an old man and travels Midgard (Earth) looking for heroes for the coming of Ragnarök.

According to WizardRealm.com:

If anything, the wars fought by Odhinn exist strictly upon the Mental plane of awareness; appropriate for that of such a mentally polarized God. He is both the shaper of Wyrd and the bender of Orlog; again, a task only possible through the power of Mental thought and impress. It is he who sacrifices an eye at the well of Mimir to gain inner wisdom, and later hangs himself upon the World Tree Yggdrasil to gain the knowledge and power of the Runes. All of his actions are related to knowledge, wisdom, and the dissemination of ideas and concepts to help Mankind. Because there is duality in all logic and wisdom, he is seen as being duplicitous; this is illusory and it is through his actions that the best outcomes are conceived and derived. Just as a point of curiosity: in no other pantheon is the head Deity also the God of Thought and Logic. It's interesting to note that the Norse/Teutonic peoples also set such a great importance upon brainwork and logic. The day Wednesday (Wodensdaeg) is named for him.

It’s really interesting that Odin’s wars are fought on the “Mental plane of awareness.” This corresponds to the Doctor being a creature of pure thought through the Great Work. This also corresponds to him being a mirror of CAL, who is also a being of pure thought in a mental plane of awareness.

Odin & the Doctor

In “The Girl Who Died,” the Doctor pretended to be Odin when the Vikings took him and Clara captive. We then saw another extraterrestrial claiming to be Odin, shown below. His helmet is obviously symbolic in some ways of a bird. Are the wings those of an eagle or a raven? There are symbolic feathers on the top of the helmet, too, but that’s where the similarities to a bird end.

The crest looks more like something a Roman soldier would wear on his helmet. And then there’s the weird part covering his forehead that looks like 2 eyes and a nose. Is the representation supposed to be 2 faces in One? The symbolic eyes are empty, perhaps, representing The Ghost. Odin is a dark mirror of the Doctor, and it seems to me from the symbolism that Odin represents the possessed Doctor, who has an augmented eye. That could be a reference to the Eye of Harmony.

The Doctor actually does more than just pretend to be Odin in this episode. Like Odin in mythology, the Doctor decides life and death here. He assumes Odin’s role. Ashildr dies, and the Doctor literally brings her back to life, another signal of the coming of Ragnarök. Clara represents a valkyrie, the Doctor’s helping spirit.

But this isn’t all. Extraterrestrial (ET) Odin in “The Girl Who Died” has a connection to the “Robot of Sherwood.” The sheriff’s boar emblem looks very much like ET Odin’s helmet when placed behind someone’s head. Check out this image below of the arrow bearer in this perfectly centered camera shot where the emblem of the boar’s ears (yellow arrow) now looks like the wings on Odin’s helmet.

In fact, the sheriff looks a lot like Odin without the helmet.

Interestingly, we have seen a character in TRODM, Lucy Fletcher, whose name means arrow maker or to furnish (an arrow) with a feather. Through all the mirrors we’ve examined, she connects to Amy, who connects to River. Susan connects to River, too. And River may connect to Missy. We know Missy has been controlling the Doctor through Clara, and she’s running a con game now.

Who’s Behind Controlling the TARDIS?

Check out the image below in the darkened TARDIS when Nardole goes to get some gear to help Bill after she falls into the pit. The bookcase is lit, which is very abnormal. And it’s only one bookcase in particular. This indicates it’s River.

In fact, interestingly, Missy has 2 faces when we first see her at the end of “The Empress of Mars.” The blue arrow points to her face that looks like it’s inside the TARDIS, while the yellow arrow points to her other face. The TARDIS symbolizes the Doctor’s wife and the Doctor’s mind.

The Doctor is being controlled by his wife is what part of the subtext is pointing to. We saw in “The Lie of the Land” analysis that with the 2nd Doctor story “The Mind Robber,” where the Master was the author who controlled things in the same way River controlled things in “The Angels Take Manhattan” with her novel. We know River is one of the architects of the rescue plan.

Friday Has a Norse Connection

Of course, the name Friday comes from Robinson Crusoe. However, given the plot along with Friday’s name, appearance, and references, there are other allusions intended, too, making Friday a brilliant name with overloaded meanings.

Friday & Odin

“Friday,” as the actual day of the week, is named after Odin’s wife. In Old English, her name is Frīge, so it’s "Frīge's day." Other spellings, according to Wikipedia, are Frigg (Old Norse), Frija (Old High German), and Frea (Langobardic).

So the character Friday automatically has a connection to Odin and can represent Odin’s wife. However, there’s more.

Like Friday, Odin has one eye.

In fact, according to Norse-Mythology.org:

Odin’s quest for wisdom is never-ending, and he is willing to pay any price, it seems, for the understanding of life’s mysteries that he craves more than anything else. On one occasion, he hanged himself, wounded himself with his spear, and fasted from food and drink for nine days and nights in order to discover the runes.

On another occasion, he ventured to Mimir’s Well – which is surely none other than the Well of Urd – amongst the roots of the world-tree Yggdrasil. There dwelt Mimir, a shadowy being whose knowledge of all things was practically unparalleled among the inhabitants of the cosmos. He achieved this status largely by taking his water from the well, whose waters impart this cosmic knowledge.

When Odin arrived, he asked Mimir for a drink from the water. The well’s guardian, knowing the value of such a draught, refused unless the seeker offered an eye in return. Odin – whether straightaway or after anguished deliberation, we can only wonder – gouged out one of his eyes and dropped it into the well. Having made the necessary sacrifice, Mimir dipped his horn into the well and offered the now-one-eyed god a drink.

Odin’s story of trading an eye for a different type of perception and knowledge meshes with the concepts of the Eye of Harmony and the Matrix. We’ve examined how the Matrix gives the gift of prophecy.

ENGIN: Yes. Trillions of electrochemical cells in a continuous matrix. The cells are the repository of departed Time Lords. At the moment of death, an electrical scan is made of the brain pattern and these millions of impulses are immediately transferred to the DOCTOR: Shush. I understand the theory. What's the function?

ENGIN: Well, to monitor life in the Capitol. We use all this combined knowledge and experience to predict future developments.

And the Eye of Harmony from TRODM clearly has to do with the Matrix. The Eye, as the 8th Doctor said in the movie, is his.

DOCTOR: Lee, this is my Tardis. This is my Eye and I'm in my own body. The Master has run out of all his lives. Now he plans to steal mine. That's the truth!

Anyway, in Friday’s case, because he defers to Iraxxa, he symbolically could represent Odin in disguise as an old man. After all, he did tell the Doctor:

DOCTOR: Why have you really come back? FRIDAY: (sigh) I am old and tired and spent.

The reversed roles of the queen and Friday could also possibly be explained through the gender change.

Friday & The Vikings

After the Doctor and Bill discuss the Ice Warrior, Bill mentions a movie and an eye gouging when Friday is present, tying the movie to Friday.

DOCTOR: Yes. The indigenous species. An ancient reptilian race. They built themselves a sort of bio-mechanical armour for protection. The creature within is at one with its carapace. The Ice Warriors. They could build a city under the sand, yet drench the snows of Mars with innocent blood. They could slaughter whole civilisations, yet weep at the crushing of a flower. BILL: Like The Vikings. DOCTOR: Yes. Yes, very much. BILL: Yeah, Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis. Oh, the theme tune is amazing! There's this brilliant bit where his eye gets gouged out (Friday stops and Bill notices the missing eye.)

Friday’s missing eye resembles that of Kirk Douglas’ character in the 1958 movie The Vikings.

Wikipedia says

The King of Northumbria is killed during a Viking raid led by the fearsome Ragnar (Ernest Borgnine). Because the king had died childless, his cousin Aella (Frank Thring) takes the throne. The king's widow, however, is pregnant with what she knows is Ragnar's child because he had raped her during that fateful raid, and to protect the infant from her cousin-in-law's ambitions, she sends him off to Italy. By a twist of fate, the ship is intercepted by the Vikings, who are unaware of the child's kinship, and enslave him.

BTW, the queen sends the child with the monks.

Many years later, we see that the boy has grown into a young man named Erik (Tony Curtis), who is still a slave. After some events take place, Erik in retaliation orders his falcon to attack Einar (Kirk Douglas), Ragnar's legitimate son and heir. The falcon gouges out Einar’s left eye.

The enmity between the half brothers is exacerbated when they both fall in love with the same woman, Princess Morgana, who is to marry King Aella but gets captured in a raid. In a way, this is like the 11th and 12th Doctors with River. BTW, I forgot to mention this, but the Doctor in Missy’s execution scene in “Extremis” and in the scenes in “The Lie of the Land” wears an old raggedy coat, which would represent the 11th Doctor. In fact, the 11th Doctor’s theme music does play in the latter episode.

Anyway, at one point Aella captures Ragnar and, according to Wikipedia, “orders the Viking leader bound and thrown into a pit filled with starved wolves. To give Ragnar a Viking's death (so that he can enter Valhalla), Erik, who is granted the honour of forcing him into the pit, cuts the prisoner's bonds and gives him his sword. Laughing, Ragnar jumps to his death. In response to Erik's "treason", Aella cuts off his left hand, puts him back on his ship and casts him adrift.”

(Amy cuts off Rorybot’s hands in “The Girl Who Waited.” Rorybot is sentient. So is this movie scene significant to the story?)

In the end, Erik and Einar fight for Morgana, and Erik mortally wounds Einar. Wikipedia says, “Echoing the scene with Ragnar, Erik gives Einar a sword, so that he too can enter Valhalla. In the final scene, Einar is given a Viking funeral: his body is placed on a longship, which is set on fire by flaming arrows.”

Friday not only represents Einar with his eye gouged out, but also Erik, as a servant.

Erik is a hybrid, half-Northumbrian and half-Viking, mirroring the hybrid nature of the Doctor.

Also, it’s interesting that Erik and Einar are half brothers because I’ve wondered for quite some time if the Master and Doctor were brothers (as was originally planned in Classic Who) or half brothers. The idea that the Doctor has a half brother has come up in the subtext before. In fact, it most likely relates to Castor and Pollux, which we’ll look at below.

The idea of Valhalla and a Viking funeral for the Doctor is important for several reasons. The first is that Rory gave the Doctor a Viking funeral in “The Impossible Astronaut” after River killed him. (Interestingly, though, there is a hidden face of the Doctor’s in the reflection in River’s helmet. Things didn’t quite happen the way they appeared.)

The ideas of Valhalla and a Viking funeral lead to redemption for the Doctor and his fate. We’ll look at this more in the next chapter when we examine the Victorians.

The First Time We See Friday

The first time we see Friday, something curious takes place. The Ice Warrior comes toward the Doctor in a threatening manner. However, the Doctor diffuses the situation with an Ice Warrior greeting.

DOCTOR: I know your people of old. I was once an Honorary Guardian of the Tythonian Hive.

(A rifle bolt is moved.)

However, we then hear Godsacre’s voice, and he says and does something curious.

GODSACRE: Don't move. I'll sort this beggar out.

(A red-coat with white pith helmet is pointing what ought to be a Martini-Henry breech loading rifle at them.)

DOCTOR: No, no, no, no! You don't understand. This creature is no threat. He may look like a monster to you

(A rifle shot at the Doctor's feet makes him jump back.)

GODSACRE: I wasn't talking to you. Are you all right, Friday?

The Doctor is portrayed as the monster here, not Friday. To make that clear, the Doctor even says, “He may look like a monster to you…”

This really is interesting behavior, especially since the Doctor looks human here in this altered reality. What does he really look like?

Friday, the Doctor & Shakespeare’s Henry V

Since the Doctor is metaphorically Shakespeare, it seems as though there may be another connection with both the Doctor, Friday, and Henry V. Since they can be a symbol of Odin, walking through Midgard in disguise, they could also symbolically be King Henry V, who disguises himself as a commoner and walks around camp, where nobody recognizes him as the king.

Actually, we already saw this type of thing with Queen Liz 10 in “The Beast Below,” where she walked around with her mask on, not wanting to be recognized. Therefore, we should expect that something like this is happening now.

If the Doctor has been possessed, mind controlled, or some other type of usurpation, then there is a disguise of sorts going on.

Castor & Pollux: The Master/Missy & the Doctor?

Are the Master/Missy and the Doctor mirrors of Castor and Pollux from Greek and Roman mythology? The references have come up in the subtext before, and it seems appropriate to consider this since the plan in Classic Who was to have the Master and the Doctor be brothers. However, once Roger Delgado, the 1st Master, died in a car crash, the plans never came to fruition. In fact, the 3rd Doctor, Jon Pertwee, who was good friends with Delgado, left DW because of Delgado’s death.

Anyway, there are multiple versions of the Castor and Pollux myth, where they could be brothers or half brothers, depending on the version. Since The Vikings refers to half brothers, I’ll concentrate on that version.

Castor and Pollux were twin brothers, together known as the Dioscuri or Dioskouroi. According to Wikipedia:

Their mother was Leda, but they had different fathers; Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, while Pollux was the divine son of Zeus, who seduced Leda in the guise of a swan. Though accounts of their birth are varied, they are sometimes said to have been born from an egg, along with their twin sisters or half-sisters Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra.

In Latin the twins are also known as the Gemini or Castores. When Castor was killed, Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together, and they were transformed into the constellation Gemini. The pair were regarded as the patrons of sailors, to whom they appeared as St. Elmo's fire, and were also associated with horsemanship.

There was a common belief that one child would live among the gods, while the other was among the dead. That’s interesting since the Doctor is associated in multiple ways with ghosts.

Anyway, here’s yet another reference to Zeus. We know the Doctor has been cast as either a proxy to Zeus or Zeus, himself. However, there are multiple versions of the Doctor. Is one the father and one the son while a third is a ghost? Like in the Trinity?

We also see other important references. We know horses are important. Sailors could also possibly refer to space and time travelers. And the topic of eggs comes up a lot. For example, we saw the moon as an egg in “Kill the Moon.” Missy, too, mentioned that Nardole looks like and egg in “The Lie of the Land”:

MISSY: You haven't been to see me in six months. No-one has! Not even that bald bloke who looks like an egg.

However, eggs also come up in other episodes, like the 9th Doctor episode, “The End of the World,” which we looked at in the analysis of “The Lie of the Land.” And there’s an indirect reference to eggs in “The Empress of Mars” where the Doctor mentions “Tythonian Hive” when he meets Friday.

DOCTOR: By the moons, I honour thee. I'm the Doctor. What is your name? (The Ice Warrior growls. He has one eye missing and a scrape across the helmet nose guard.) DOCTOR: I know your people of old. I was once an Honorary Guardian of the Tythonian Hive. (A rifle bolt is moved.)

The Tythonian Hive reference, BTW, makes no sense when relating it to Ice Warriors. The term refers to the 4th Doctor episode “The Creature from the Pit.” However, there are other important pieces of information in that episode. For example, it also refers to a pit, which Bill happens to fall into in “The Empress of Mars.”

“The Creature from the Pit,” the Egg & the Y symbol

I had never seen “The Creature from the Pit” before, so I was surprised when I watched it that there were no hives or references to Ice Warriors. I haven’t seen this happen before with a reference that didn’t make sense, but obviously, we are supposed to get other things out of that reference.

When it comes to this episode, many things don’t make sense. There is a giant structure that looks like a flat wall, but the Doctor calls it an egg and eggshell and says it’s alive:

ADRASTA: Yes. My huntsman heard you say that the shell was alive. DOCTOR: Alive and screaming in pain. ADRASTA: The shell? Then why can no one hear it? DOCTOR: Because it can only be detected on very low frequency wavelengths. ADRASTA: What's the shell screaming about? DOCTOR: Ah. More to the point, for whom is it screaming? Its mummy? By the pyramids, imagine the size of its mummy.

Not only is it an egg, but here’s something once again that is looking possibly for it’s mummy, like “The Empty Child.” Also, it’s screaming but can’t be heard like the Star Whale in “The Beast Below.” Both the Empty Child and the Star Whale are metaphors for the Doctor.

Nardole is associated with an egg, just like the Doctor is with the moon as an egg concept. And Nardole is an unactualized mirror for the Doctor. The egg also symbolizes going back to the beginning. This meshes with other things we’ve examined like how the universe was only 23 million years old in “The Pilot.” Also, the Doctor’s timeline is going backwards, and we see that in the opening credits.

In “The Creature from the Pit,” there’s also a pit, of course, with a creature in it. The Doctor actually jumps into the pit, like the 10th Doctor jumped into the pit in “The Satan Pit.” Both find gigantic creatures. Bill falls into the pit in “The Empress of Mars” and finds a gigantic hive and the sinister Captain Catchlove.

However, the 4th Doctor calls the creature a giant brain. Um… this doesn’t make sense, either.

Here’s what the TARDIS Wikia says

The Tythonians were massive, blob-like organisms, sometimes hundreds of feet long. They were glowing green and had an outer membrane that was deeply creased. They had no true limbs, but had two large pseudopods. One pseudopod was shaped like the letter Y, while the other was simply a large tube. They had no vocal cords and communicated with the aid of Tythonian communicators. Tythonians could live for forty thousand years.

The Y shape refers to a plague of deaths. The humanoids throw people down into the pit for the creature to eat.

While this all is important, I also see the whole pit and creature reference important, which refer back to “The Satan Pit” and the war for freedom from slavery. The 4th Doctor does help free the creature in the pit, who actually doesn’t eat people.

Therefore, this episode is hugely symbolic of what is happening in Season 10; however, not by the Tythonian Hive reference.

Living Underground As a Theme

Not only do the Ice Warriors live underground, but the Silurians do too, as we saw in the 11th Doctor episodes “The Hungry Earth” and “Cold Blood.” In the 1st Dalek story, “The Daleks,” the Daleks also live underground. The creature in “The Creature from the Pit” and the Beast in “The Satan Pit” also live underground.

In all these cases, it’s not really by choice. They are forced to live underground because conditions on the surface are problematic, or the creatures are imprisoned underground.

It’s interesting that on Gallifrey everything looks dead, as far as the landscape is concerned. The Doctor and Master talked about how it used to be beautiful with grass, trees, etc. While people live in the doomed city, where do they get their food from? Of course, we are only seeing a small portion of the planet, but it still makes me wonder.

Skaro looks much the same.

Tunnels & The Thing

Interestingly, Bill mentions the movie The Thing, tunnels, and how the Doctor would like the movie because everyone dies. The latter seems really odd for the Doctor we know, unless we consider the Doctor as the mirror to alternate-Donna in “Turn Left.” Both have to die, along with the parallel world. The Master, Morbius, the Valeyard, and some others would also like to see everyone die.

BILL: (walking away) Oh, it's like the underground tunnels in The Thing. DOCTOR: The what? BILL: It's a movie. You'd like that one too. Everybody dies.

There are several movie versions of The Thing. In the 1982 version, the setting is in Antarctica, which fits the Ice Warriors. Where is the ice for the Ice Warriors anyway? The setting is reminiscent of “The Planet of the Ood” and the large brain found on the ice. Also, it also is the setting of “The Seeds of Doom,” another 4th Doctor usurpation story that we looked at.

The creature from a crashed spaceship can perfectly duplicate other beings, like “The Zygon Invasion” and “The Zygon Inversion.” This creates a very similar situation that we saw in “Midnight,” where at first Skye got possessed and people freaked out. The being then possessed the Doctor, and they freaked out even more. It was mob mentality and a witchhunt, just like the movie. And they turned on each other.

This also brings in the idea of “Love & Monsters,” the 10th Doctor episode where Victor Kennedy/The Abzorbaloff, absorbs people into his body.

Here are more themes that are being repeated.

The Next Chapter

In the next chapter, we’ll examine the Victorians and how Clara fits in in multiple ways, along with the ravens. I’ll show you what I call collective symbolism vs. individual symbolism.

Go to next chapter => Ch. 3: Clara, Ravens, Victoria(ns), Oh My!

#doctor who #twelfth doctor #bill potts #nardole #clara oswald #river song #eleventh doctor #amy pond #rory williams #tenth doctor #meta #analysis #the empress of mars

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holidays-events · 4 years

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Every December 25, billions of people around the world gather together to celebrate the Christmas holiday. While many dedicate the occasion as the Christian tradition of the birth of Jesus, others commemorate the age-old customs of the pagans, the indigenous peoples of pre-Christian Europe. Still, others might carry on the celebration of Saturnalia, the feast of the Roman god of agriculture. And, the celebration of Saturnalia included the ancient Persian Feast of the Unconquered Sun on December 25th. Whatever the case, one can certainly encounter many different ways of celebrating the occasion.

Through the centuries these local and universal traditions have gradually blended together to form our modern tradition of Christmas, arguably the first global holiday. Today, many cultures around the world celebrate Christmas with a wide variety of customs. In the United States, most of our traditions have been borrowed from Victorian England, which were themselves borrowed from other places, notably mainland Europe. In our current culture, many people may be familiar with the Nativity scene or maybe visiting Santa Claus at the local shopping mall, but these common traditions weren't always with us. This compels us to ask some questions about the geography of Christmas: where did our holiday traditions come from and how did they come to be? The list of world Christmas traditions and symbols is long and varied. Many books and articles have been written about each one separately. In this article, three of the most common symbols are discussed: Christmas as the birth of Jesus Christ, Santa Claus, and the Christmas tree.

Origin and Diffusion of Christmas Symbols

Christmas was designated as the birth of Jesus in the fourth century CE. During this period, Christianity was just beginning to define itself and Christian feast days were integrated into the popular pagan traditions to ease the adoption of the new religious beliefs. Christianity diffused outward from this region through the work of evangelizers and missionaries and eventually, European colonization brought it to places all over the world. The cultures that adopted Christianity also adopted the celebration of Christmas.

The legend of Santa Claus began with a Greek Bishop in fourth-century Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). There in the town of Myra, a young bishop, named Nicholas, gained a reputation for kindness and generosity by distributing his family fortune to the less fortunate. As one story goes, he stopped the sale of three young women into enslavement by providing enough gold to make a marriage dowry for each of them. According to the story, he threw the gold through the window and it landed in a stocking drying by the fire. As time passed, the word spread of Bishop Nicholas' generosity and children began hanging their stockings by the fire in hopes that the good bishop would pay them a visit.

Bishop Nicholas died on December 6th, 343 CE. He was canonized as a saint a short time later and the feast day of Saint Nicholas is celebrated on the anniversary of his death. The Dutch pronunciation of Saint Nicholas is Sinter Klaas. When Dutch settlers came to the United States, the pronunciation became "Anglicanized" and changed to Santa Claus which remains with us today. Little is known about what Saint Nicholas looked like. Depictions of him often portrayed a tall, thin character in a hooded robe sporting a graying beard. In 1822, an American theological professor, Clement C. Moore, wrote a poem "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" (more popularly known as "The Night Before Christmas"). In the poem, he describes 'Saint Nick' as a jolly elf with a round belly and a white beard. In 1881, an American cartoonist, Thomas Nast, drew a picture of Santa Claus using Moore's description. His drawing gave us the modern-day image of Santa Claus.

The origin of the Christmas tree can be found in Germany. In pre-Christian times, the pagans celebrated the Winter Solstice, often decorated with pine branches because they were always green (hence the term evergreen). The branches were often decorated with fruit, especially apples and nuts. The evolution of the evergreen tree into the modern Christmas tree begins with Saint Boniface, on a mission from a Britain (modern-day England) through the forests of Northern Europe. He was there to evangelize and convert the pagan peoples to Christianity. Accounts of the journey say that he intervened in the sacrifice of a child at the foot of an oak tree (oak trees are associated with the Norse god Thor). After stopping the sacrifice, he encouraged the people to instead gather around the evergreen tree and divert their attention away from bloody sacrifices to acts of giving and kindness. The people did so and the tradition of the Christmas tree was born. For centuries, it remained mostly a German tradition.

The widespread diffusion of the Christmas tree to areas outside of Germany didn't happen until Queen Victoria of England married Prince Albert of Germany. Albert moved to England and brought with him his German Christmas traditions. The idea of the Christmas tree became popular in Victorian England after an illustration of the Royal Family around their tree was published in 1848. The tradition then quickly spread to the United States along with many other English traditions.

Conclusion

Christmas is a historic holiday that blends ancient pagan customs with the more recent universal traditions of Christianity. It is also an interesting trip around the world, a geographic story that originated in many places, especially Persia and Rome. It gives us the account of three wise men from the orient visiting a newborn baby in Palestine, the recollection of good deeds by a Greek bishop living in Turkey, the fervent work of a British missionary traveling through Germany, a children's poem by an American theologian, and the cartoons of a German-born artist living in the United States. All of this variety contributes to the festive nature of Christmas, which is what makes the holiday such an exciting occasion. Interestingly, when we pause to remember why we have these traditions, we have geography to thank for it.

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-geography-of-christmas-1434486

Baskerville, Brian. "The Geography of Christmas." ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/the-geography-of-christmas-1434486.

#Christmas

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woodworkingpastor · 4 years

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Sunday, April 19, 2020 First Sunday after Easter “A Hymn of Praise in a Key of Love” Philippians 2:5-11

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Call to Worship

Give thanks! God’s love is constant and devoted to us.

Let us say over and over:

God’s hope shines through each of us:

through church members making calls and offering prayer,

through essential employees working to care for our needs,

and medical professionals restoring physical and mental health.

Give thanks, O give thanks! Justice is the gate God opens to all.

Let us say over and over:

God hears the cries of those who are forgotten:

those who sleep rough in emptied streets,

those who are most vulnerable around us,

those who have no family to care for them.

Give thanks, O give thanks, people of God! God comes to bring us new life.

Let us say over and over:

God takes the stone tossed aside by us to build the foundation of salvation,

a foundation made out of grace’s gravel,

the sand of hope shaken out of Jesus’ shoes,

and mixed with the waters of life.

Scripture, Philippians 2:1-12

Message, A Hymn in the Key of Love (Part 1): Jesus’ Incarnation

Over the last several months I’ve found myself returning to Philippians 2:5-11 over and over again, like a delightful tune that gets stuck in your head. (This isn’t always a bad thing!) These words of praise to Jesus have found their way into my thinking, my study, and my preaching. Because they kept coming to mind I decided to pay attention to them!

So in these weeks after Easter we will spend three Sundays studying verses from Philippians 2, verses that many scholars believe are an early Christian hymn. These 76 Greek words are very carefully arranged in the way you would expect a poem to be, describing all of Jesus’ ministry: His incarnation (verses 6-7a), crucifixion (verses 7b-8), and exaltation (verses 9-11). Together, this hymn of praise offers some of the highest Christology of Jesus found in the New Testament, and it is an excellent passage of Scripture to consider in the weeks after Easter.

And in ways that will be appealing to Brethren, these words that tell us what was in Jesus’ mind as he served both God and humanity aren’t just words of praise offered without context. However these words were used in Christian worship, in the best New Testament fashion they are offered to us as the model for our own Christian living. How we understand following Jesus is found here. This is the attitude we are to take with one another: Jesus is to be the pattern of our living.

So how are we to understand this life that we share in Christ?

We begin by understanding Jesus’ incarnation—his work of God becoming flesh, as described in verse 6 and the first half of 7:

“who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.” (vv. 6-7a)

We should recognize what is described here: this is the story of Bethlehem! It’s what we are thinking about when we gather for worship on Christmas Eve. We’ll see over the next two weeks that the rest of this hymn incorporates the rest of Jesus’ life, proceeding through Holy Week and on his ascension into Heaven. But it begins with Christmas story, God being born as a human in the manger of Bethlehem.

Two Sundays ago, I mentioned that one way to understand the difference between the Gospels and the Epistles is that the Gospels give us the story of our faith and the Epistles give us the meaning of the faith. When it comes to Jesus’ birth, however, the Gospels do a very good job at communicating the meaning.

She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord (Luke 2:11).

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

In their telling of Jesus’ birth, the Gospel writers make crystal clear what is going on: God intends to get back what was his, to put the world back right again. But if we’ve been reading the Bible carefully, laboring through the entire Old Testament—especially some of the difficult parts that are hard to pay attention to—we see that this is what God has actually been up to all along.

And if we have been paying attention and working hard to not get lost in all of the details of war, and injustice, and rules and regulations that seem strange, and prophetic words that seem (to us) to just float out there without context, we can begin to understand the Bible as a very long love story of God. Has anybody ever told you that one way to read the Bible—maybe the best way to read the Bible—is as a story where God is constantly portrayed as a lover, wooing us, the beloved, back home?

There are many places in the Old Testament that illustrate this point. One of the most surprising comes from the Old Testament book of Joel. Things were going very badly for God’s people in Joel’s day. Their crops had been devastated by invasions of locusts, and the people interpreted these invasions as a sign of God’s judgment on them because they had not kept their end of the bargain with God. But amdist all these words of judgment come these words from the prophet:

Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing (Joel 2:12-13).

“Even now…return to the Lord.” Don’t just make a show of it—look deeply within yourselves. Stop going the way you’ve been going. Turn around and come home. What a magnificent promise, revealing the heart of God. It’s a picture that stands in sharp contrast with the idolatry of people, constantly grabbing on to things that promise power and control. This constant need to exert our control over everything and act as if we are God is what has made a such a disaster of things.

The Old Testament is filled with lots of these kinds of illustrations, too. And again, I have a favorite that shows this as clearly as any. It comes from the historical book of 1 Samuel. Samuel is the prophet God has appointed to lead the people. But there’s a problem: Samuel is old and his sons—his likely successors—are not faithful. Everyone knows this, so the people go to Samuel with a request: they ask Samuel to appoint a “king over us, so that we also may be like other nations” (1 Samuel 8:19-20). It’s not just that the people recognize Samuel’s sons are in no position to assume Godly leadership of the people. It’s that they reject God’s leadership and their commitment to walk in God’s ways.

It’s little wonder that this is the point in the Bible where things ultimately make their turn; it is essentially all downhill until Jesus.

This is how God continues writing this love story into the New Testament. It’s what Matthew, and Luke, and John were telling us when they wrote about Jesus’ birth and the other parts of Jesus life they included in the Gospels. It’s what the writer of these words in Philippians wanted us to understand about Jesus. Jesus comes to undo all the mess that humans have made of things, a mess that has left us separated from God. And not only did he come to undo the mess, he came to do it in a particular way:

“[Jesus] did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.” (vv. 6-7a)

Jesus doesn’t fix the problem of our separation from God in the same way that humans have tried to fix it. Jesus doesn’t come in the form of nearly every other earthly ruler that has ever existed—claiming authority by force and holding that over everyone. Jesus doesn’t grab power, he relinquishes it. He emptied himself of his power and his position in Heaven and took the form of a slave.

Jesus could have come with a closed fist and forced us to come back home. But that would be inconsistent with the picture of God as lover in the Old Testament. Instead, Jesus came to us with an open hand, beckoning us back into relationships with him, inviting us to return.

Jesus’ obedience to God’s plan enabled him to become both our Savior and the pattern for our own living. One of the humbling lessons of parenthood is that you really can’t make your children do things. There just comes a point—very quickly!—where they develop minds of their own. We can’t make people behave. We can’t make people reconcile when we hurt one another. We can’t make people follow Jesus. But we can come to one another, open handed, offering the opportunity to return to our Lover and be made whole. As Paul says, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). This is the mind—the mind of a lover who relinquishes power and authority and beckons us to a renewed relationship with him

Will we sing this hymn?

And it begins to suggest something for our own living. Is this relationship just for us, so that we have assurance of eternal life? When we talk about singing a love song, we normally have one person in mind. But Jesus has all of us in mind. And this hymn in the key of love has been written in parts. Jesus is not only our Savior but is also our pattern for living; our salvation is an opportunity to extend to others this same invitation that has been extended to us. We can now begin relinquishing our power, our need to be in control of others, our need to have things our own way, and begin to relate to others not with a closed fist, but with an open hand, beckoning others to join us in this walk of faith.

Taking three weeks to walk through this passage gives us time to work on these questions together. For today, I leave you with two questions

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limejuicer1862 · 6 years

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Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.

The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Lyn Coffin

author of poetry, fiction, drama and translation has published more than thirty volumes of poetry and prose, most notably The First Honeymoon (Iron Twine Press), a collection of her short fiction, and her poetic translation of Shota Rustaveli’s 12th century epic (Poezia Press.) Lyn has twice been a Wordsworth Poet in Seattle. Her poetry has won an National Endowment for the Humanities award and a Michigan Council for the Arts grant. Individual poems have won various awards, including the Jeanne Lohmann Poetry Award and first prize in StAnza’s Scottish International Poetry Festival Muriel Sparks’ competition (2018).

Lyn’s poetry was part of the International Poetry Festival in Soria, Spain (8/2017). This Green Life, her New and Collected Poems, were featured at the 2018 Soria International Poetry Festival, which also celebrated the publishing of the collection in Spanish (Pregunta).

Lyn has had short plays produced on and off Broadway, Malaysia, Boston and Seattle. Her translation (along with Nato Alkhazashvili) of Dato Barbakadze’s “Still Life with Snow” won a translation award from the Georgian Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection.

Lyn’s fiction has been praised by Joyce Carol Oates and Alice Fulton, among others.

“Falling off the Scaffold has, in a sense, no characters at all, only the projected personaes of two people unknown to each other; yet it respects the contours of reality and gives us, in a most unusual form, a story about illusion and self-deception.” – Joyce Carol Oates, from her Introduction to Best American Short Stories

“Coffin’s fiction shows evidence of an original and delightful intelligence. Her lively and memorable characters speak as if they are possessed by forces slightly beyond their control, in voices brimming with wit, intelligence, cunning, and love. The structure of her stories unfolds with such grace that one forgets the skill it takes to produce such ‘effortless’ architecture.”

– Alice Fulton, Winner: American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature

She has taught at several American Universities, (Michigan, Detroit, Washington), as well as in Malaysia and Georgia (Ilya University). She has also taught translation and Creative Writing at The Shota Rustaveli Institute in Tbilisi. She helped launch the 1st official Mexican Book Fair in Toluca, (8/2015) and lectured at the American University in Cairo in (3/2016). Widely praised translations include Standing on Earth, by Mohsen Emadi, (PhonemeMedia Press), translated from Iranian, with the author’s collaboration (9/2016) and The Adventures of a Boy Named Piccolo (Salamura), by Archil Sulakauri, translated from Georgian with Veronica Muskheli. This book, featuring illustrations by Vaho Muskheli, was displayed at Bologna Book Fair (10/ 2016). (Transcendent Zero)

Lyn’s translations of Nikoloz Baratashvili are featured in a book published by The Museum of Literature in Tbilisi. This volume includes all Baratashvili’s original poems, Boris Pasternak’s Russian translations, and Lyn’s English translations. Professor Harsha Ram of Berkeley, a scholar of Georgian and American poetry, said “Overall, if one were to compare these translations to Pasternak’s, one could say that while among Pasternak’s translations there are genuine masterpieces… they also take radical liberties with the original, while Lyn Coffin has achieved her success without permitting her own poetic sensibility to muffle Baratashvili’s own plangent voice.”

The Interview

Who introduced you to poetry?

My father introduced me to poetry. He would give us kids a dollar for every poem we memorized. I believe my first attempt was- As I was going up the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there. I met him there again today. I wish to God he’d go away.” Poetry caught on with me like wildfire moving across a forest without harming the trees. I loved the sound of it, the magic of rhymes. And I had already been caught by metaphor. My first creative writing ever was done in response to a prompt in first or second grade. The teacher asked us to describe ourselves and I wrote something like: “I am rectangular and made of wood. There is a hole in my head where people pour in ink.” (Something like that.) The teacher was wildly enthusiastic but I remember a lot of the kids thinking I had misunderstood the assignment in describing a desk. My father’s taste in poetry was narrow- I only heard him thoroughly praise four “poems”- one the speech from Julius Caesar- “There is a tide in the affairs of men…” The second, Masefield’s “I must go down to the sea again.” Kipling’s If which usually petered out after six lines or so. And “The Ballad of Yukon Jake,” by Edward Paramore, Jr., a parody or whatever it is which was so successful my father constantly misremembered it as having been authored by Service himself. My father was a businessman who had left the halls of learning (Brown) rather early under interesting circumstances, and (as he would be the first to tell you)not the intellectual my mother was. But. He loved to recite poetry and loved to hear us recite it to him. I think once I got $2 for reciting “The Hollow Men” at dinner. I also had friends who knew and loved poetry, including one early boy friend who left a part of “death shall have no dominion” scrawled on a piece of note paper taped to our cottage door (I thought he had written it, which I believe was part of his somewhat nefarious intent). I remember my parents told our plumber on the phone they had left instructions for him and when he found my friend’s poetic offering, he tried to make sense of it in plumbing terms. There were also assorted teachers who introduced me to certain forms of poetry. I remember a professor of Greek talking about Sapphic lyrics, and being so inspired I wrote this: “Poetry is all around us, everywhere you look. Stems ending in a liquid Is a lesson in my grammar book.”

2. How aware were and are you of the dominating influence of older writers, traditional and contemporary?

One is never aware enough. Growing up, I was very aware of the presence of Carl Sandburg, and wrote a parody for the Miss Halls School yearbook about my life, told in Carl Sandburg fashion. A few months later, I got a letter from him praising my poem, but by then I had “moved on” and now was enamored of Robert Frost (I’ve never quite shaken him- especially “Design”- the darkest poem I think I’ve ever read)- so enamored of Frost that I threw away Sandburg’s letter (which had committed the unpardonable sin of not being written by Frost). I don’t know much- I especially regret my lack of knowledge of foreign poets. I’ve always been embarrassingly ignorant. One example (a prosaic one)- My cousin was reading a book- I asked her what it was and she said “The Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant”- “Oh,” I said. “Who’s that by?” A pause. “Well,” she said. “It’s by Guy de Maupassant.” Another pause. “Some people know him as Guy de Mo-pass-ann.” “Oh, Him,” I said.) I have had the great good fortune to stumble upon or be given the chance to become familiar with two GREAT poets most Americans have never heard of- One is Jiri Orten, a Czech (Jewish) poet, killed in the Holocaust and Edward Hirsch has been a great supporter and wrote about Orten’s “A Small Elegy” in my translation in his “How to Read A Poem,” saying it was/is one of the poems he most loves. I hope readers will look up Orten- but avoid the “other” translation. The man means well, but English is not his native language and the translations are (imho) very bad. I also “ran into” the 12th century Georgian (as in the country) poet, Shota Rustaveli and his epic poem, The Knight in the Panther Skin. This is a fantastic narrative, written in shairi (an old Persian form which I also used in my translation; shairi is sixteen syllable lines, rhymed aaaa, bbbb, etc., etc.) Shota wrote 1661 quatrains. The translation took me well over two and a half years. But it won the SABA Award, and that was really nice. I have a dear ear/sensibility as far as Whitman goes and I am only lately learning to edge in to Ginsberg. I have a soft spot for Billy Collins. I’ve written several “paradelles,” and hope some day he will see my “Paradell on Love” and write me about it. (Billy, are you there?)

I wasn’t aware of Poets Against the War, which I think was a crucial movement, until I met Sam Hamill later in (I was going to say “his life,” but it was/is mine, as well)— I copy-edited Habitations and I’m really proud of that. I am minorly aware of contemporary Seattle poets. We have a really active scene here- Jed Myers comes to mind, Judith Roche, Michael Dylan Welch for haiku, Carolyne Wright, Sharon Cumberland. And an only partially-discovered Tom Brush. I love the work of Ilya Kaminsky and Alice Fulton. I am aware of the dominating presence of my teachers, especially Radcliffe Squires (almost forgotten) and Donald Hall.

3. What is your daily writing routine?

This answer is easy. I don’t have a daily writing routine, and I don’t want one. I don’t like routines. Even things I do like seem to pall when they’re on a regular, daily basis. Sometimes I write a whole lot, sometimes nothing. I try to pay heed to that small voice (of a devil, an imp, an angel) and write when I have something to say. I don’t believe (for myself) in journal-writing, or workshops that operate from “a prompt.” If a prompt is used, I ask that everyone who has written a response

(if he or she is willing) read the response to the group. I find it somehow crushing or discouraging to have bunches of people writing and then going on to write something else, without any Communication taking place. The belief seems to be that the act of writing is crucial but what is written doesn’t matter. But sooner or later, when one operates in such a context, I think one comes to feel- If the thing that is written doesn’t matter, neither does the act of producing it. (I hope this makes sense.) I think prompts and exercises make it easier for the writing teacher, but are (not to overstate things) death for the writer, especially a beginning writer. I had a friend who was a writing teacher with me at the University. His classes always involved prompts and his homework involved complicated exercises- “Write a scene in which two people talk and each has a secret he or she does not communicate to the other.” I commented once that I don’t write like that, write in response to “prompts” and he said, “I don’t, either, but it makes writing easier to teach.” If students can’t come up with an idea, I suggest they plagiarize. If you try writing a story or a poem you have loved (unless you have it memorized), your writing will creep in around the edges. I like to compare the teaching of writing, and writing itself, with taking a class of young kids to the Natural History museum. And you’ve prepared this lecture on the Native American way of life and as you go in the door, one kid yells, “Hey, a dinosaur!” And they run off to the dinosaur room. You can try to corral them and force them to listen to your lecture. But I think it better to go with the urge, the instinct, and do an impromptu lesson on dinosaurs.

4. What motivates you to write?

Uh. Well- This is one of those questions. The standard answers I can think of- 1) I dunno, I just always have; 2) That’s like asking what motivates me to breathe. Writing with me goes back a long way- I’ve thought of myself as a writer, or known myself to be a writer, since first grade. Motivational questions are always difficult questions, I think- very complicated. “Why?” has many roots. Even something like “Why did you have cheerios for breakfast?” (as I did this morning) could be answered Because they were out of Rice Krispies. Because I’ve had too many eggs recently and wanted a change. Because I wanted something to put under fresh fruit. Because…. Well, you get the idea. I write because I can, because it seems to me one way I can contribute to the world,because nobody stops me, because I’m a terrible bowler. More seriously, I like reading and I admire authors and as a young child, I “wanted to do that.” Writing releases uncomfortable emotions in me. Writing satisfies uncomfortable ambitions in me. But really- in our end is our beginning- I dunno, I just always have.

5. How do the writers you read when you were young influence you today?

When I think “young,” I’m thinking elementary or high school (first). Let’s start with the short stories- I remember three short stories that really made an impression on me, and only one of them is known to me now. That one, by Richard Connell (I just looked it up- I read it way before author’s names were important), is about a big game hunter who hunts another hunter. I don’t think that had any influence at all. I don’t remember the titles or the authors of the other two- One was about a civilization in the future that had one pill a year to eat- The baby in the family ate a bottle of them and blew up. The other story was about a husband who is cheating on his wife (this one was high school) and he “sports with his mistress in the shade” and then she asks him some question, and he responds that he sleeps around but he only shares ideas with his wife. I don’t think any of these stories had any influence on me at all. Ah. I know. The one story I read early which Did have an influence was “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” Many times over in my life, including in “The Gift Horse,” which I think is the best short story I’ve ever written, I’ve written or tried to write stories that carry over into the afterlife, that don’t end when there main character or narrator dies. As for poetry, I read Sandburg quite a bit and ended up writing a Sandburg parody that was published in my high school yearbook. Somehow it ended up on Sandburg’s desk and he wrote me a short letter praising my poem and predicting great things for

But by the time (a year later?) I got the letter, I had moved on and discovered Robert Frost. I was embarrassed to be “found out” as a lover of Sandburg and I threw the letter away. (I wonder if there’s a copy somewhere in the Sandburg archives- Or a copy of my poem? If only….) “If” and “The Hollow Men” were great favorites. I feel that I’m failng this question (which interest me a lot), so let me quote my first “independent, non-assigned” poem as a way of making up for lost memories. (I wrote this in my first year at college): “Beyond night’s

harvest/ moon-scythed/ fierce tigers stalk./ Green glades/ deep rain-dark

woords/ sheathe cool white claws.” (I regret the “fierce” very much.)

One stray memory- I liked The Little Prince as a child and have read it

countless times, usually when I’m trying to learn a language.

Whether it’s influenced me, I don’t know. I love(d) the little fox,

especially where he discovers there are no hunters on the little prince’s

planet and is really excited about it. Then the little prince tells him

there are no chickens, either, and the little fox says, “Nothing

is perfect.” Ah. I remember one poet I read early who I also remember

had a big influence on me, and that was Stephen Crane. His little nugget

poems (“But the man ran on…”) or “I eat it because it is bitter/ And because

it is mine” (if I remember rightly) paved my way to haiku. I used to discuss

haiku with Sam Hamill, and I remember his brilliant translation of and

interpretation of the famous Bassho frog haiku. Sam explained that

the frog jumped into the sound of water, not the water itself. Somehow,

that explained a lot to me. I have written a lot of haiku. hummingbird/

hovering/ both of us….

6. Who of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

I had the great good fortune to translate Standing on Earth, (Phoneme Media) the poems of Mohsen Emadi, an Iranian poet living in exile in Mexico. Mohsen’s work uniquely fascinates and inspires me. Mohsen knows more about everything literary than any other person I have ever met. Through Mohsen, I became acquainted with the work (in translation) of the great Spanish poet, Antonio Gamoneda. I came close to meeting this archetypal, mythic poet when I was in Spain last summer. I still hope I will be able to tell him in person how much I admire him.

Reading today’s writers is always something in flux. I will do a reading in Ann Arbor in March with Keith Taylor, and I admire him tremendously. I seem to gravitate to poetry of place, and his is definitely a “planted” voice. I admire a poet named Jed Myers, a Seattle poet. I remember when Jed was just starting out and now he has found his voice. Jed not only writes poetry but he reads a lot and always has suggestions for me. He writes essay from his double perspective of poet and psychiatrist. It was Jed who turned me on to Robert Wrigley. I’ve only read two poems by Robert Wrigley, and I loved both of them. I will be reading more. There is a poet in my poets’ group whose name is Tom Brush. He hasn’t published much, but his is a terrific, uncompromising presence in today’s poetry world. There is a wild and outrageously wonderful Georgian(as in the country) poet named Irakli Qolbaia- I think he’s published a few poems in France and a few in Georgia, but he is close to unkown. And wonderful. The last poet I would mention is Ilya Kaminsky. His poetry is wonderful and he himself is a spirit to inspire and lead us. I love his work. I notice there are no women on this list. I admire Judith Roche’s poetry- She is another Seattle friend. I knew Alice Fulton at Michigan. I loved her poetry then but I have lost track of her. I admire the poetry of Carolyn Forche but don’t know it really well. There is so little time and so much poetry to read!

7. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?

How do you become a dog owner? I’m being facetious, obviously, because the question is problematic, hovering halfway between “How did you become a writer?” and “How does one become a writer?” I became a writer by writing lots of stuff and having some people like it enough to publish it. “How does one become a writer?” Some people think writers are born, not made. If one keeps writing, one is a writer. If one calls oneself a writer, one is a writer. Actually, the more interesting question (to me) would be- When does one fail to become a writer (when one wants to be)? THe answer would be- I don’t know- Never? I know plenty of people who write gibberish (on the net, for instance) and are taken seriously as writers. When do you become an adult?- You can assign a year, a state of mind. My son once asked me- “When did you first feel old?” and I fired back, “When did you?” (He was about 30 at the time.) But the question is not Why but How? Is this asking for a recipe? There isn’t any. The closest we get these days is to keeping a journal, and I don’t believe in keeping a journal. There’s a joke/ riddle somewhere- “How do you get a dog out of a box?” Answer: He’s out. I’m not grasping this as I should, probably, but “How do you become a writer?” Answer: You’re a writer. How did you become one? A writer of what? For what? To what end? I’m glad this question comes so near the end, because I basically don’t get it. At least not the way it should be gotten.

8. Tell me about writing projects you’re involved in at the moment.

Ah. Writing projects at the moment are varied— even scattered, I think you could say…. First of all, I spent this evening going back over my novel, The Aftermath. A friend had helped me by marking up a manuscript— inserting quotes, taking out quotes, making various and sundry complaints. I fixed a lot of small stuff. I’m not sure I’ll be able to take out 80 pages, as she suggests, however. This is a novel about a woman who is drugged and raped. The prologue moves very quickly, and leads one to expect a detective thriller or a crime novel, I suppose. But The Aftermath is quite different. My reader didn’t like the time I spent on labor and delivery. But it shows where my protagonist’s mind is…. Sigh. Another project involves Zipf’s law. I became fascinated when someone told me about word frequency, and I found Zipf’s law, listing the 100 most frequent words in English. I have been writing a story a day, increasing the number of common words I leave out. Tonight, I was up to 80, and I think I shall stop there. The story narrators are sounding more and more insane. (Available on my blog, at http://www.lyncoffin.com) Another project I worked on today was preparing the second edition of Rustaveli’s The Knight in the Panther Skin. I am going back over this huge epic, trying to make the caesuras appear more regularly, as Rustaveli himself apparently did. Before, I just put a pause in wherever I wanted. But now I am informed, and reformed. I also looked at Angel Guida’s book of poems, Espectral. I hope to co-translate this before the summer. And I worked a tiny, tiny bit on writing lyrics for a melody that is being composed by my friend, Nino Basharuli. The topic of the song is “Seattle.” So there you have it. I did quite a bit of work on a number of different fronts. So much needs to be done. Thank you very much for interviewing me. Thank you for putting this series up on the web. If there is any mainstream publisher out there who would be willing to read the first 40 pages of The Aftermath, please contact me right away.

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews: Lyn Coffin Wombwell Rainbow Interviews I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me.

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