There are many tellings and translations and variations when it comes to The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. But pretty much everyone is familiar with this outlaw who was notorious for robbing from the rich to give to the poor, in a land where the true king was gone and the deputy rulers were using their civil and religious authority for their own advantage rather than to serve the people.
Robin Hood is known for hiding out in the woods with his band of followers, impossible to find, unless he chooses to be "found" on his own terms and his own turf where he can keep the upper hand on the encounter. He loves to kidnap and host wealthy travelers to a great banquet, letting them go only when they have a full belly and an empty purse. Occasionally he'll take a risk to come into town to win an archery contest or rescue a friend, but it is usually in disguise. He is an enemy of the state, but we are rooting for him because the state is run by a corrupt network of self-interested rascals.
My favorite tale in the collection is when King Richard, who has been out of the country for a very long time, first battling, then a prisoner, returns to his land to try to figure out where the domestic loyalties lie. Some of the local authorities are supporting Richard's brother John's attempts to usurp the throne. He hears mixed stories about this outlaw in Sherwood Forest and takes wise advice to cloak himself as a monk and be "found" by the Band of Yeoman. Robin hosts a fine banquet for his guest without knowing the guest is his king. It is very satisfying when the King can be assured for himself that very few of his subjects are more loyal than this outlaw. He uncloaks himself and Robin bows before him.
It is wonderful to meet a king who is not below resorting to a trick of disguise. Someone who is truly interested in discovering the truth, and is willing to create a potentially awkward situation in which people have their guard down and say what they really think. We squirm with anticipation when a King gets to sit next to flattering pretenders who expose their own duplicity right to the King without realizing who's presence they are in. It is thrilling when that King gets a chance to test and see the authentic loyalty of those who have been falsely accused of betrayal.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Day 18: Prince on the Streets
My first introduction to this story was a modern film adaptation called P.J and the President's Son. When I was a kid, I spent many Saturday mornings at the library, and once in a while they would show a film adaptation of a literary classic in the library basement. P.J. and the President's Son is based on the story by Mark Twain called The Prince and the Pauper. This one has a unique twist because the prince can live on the streets for a long time with no one missing him, because he has changed clothes with a real pauper named Tom Canty who looks just like him. The prince comes to learn first hand what is really going on in London outside of the royal palace, and when he returns just in time for coronation day to get crowned himself, he is determined to increase mercy and justice for citizens who had not been receiving humane treatment by those entrusted with civil and religious authority.
This novel has a great comic chapter, Chapter 32, Coronation Day, which describes a public throng undergoing the brain-befuddling experience of apocalypse. When the pauper comes to Westminster Abbey on coronation day, the true prince interrupts the ceremony and announces that he is the true prince, even though he is all dirty and dressed in rags. The chapter helps us imagine what it would be like to have a wrench thrown into a once-in-a-lifetime event in which everyone is confident about who's who on stage:
These sentence fragments trace the crowd's and the royal attendants' collective emotion and response to the surprise that unfolded at the coronation gathering:
multitude in the galleries alive with interest,
a waiting pause; then, at a signal, a triumphant peal of music burst forth,
the entire multitude rose, and the ceremony of the Recognition ensued.
a noble anthem swept the Abbey with its rich waves of sound;
impressive solemnity
deep hush
startling apparition intruded upon the scene
a sort of panic of astonishment swept the assemblage
stared in a bewildered way at one another and at the chief figures in this scene,
wondered whether they were awake and in their senses, or asleep and dreaming.
a paralysis fell upon the house; no one moved, no one spoke; indeed no one knew how to act or what to say, in so strange and surprising an emergency.
all minds were struggling to right themselves.
the tangled minds still floundered helplessly
the sternness vanished away, and gave place to an expression of wondering surprise.
perplexity
perilous to the State and to us all, to entertain so fateful a riddle as this; it could divide the nation and undermine the throne.
troublesome and perilous business
all the company wondered at this speech
now began a movement of the gorgeous particles of that offical group . . . . a movement which little by little, in the present case, dissolved the glittering crowd that stood about Tom Canty and clustered it together in the neighborhood of the new-comer.
the whole assemblage was on its feet, now, and well nigh out of its mind with uneasiness, apprehension, and consuming excitement
a deafening buzz of frantic conversation
for five minutes the air quaked with shouts and the crash of musical instruments, and was white with a storm of waving handkerchiefs;
the avalanche of laughter
cannon thundered the news to the city, and all London seemed to rock with applause.
Avalanches, quakes, a crowd struck mute, the world turning upside down. People falling on their faces, not in horror, but because they are laughing so hard at the final surprise punchline, delivered with absolutely perfect timing: "Speak up, good lad, and fear nothing," said the king. "How used you the Great Seal of England?" Tom stammered a moment, in a pathetic confusion, then got it out--"To crack nuts with!"
This novel has a great comic chapter, Chapter 32, Coronation Day, which describes a public throng undergoing the brain-befuddling experience of apocalypse. When the pauper comes to Westminster Abbey on coronation day, the true prince interrupts the ceremony and announces that he is the true prince, even though he is all dirty and dressed in rags. The chapter helps us imagine what it would be like to have a wrench thrown into a once-in-a-lifetime event in which everyone is confident about who's who on stage:
These sentence fragments trace the crowd's and the royal attendants' collective emotion and response to the surprise that unfolded at the coronation gathering:
multitude in the galleries alive with interest,
a waiting pause; then, at a signal, a triumphant peal of music burst forth,
the entire multitude rose, and the ceremony of the Recognition ensued.
a noble anthem swept the Abbey with its rich waves of sound;
impressive solemnity
deep hush
startling apparition intruded upon the scene
a sort of panic of astonishment swept the assemblage
stared in a bewildered way at one another and at the chief figures in this scene,
wondered whether they were awake and in their senses, or asleep and dreaming.
a paralysis fell upon the house; no one moved, no one spoke; indeed no one knew how to act or what to say, in so strange and surprising an emergency.
all minds were struggling to right themselves.
the tangled minds still floundered helplessly
the sternness vanished away, and gave place to an expression of wondering surprise.
perplexity
perilous to the State and to us all, to entertain so fateful a riddle as this; it could divide the nation and undermine the throne.
troublesome and perilous business
all the company wondered at this speech
now began a movement of the gorgeous particles of that offical group . . . . a movement which little by little, in the present case, dissolved the glittering crowd that stood about Tom Canty and clustered it together in the neighborhood of the new-comer.
the whole assemblage was on its feet, now, and well nigh out of its mind with uneasiness, apprehension, and consuming excitement
a deafening buzz of frantic conversation
for five minutes the air quaked with shouts and the crash of musical instruments, and was white with a storm of waving handkerchiefs;
the avalanche of laughter
cannon thundered the news to the city, and all London seemed to rock with applause.
Avalanches, quakes, a crowd struck mute, the world turning upside down. People falling on their faces, not in horror, but because they are laughing so hard at the final surprise punchline, delivered with absolutely perfect timing: "Speak up, good lad, and fear nothing," said the king. "How used you the Great Seal of England?" Tom stammered a moment, in a pathetic confusion, then got it out--"To crack nuts with!"
Friday, March 5, 2010
Day 17: The Cloak
There is another sub-set of stories that give me the tingles because they share an element similar to the veil. This time it is not generally a covering of the face, but it is a covering of the crown. Royalty under cloak. A few years ago I was searching the web for stories of royalty under a cloak beyond the ones that I knew and my search came up with a real news story!
Read it here.
I don't know about you, but it makes me want to find out more about this present day king and what kind of an impact he is now having as he rules his country and interacts with the other nations of his region.
Many royal figures suffer from the inability to truly know what their advisors or subjects are feeling and thinking because advisors tend to flatter in the hopes of keeping their position of influence, and subjects will either be star-struck or awe-struck and not have the presence of mind or the courage to express their own attitudes or opinions honestly either. Some rulers become paranoid, not knowing who they can really put their trust in, so they imagine everyone a potential traitor or usurper. Some royalty enjoy the insulated world they can experience when they never have to confront reality about their own faults or immaturity, or the problems in their realm. And some royalty decide to go undercover once in a while to get the real scoop on the state of the Kingdom.
My sophomore highschool English class with Mr. Cole read a book of Greek and Roman myths together, and upon finishing the book we were all assigned a group project to pick one of the stories and act it out. Our group chose the story of Baucis and Philemon. They are a poor elderly couple who turn out to be the only people in a region to open their doors to some weary travelers. The weary travelers are Zeus and Hermes, two gods in disguise. Baucis and Philemon knew that it is always wise to show hospitality to unidentified travelers, they may be rulers or gods. They were rewarded for their hospitality.
Genesis 18 tells a similar hospitality story, Abraham and Sarah welcoming three strangers who turn out to be divine guests. Acts 14 introduces us to a group of townspeople who know the Baucis and Philemon story quite well, and eagerly anticipated the day that a pair a visiting strangers might reveal themselves to be divine.
Read it here.
I don't know about you, but it makes me want to find out more about this present day king and what kind of an impact he is now having as he rules his country and interacts with the other nations of his region.
Many royal figures suffer from the inability to truly know what their advisors or subjects are feeling and thinking because advisors tend to flatter in the hopes of keeping their position of influence, and subjects will either be star-struck or awe-struck and not have the presence of mind or the courage to express their own attitudes or opinions honestly either. Some rulers become paranoid, not knowing who they can really put their trust in, so they imagine everyone a potential traitor or usurper. Some royalty enjoy the insulated world they can experience when they never have to confront reality about their own faults or immaturity, or the problems in their realm. And some royalty decide to go undercover once in a while to get the real scoop on the state of the Kingdom.
My sophomore highschool English class with Mr. Cole read a book of Greek and Roman myths together, and upon finishing the book we were all assigned a group project to pick one of the stories and act it out. Our group chose the story of Baucis and Philemon. They are a poor elderly couple who turn out to be the only people in a region to open their doors to some weary travelers. The weary travelers are Zeus and Hermes, two gods in disguise. Baucis and Philemon knew that it is always wise to show hospitality to unidentified travelers, they may be rulers or gods. They were rewarded for their hospitality.
Genesis 18 tells a similar hospitality story, Abraham and Sarah welcoming three strangers who turn out to be divine guests. Acts 14 introduces us to a group of townspeople who know the Baucis and Philemon story quite well, and eagerly anticipated the day that a pair a visiting strangers might reveal themselves to be divine.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Day 16: My last veil story for now
Measure for Measure, William Shakespeare.
(My library has the BBC Ambrose Video which is like watching a play that is filmed, rather than watching a film, but it still a great experience.)
I have been going to the Shakespeare theatre on Navy Pier as a season subscriber for 10 years, and though I was taught in my childhood religious instruction that drama was an off-limits story-telling method for a Christian (I can now say the opposite--that it is the greatest story-telling method on earth), and though I did my best back then to enjoy Shakespeare just by reading him, I now say that it is impossible to really make sense of everything unless you see it all acted out. The language is complex, lots of English vocabulary meanings have changed over time, and what is more, there are so many double meanings to things that you need the face and body language of a good actor to catch more of the meaning. I personally need about five viewings and going back to my Bevington Complete Works book and reading all the footnotes and viewing it again while I read along. See the plays, watch the films! Don't miss out on these totally awesome stories!
So Measure for Measure. Studied it in college and I didn't get that thrilled about it. So from my first introduction as a kid to the popular Shakespeare stories (comic-style abridged versions), Merchant of Venice was my first favorite, then it was As You Like It.
When Much Ado About Nothing came out on film in 1993, that became my new favorite. And then in the mid 2000s I saw Measure for Measure at Navy Pier and it is now my top of the list of favorite Shakespeare plays.
And of course, lots of delayed recognition. I have to come back to this one later too I guess, now that I'm trying to group the stories a bit into sub-topics.
You'll just have to go watch it if you want a summary, because there are a lot of parts to it. But I'm talking about veils.
Angelo, like Jacob and Judah and Claudio in my other favorite veil stories, needs to recognize a few things about life and needs to have his hypocrisy exposed publicly. The wise people in his life (well, yes, ultimately the wise author) decide that exposure and recognition will best happen through a trick of the veil.
A temporarily-placed-in-charge government official named Angelo wants to whip his lawless town into shape, and has sentenced a man to death for public example and crime deterrent. The man's sister, Isabella, comes to him to beg for mercy for her brother. He agrees to pardon the brother Claudio on one condition, if she sneak to his house some night and have sex with him. Never mind that Angelo is already engaged to another lady that he has sort of dumped, or that he is executing Claudio for the offense of getting his own fiance pregnant before they were technically married, or that Isabella is a nun and has made vows of celibacy.
Angelo feels pretty bad about realizing that he is giving in to tempation, but not bad enough to change his mind. He welcomes a veiled woman to his room at night, and the next day decides not to pardon Claudio after all. But he should have looked more closely and lifted the veil. It was not the nun, it was Mariana, the fiance he had dumped. There is a lot more to the story of course and I'll be coming back to this one, but the veil trick was a big part of bringing this story to a resolution called comedy. Mariana reminds us why it is worth spending a little time and effort to bring hypocrites (those blind to their own reliance on pretense) through the crisis of apocalypse that happens when masks and veils are donned and lifted: "They say best men are molded out of faults, and, for the most, become much more the better for being a little bad." Hypocrites love the right and hate the wrong, they have that going for them, they just don't see that they are in the wrong as much as everyone they are pointing fingers at. Once they recognize reality, they can finally experience what it is to beg for and receive mercy.
(My library has the BBC Ambrose Video which is like watching a play that is filmed, rather than watching a film, but it still a great experience.)
I have been going to the Shakespeare theatre on Navy Pier as a season subscriber for 10 years, and though I was taught in my childhood religious instruction that drama was an off-limits story-telling method for a Christian (I can now say the opposite--that it is the greatest story-telling method on earth), and though I did my best back then to enjoy Shakespeare just by reading him, I now say that it is impossible to really make sense of everything unless you see it all acted out. The language is complex, lots of English vocabulary meanings have changed over time, and what is more, there are so many double meanings to things that you need the face and body language of a good actor to catch more of the meaning. I personally need about five viewings and going back to my Bevington Complete Works book and reading all the footnotes and viewing it again while I read along. See the plays, watch the films! Don't miss out on these totally awesome stories!
So Measure for Measure. Studied it in college and I didn't get that thrilled about it. So from my first introduction as a kid to the popular Shakespeare stories (comic-style abridged versions), Merchant of Venice was my first favorite, then it was As You Like It.
When Much Ado About Nothing came out on film in 1993, that became my new favorite. And then in the mid 2000s I saw Measure for Measure at Navy Pier and it is now my top of the list of favorite Shakespeare plays.
And of course, lots of delayed recognition. I have to come back to this one later too I guess, now that I'm trying to group the stories a bit into sub-topics.
You'll just have to go watch it if you want a summary, because there are a lot of parts to it. But I'm talking about veils.
Angelo, like Jacob and Judah and Claudio in my other favorite veil stories, needs to recognize a few things about life and needs to have his hypocrisy exposed publicly. The wise people in his life (well, yes, ultimately the wise author) decide that exposure and recognition will best happen through a trick of the veil.
A temporarily-placed-in-charge government official named Angelo wants to whip his lawless town into shape, and has sentenced a man to death for public example and crime deterrent. The man's sister, Isabella, comes to him to beg for mercy for her brother. He agrees to pardon the brother Claudio on one condition, if she sneak to his house some night and have sex with him. Never mind that Angelo is already engaged to another lady that he has sort of dumped, or that he is executing Claudio for the offense of getting his own fiance pregnant before they were technically married, or that Isabella is a nun and has made vows of celibacy.
Angelo feels pretty bad about realizing that he is giving in to tempation, but not bad enough to change his mind. He welcomes a veiled woman to his room at night, and the next day decides not to pardon Claudio after all. But he should have looked more closely and lifted the veil. It was not the nun, it was Mariana, the fiance he had dumped. There is a lot more to the story of course and I'll be coming back to this one, but the veil trick was a big part of bringing this story to a resolution called comedy. Mariana reminds us why it is worth spending a little time and effort to bring hypocrites (those blind to their own reliance on pretense) through the crisis of apocalypse that happens when masks and veils are donned and lifted: "They say best men are molded out of faults, and, for the most, become much more the better for being a little bad." Hypocrites love the right and hate the wrong, they have that going for them, they just don't see that they are in the wrong as much as everyone they are pointing fingers at. Once they recognize reality, they can finally experience what it is to beg for and receive mercy.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Day 15: Another veil bed trick
Much Ado About Nothing, William Shakespeare
(the 1993 film adaptation starring Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson and a bunch of other great actors is my favorite way to enjoy this play.)
Well I could spend many days just talking about this delightful comedy which has delay of recognition running through it about 8 different ways. But I am trying to stick to the veil tricks, so I will go back to the other parts on a different day.
Claudio is a love-at-first-sight kind of guy, and he loved the beautiful young Hero as soon as he laid eyes upon her and before he even had a conversation with her. . .. "in mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on." His friend Benedick teases him for his quick decision to make her his wife.
The night before their wedding, Claudio looks up to Hero's bedroom window and "sees" her entertaining a lover, and so he makes another quick decision based on first sight and publicly denounces her as a "rotten orange" at the wedding ceremony.
It turns out that the two lovers in the bedroom were a trick set up by rascal Don John, to deceive Claudio's eyes, and it takes the rest of the play for everyone to find out who was really making love in Hero's bedroom. The woman's face was veiled from full recognition by the dark night and her hair, but the it was enough for Claudio that the man was moaning Hero's name, and it was Hero's bedroom, and yes the lady had Hero's clothing on.
After the groom and the bride's dad knock her down and kick her around with disgust at the altar, Hero is announced to be dead of a broken heart and the public stripping of her honor. Really though, she is hidden by the friar in a safe place until her innocence can be proven, and when it is, Claudio recognizes how mistaken he has been with his hasty judgments of "She's an angel . . . .no she's a slut." He recognizes that he has been the cause of Hero's death and asks her father what he could do to make up for his mistakes. He agrees to marry Hero's cousin, and she shows up at the wedding with a thick veil. Obviously, he can't completely stop relying on appearances, because he does ask if he could see the girl's face before he makes the vows, but Hero's dad refuses that request. Claudio agrees to marry first and see what he gets later, as an attempt to put "first sight" in the back seat a bit more.
And if you haven't guessed by now, once Claudio vows to marry her no matter what she looks like . . . the lady is unveiled and Hero is before him. Everyone thought she was dead so you can imagine the surprise on the faces of the groom and the groomsmen. "Another Hero!" "Hero that is dead!"
Claudio and Hero were young immature lovers who were mostly in love with an ideal of being in love, so the two veil tricks were a necessary part of their story. By the end of the comedy, it seems that they both are learning to recognize each other as real humans rather than just the object needed to wear the tux or the gown for "my dream wedding."
(the 1993 film adaptation starring Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson and a bunch of other great actors is my favorite way to enjoy this play.)
Well I could spend many days just talking about this delightful comedy which has delay of recognition running through it about 8 different ways. But I am trying to stick to the veil tricks, so I will go back to the other parts on a different day.
Claudio is a love-at-first-sight kind of guy, and he loved the beautiful young Hero as soon as he laid eyes upon her and before he even had a conversation with her. . .. "in mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on." His friend Benedick teases him for his quick decision to make her his wife.
The night before their wedding, Claudio looks up to Hero's bedroom window and "sees" her entertaining a lover, and so he makes another quick decision based on first sight and publicly denounces her as a "rotten orange" at the wedding ceremony.
It turns out that the two lovers in the bedroom were a trick set up by rascal Don John, to deceive Claudio's eyes, and it takes the rest of the play for everyone to find out who was really making love in Hero's bedroom. The woman's face was veiled from full recognition by the dark night and her hair, but the it was enough for Claudio that the man was moaning Hero's name, and it was Hero's bedroom, and yes the lady had Hero's clothing on.
After the groom and the bride's dad knock her down and kick her around with disgust at the altar, Hero is announced to be dead of a broken heart and the public stripping of her honor. Really though, she is hidden by the friar in a safe place until her innocence can be proven, and when it is, Claudio recognizes how mistaken he has been with his hasty judgments of "She's an angel . . . .no she's a slut." He recognizes that he has been the cause of Hero's death and asks her father what he could do to make up for his mistakes. He agrees to marry Hero's cousin, and she shows up at the wedding with a thick veil. Obviously, he can't completely stop relying on appearances, because he does ask if he could see the girl's face before he makes the vows, but Hero's dad refuses that request. Claudio agrees to marry first and see what he gets later, as an attempt to put "first sight" in the back seat a bit more.
And if you haven't guessed by now, once Claudio vows to marry her no matter what she looks like . . . the lady is unveiled and Hero is before him. Everyone thought she was dead so you can imagine the surprise on the faces of the groom and the groomsmen. "Another Hero!" "Hero that is dead!"
Claudio and Hero were young immature lovers who were mostly in love with an ideal of being in love, so the two veil tricks were a necessary part of their story. By the end of the comedy, it seems that they both are learning to recognize each other as real humans rather than just the object needed to wear the tux or the gown for "my dream wedding."
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Day 14: Veil Again
This was one of the Bible stories I never knew of till I was a young adult, because in my elementary Bible and catechism classes, the violent stories were told with all the blood and gore (i.e. Jael pounding a tent stake through the head of a sleeping soldier), but the sex-laced Bible stories were adapted to a G-rating or skipped altogether. And by the time we were old enough to know the facts of life, the religious formation classes had moved on from the Bible stories to the epistles and systematic summaries of doctrine. This story is obviously hard to tell in any form without talking about sex and semen and prostitution. But is a favorite of mine because it depends on a delay of recognition and ends with a very satisfying resolution of conflict.
Tamar and Judah, Genesis 38
Tamar is widowed before she bears any son, which is an extremely hopeless state for her to be in. Her father-in-law, Judah, honors a law of justice to women by letting Tamar try conceiving a firstborn son to continue her dead husband's line, through semen donation from her dead husband's brother. That brother is not willing to have a baby that he won't be the acknowledged father of, so he practices the pull-out method of birth control. Then he dies, so Tamar looks to be quite the Black Widow, and dad-in-law is not so sure he wants her anywhere near his only surviving son. She is sent back to her family, used goods and childless and better off dead.
I wonder if Tamar had heard the story of Grandma Leah's veil trick! Anyway she also dons a veil and puts herself out there on the road with the intent of turning a trick on her father-in-law. He does not recognize her, assumes she's a prostitute, and has sex with her and gets her pregnant. She also shows a mastery of timing as she carefully delays any recognition till pregnancy is certain. She ensures that she can prove paternity one the day when he finds out his widowed daughter-in-law is pregnant and yells "Burn that slut" with an impressive show of righteous outrage. Even in those days Jerry and Maurie would have had plenty of baby-daddy dramas to bring on their shows!
Because this story is placed as an interlude in Joseph's story, it seems that it is regarded as an necessary sub-plot for later developments in the drama of Joseph and his jealous brothers. It seems that Judah recognizes something about his hypocrisy when he is forced to publicly acknowledge the truth about Tamar's illegitimate pregnancy. He reaches a new level of maturity that he did not have during the drama of Joseph's captivity, for he takes responsibility for his actions at last, announces that Tamar came by her children quite honestly, even though she was veiled. He cares for Tamar properly after that, and he is now ready to be the first brother willing to personally offer himself up for punishment in the place of his little brother Benjamin at court in Egypt.
But that sibling rivalry is still in the bloodline. Tamar's twin sons act out a rivalrous childbirth scene that remind us of Jacob and Esau who were wrestling for elder son status already in utero. Zereh punches his hand out first and gets tagged as firstborn by the midwife, but then that hand is yanked back in (poor Tamar!) It is Perez who crowns and breaks out first. I'm sure the brothers argued all their lives about who was technically the oldest and the favorite. Maybe they died without ever knowing for sure, but we get to see that it was Perez who was chosen as a link in the royal ancestral line that will lead to King David and eventually to Jesus of Nazareth.
Tamar and Judah, Genesis 38
Tamar is widowed before she bears any son, which is an extremely hopeless state for her to be in. Her father-in-law, Judah, honors a law of justice to women by letting Tamar try conceiving a firstborn son to continue her dead husband's line, through semen donation from her dead husband's brother. That brother is not willing to have a baby that he won't be the acknowledged father of, so he practices the pull-out method of birth control. Then he dies, so Tamar looks to be quite the Black Widow, and dad-in-law is not so sure he wants her anywhere near his only surviving son. She is sent back to her family, used goods and childless and better off dead.
I wonder if Tamar had heard the story of Grandma Leah's veil trick! Anyway she also dons a veil and puts herself out there on the road with the intent of turning a trick on her father-in-law. He does not recognize her, assumes she's a prostitute, and has sex with her and gets her pregnant. She also shows a mastery of timing as she carefully delays any recognition till pregnancy is certain. She ensures that she can prove paternity one the day when he finds out his widowed daughter-in-law is pregnant and yells "Burn that slut" with an impressive show of righteous outrage. Even in those days Jerry and Maurie would have had plenty of baby-daddy dramas to bring on their shows!
Because this story is placed as an interlude in Joseph's story, it seems that it is regarded as an necessary sub-plot for later developments in the drama of Joseph and his jealous brothers. It seems that Judah recognizes something about his hypocrisy when he is forced to publicly acknowledge the truth about Tamar's illegitimate pregnancy. He reaches a new level of maturity that he did not have during the drama of Joseph's captivity, for he takes responsibility for his actions at last, announces that Tamar came by her children quite honestly, even though she was veiled. He cares for Tamar properly after that, and he is now ready to be the first brother willing to personally offer himself up for punishment in the place of his little brother Benjamin at court in Egypt.
But that sibling rivalry is still in the bloodline. Tamar's twin sons act out a rivalrous childbirth scene that remind us of Jacob and Esau who were wrestling for elder son status already in utero. Zereh punches his hand out first and gets tagged as firstborn by the midwife, but then that hand is yanked back in (poor Tamar!) It is Perez who crowns and breaks out first. I'm sure the brothers argued all their lives about who was technically the oldest and the favorite. Maybe they died without ever knowing for sure, but we get to see that it was Perez who was chosen as a link in the royal ancestral line that will lead to King David and eventually to Jesus of Nazareth.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Day 13: Veil
A few of my favorite stories deals with delayed recognition due to a veil.
Jacob and Leah and Rachel, Genesis 29
Many people have woken up to be shocked at who is in bed with them, thanks to so called "beer goggles" or some other substance that has plays games with those important brain processes of perception and inhibition and decision-making.
Maybe he had had a few too many drinks himself on his big wedding night. I don't know, but the story says it was a veil that was to blame. Leah kept her true identity veiled for the wedding and beyond, long enough to consummate the marriage and help her father trick the Trickster.
Usually this story is told to children with greater sympathy for Jacob and Rachel, but I was glad to see that Douwe's little Jesus storybook Bible interprets this story a little more favorably toward Leah. Jacob has met a good match in Leah, he who used his own tricky ways to grasp something precious away from his brother Esau. The less beautiful, less noticed sister now gets her turn to have some recognition, well, not in love, but in bearing many sons. And lots of sons mattered much more than love in this family, it seems.
Delayed recognition, bed trick, all part of the process of building a nation called Israel.
Jacob and Leah and Rachel, Genesis 29
Many people have woken up to be shocked at who is in bed with them, thanks to so called "beer goggles" or some other substance that has plays games with those important brain processes of perception and inhibition and decision-making.
Maybe he had had a few too many drinks himself on his big wedding night. I don't know, but the story says it was a veil that was to blame. Leah kept her true identity veiled for the wedding and beyond, long enough to consummate the marriage and help her father trick the Trickster.
Usually this story is told to children with greater sympathy for Jacob and Rachel, but I was glad to see that Douwe's little Jesus storybook Bible interprets this story a little more favorably toward Leah. Jacob has met a good match in Leah, he who used his own tricky ways to grasp something precious away from his brother Esau. The less beautiful, less noticed sister now gets her turn to have some recognition, well, not in love, but in bearing many sons. And lots of sons mattered much more than love in this family, it seems.
Delayed recognition, bed trick, all part of the process of building a nation called Israel.
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