At least for Genesis.
In this week's Phoenix I review R. Crumb's illustrated edition of the Book of Genesis. No, you read that right. R. Crumb. The Bible. Sincere and without sarcasm.
Drawing upon the King James and the recent Robert Alter edition, Crumb provides "straight" text and literal representation of what the text says. No matter how morally unsettling. Probably because of its unsettling aspects.
He sure takes his time rendering the scene where Lot's daughters seduce him with wine and propagate his seed. I essentially argue that Crumb's oversexed misogyny fits perfect with the oversexed misogyny of the Bible's first book.
R. Crumb... The perfect illustrator for Genesis.
Here's the link to the article.
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3 comments:
The perfect illustrator for Genesis should be one's imagination. The problem, to quote from Genesis, is when "every imagination of the thoughts of one's heart is only evil." (Genesis 6:5). How then is one to imagine what is good? What is good? One must be careful lest one draw (pun intended) the wrong conclusion.
I just went out and bought R. Crumb's book in Phoenixville at WOLFGANG's (where else?!). The reason I bought it was that I found it to be a compelling piece of work, carefully crafted by someone for whom, up to now, I have had little respect.
I heartily agree with the note printed on the cover of the book, "ADULT SUPERVISION RECOMMENDED FOR MINORS." This is good advice in any case, but especially in regard of THE BOOK OF GENESIS ILLUSTRATED BY R. CRUMB.
I especially appreciate R. Crumb's own confession, in his introduction to the book:
"... I ironically, do NOT believe the Bible is 'the Word of God.' I believe it is the words of men. It is nonetheless, a powerful text with layers of meaning that reach deep into our collective consciousness, our HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS, if you will."
Then, in the commentary section that concludes his book, R. Crumb writes what I found to be quite a sound hermeneutical approach:
"In setting out to illustrate THE BOOK OF GENESIS," I quickly learned that I had to read the text very carefully ans closely in order to render as accurately as possible the words that were actually written there. In the process, I discovered many subtle and surprising things."
Would that all who consider the Bible take such an approach!
I was particularly struck by Crumb's illustrations of the story of God asking Abraham to offer his son, Isaac as lamb for slaughter.
The liberties Crumb takes are few and the story truly comes to life. The sheer absurdity of the situation, as per Soren Kierkegaard's observations in Fear And Trembling, is astounding.
There is no half-hearted faith. Even for a secular scoundrel like myself.
;)
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