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A Genesis Comic Book (For Adults Only!)

The Book of Genesis by R. Crumb came across my desk this week.  Who knew?  R. Crumb illustrates the whole of Genesis, using the unabridged words of the Bible.

I’d give you more pictorial examples; however, I’m not sure who in my audience will be offended at seeing nudity, so I’ll hold off.  [I’m showing the pictures, however, at my talk at the Historical Novel Society Conference on Saturday.]

In François Mouly’s article in The New Yorker, she quotes Crumb as saying that by the time he reached Noah, “he was annoyed. He had begun to realize…that ‘the whole thing is a piece of patriarchal propaganda, engineered to consciously and deliberately suppress matriarchy.’”

Yeah.  I got that impression, too, while writing Eve…and after finishing the stories of the women of Noah’s Flood.  It is true.  The Bible isn’t always a fun book to read.  It mirrors the culture then.  It mirrors bigotry and prejudice and hatred just like any of the other ancient texts.  Likewise, it has symmetry and beauty and grace, if you’re looking closely enough.  And like it or not, we choose what we will follow and what we will not–a sort of relative religion, you might say.  No one I know actually lives the Bible word-for-word literally, oh, except A. J. Jacobs who lived it for one year to write the book The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.  Everyone I know picks and chooses the mandates he or she will follow.

The Bible differs in two different ways, though, from the ancient texts.  [I’m not sure if this excuses it or not.]  The Hebrew scribes did something that no other culture had done before it.  They made the stories monotheistic and moral.

Now, what does this mean?  Do we write the Bible off because parts of it are derived from other texts (or derived from fiction), or do we take the lessons from it and live in a moral fashion?

I’m not sure.  Definitely, though, if you’re honest with yourself, the Bible isn’t a pretty book.  So you have to start asking some hard questions if you’re toting your lovely leather-bound edition to church every Sunday morning.  If any of you have seen Deadwood (in all its crassness and filthy language…and redemption and love), then you’ll know how I think most of the stories in the Bible “went down.”

[Post image: Section of the cover of The Book of Genesis by R. Crumb]

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