26.3.07

The Bible by Various Authors (deeply inspired by God) Response

After finishing the Bible, I’d have to say it’s a pretty good book (or collection of books for that matter). I say that for a number of reasons. First of all, it contains pretty much all the archetypes of humanity and all the patterns humans tend to delve into, making it pretty comprehensive. It also contains a good tried and tested way of living life that is quite different than one you’re used to hearing about. Everything under the sun is pretty much gone or transcended into something greater in what the Bible talks about.

The Bible is pretty comprehensive in many ways. It has the complete spectrum of human sinfulness for starters. From the story in Genesis about the fall of man and the constant illustrations it provides about that along the way, no part of the human condition is left untouched. It’s got sex, power, money, greed, indulgence, self-centeredness, murder, anger, jealousy, hate, mistrust and so much more abundantly covered in so many different (and sometimes engaging) ways. An interesting and funny thing is that we can still learn from the texts written about 5000 years ago! It shows us that we as just humans haven’t changed much. It covers all that, but the more important aspect the Bible is comprehensive about is living in faith to God. It describes this in so many ways, from a group of people having enough faith in God that they walk in a fire trusting that God will bring them out (and being okay if he doesn’t), to a chronically blind man running to Jesus for healing; the louder voice of the Bible is that God is someone who you can trust your inherently dead life with. These two aspects of the Bible are two sides of the same coin. Our life usually stays on the human sinfulness side of the coin, but the Bible provides pages and pages of great arguments on why even desiring for God to give you the desire to land on the faith side of the coin is worth it. All this comprehensiveness makes the Bible very complicated. Many people have spent their whole lives studying its ways. You’re definitely not going to be left without things to think about when you read the Bible.

As you might have already begun to guess, my favourite part about the Bible is that it points beyond ourselves to faith in God. I find it calming and joyous that God has everything in his hands and that it’s not about us, but about God and him working through us. If it weren’t this way (which is the way I usually think), it’d be pretty hard. Us humans really aren’t meant to carry the infinite weight of creation on our backs (which is what I foolishly try to do a lot of the time). When we try to carry the weight of the world, we feel burnt out and lifeless. Man, am I grateful that God has it all in his hands. I just hope that he can give us all the desire to live with that always in mind.

The many authors of the Bible did pretty good for what they set out to do. For the most part they’re articulate (probably more so in their native language), and more often than not the objects of their writings are of importance. Because of this you get a rich and detailed look at so many amazing things. Most importantly though, regardless of the time they wrote their stuff or what it was about, more than less the authors were deeply inspired by and guided by God in their writings. They were pretty much attempting to write down what God was telling them for the better of Creation. You sometimes hear from people that God wrote the Bible. I think that in this way that statement is true. God didn’t literally get down with a pen or computer and write the Bible from beginning to end. I think he deeply guided specific people to write down what humanity needed to hear. Because the Spirit guided the many writers of the Bible, the Bible was in a way written by God.

Overall, I’d recommend the Bible and give it a ten out of ten; although a lot of it I would say blows our rating system out of the water. Most of it is just to good to be kept in by human comprehension and judgement. If you are reading the Bible, I will give you a few words of advice. First, try to ignore or treat as second nature the hubris and prejudice the Bible has accumulated over the years. Because the Bible is so comprehensive, people can use it for good and evil (whatever those are). It’s gotten a bad name because of the twisted and evil ways people have used it. Also, try not to be judgemental about it and thus interpret it in crazy ways and you’ve got yourself a pretty amazing read. I wish you luck and hope that it guides you to God.

9.3.07

Response to Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

My adventure with Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein started when I received a copy of the riveting graphic novel from my mother. I then read the classic book to follow up on that, which wasn’t as riveting in nature but still an amazing book that delves into very important themes.

If you don’t already know, this novel follows the story of the scientist Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein becomes very interested in the natural world and how everything works and eventually aspires to create a humanoid creature out of body parts from the deceased. In a rush of sadly blind excitement, Victor finishes the monster only to be repulsed by his atrocious appearance. The innocent monster then departs and comes to live on the outskirts of civilization, gradually learning the ways, language and culture of these beings called humans. After a few fearful run ins with people, the monster settles in hiding near a rural family. The monster then begins to befriend a blind grandfather of that family, only to be banished for the final time by the grandfather’s relatives. After that, the monster goes on a streak of killings with the goal of acquiring revenge upon his creator, Victor. The novel ends in ambiguity, with Victor and his monster both dying.

Upon finishing Frankenstein, I have to say that the story portrays the fall of man pretty well. It looks like Victor's creation of the monster parallels Adam’s acquisition of the fruit of knowledge. Just like Adam’s banishment from Eden into a land that is full of suffering and pain, once Frankenstein has created his monster, he definitely enters into a land full of pain and suffering – one which he had only hoped to escape through death.

The story’s alternate name; The Modern Prometheus is also very important because of Frankenstein’s archetypal nature. In a lot of the Greek myths, Prometheus was a man who stole hidden fire from Zeus and returned it to earth. Zeus then chained him to a rock, where an eagle fed on his continually replenishing liver. To be a Promethean is to focus your whole life on projects which you yourself have determined are worthwhile. The means of fulfilling the various projects include a blind ignorance to the surroundings and a general sense of destruction. Victor Frankenstein is definitely a Promethean, who from the beginning of the story to the end spends his time trying to steal fire from the gods and paying the consequences for that. Because of this, a lot of the story painfully shows Victor in the metaphorical state of being chained to a rock with his liver being eternally eaten out, while he is continually in pursuit of his monster. The reason I say that Victor’s liver is being constantly eaten is because of the incredible amount of suffering he experiences for his act of creating life where life shouldn’t have been created. The story of Frankenstein very well shows that when we get obsessed with our projects, people, things, the world and ultimately God’s intentions for us get really screwed around with.

If you look at the life of Mary Shelley when she wrote this book it’s pretty hard not to let your jaw drop. It’s pretty amazing that she wrote such an archetypal and spot-on book with such little life experience and before she was 18! And the fact that she wrote it merely for a story contest shows the spontaneity of it! It seems sort of like God was using her to write such an amazing story to tell us humans what we can become.

Overall, I’m glad that I read Frankenstein. I’m pretty sure I have a lot to learn from it and in coming years will come to identify more with Victor and his monster as I come to see life more through the paradigm the book presents. I hope to read it again sometime, and recommend you too read it!