Quote:
Originally Posted by Godless Wonder
Ah, I see, I'm sophmoric and shallow for not wishing to dig through centuries of encrusted rubbish to find "significance" and "rich imagery."
|
You don't have to analyse the texts, but, if you are going to comment on them without having read them fairly, what value are such comments?
The texts are not themselves encrusted -- it is only a matter of perspective --, the reader's attitude to them however is what is really encrusted.
The job of the
reasonable reader of such texts is to understand them in their context, judging them on the basis of that context.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Godless Wonder
Which, this encrusting of rubbish BTW is not in any way confined to Genesis in my opinion, the Pentateuch is full of various lists of offenses, laws, plunder, etc.
|
What do you find in comparable literature?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Godless Wonder
...that can hardly be considered literature,
|
How would you know?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Godless Wonder
...and things don't improve much when you get past those, in fact it appears not to be an encrusting of rubbish so much as the main component.)
|
I think you are being repetitive. You say I don't want to read this stuff because I know it's rubbish, so you don't read it, but you still say it's rubbish, without a clue about the elements of the genre they're working in, so, not knowing anything about what you are commenting on, except for what you import to them, you continue to make noise.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Godless Wonder
I don't like digging through rubbish. I stand by my statement, it's not good literature in my opinion.
|
Uninformed opinions are, well, umm, uninformed. Why not just say you're not interested enough to understand the texts, rather than denigrate yourself?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Godless Wonder
It is not enjoyable for me to read, it is tedious and boring.
|
I could make the same statement about the poetry of Alexander Pope, but I'd guess that's because I'm not prepared to dip into the world in which Pope was writing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Godless Wonder
I say the same thing about the first, say, 80-100 pages of Jules Verne's 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, though at least his tedium is an attempt to build up some suspense, a concept completely absent from the Bible, as far as I can tell.
|
He's a lot closer to your time of writing, so you are culturally more prepared to deal with the text.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Godless Wonder
This is all a matter of opinion, of course, and of course you are free to disagree, but if I don't like it, you can't tell me I'm wrong for not liking it and expect me to take it very seriously. If you enjoy reading the Bible, more power to you.
|
That's very fair of you.
spin