R. Crumb's "The Book of Genesis". Wow!

metatron

I greatly enjoyed this book - which as the cover tells you, is Not For Minors! Robert Crumb ( "Keep On Trucking", etc) illustrated it - so the women reflect his famous style of big, thick legged , strong-looking females with firm breasts and big booties.

Beyond those amusements, it's really very interesting to read Genesis this way. You start to see the Patriarchs as similar to Arab tribes or even Afghani types - severely traditional, horny and no one to mess with. I never thought about Genesis having so much sex in it but it does!

You also get the clear( and correct) idea that Yahweh was just a local Canaanite God who evolved into a montheistic God over time. And that the Patriarchs clearly believed in some sort of shadowy afterlife in Sheol, with some kind of soul involved.

You also get the impression that some stuff was Edited Very Badly in Genesis. What's the deal with this 'that ain't my wife, that's my sister' stuff that keeps happening? Weird.

A very interesting take on Genesis, indeed. Your local library might have it.

metatron

doofdaddy

I'll search it out. I was raised on "Keep On Truckin'.

One of the best was a street fight between the krishnas and the mormons (or was it jws?) over turf! LOL! Hilarious!

Satanus

Thanks for the headsup. I always find it interesting when jewish people lampoon their own book [that nonjews consider holy:S].

S

Ps, i hope that he finally found a girl of his dreams.

Satanus

Yah, i used to see his keep on trukin poster so much, back in the day.

S

doofdaddy

Yeah Satanus, when I was a kid, he really was underground. Zap comix could only be bought off street corners from dodgy characters..

ProdigalSon

You know, the behavior of the "Patriarchs" was most of the time downright nasty. But the chances are, it's just another devolution/involution creation myth with new names inserted into familiar roles. Notice how every time a child needs to be born, the one chosen to be the mother is always "barren", but there's a miraculous birth. Couldn't Jehovah have just chosen healthy young women? Why does there always have to be drama? Just to prove that Jehovah can overcome adversity? Well, he's God!! So wtf has he been doing since then?

A little thing that blew me away when I learned it... Abraham was first "Abram" who is just another Brahma with rearranged letters.....seems that "God" always has to add an "h" to the name to make it holy or suit the divine purpose...

May I suggest "Deceptions and Myths of the Bible", by Lloyd M. Graham. You'll never be able to take the Bible the least bit seriously again.

mindseye

Being a big R. Crumb fan, I bought this recently. Never read the whole thing yet, but looked through it a good bit. The art is excellent (goes without saying with Crumb). I find it interesting that it appears that he's done a straight up illustrated narrative of the Genesis text, with little irony or editorializing. It seems to ruffle a few fundamentalist feathers, odd considering it's a literal representation. It's telling that they have a hard time facing the reality that a 'literal' interpretation entails

I quit!

I like Crumb so I'll check it out. Have you seen the documentory "Crumb" by Terry Zwigoff? I found that movie very interesting. He is pretty quirky guy.

mindseye

I quit, that documentary is one of my favorite movies. For all of his quirkiness, Robert comes off as the most 'well adjusted' in the family. His brothers, particularly Charles, are some of the most haunting individuals I've seen in a documentary.

R. Crumb's "The Book of Genesis". Wow!

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