Frenetic, Excitable, and Direct: Sylvie Baumgartel’s Song of Songs
This poem lets her—the speaker and Baumgartel—be too much.
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Posts Tagged: the bible
New-Old, Old-New: Erica Dawson’s When Rap Spoke Straight to God
Dawson plays with many tropes—light and dark, the spiritual vs. the corporeal—while questioning the everyday myths that surround us.
...moreThe Rumpus Interview with Connie Wanek
Connie Wanek discusses her latest book, Rival Gardens: New and Selected Poems, the challenge of looking back at older poems, and what prioritizing writing looks like.
...moreMary Wept over Sex Worker’s Rights
At The Believer, Shannon Tien caught up with Chester Brown, graphic novelist and author of the newly released Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus, which Tien describes as “essentially a layman’s interpretation of the Bible.” Mary Wept is a collection of graphic adaptations of Biblical scenes involving prostitution, including Brown’s interpretation of Mary as a […]
...moreAll About Banned Books
Americans love banning books, and the winners of this year’s most banned books have been announced by the American Library Association. John Green’s young adult novel Looking for Alaska takes the top spot, keeping Green in the top ten. He was joined this year by the Bible. Other big winners on the top ten list […]
...moreHow to Title Your Next Novel
What patterns, dreams, and desires lie hidden within the ostensible hook of a novel’s title? Dustin Illingworth, for Lit Hub, explores the keys to a successful book title after considering, among others, The Sun Also Rises. They include not using the word “Trimalchio,” and raiding better sources, primary among them the Bible.
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The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Joe Meno
Joe Meno and Margaret Wappler dive deep into his new book, Marvel and a Wonder, talking about race, masculinity, and rural America.
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My Sister’s Legs
Because that’s how it is with sisters. You are them. You are not them. You are broken shards from the same pane of glass, each reflecting a different light.
...moreWhere to Shelve Scripture?
At the New Yorker, Rollo Romig examines the unique position of scripture as literary genre through the lens of history, and with the help of Avi Steinberg’s recent nonfiction title The Lost Book of Mormon. Romig moves through a line of (relatively) recent cases when new scriptures have been introduced, mostly in the US, and attempts to […]
...moreDon’t Read That Book
The history of banning books is almost as old as book themselves. Now Electric Literature has featured an infographic from Printerinks.com exploring that history, beginning with the Bible in 1440 and leading up to The Da Vinci Code in 2003.
...moreSecret Paintings Magically Appear in Old Books
If you haven’t yet seen these secret fore-edge paintings—paintings that appear on the side of the book opposite the spine when you squish the pages into a slanted line—they’re well worth a look. Both Flavorwire and io9 have posts with various photos, animations, and videos. Some of the paintings are thematically fitting (a depiction of […]
...moreBiblical Narratives Revisited
“Philip Esler’s book seeks to probe the mindset of ancient Israelite readers, to uncover their cultural presuppositions and to reveal the patriarchal, patrilocal and patrilinear structures in which their narratives make sense.” Esler’s Sex, Wives, and Warriors: Reading Biblical Narrative with its Ancient Audience walks us through a number of the Bible’s dramatic stories, highlighting […]
...moreA FAN’S NOTES, The Rumpus Sports Column #32: The Quarterback Birthright
When you hear the word rivalry, do you think of old-fashioned sibling throat-grabbing? Are you reminded, for instance, of the moment in the Book of Genesis when Joseph’s brothers rip off his famous ornamented coat and sell their annoyingly prophetic sibling into slavery? Or do you think of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning?
...moreStuck Between Two Impossible Libraries
“Every librarian, every book collector, finds him or herself between these two mythical places—the Perfect Library of God and the Infinite Library of Babel, the one transcribed by Jerome, the other by Borges.” At Lapham’s Quarterly, a beautiful meditation on libraries, God, St. Jerome and Borges — and at the same a pithy diagnosis of […]
...moreThe Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
Who doesn’t like bookplate porn? (via) The Rumpus doesn’t do pop culture, but if you happen to have written something about Lady Gaga, you might want to send it here. (PS. GIANT doesn’t lie. Kate Durbin is awesome.) Apparently, this Orange Prize judge thinks women — at least the women nominated for the Orange Prize […]
...moreSaturday Morning Links
Is the Bible too liberal for you? Too much of that “help the poor” and not enough sinner-smiting? Do you have no knowledge of ancient Greek and no experience in translation? Then you’re perfect for this project. Shirley Dent talks about the difference between idiom and slang, especially as it relates to culture. Reading old […]
...moreMorning Coffee
My coworker wants me to drop an F-Bomb. Photographers talk about their hardest earned shots. way rad. The people of Spain understand who deserves memorializing: Almodovar’s monument. Have you heard about the Conservative Bible Project? You probably have. Sorry! Photographing memorabilia. Guardian UK on sleep paralysis. (via Gerrycanavan.) San Francisco to harness the power of […]
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