Crumb's GENESIS: Jacob and Esau

[jlroberson]

From Robert Crumb's absolutely excellent GENESIS(which is, btw, over 300 pages), a short excerpt from the story of Jacob and Esau, one portion from the start of the tale and one jumping to much later, when they are both old. Some who might not be familiar with this story might find it striking that (a) Jacob is such a dick, (b) God rewards the undeserving, and (c) Isaac sure gets it coming & going, doesn't he? (he's the same Isaac with that crazy dad with the voices telling him to sacrifice his son). It's not really so strange if, instead of looking at it as a religious text, you look at it as a typical Bronze Age mythology. And in those? People are very, very tricky and deceitful, and the concept of "justice" really has no bearing on any of the gods. This is nothing; try the House of Atreus sometime.












(c)2009 R. Crumb.

• Current Location: Seattle
• Current Music: Xenakis, "Orestia"

Comments

[halialkers]

First, these stories began as an oral tradition, akin to modern-day Native American traditions. In that kind of tradition repetition is a major factor (the same actually applies to the Synaptic Gospels). Hence the repetition of this tale both served to show that the Idiot Ball applies to the Biblical Israelites from the very beginning and that the patriarchs did have their flaws. Though contrary to Christian wanking of the Bible, that applies just as much to the Pagan myths we have record of. Especially Jason.....