tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post8513049472441988387..comments2023-10-04T09:50:08.070-05:00Comments on Logismoi: Genre & the Book of JobAaron Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17775589009145031773noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post-35880251976292202202009-06-13T12:14:03.009-05:002009-06-13T12:14:03.009-05:00Sorry I never did respond to your insightful comme...Sorry I never did respond to your insightful comments here, River. I think I must have not had the time when I first read them, and then forgot about it afterward!<br /><br />Of course I think you're quite right that Job need not be 'genre-ized', and that was intended to be the point of calling such classifications anachronistic. But one of my main interests in literature is the question of what one might call 'the ethics of genre', i.e., what moral strengths and weaknesses the various genres exhibit, and since there is something naturally paradigmatic about the Scriptures as literature, it is almost reflexive to immediately begin thinking about Job in generic terms, even if our conclusion must be ambiguous.<br /><br />If it is 'eucatastrophe', does the eucatastrophe occur when the Lord finally speaks to Job, or when he receives his reward? I think most modern critics would say that the latter lacked the sense of unexpectedness that seems to be a part of eucatastrophe in Tolkien's description. It could indeed be seen as unexpected, however, if we follow Reed's conclusion about the epilogue that I have quoted here. I certainly like the idea that the Lord's response to Job is a sort of eucatastrophe though.Aaron Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17775589009145031773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post-2382625587920157892009-05-20T09:02:39.535-05:002009-05-20T09:02:39.535-05:00One more.
'Eucatastrophe'? If you want to stretch...One more.<br /><br />'Eucatastrophe'? If you want to stretch for a genre, that might be it.Ephrem Antony Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00032465992619034619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post-29572563274138425312009-05-20T08:56:35.935-05:002009-05-20T08:56:35.935-05:00I think Job addresses the part of wisdom which wis...I think Job addresses the part of wisdom which wisdom literature cannot address, since it is instructive in nature. No book on instruction says, "Though, all of this will be totally useless if some big disaster strikes." Some approximate it (such as Balthasar Gracian's Art of Worldly Wisdom which says, "in times of prospertiy, prepare for adversity") but none really cover it. <br /><br />When I first read Job I was baffled, since it seems so utterly out of place against the general paradigm of 'do well and God will reward you, do evil and you will eat the fruit of your deeds.'<br /><br />It addresses, then, the final 'piece', maybe, the dark night of the soul. Nobody learns wisdom except through trial, and most wisdom literature (or self-help literature, which is a derivative) never really addresses suffering that is on-the-face without meaning. <br /><br />But, it seems like we can't be without 'meaningful suffering', as Job is not the model of suffering itself, since we often are the cause of our suffering (whereas Job is not.) Job is provided with a happy ending because - I think the conviction is - there would be one anyway, and it is more comprehensible and actually less, uh, 'trite', to give it to him before he dies. For him to have died and been with - whatever, 72 virgins or something (whatever the classic vision of 'paradise' might have been from time to time) would send the wrong message; the idea I think is that the reward is REAL, and many people even then I suppose interpreted 'Heaven' or 'Paradise' as 'Pie in the sky' or wishful thinking. Job's power is in its concreteness.<br /><br />I don't know how appropriate it is to 'genre-ize' Job, since Job is in a sense 'the source' of a number of literary genres. Our horizontalizing tendency might be at work here; the desire to 'classify' everything on equal footing. Job is far too old and far to well read to be any genre at all. <br /><br />Any thoughts yourself?<br /><br />My girl and I were going through the Screwtape Letters and there is some excellent commentary there (Lewis always has theology even if it is delivered 'from the mouths of babes' or in this case - 'lil devils) about this subject.Ephrem Antony Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00032465992619034619noreply@blogger.com