This is extracted from her excellent essay in Intelligent Life magazine:
"In the King James, people are aggressively physical. They shoot out their lips, stretch forth their necks and wink with their eyes; they open their mouths wide and say 'Aha, aha,' wagging their heads, in ways that would get them arrested in Wal-Mart. They do not simply refuse to listen, but pull away their shoulders and stop their ears; they do not merely trip, but dash their feet against stones. Sex is peremptory: men 'know' women, lie with them, 'go in unto' them, as brisk as the women are available. 'Begat' is perhaps the word the King James is best known for, list after list of begetting. The curt efficiency of the word (did no one suggest 'fathered'?) makes the erotic languor of the Song of Solomon, with its lilies and heaps of wheat, shine out like a jewel."
For the complete piece, click here.
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