{"id":923,"date":"2006-04-24T10:25:50","date_gmt":"2006-04-24T15:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/athens-jerusalem-and-gillette\/"},"modified":"2006-10-05T07:14:41","modified_gmt":"2006-10-05T12:14:41","slug":"athens-jerusalem-and-gillette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/athens-jerusalem-and-gillette","title":{"rendered":"Athens, Jerusalem and Gillette"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m here in the Real O.C.! I haven’t seen Peter Gallagher’s eyebrows anywhere, nor Kristin Cavallari’s roots, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.<\/p>\n

During the flight, I watched No Maps for These Territories<\/a>, a documentary about William Gibson. I’m ruminating on that one, and might write a lengthy, rambling take on it next weekend. Harass me about it, so I can formulate some more.<\/p>\n

Also, I read a pair of short columns that I think you might like, and that seem somehow intertwined. I haven’t gone to Arts & Letters<\/a> much lately; not sure why. But Amy hit it this weekend and came across both of these pieces, so all credit goes to the official VM wife.<\/p>\n

The first is a review of Harold Bloom’s Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine<\/a>, which explores Bloom’s visions and revisions on the relationship between the Old and New Testaments<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Bloom interprets the trinity as an essentially polytheistic “structure of anxiety” in which God the Father\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u009dwhom Bloom finds “lacking in personality”\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u009dis a mere shade of Yahweh. Yahweh, “the West’s major literary, spiritual, and ideological character,” has not, according to Bloom, “survived in Christianity.” In J’s portrait\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u009dthe earliest biblical layer\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u009dYahweh is “anxious, pugnacious, aggressive, ambivalent,” not to mention all too often absent. But unlike Jesus Christ and God the Father, he is emphatically not a theological God. Indeed, Bloom asserts that “no God has been more human.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The other piece is about wet shaving, Homer, and the possibility of redemption<\/a>. I can’t begin to do it justice. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m here in the Real O.C.! I haven’t seen Peter Gallagher’s eyebrows anywhere, nor Kristin Cavallari’s roots, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time. During the flight, I watched No Maps for These Territories, a documentary about William Gibson. I’m ruminating on that one, and might write a lengthy, rambling take on it … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Athens, Jerusalem and Gillette”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-eT","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3895,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/cinc0-fer-de-mayo","url_meta":{"origin":923,"position":0},"title":"Cinc0-fer de Mayo","author":"Gil","date":"May 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"In honor of \"Drink Corona (or whatever Mexican beer you choose) Day,\" I thought I'd go find some well-regarded Mexican authors whom I've never read a word of. Only having thought up this idea this morning, I decided to dive into the \"canonical appendixes\" of Harold Bloom's Western Canon, since\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "0-fer"","block_context":{"text":"0-fer","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/0-fer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1573225142","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18122,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-679-heather-cass-white","url_meta":{"origin":923,"position":1},"title":"Episode 679 – Heather Cass White","author":"Gil","date":"June 14, 2026","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 679: Heather Cass White \"This was the most fun I ever had making a book. I got to sit on the attic floor, going though Harold's papers and books, and there were a lot of surprises.\" \u201cA letter is a joy of Earth \u2014 It is denied\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "0-fer"","block_context":{"text":"0-fer","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/0-fer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/hcw2026comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/hcw2026comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/hcw2026comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/hcw2026comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/hcw2026comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3597,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/0-fer-94","url_meta":{"origin":923,"position":2},"title":"0-fer-94","author":"Gil","date":"March 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I have a copy of Harold Bloom's The Western Canon that I take down from the shelf every year or so. I like to look through its four appendices and check off the \"canonical\" books that I've read. There are 37 pages of these lists, broken down into four Vico-esque\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "0-fer"","block_context":{"text":"0-fer","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/0-fer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1573225142","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13786,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-392-david-mikics","url_meta":{"origin":923,"position":3},"title":"Episode 392 – David Mikics","author":"Gil","date":"August 18, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 392: David Mikics \"The thing about Kubrick is that the more you see the movies \u2014 they're tantalizing, they entice you to come back to them again and again \u2014 the more you come back, the more you see.\" With his new book, Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/mikics2020comp.jpg?fit=1124%2C800&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/mikics2020comp.jpg?fit=1124%2C800&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/mikics2020comp.jpg?fit=1124%2C800&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/mikics2020comp.jpg?fit=1124%2C800&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/mikics2020comp.jpg?fit=1124%2C800&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9346,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-151-harold-bloom","url_meta":{"origin":923,"position":4},"title":"Episode 151 – Harold Bloom","author":"Gil","date":"January 18, 2016","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show #151: Harold Bloom I visited Harold Bloom in New Haven and we recorded a podcast. He recited poetry, and we talked about his new book, The Daemon Knows, the weight of age, the intifada of the young, and the epigraphs of his life. You should give it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/24214505752_7e8729961c_z.jpg?fit=640%2C480&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/24214505752_7e8729961c_z.jpg?fit=640%2C480&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/24214505752_7e8729961c_z.jpg?fit=640%2C480&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3616,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/7-rooms-of-bloom","url_meta":{"origin":923,"position":5},"title":"7 Rooms of Bloom!","author":"Gil","date":"March 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"[UPDATE: In 2016, I recorded a conversation with Harold Bloom for The Virtual Memories Show! I also recorded episodes with his friends and colleagues John Crowley, Sandy McClatchy and Langdon Hammer.] So, wait: I never told you about the time I called Harold Bloom? Geez! I've been blogging 6 years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}