Virtual Memories Show #184: David M. Carr
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More
“There’s a deeper music that runs through and beneath the Bible.”
Biblical scholar David M. Carr joins the show to talk about his book, Holy Resilience: The Bible’s Traumatic Origins
“I find Paul a fascinating figure. He’s incredibly irritating. He’s all over the place, in some ways. You can never pin him down. But he’s grappling with the reality of life, and life is itself untamable, so it’s an untamable text.”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More
We also discuss his favorite parts of scripture (something Old, something New), the social justice work that drew him into biblical scholarship, the difference between writing for other scholars and writing for a lay audience, the conflicted nature of Paul the Apostle and the enormous ramifications of that conflict, the tension between monotheism and cosmotheism, and the uncanny nature of celebrating the Cross as a symbol. BONUS: I ramble about visiting a sculpture exhibition in a cow pasture (photoset over here, plus these whitewalkers below)! Now go listen to the show!
“For some people this may be their first encounter with seeing the Bible as a human product, and it can be a little shocking.”
Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes! You might like:
Follow The Virtual Memories Show on iTunes, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and RSS!
About our Guest
David Carr is Professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Over his decades-long academic career, he has become an international authority on the formation of the Bible, ancient scribal culture, and issues of the Bible and sexuality. He has written numerous books and articles, including The Erotic Word: Sexuality, Spirituality, and the Bible
Decades into a career as a biblical scholar, he suffered a life-threatening bicycle accident that changed his view of the scriptures he had devoted his life to studying. As he grappled with his own individual trauma and survival of it, he became interested in how the collective trauma of Israel and the early church had shaped the Bible. He saw that these holy texts are defined by survival of communal catastrophe. This is part of what makes them special, what made them last. The result of this basic insight is Carr’s work, Holy Resilience: The Bible’s Traumatic Origins
Credits: This episode’s music is Nothing’s Gonna Bring Me Down by David Baerwald, used with permission of the artist. The conversation was recorded at Mr. Carr’s home on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 Microphones
(Simon & Schuster)! We talk about what’s behind the screen, why the internet is bigger than the Industrial Revolution, her first experience online in 1979, what it’s like to be in a piece of performance art with half the world’s population, her crushing defeat at meeting Joan Didion, why she’s nostalgic for landline phones, the motive motive of Pokemon Go, asking The New York Times to host a shred-guitar competition, and why there’s value in Reading The Comments! 
(1999), 
(2002), and Prime Times (2004), 
(2014), 
(2015). In 2005, Heffernan (with co-writer 
(Bloomsbury).
. Malcolm is the author/editor of eight books including 
, named by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of the hundred most important books of the 20th century by a western writer. His essays and articles have appeared in a number of periodicals including The Nation, Small Press, National Parks, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Los Angeles Times. He retired from his role as publisher at Heyday Books this year.
digital recorder (because I screwed up with my main recorder). I recorded the intro and outro on a 
(Center for Hellenic Studies Press, 2016). Glynnis’ background is in art and art history: a BA from University of Oregon, a BFA from the Pacific NW College of Art, and MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Tufts University. During a Fulbright fellowship to Cyprus, she published a book of paintings, Archaeology Lives in Cyprus, and a book of cartoons, Cartoons of Cyprus. She spent almost 10 years working as an illustrator on archaeological projects and excavations in Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, Israel, and Lebanon, and continues to work in Greece. She began a doctorate at the University of Wollongong in Australia, but instead of finishing, married the famous archeo-musicologist John Franklin and had some children (now in school). She has exhibited paintings in Boston, London, Nicosia, Wollongong, at the Laura Russo Gallery in Portland, OR, and in Burlington, VT, where she now lives. She teaches a course in Comics at the University of Vermont and drawing at Champlain College. Glynnis is a member of the NY-based web comic collective 
, what contemporary books look like they’ll last, and why he eventually came around on Faulkner. 
(Norton), and is a columnist at 
feeding into a 
digital recorder. Intro was recorded on the same setup. Photo of Mr. Mikics by me.
(Little, Brown and Library of Congress, 2014), 
(W.W. Norton, 2012), 
(W.W. Norton and LC, 2009), 
(HarperCollins and LC, 2009), 
(Abrams and LC, 2006), 
(Library of Congress, 1999), and 
(Knopf and LC, 1997). His work has been featured in such magazines as American Heritage, National Geographic, Civilization and Smithsonian.
(Grove Press). We discuss the evolution of comedy over the century (from vaudeville to comedy podcasters) and how he got started chronicling it, American comedy’s twin themes of struggle and influence, the connect-the-dots game of comedic lineage, the stories that didn’t make it into the book, comedy’s role in the civil rights struggle, Kliph’s autodidactic background and how it shapes his pursuit of history, the story of how he got kicked out of high school, and more! 
! We explore how her nihilistic, burned-out, drug-addicted post-punk-scene photographer-protagonist has grown over the course of three books of increasing mayhem and murder. (Hint: she doesn’t decide to become a nurturing mom and validate herself with a rich husband.) 
. Processing was done in Audacity and Logic Pro. Photo of Kliph by me.