Notes for 10-12-2010

Psalm 51:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZL3POaATn8
The miserere became iconic, even cultic, because there was a boy that reached a pitch during this song that people had never heard before.

Assignment:
Read the Apocryphal Susanna (p.1467 in our Bibles). A story about Susanna, who walks in the garden, and two elders see her walking there everday and lust after her. They perverted their own minds so that they may not remember just judgments.
Then blog about the poem "Peter Quince at the Clavier":
http://plagiarist.com/poetry/1018/

We discussed the Story of Joseph:
Parataxis - a literary technique, in writing or speaking, that favors short, simple sentences, without the use of coordinating or subordinating conjunctions.
    Used a lot in the Bible. For example, the beginning of Mark 6: 'and' is used a lot. Prof. Sexson claims that the repetitive elements are part of the power of the Bible (Samuel Coleridge agrees). It makes all parts of the Bible equivalently important; no part is more important than any other.
Dreams, pits, silver, and, house, blessed, all. These words are repeated often in the story of Joseph. Phrases to live by:
"Why use five words when fifty words will do?"
            - Prof. Sexson
The repetition in the Bible is an Oral Literature element; it makes the story much easier to remember, and perhaps more interesting when heard.