(urth) A very interesting interview indeed

[Matthew King]

On Sep 7, 2006, at 2:36 PM, Adam Thornton wrote:

> There's the following quotation in it too:
>
> "The fact that you stand there and let someone hit you in the face
> doesn't do anything to eliminate violence (it may even contribute to
> further violence) —which is one of the underlying themes in The Book
> of the New Sun."
>
> That seems a very explicit repudiation of one of the more memorable
> passages in a book that's generally considered to be a pretty huge
> influence on Wolfe's work generally and BotNS in particular.

I take this to be a reference to Matthew 5:39 (and parallel  
passages), the famous "turn the other cheek" instruction.

Wolfe's statement above could be seen as a repudiation of Mt 5:39, if  
you assume that the scope of the instruction is universal, that it  
applies to all men at all times.  I think this is a dangerous  
assumption to make about a passage in a document that was written for  
a specific and narrow group of men.  GW has shown in his work a deep  
consideration for narrative context, and I think it unlikely that he  
would give the New Testament documents any less thought.

I've been reading Malina and Rohrbaugh's _Social-Science Commentary  
on the Synoptics_ lately, in which they apply the sociological  
research of the Context Group to Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  Valuable  
reading, though I don't find it wholly convincing.  Here's a bit of  
their take on Matthew 5:39

---
What the scenes described in these antitheses offer is a way out of  
the honor-shame impasse that requires taking satisfaction. . . .  
[They] all describe having one's entitlements infringed on in a  
humiliating way:  being struck on the right cheek by a backhand slap  
is an insult, as humiliating as being successfully sued in court or  
being forced to carry military gear for a mile.  All such humiliating  
behavior required defense of one's honor.  The advice given is to put  
up with the dishonor and cede what one was entitled to!  The key to  
imagining the scenarios here is to realize that all of them presume  
an audience.  In the Mediterranean world no one fights in public  
without others intervening to break it up. . . . Should someone be  
publicly insulted, the bystanders are sure to intervene.  The real  
question raised by the image here is whether an insulted person  
should seek to defend his own honor or let another person defend  
him.  Allowing others to come to one's defense enables one to be  
reconciled later with the one who dishonored and not proceed to a  
demand for satisfaction and feuding.
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