(urth) Pike, Rose, Blood

[Jerry Friedman]

From: James Wynn crushtv at gmail.com

>When I read it, I said "Oh, Pike, Blood, Rose of Sharon."
>>>...
>>>
>>>Jerry Friedman-
>>>Would you mind making the connection for me among those three disparate nouns?  
>>>(Not the
>>>connection among the characters.)  Or point me to someplace in the archives?
>James Wynn-
>The spear that pierced Christ's side. What can I say? That's just the way I'm 
>wired, I guess. I even thought the reference was obvious when I wrote it this 
>morning. Clearly, I'm a little crazy, but sometimes it works. It gives me an 
>appreciation for Wolfe's problem with getting his clues across.
> 

DAVID STOCKHOFF-
>Pike as spear, not fish. Of course. I had to train myself to think "fish" just 
>to learn the naming system.
> 

> Another example of how one can live in their own world and think it is 
>universal. Probably, it came easy to me because it is also so unnatural for me > 
>to associate "pike" with fish. Not a common American term.

Common in Ohio where I grew up, though anglers were more likely to shorten 
"northern pike" into "northern".  And there's a memorable pike (fish) in /The 
Sword in the Stone/.

> My parents would have had no problem understanding that "The Rose of Sharon" = 
>Christ. Nor would many other adults I knew as a child.
> Neither would Joan Baez or anyone else with a background in early 60s folk 
>music. "Rose of Sharon" is a well-known folk hymn (among those
> who know such things). It comes from a reference in Song of Solomon 2:1 (KJV), 
>"I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys." 
>
>
> When it first got to be associated with Jesus I don't know. But as attested in 
>the number of songs you get if you google "rose of sharon lyrics", the
> association is pretty broad. There's additionally an old gospel hymn that says 
>"He's the lily of the valleys, the bright and morning star. He's fairest of
> ten thousand to my soul".

Thanks for filling in the last piece.  For me "rose of Sharon" is only a minor 
association with "rose" (since roses of Sharon aren't roses, and by the way the 
plant I picture--and associate with my grandmother and thus not with 
Christianity--probably isn't the plant Gerry Quinn pictures), and even if I'd 
known about the hymn, I'd associate roses of Sharon more with Solomon or the 
Joads than Jesus.  So yes, our own world.

By the way, if I'd remembered the story of Jesus being pierced in the side well 
enough to remember the water, I might have wondered whether Blood had a brother 
named Water (a chem?) or Plasma (sorry), but I wouldn't have thought he /should/ 
have a twin.

Jerry Friedman


      
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