(miss murchison made me do this). More evil thoughts . . . Bible as 'Fanfic' : comments.
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![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
They never write, they never call . . .
However, you're absolutely right about Saul of Tarsus -- whose BNF status is supported by the fact that we mainly remember him by his fan/badge-name "Paul" rather than by his mundane name. If Peter and the other 11 apostles (after they'd found a replacement for Judas from among their long-time gofers) were the organizers of the first big conventions (and their experience on Pentecost in Acts 2 bears many striking resemblances to Joan Winston, et al, describing their first 'Star Trek' convention in STAR TREK LIVES -- with the Holy Spirit like Ticketron massively over-selling convention registrations, and the Sanhedrin threatening like the New York Fire Marshall to step in and close them down, in the interests of public safety and order), then Saul/Paul is the guy who was dragged to a convention against his will, found his life unexpectedly changed by an encounter with the source material, and ended up becoming the convention-organizer and Fan GoH par excellence. He even dared to criticize the Original Fans for lack of faithfulness to the source material, when he takes Simon Peter/Cephas to task in Galatians for bowing to 'mundane' pressures and prejudices, rather than displaying the egalitarian spirit to be expected of the True-Fen, those who truly live the "Federation ethic".
And Paul's INTERPRETATION of the source material (the Gospel) apparently became 'canon' before any of the Gospel-writers got around to penning their novelizations of the eye-witness accounts that had been circulating in rough drafts and fan-lore, so Paul's 'fanon' shaped our reading of the 'canon' for all time (sort of the way my early fanzine readings helped to mold my view of the 'Star Trek' episodes -- a view which was then solidified by reading the early Trek novels of Diane Duane). The parallels are getting eerie!
Re: They never write, they never call . . .
Much as the church has (had) decided that Mary Magdelene was the adulteress Jesus saved from stoning—even though The Bible never says she was—I think Paul's works have often been taught by Christians, from a non-Christian (and I am being literal there—in other words, non-Christian=unlike Christ's) perspective.
Hmmmm. To illustrate this with an example from Mutant Enemy works and fandom....
Let's use Spike, because his fanbase really mirrors religion. You have pro-Spike fans, Spike accepters, and anti-Spike fans. There's a huge continuum for both the pro- and anti- groups, with the extreme ends being rabid about their view of Spike being the one true view. Their enjoyment of/hatred for BtVS and now A:ts rises and falls on each word and action that pertains—even tangentially—to Spike.
After the attempted rape in Seeing Red I actually saw people post that if Buffy had just 'let him' she would have enjoyed (!!!) it. After Spike won his soul, and even to this day, there are fans who believe the soulquest and achievement have no significance at all, that it was all an accident (even when they've gotten word from on high (aka the writers) to the contrary—stating he was seeking a soul from the moment he left his crypt at the end of Seeing Red). They further claim the character is being written as lying (through the present day) about having gotten the soul on purpose. They fanwank the First's mocking of his soul in Lessons, and all mentions of it throughout BtVS S7, and A:ts S5, such that he is hiding the fact that he got the soul only by accident. They take scenes out of context, and misquote interviews and con-reports, to support their POV. Sound familiar?
I liken the Gospels (even John, it's just a different form of Gospel, like Hush, The Body, Restless*, and Once More With Feeling are different types of episodes) canon to BtVS canon. Acts and everything thereafter is more akin to A:ts canon. Where Peter, John, etc. (one of the 11) have written a post-Gospels book or epistle, we have a situation akin to those A:ts episodes written by (now former) BtVS scribes. The church's (historical and worldwide) teaching is the fanon. Sometimes it is right and insightful. Sometimes? Not so much.
*Restless is also fandom's version of The Book of Revelation. Some people can't make head nor tails of it. Some people are upset by it. Some people are enthralled by it. Some people think everything is in it.
Re: They never write, they never call . . .
As compared to religion in general? Or to interpreters of Paul's writings, in particular? Either way, the familiarity does comes through.
As I've noted elsewhere (in the comments on Superplin's reflections on the Bible and fandom from March 26), I have my own favorite sections of Paul, and other sections (even those from the indisputably authentic Pauline letters, like I Corinthians) that I tend to discount. Like the extremists in the Pro-Spike and Anti-Spike camps -- or like those who use Paul to beat justify misogyny, homophobia, or slavery, in what seems to me a very un-Christ-like spirit -- I make my own 'canon within the canon', cherry-picking the bits that agree with my viewpoints and pooh-poohing the parts that support an opposing interpretation. Like many of Paul's greatest fans among women theologians and biblical scholars, I'm tempted to put his "women should be silent in the churches" comments in I Corinthians 14:34-36 and elsewhere down to Paul having an "off" day, or being too rooted in his own particular history and culture to realize that this might NOT be God's eternal word for his people. How else to explain that the guy who wrote I Corinthians 13:1-13, or Galatians 3:28 ("There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus") could also come out with a groaner like that? Meanwhile, my opponents cherry-pick and pooh-pooh to arrive at the opposite conclusions -- that the "no girls allowed in the pulpit" rule represents the REAL Paul, and anything to the contrary is just taken out of context.
"I liken the Gospels (even John, it's just a different form of Gospel, like Hush, The Body, Restless*, and Once More With Feeling are different types of episodes) canon to BtVS canon. Acts and everything thereafter is more akin to A:ts canon. Where Peter, John, etc. (one of the 11) have written a post-Gospels book or epistle, we have a situation akin to those A:ts episodes written by (now former) BtVS scribes. The church's (historical and worldwide) teaching is the fanon. Sometimes it is right and insightful. Sometimes? Not so much."
I think you may be on to something, there. I have no trouble at all accepting the extra-biblical teachings and traditions of my own or any other branch of the Church as 'fanon' -- and therefore only authoritative in so far as they seem to reflect the real canon. The Gospels as the BtVS canon and Acts-through-Jude [is that the last Epistle before Revelation? I don't have my Bible with me at the moment] as the AtS canon makes sense in terms of who's supposed to be interpreting and building upon what. But given the fact that most of Paul's letters, at least, pre-date the earliest Gospel to be written down and circulated, the chronological angle doesn't quite work out. However, if we liken the first three seasons of BtVS to the SOURCE materials the Gospel-writers are presumed to have used (a proto-Mark, the "Q" source shared by Luke and Matthew, and the individual resources reflected in each of the finished Gospels), then BtVS seasons 4 thru 7 (minus "Restless"!) could be argued to be analogous to the finished Gospels and AtS seasons 1 thru 5 to Acts and the Epistles. Maybe. I suspect I'm way over-thinking this.
"'Restless' is also fandom's version of The Book of Revelation. Some people can't make head nor tails of it. Some people are upset by it. Some people are enthralled by it. Some people think everything is in it."
LOL! That's a perfect analogy!
Re: They never write, they never call . . .
Both, really.
Yes, Jude is the last one before Revelation (the Peters, then the Johns, then Jude).
Argh. I thought I had time to say more. My kids are not so amenable to that ideas. Maybe in the morning. I am glad to read you're feeling a bit better, and that your folks are around to help you out.