In Robert Crumbs The Book of Genesis Illustrated, Crumb
depicts the “sacred” text in often unusual ways. One such example is his
depiction of the serpent as a man. In chapter 3, Crumb’s serpent is more of a
lizard man than completely serpent or completely man. This has important
implications on not only the specific scene, but the entire work as a whole.
As
previously mentioned, Crumb’s serpent is a lizard man. It has all the
appendages of a human, but retains a tail and reptilian head. Not until the
serpent misleads Eve is the creature “cursed” to “crawl” along the dirt,
inferior to other beasts. It is only after being cursed that the serpent takes
the popularly accepted snake-like form.
Commonly,
the serpent acts as an outside force of evil. It is viewed as a creation of God
that misleads. In consulting other parts of the bible, it becomes clear that
the serpent is an early representation or incarnation of Satan (“KJV:
Revelation 20:2”). Thus, the serpent is an outside force of evil, misleading
Adam and Eve. Crumb’s depiction of the serpent as part human presents this
source of evil as closer to Adam and Eve. Crumb’s depiction hints that perhaps
this evil or trickery is an internal drive. It is part of the human condition.
It is not Satan, an outside force of evil, but a darkness that lurks within.
This idea
that evil comes not from without but from within has a profound impact on the
work as a whole. It has multiple implications on life, the divinity of God, and
speaks to Crumb’s greater life philosophy as whole. For life, it points to
certain pessimism. If evil comes from within, then repressing evil becomes a
matter of repressing human nature, a more difficult task than resisting outside
temptation. One can be isolated from the external, but the internal is
inherently omnipresent. For God’s divinity, if man is a creation of God, then
that evil was purposefully there, so how can God punish man for that which is
in his nature? Is the punisher then truly divine and righteous? This question
is better suited to deeper religious knowledge. Lastly, Crumb’s illustration of
evil points at a greater pessimism towards mankind, similar to the implication
on life. Crumb sees mankind not as a force of good, but something that is evil.
***All of these ideas can be explored at greater lengths and
I look forward to doing so in the future.
"KJV: Revelation 20:2." Revelation
20:2. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.
Crumb, R., and Robert Alter. The Book
of Genesis Illustrated. London: Jonathan Cape, 2009. Print.
I have to say that you have a very good start point---the serpent man. And you said Crumb is a lizard man. It is interesting you consider more about Crumb than his book. You start a point for this man and connected to his book. I think if you explore more example and evidence to prove your idea, it should be a nice essay.
ReplyDeleteThis is reasonable and even interesting, but also minimalistic (at best) and simplistic. As a starting point of a deeper analysis of where Crumb locates evil, vs. where the "orthodox" readings of the biblical text locate it, it has some merit. I would also suggest that Crumb emphasizes collective/political evil in many cases (see the "corruption" of humanity before the flood), which seems like a possible counterpoint to your developing argument.
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