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Florence Ashley

@floralashes.bsky.social

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Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 2m

Ah yes. Though one may argue “bad” also often means “not for anyone.”

Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 4m

Well, yes but I don’t think it’s as foundational? And in a weird way it often feels like the “Western” bros think Ancient Greece was Christians.

Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 7m

Ahh

Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 8m

I mean a demonstration of how the Cain and Abel analysis applies to modern war 😆

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Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 9m

I mean an analysis of how Cain and Abel applied 😆

Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 10m

Mhm well, we need to also add the Jesus Chronicles but I’d say it’s not? To the extent that the very concept of “Western” hinges on the idea of Christian superiority and Christian civilization?

Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 11m

Yeah, I think they do leave room for righteous non-us, although by the nature of the work they tend to be people who become us over the narrative. But you don’t really get a super consistent “anyone but us is bad” outside Ezra-Nehemiah and maybe Joshua and Samuel?

Reposted by Florence Ashley

Dr. Sarah Parcak @indyfromspace.bsky.social · 2h

Academic articles can be written in a popular science writing style

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 12h

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 15m

But those aren’t, like, first names!

Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 16m

True but I think there’s a distinction between “that’s just not us” and “this is bad”? I mean, Ishmael was given twelve nations too!

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Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 22m

Okay I need a demonstration.

Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 23m

I didn’t feel that hunter-gatherer was *too* much in the bullseye. While not the ideal, it’s also not really framed as bad—as much flak as Esau gets, he’s not really shown doing anything wrong. L

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Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 27m

But let’s not give P too many props, because he’s a sexist turd. 😆

Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 31m

This is so accurate. Just take the Torah. You wouldn’t know it from the translations, but it’s completely LOADED with puns. Both because they’re funny and because puns are really helpful ways to remember plot points and sequences of events.

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 1h

Most "classics" are boring as fuck to a modern reader in no small part because the context of the story is not understood by them and so many of the allusions and "inside jokes" known to then-contemporary readers have been lost in time and in translation

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 12h

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 32m

😆 Of course, and it’s very fair. But it’s social media so of course I’ll make every slight inaccuracy or missing nuance into a thing.

Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 35m

Bahaha #sorrynorsorry

Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 36m

In the story for sure, though there seem to be an assumption that there’s already people all around so if we’re considering the stories as separate ones stitched together, who knows!

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Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 58m

It’s not. They just kept the Hebrew.

Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 59m

>Western literature

Okay well it’s kind of the foundational text of that so 😆

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Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 59m

Nope 😆 But not an unfunny one.

Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 1h

There’s also some reasons to think the myth predates the identification of Adam and Eve as their parents and the first couple, so originally it may well not have been the first murder.

Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 1h

I actually am not convinced that “first murder” would be enough of a reason for a myth like that. It doesn’t really do enough in terms of philosophical explanation or metaphysical source of evil thing for that, IMO. Plus, killing was omnipresent for Israelites so nothing that special.

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Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 1h

I don’t recall it being said it was the first city?

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Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 1h

(I’ll also point out that the ‘curse’ is to Eve herself, and it’s not clear to which extent it’s meant to be a general curse upon women. On the one hand, the pains of giving birth part seems forever. On the other hand, they did specify for the snake which would imply they’re not so unless stated.)

Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 1h

Rather, it seems to be saying, “you’re going to simp for your husband so hard, you’ll be at his beck-and-call as though he was your ruler.”

So not an explicit justification of male supremacy, more a matter of horniness. And the solution is obvious: Lesbianism. ;)

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