Genesis 3:1 Goes to Ikea

For those of you who've asked for a copy of the programme:

A Thought

“After the fall of Adam, man became carnal, sensual, and devilish by nature; he became fallen man. … All accountable persons on earth inherit this fallen state, this probationary state, this state in which worldly things seem desirable to the carnal nature. Being in this state, ‘the natural man is an enemy to God,’ until he conforms to the great plan of redemption and is born again to righteousness. Thus all mankind would remain lost and fallen forever were it not for the atonement of our Lord."

- Bruce R. McConkie  (Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. [1966], 267–68)


Great job on a wonderful show, everyone!

Lawyers in the Garden

Comic found here.

Just for Fun

And bonus:

Learning about Learning

This is chock-full of interesting insights into how people learn.

Check it out.

I want to talk about learning. But not the lifeless, sterile, futile, quickly forgotten stuff that is crammed in to the mind of the poor helpless individual tied into his seat by ironclad bonds  of conformity! I am talking about LEARNING - the insatiable curiosity that drives the adolescent boy to absorb everything he can see or hear or read about gasoline engines in order to improve the efficiency and speed of his 'cruiser'. I am talking about the student who says, "I am discovering, drawing in from the outside, and making that which is drawn in a real part of me." I am talking about any learning in which the experience of the learner progresses along this line: "No, no, that's not what I want"; "Wait! This is closer to what I am interested in, what I need"; "Ah, here it is! Now I'm grasping and comprehending what I need and what I want to know!" Carl Rogers 1983: 18-19

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How do YOU learn?

Blue Dress

This is the version of the song I was more interested in...

Paradise...?

It's a little small, but the original comic is here

Pilgrim's Progress

Natalie asked everyone to take a look The Pilgrim's Progress to get a feel for the language and story -

Here's the Wikipedia link for a summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim's_Progress

and here you can take a look at the actual text, in one of several different formats: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bunyan/pilgrim.html



On the left is a fairly typical type of illustration. You could also envision the allegorical tale of a Christian (called 'Christian', creatively enough) journeying through the world in this way:

Like I always say: If there aren't swords, why bother?

The Message

Here's what the directors (and dramaturg) have discussed and plan to use as the main message/point/question of the production:

Is 'Paradise' really paradise? Can paradise only be found through disobedience/sin?

 - this deals with the associated themes of opposites (men/women, angels/demons, darkness/light, etc...) and consequences (sin/redemption, etc...)
- it also touches on the idea that Satan's 'triumph' in tempting mankind is actually part of the overall plan; that knowing the difference between good and evil and recognizing imperfection is necessary to understanding/creating paradise.

Frankenstein + Eve = ???

Set design? Maybe?

The race to create life from scratch is underway - and there are those who think they've almost got it.

The BBC talks about Creating Life in A Laboratory. It may be a while longer before it's intelligent life, though...

Now think it through, Eve - hair-wise, it's a classic choice.

I just included this because he's cute.

A Point

Mark Twain said: 'Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.'

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Text

I've now added several pages (right side of blog, under the picture) with writings from Mark Twain, a short play by George Bernard Shaw, Creation Stories from various belief systems, the Creation of Adam and Eve from the Bible... check them out!

Temptation

William Blake - The Temptation and Fall of Eve

Eve - by Christina Georgina Rosetti

Eve

'While I sit at the door
Sick to gaze within
Mine eye weepeth sore
For sorrow and sin:
As a tree my sin stands
To darken all lands;
Death is the fruit it bore.

'How have Eden bowers grown
Without Adam to bend them!
How have Eden flowers blown
Squandering their sweet breath
Without me to tend them!
The Tree of Life was ours,
Tree twelvefold-fruited,
Most lofty tree that flowers,
Most deeply rooted:
I chose the tree of death.

'Hadst thou but said me nay,
Adam, my brother,
I might have pined away;
I, but none other:
God might have let thee stay
Safe in our garden,
By putting me away
Beyond all pardon.

'I, Eve, sad mother
Of all who must live,
I, not another
Plucked bitterest fruit to give
My friend, husband, lover—
O wanton eyes, run over;
Who but I should grieve?—
Cain hath slain his brother:
Of all who must die mother,
Miserable Eve!'

Thus she sat weeping,
Thus Eve our mother,
Where one lay sleeping
Slain by his brother.
Greatest and least
Each piteous beast
To hear her voice
Forgot his joys
And set aside his feast.

The mouse paused in his walk
And dropped his wheaten stalk;
Grave cattle wagged their heads
In rumination;
The eagle gave a cry
From his cloud station;
Larks on thyme beds
Forbore to mount or sing;
Bees drooped upon the wing;
The raven perched on high
Forgot his ration;
The conies in their rock,
A feeble nation,
Quaked sympathetical;
The mocking-bird left off to mock;
Huge camels knelt as if
In deprecation;
The kind hart's tears were falling;
Chattered the wistful stork;
Dove-voices with a dying fall
Cooed desolation
Answering grief by grief.

Only the serpent in the dust
Wriggling and crawling,
Grinned an evil grin and thrust
His tongue out with its fork.

- Christina Georgina Rossetti

Links - Places to Start

Character Analysis - Eve in Paradise Lost

The Diaries of Adam and Eve (reimagined for the stage) - Google books

What have other people said about Adam and Eve?

Lilith