The blog's been fairly quiet lately, I know. But that means I've been busy with other things, not excluding research.

I've progressed a little further in my reading of Childs, for one thing. I recently finished his Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture (London: SCM Press, 1979), as well as the two journals completely dedicated to reviewing it (one JSOT, the other HBT, both in 1980), and have moved into the mid-1980s.

There's obviously quite a lot to be said about such a mammoth volume, so I won't even try to sum up now. However, there's one great line I want to quote. In response to the accusation that his use of the term "canon" is "imprecise, unanalytical, and encompasses a variety of different phenomena"—an accusation made as early as 1980—Childs gives this reply:

"I feel that the complexity of the process being described within the O.T. has been underestimated, and that one is asking for an algebraic solution to a problem requiring calculus."

Well put!

Now if you're working thorough some of Childs yourself, I should warn you that IOTS may not be as hard as calculus, but it assumes a pretty sizable background knowledge of critical discourse on the OT. OTTCC (Old Testament Theology in a Canonical Context, SCM, 1985) might be an easier place to start.

But I wouldn't want to turn you away from IOTS either. He adumbrates a remarkable reconstrual of the results of critical research, one that is still only seldom appreciated. And in view of the full scope of his career, the degree to which he achieves his goal (stated clearly in the first pages of the 1980 HBT response to reviewers) of doing enough footwork to earn the right to do full-on biblical theology, both OT and NT, is simply astounding. He's established himself as a giant who can only be compared with the likes of a Gunkel or a von Rad.

And if you've read past all that, I'll announce now that an introduction has been made on my behalf and I'll be traveling to Cambridge to interview the octogenarian in the first week of April. I'm jittery with excitement, and maybe too much coffee.

Tags: Childs, Canon, PhD

These volumes were added to my shelves yesterday, thanks to two friends who carried them across the Atlantic for me.

Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon Old Testament: Study Edition, 2 Volume Set
Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament - HALOT
Edited by Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner
Brill Academic Publishers,2002
cxii + 2094 pages,English
Cloth
ISBN: 9004124454


Needless to say I'm very excited and have had to resist the temptation to look up new words every ten minutes.

I can’t say for certain that the haggis that did the tooth in, but even if it did not kill the tooth in the first instance, it acted as an accessary at the least. I am content to pin the whole blame on it because in murder cases one needs a culprit, and because a haggis (mine was an instantiation of the general rule) shows no remorse.

About a month back, my Roundel-mate Ted brought back a haggis and chips for my lunch because a nearby chip shop was offering the supper for the special price of £2. Jokes were made about the appearance of the haggis, particularly as another office-mate, who has the same has the emotional hang-ups with the food as I have with root canals, had never seen one up close before. Decency prevents my spelling out the nature of the comments in a public forum.

I ate ceremoniously at first, but by the time I had four bites to go nobody was watching anymore. So nobody saw me wince in pain as I bit down hard into a stray bit of bone. I discretely binned what remained of lunch.

The tooth was sore for the next few days, but seemed to improve by the next week. After another week, however, the soreness still had not gone away completely, and I began to obsessively tongue the back of the lateral incisor that was giving me trouble. By last Sunday, I knew in detail every irregularity of its surface.

On Monday I bought a coffee on the way to work. After one sip, I gave it away to a friend. I spent the morning fretting about the what nightmare getting dental care in the UK might turn out to be (local dentists stopped taking university students as patients this year), wondering irrationally if it could wait to the next trip home (in November!).

I went home for lunch and called the dental emergency hotline, then drove out the next day to small village, about 40 minutes out. It would be uncharitable to describe in any detail the office as it appeared to me. Suffice it to say that as I climbed into the avocado green examining chair I felt like I was in one of those Rockwell paintings of scared kids. The doctor put some waxy stuff on the ailing tooth and told me to wait a few days to see if it got worse. I would have asked for an X-Ray except I there wasn’t one. I received a small bill of £9.87.

I took courage at having paid a professional to tell me I have beautiful teeth, but by Saturday (last night) I was in the throws of the worst toothache imaginable. Phil came over to watch A Clockwork Orange, and I had to pause the movie twice to walk off the pain. After he left I watched The Life of Brian and didn’t laugh. When I realized there was no getting to sleep, I watched to the bonus material, but turned it off when I realized I was staring obsessively at the teeth of each Pythons as he got interviewed in turn.

At three I called dental hotline, then lay in bed & sweating cursing until morning. I drove over 5 inches of new snow to Kirkcaldy—the 20 mile drive took over an hour, but by then I was already becoming philosophical about my brush with suffering—and had a positive encounter with a friendly receptionist who said I was daft for coming out in such weather. She turned out to be the dentist as well, and I’ve felt great ever since she opened the abscessed tooth for draining. My bill came to £6.56. (Thank you NHS.)

Estimating £25 for the petrol, the experience has cost £44, including the haggis. I’m to have root canal therapy later in the week, so I expect the final bill will exceed £50. Not bad, from one perspective, but quite a nice bottle of single malt from another.

Tags: Personal

When Adriel leaves me at home by myself, as she has done this week to attend a friend's wedding, I adopt the lifestyle of an indulgent bachelor.

Instead of squeezing in a run before breakfast, I sleep straight through to mid-morning. Instead of going in to the office, I read on the sofa in my underwear until I'm hungry, at which point I fry an egg in the pan that's still sitting on the stove from the day before.

Eventually I shower and get dressed (perhaps even going for a jog first, though only if I feel like it) and make my way to the library or the Roundel. After all, there are other enticements for going out.

For example, I usually buy an interesting bottle of whisky to keep me company at home (often I sip some while reading in my shorts). This time I got a signatory cask strength bottling of Glen Garioch 1988, aged 16 years. It is less exciting than other cask strength whiskies I've tasted recently, but it is still turning out to be a good companion.

I also make sure to always have a pipe with me when out of doors. Normally I bring it out for special occasions, but when I'm in indulgent bachelor mode just making it out the front door before dinner seems reason enough to light up.

There's one other recurring pattern I'll mention: when Adriel leaves, I major in a film director she's not likely to go for. We watch Tarkovsky films together—she got me started on him in fact—so it's not that she doesn't go for good films that can be hard to watch. But it would be hard to both find time to watch several Coen brother films back to back, and still harder to work through Bresson's career in two consecutive evenings. (Both have been my diet on past occasions.)

She wouldn't go for David Lynch for somewhat different reasons, I guess. My director this time may appear to fall in this class, though I've found him more, uh, edifying, if that's the word. This week it's been Stanley Kubrick.

Dr. Strangelove is an amazingly easy film to watch for something filmed in 1964, thanks largely to the comedic efforts of Peter Sellers. I'll try to talk Adriel into watching Eyes Wide Shut with me at some point, too, but will feel the need to explain myself. Kubrick thought it was his best film, and many seem to have been disappointed that the nudity wasn't as titillating as hoped, two facts which taken together probably indicate that the film is worth watching. One helpful article I found analyzes the film from a sociological rather than psycho-sexual perspective, though I would want to add that for those who don't think the institution of marriage is obsolete the Hartfords's "Victorian" mores are a relevant point of interest.

Tags: Personal

It's been an extraordinarily busy week for me. I'd planned on blogging some, but time just didn't permit.

I am looking forward to the weekend, though, and it should afford some blog-worthy material. For one thing, I'm planning to make my way through VanderKam's critical translation of Jubilees (see two posts back, on 27 Feb). The one in English, not Ethiopic, of course.

Perhaps more importantly, I've reconvened IWER (the Institute for Whisky Effects Research). We'll meet at my flat Saturday evening, and by Monday I should by able to type about it coherently. And because I can, I've added a page under Research for the proceedings of IWER. If you're coming along, check there to see what malts remain unclaimed.

Tags: Personal