Congratulations, Jew Played Yourself
This week, I read the book Biblical Games, which was a stupid thing to do, although it’s not clear that I would have spent my time in a more intelligent way, had I not done that. Unfortunately, the truth is that I have only one fermentation crock, and so I cannot produce another batch of sauerkraut. Maybe I should've drawn a self-portrait?
Biblical Games is a book about how you can apply Game Theory to the Hebrew Bible, such that, instead of saying, hey, Jonah, what the fuck are you doing, you could say, hey, Jonah, this decision matrix makes your motivations completely legible to me. And, if that’s the way you want to relate to the divine, sure—knock yourself out.
But, personally, if I had to choose some abstraction to channel what I think of as God, I’d reach for a few old chestnuts of English poetry. Maybe these words of Robert Lowell: “The Lord survives the rainbow of His will.” Pretty, right? I’ve always taken that to be an evocation of the universality of spirit. The divine is present in anthrax, in soap, in the swallows of Capistrano. If you gaze hard at the bizarre kaleidoscope that surrounds you, God is on the other side of whatever, waiting—even if what you’re squinting at is the book Biblical Games.
Clearly, I read Biblical Games because I wanted to be an interesting person. That, perhaps, is why I’m not an interesting person.
I give the book 3/5 stars, because I’m not really the intended audience, so it’s not really for me to evaluate.
Links
Not googling to check whether this actually happened, don’t want to know.
This is a fun little study in social status.
I love a committed vocal performance.