Tag Archives: time

Rick Moody’s Albertine Notes

Posted on by

In Rick Moody’s “Albertine Notes,” he uses a variety of literary tropes to create a story where the reader becomes just as lost as those taking Albertine. (Did anyone else notice that? I thought it was a beautiful syntactic move.)

When I began to read this novella, I was struck by the oddity of the title – the name/word “Albertine” isn’t one heard very often. I tried searching for meaning, and I found a few interesting references (through Wikipedia) that seem connected, at least, to the ideas of power, rule, and sex and prostitution:

Albertine Sarrazin, a French female prostitute, and the Statuto Albertino, a law passed by King Charles that gave the King absolute power over the ruled, and the military forces. (There was also this song which I found semi-relevant, with the violent imagery and lyrics about faith.)

These may only be coincidences, but I was struck by the relation to the Statuto Albertino – it reminded me of the belief that fundamentalist Christians may have about God, that God is absolute and controls everything – that every event, thus, is happening as part of God’s will. It also reminded me of Cortez in the novella, who seems to be the ruling dealer of New York City and also who uses the military.

What is interesting about “The Albertine Notes” is the way that time works kairiotically but in a backwards and forwards way at the same time, I feel. There is the constant attempt to reach back to a past that has been obliterated, much like the past that the “born-again” relinquish. Except in Kevin’s world, the past holds a holiness – and, layering on top of that, a conscious person who is sober can look back onto the past and know the future that succeeds it. While on Albertine, the user feels the past event and only that moment, singularly. Realistically, in a present, out-of-time moment that is almost a way of subverting time, not unlike those who adopt a fundamentalist mindset. This is interesting (and super complicated) because it inserts the apocalyptic event into the middle of the timeframe, with everything being measured in reference to that event. However, the future still holds a relative waiting-out for something else to occur, though in this (“Godless”?) apocalypse what that event exactly will be is unsure.

 

Holes In the Mindset: Half-cocked Fundamentals

Posted on by

Strozier’s breakdown of Revelation allows for us to simply soak in the main points of John’s visions without drowning in the language and warnings for morality, making it a lot easier to understand and empathize with fundamentalists, like Colby said. However, I have to say that I find myself disagreeing with some of his analysis of Revelation and also some of what he says about some of his seals of fundamentalism, particularly what he says of the letters and what he also says on the seal of revenge.

Continue reading →

Book of Revelation and the Fundamentalist Mindset

Posted on by

Strozier makes an interesting argument regarding time in Chapter Ten. According to Strozier, there are two kinds of time: chronological and kairotic. Kairotic is a qualitative measure of time, which is uneven and weighted in value and marked by one’s experiences. Strozier argues that the Book of Revelation marks time kairtoically because time switches back and forth from past to present.

One quote in this chapter that really stood out to me was: “An important consequence psychologically but also politically is to free fundamentalists from an obligation to the actual past and present, that is, the world as we know it. They are defined spiritually and ethically only by their relation to an imagined future.” This quote made me think about our past discussions on born-again Christians and how it was possible for them to live a pure life, even if their past life had been full of sin. With a kairotic mindset of time, the past becomes irrelevant when there is only the future to think about.

Another interesting dualism that Strozier presents in this chapter is the dualism behind evil: Evil is something that fundamentalists condemn but also embrace. They condemn sin and lead pure lives, but according to Strozier it is something that they also embrace because “it confirms their persecution and certainty of redemption.” It seems really un-Christian for a group to wish for sin and evil among others just so that it will cement their standing of purity. Furthermore, it was even more disturbing to hear a lack of sympathy for sinners.

I think that the most powerful section of Strozier’s tenth chapter is “Seven: Redemption”. In this section, Strozier has presented a dualism that the Book of Revelation can be used for good but it can also be used for evil. It was surprising to me that it has inspired others to promote positive social change. I guess when I think about the Book of Revelation, I always think of fundamentalists groups. I think that Strozier makes such a powerful statement when he says: “But it is frankly disturbing to witness the current uses of the text by privileged white Americans. There is great potential for violence when the ruling class feels victimized.”