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6:8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed him.

What struck my interest about this image of death and hell was that Death was the horseman and that Hell would follow after him, connecting these figures strongly to each other. In the text Death is the last horseman on the pale horse who seems to be the one bringing the most destruction with him, and the horse is not a color like the others instead he is pale. That makes me think of when we say that someone or something is “deathly pale” and the connotations that come with that phrase.

The other reason why Death and Hell stuck out to me when I read “Revelations” was because as characters they brought to mind the way that Milton characterizes Sin and Death in Paradise Lost.  I kept thinking about how Sin, the offspring of Satan, has the keys to hell and she opens the gates of hell for Satan to come to earth and ruin man.  Soon after Sin follows after him with Death, Satan’s and Sin’s offspring, and they pave the way to earth. To me this is similar to Death coming on a pale horse. In general, after reading “Revelations” I couldn’t help feeling as if Paradise Lost was almost the prequel to it because my mind kept going back to images and events that happened in that book and connecting them to what was happening in “Revelations.”

Let me begin by saying that these are just the kinds of responses I look forward to reading. They are thoughtful, lively, and provocative. I would like them to be put online before the day of class, however. That way, there will be ample time for everyone to read them in advance of class, respond online, and then in class we will be able to dive deeper into the material at the outset. I was interested to see the references to Deep Impact since I know the writer Michael Tolkin somewhat. I just sent him a note to let him know his work had made an impact on some of you. What I have always admired in his work (The Player and The Rapture in particular) is that he dwells on the most complex ethical questions, one that need to be pondered precisely because no ready answers are on hand. Those kinds of ethical deliberations are what I see in what Dan and Roy wrote about in their comments. The tensions between hatred and hope are profound in Revelation (note no s on the end!) and surface in intriguing ways in Apocamon. Thanks to Lena for the great images and bringing this in to the discussion! See you this afternoon, Lee

Like user - rbenmoshe I too had flashbacks to the movie Deep Impact while reading Revelations.  It came to mind when I read 8:10, "And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of water".  When I first read the verse I associated it only with the notion of a meteorite hitting the earth and I didn't understand why it struck the rivers and then when I reviewed the following verse I understood that it was a star called 'Wormwood' which poisoned the waters.  This reminded me of radiation poisoning.
 

One of the images that stuck in my head the most was the image of the slain lamb, from verse 5:6 "... a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth."  The reason this image stuck with me was because it jogged my memory of the last time I encountered the story of Revelations.  It was several years ago, in the form of an animated manga style tale of the Book of Revelations by Patrick Farley called

I was saddened to discover that the Apocamon isn't online right now and I'm endeavoring to get into contact with Patrick Farley in hopes of securing a copy for myself.  Here's some more screen shots from the series :

 

"And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgement of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:" 17:1

"With whom the Kings of the earth have commited fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." 17:2

      The great whore mentioned in 17:1 represents a political, social, and economic institution, labeled Babylon; however since Babylon was not at the time a sizeable political institution of any importance, he was most likely speaking about the Roman Empire. John the Apostle, most likely wrote Revelations, since he was exiled by the Emperor Domitian to the island of Patmos during the late 1st century, early 2nd century A.D. Rome at the time was entering its zenith, and actively persecuted Christians under the Emperor Nero (as previously mentioned). In 70 A.D. the Romans under Titus Flavius brutally sacked Jeruslaem during the Great Revolt, and burned the second temple to the ground. It was a cataclysmic struggle in which thousands were murdered or enslaved by the Roman legions. To John at the time, Rome represented the antithesis of Christian morals, as they actively persecuted Chrisitans, and burned Jerusalem and gods great temple.

I have come to realize (in my ever so short amount of time grappling 
this subject) that there is at least one comme theme in apocalyptic 
literature: Hope. The theme of hope is obvious if the hopeful's vision is 
well articulated, but it is sometimes not. In the Koranic version of the 
Apocalypse the hope is clear: do well with all of God's creations by giving 
zakat (charity) and by other means of community-building and you will be 
judged well when the day of judgment arrives. And the day of judgement WILL 
arrive. In modern apocalyptic cinema, the hope is not as clear, perhaps 
because an entire feature length film can revolve around the utter 
annihilation of human civilization (and all the "booms" accompanied by the 
process). However, the constant image of destruction in modern cinema does 
share the same hopeful theme as the Koran (saying this isn't shirk, I swear). 
For example, the image of the demolition of the statue of liberty in movies 
like "Deep Impact" and "Cloverfield" (about which one student had brought up 
in class). Try, for a moment, not to think of the Statue as a symbol of 
freedom and liberty, but one of our technological advancements in the last 
500 years. After all, this monstrous monument was successfully shipped all 
the way from france in the end of the 19th century, a century famous for its 
celebration of science and ideas. The image of the destuction of man-made 
wonders is perhaps projected in the hope that man will A) realize his 
futility, even in the midst of all his tangible achievements, in the face of 
natural disaster and B) Man may reflect on his priorities and ask "is this 
hunk of junk really that miraculous?" and, "Is this all we've achieved 
throughout human civilization?" Then, "we can't save ourselves with 
buildings...how can we truly save ourselves?"

          In Revelation 6:15, the prophet's description of the state of the 
earth before its destruction is quite similar to the end of "Deep Impact" 
when the young main characters settle on a mountain after the matter.  My 
NRSV reads, "Then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals 
and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slaves and free, hid in the 
caves and among the rocks and mountains, calling to the mountains and 
rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne 
and from the wrath of the lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come and 
who is able to stand?" The image of a bunch of kings and their servants 
congregating helplessly under a rock, trying to flee the wrath of God, is a 
bit of a humorous one, but I believe the purpose of the author is, as I've 
said earlier, to coerce us into getting our priorities straight. How can we 
find salvation in a rock, no matter how large? and if we do not find 
slavation in something eternal, then we will surely perish.

"And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass." (21:21)

    Having cast into the lake of fire and brimstone all the world's merchants and admirers of luxuries, God builds himself a city "garnised with all manner of precious stones" (21:19).  This finally insult to the world's condemned sinners -- some overwhelming majority of the world's population -- is upsettingly befitting of the gluttonous God presented in the Book of Revelation.  The book is deliberately and sucessfully as violent as possible.  The violence is used as a tool to simultaneously inspire fear and pride in its reader.  As the suffering is described, the underlying message consistently implied is, "you, dear reader, are of course not one of them."  By gaining a sneek peek, in Chapter 21, of God's fantastic new heaven on earth, the believing reader is bathed in an insurpassable pride that washes away whatever horror or pity he must have felt over the preceding chapters (afterall, they deserved it).  Invented in Revelation is a privalege beyond all others: the chance to sit with Jesus at his throne (3:21). It is, perhaps, this pride that has made Revelation so popular for so long.  Why else would so many people embrace such a horrific tale, the silliness of which is exceeded only by its creepiness?
    Perhaps creepiest of all is the story's fascist nature.  At the core of every fascist ideology is a story of paradise lost, to be regained through toil, hardship, and strong leadership.  Eden was lost through sin, and through the purging of all sin shall Eden be regained.  Every fascist ideology has its scapegoat.  In the case of Revelation, the scapegoat is (insanely broadly) "the sinner".  The effect is to give license (if not a demand) to all believers to do whatever they will, and whatever they can to aid God in his most noble quest to rid the world of sin and sinners.  That so many people in this country, including its President, accept this fascist manifesto as literally stated creed is a reality many times more frightening than any Islamic terrorist group.

As I started reading the book of revelations on the subway, I was immediately involved in a discussion.

This man claimes that the number 666 derrives from the roman leader whose name is made up of 3 \names with each 6 letters...I invited him to our movie night :)

PS: Not only has Strand only one book of Kirsch's "History of..." it has none of the other readings at this time.