A new show I'm watching and enjoying is the Danish
Ride upon the Storm (R.T.E.) with the central focus on a clerical family of the National Church i.e. Danish Lutheran. Excellent acting and writing. Is that title a reference to the Book of Job? Anyway they have their problems the sort that come with being sinners. What intrigues me is a plot point which is so odd that it must be true. One son is a padre in the Danish Army on a tour in Iraq. At first he refuses to bless the weapons of the men which alienates them as they are in a hot zone and need all the juju they can get. R.C.s bless the weapons of war I am informed, in the best of Latin. Why ever not ? It's a just war. We only ever fight just wars. Later on he relents and does bless the weapons and to rebuild his relationship with the men goes out on patrol with them. They get in a firefight in which the padre participates they are pinned down and a bomber who is in the area going about disguised in a niquab is shot dead by August (padre).Uh, uh. Did anyone make sure that the Holy Warriors got the memo about the Geneva Convention? No. Heads will roll over that. Back home August covers up his part in a civilian shooting. The word gets out that August has blessed weapons and the media get on it. You can bless same sex couples but blessing weapons is a 'blasphemous fable'. That whirring noise from the tomb of Luther at Wittenberg?
Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance. K.J.V.
5 comments:
Maybe it's a reference to the Doors' song "Riders on the Storm," but then you'd have to ascertain the Doors' original source. According to the guitarist it's a reference to the country&western song "Ghost Riders in the Sky." "Riders on the storm, into this house we're born, into the world we're thrown..." -- a Heideggerian reference. The show sounds good; I'll have to see if I can find a viewable source.
Thous hast changed thyself into mine enemy,
And dost press me hard under thy strong hand
Thou liftest me upon the storm
And causest me to ride upon it
Thou makest me to despond, and pressest me with terror.
(Freidrich Umbreit)
From the show the Jobian seems appropriate. They are going to lose everything and face the contumely of the National Church. That seems to be the trajectory
I see that the name of the original Danish-language series was Herrens Veje which as best as I can tell means "the road of the Lord." So where did the English title come from? Maybe the Lord's road is a stormy one, or, as in your German translation of the Job passage, the Lord's road rides upon the storm. But what happened to the Lord? Maybe such an overt religious reference in the title would alienate English-language viewers. At present I'm reading Apex Hides the Hurt, a 2006 novel by Colson Whitehead. The main character is a "nomenclature consultant," whose job it is to name new products before they go to market. First sentence of the book: "He came up with the names." And who was the first nomenclature consultant?
"And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." (Genesis 2:19, KJV)
John,
My latest post has gathered together some thoughts on 'naning'. Please note that Pantagruel explained hail stones as words which were unheard. I am following your schemes to bring about benign climate change.
Michael.
You and two or three others.
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.
- William Cowper, 1774
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