Noah and the Flood Sinnerman (where you gonna run to?) - Nina Simone How did Noah do it? - with Isabella Rossellini

Myth as Origin Story Myth vs. Science: two kinds of explanation The Gods as Cause (of Nature and Culture) Explanation? Legitimation? Both? why things are X way, and why they ought to be

“The Most Beautiful of All Mothers,” Adrián Villar Rojas (Istanbul Biennial, 2015)

The Ark as history / themepark

The Ark as design for survival

Noah’s Ark Deluxe Hotel and Casino

A success story: surviving + thriving

(Tell him what he’s won…)

The Story of Noah A figure for survival, a figure for success: Who wins? What do they win? Why? An end and a beginning: “corruption,” and wiping the slate clean Making the Covenant: more powers, more problems What just happened?? the problem of the ending

Noah the righteous one Logic of the exception: All are evil (except)… only one (Noah) is not Myth as both explanation and justification: Noah was saved + he ought to have been saved The other of corruption: cleanliness, purity

The Covenant Origins of a (all?) “people”: religion and law The exchange: I (God) promise not to kill you all again, if you (men) promise to do some killing for me, but in a better (more god-like??) way than before… Being made “in the image of God”: a new sense

And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and conquer it, and hold sway over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the heavens and every beast that crawls upon the earth.” [1:28] And God blessed Noah and his sons and He said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And the dread and fear of you shall be upon all the beasts of the field and all the fowl of the heavens, in all that crawls on the ground and in all the fish of the sea.” [9:1-2]

And God created the human in his image, in the image of God He created him, male and female he created them. [1:27] He who sheds human blood By humans his blood shall be shed For in the image of God He made humankind. [9:6]

Wait, what? (after the flood…) The strange tent scene and its aftermath: And Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. And he drank of the wine and became drunk, and exposed himself within his tent. And Ham the Father of Canaan saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside [9:20-22]

The curse: what for? (two ways) Was it for some thing Ham did? Or for something that “has” (yet) to happen? The curse as justification: dispossession + slavery The nakedness of the Father: “exposing” authority (vs. covering it up)

Cultural Foundations: The Right to Power On the proper limits and relations of power: (the right of some to have power over others) On legitimate power and the right to violence: (what kinds of power are right, what are not) On the transfer of power: (from God to men; from Noah to his “rightful” heir)

Cultural Foundations: (Re)Telling Stories about Origins Why is this story being told, and in this way? What is it trying to explain, and/or bring about? What differences are introduced in retelling a story, and how are they important? What are the techniques / style / details, and how do they affect the story’s meaning?

NOAH (the story is more than you imagined...)