Rex: I'm not even going to bother quoting your last post. It was like reading myself writing. I sat with Parliament of Fools on Tuesday evening and read those exact same scriptures as we talked over our understanding of the idea.
While I don't necessarily agree that Moses and Elijah were fictionsuits of God, they certainly do embody and represent the Law and the Prophets, both of which Jesus came to fulfill. This links back to the passage about the greatest commandment/s (…and all the Law and the Prophets hangs on these two, or words to that effect). I agree with the pre-incarnate appearances of Jesus (BTW, there's also a significant one on the road to Jericho in the book of Joshua).
I have a developing idea (not yet fully formed, and only at the playful stage), that reality is not only God's fiction but God's hypersigil, and that by entering His own creation through Jesus He was able to rewrite facets of His own nature, while retaining His nature, forever unchanging. This is not an impossibility: an infinite and timeless being could conceivably create a Universe for the purposes of understanding Himself better. As He realises that there are aspects of Himself that need to change, He interacts with linear time via Jesus, writing His desired characteristics into the suit. The personality trait bleed-thorugh effect takes place, but is shifted into non-linear time, thus making the changes wrought an eternal aspect of God (ie: in order for a changeless non-linear being to change, He must interact with linear time). In effect, God and Jesus swapped places.
This isn't as potentially blasphemous as it sounds. Firstly, Jews believe (from what little I know) in a God that wasn't perfect – secondly, there is plenty of scriptural precedent for God changing His mind (or giving an indication that He may change His mind if certain conditions are met). It explains apparent differences in tone and the nature of God between Old and New Testaments, while still holding that they are the same infinite, unchanging being.
The use of Jesus as a fictionsuit effectively solves another problem: the idea of humaity as God's plaything. Of course, this is already partially solved by a conception of God as author of reality (interestingly, God is described as both author and perfecter in the Bible) – the writers I know (myself included) go to great pains to feel what their characters feel, suffering as they suffer, laughing as they laugh. Of course, this only gives God an understanding of what humanity is, not what it is to be human. One of the things that has always struck me about Jesus is His bravery: the desire of God to stub His own toe, to feel hungry and tired and have a crush on the girl who lives down the road and support the family business, and shit and piss with the rest of us (imagine being the girl that Jesus had His eye on!). And of course, this model only really makes sense if Jesus is to be discarded by God, and treated with the same impartiality as He treats us all (in a way, then, Jesus could have been God's salvation, nailed to the cross with God's imperfections as well as ours).
There are further implications, but that's enough for now – this is the extent to which I've thought it through (ie: not much!). There are other considerations, ie: afterlife, God's intentions in creation, etc. I reiterate – this is theorising at play, without any real commitment to the idea… yet. Of course, none of it is of interest at all unless you have an interest in Judeo/Christian theology. If it's taking this thread too much on a tangent, please tell me and I'll start another.
Relating this back to the Invisibles is trickier, as I still haven't read the final twelve issues (I'm waiting to see which happens first; ephemerat pulling his finger out and lending them to me, or the release of the trade - which I've asked the Comics forum about several times and still not got an answer). However, it fits with my understanding of Grant's intentions concerning his relationship with King Mob outside the text, the magic mirror/UFO and Barbelith itself (the segment where the 'Lith rewires itself through Dane's liguistic centres to manifest as Christ, the idea of the placenta taking away impurities for the developing child). Please don't spoil the ending for me (although I think I can make an uneducated guess).
Oh, cusm: total agreement about roleplaying. In some ways, my experience becoming characters (sometimes several simultaneously) has been one of the most valuable I've had: not only in terms of understanding the world, but in understanding my friends and seeing issues from another perspective. Plus I get to throw grenades!  |
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