I can easily say that I have never written a blog in my entire lifetime...which isn't that long if you consider how young I am but that's besides the point. So now that I have my own blog about NAS 5, I decided to title it "But Why...?". This is because the point of this blog is to discuss the readings and what they mean. A common question asked during interpretation is "why" so why not include that in my title? I am constantly asking questions for everything, so this is also one of my most commonly used phrases. I think that asking why is a great way to help dissect readings that are most difficult. When you have multiple people asking for explanations on one reading then you end up with a better understood meaning.
I missed the discussion on the second part of the Popol Vuh. What I would really like answered about the Popol Vuh is whether or not the two brothers were magical? Also, what were they? If these characters were not man, then what are they? The way I read it, the brothers were definitely some type of magical spirit. There is no way that they could have escaped multiple times from challenges that were meant to kill them. Also, they came back from death multiple times. One of the brothers had his own head chopped off and yet he somehow reattached it! I don't understand how that could be possible without some type of voodoo assistance. That in turn means that these brothers were not man, as we picture man today. Man would not be able to do that. But are the brothers made of wood or dirt? What is the material they are made out of since we are in between this whole man made of wood before man is made of corn time frame? Other than that, I found the reading highly entertaining because it was just an extremely interesting creation story.
I think the brothers exist in between the time of the wood people and the corn people, who are the real human beings like you and me. So, all of the action that we are reading in Book Two pre-dates the creation of human beings. So, yes, I think we might think of the brothers as some type of god-like beings -- one person in class suggested that we might call them demi-gods. They aren't as powerful as the Heart of Heaven, but they are seemingly bigger than humans who come in Book Three.
ReplyDeleteLike in the above post, it's important to realize that these people are not human. Were they gods? It isn't clear. But they did exist in a world that is not consistent with our own. It is a combination of these factors that gives them these "powers".
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