Books Reading Tonight
posted by on March 7 at 10:10 AM
There are only two options for readings tonight, but they’re both interesting. The first is local author Lesley Hazleton at North Seattle Community College, reading from her book Jezebel. Charles Mudede wrote about Jezebel for us five months ago. Here’s the beginning of the piece:
The story ends badly. It’s in the Bible (the Old Testament), and concerns Jezebel, a ninth century B.C. Phoenician princess who marries the king of Israel, Ahab, corrupts him, scandalizes the kingdom, is cursed by the prophet Elijah, and meets (as predicted by Elijah) a gruesome death—she is thrown out of a window, trampled by a horse, and eaten by dogs. And precisely what did this woman do to deserve this horrible end and a bad reputation that has lasted for nearly 3,000 years?
Answer to that question is here.
At Open Books, Noah Eli Gordon reads from his newest poetry collection, A Fiddle Pulled from the Throat of a Sparrow. Here is part of a poem from that book: “forget almond trees, grapes & poppies/what he wouldn’t believe is the inescapable music here/the night filling with beloved firetrucks/cover your ears to cover the passing sirens/praise the passing sirens.”
Gordon reads with Joshua Marie Wilkinson, one of the authors of Figures for a Darkroom Voice. Here’s a description of Voice, from The Strangers’ old friend, Amazon.com: “the rhetorical twisting of Noah Eli Gordon’s abstractions meld with the ominous narratives of Joshua Marie Wilkinson’s fragments, turning Wallace Stevens’ notion of a supreme fiction toward a supreme friction, one where the work of these two poets is fused into a voice as singular as it is sinister.”
I’m always interested in this kind of collaboration, especially when both the artists are on hand to discuss it. It looks interesting, and it’s free, and when it’s all over, there’s a Dick’s right nearby. It’s like the starving poets’ dream date.
Full readings calendar, including the next week or so, here.
Update: Commenter the shelver confirms that David Shields is at the University Bookstore tonight, too. My new intern starts on Monday, everybody!
Actually, those who missed David Shields on Wednesday could come out to University Book Store and see him read tonight.
That's right, lets rehabilitate Jezebel, worshipper of Baal, enemy of the Lord God and murderer of His prophets. She who convinces her husband, "Hey, you're king, if you want someone's land and they won't sell, buy witnesses to some crime so he'll be stoned to death, and you can take his land." She ignored the power of God as Elijah prayed to stop the rain and it stopped. She ignored the power of God when Elijah prayed that the rain might return, and it did. When God, at the prayers of Elijah sent fire down from heaven onto his altar, and Israel was so full of awe that they killed all the prophets of Baal, Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, " So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time." Most people are familiar with the saying, "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. I will repay." And indeed he repayed Jezebel for murdering His prophets and her persistent unrepentance in the face of His evident and pre-eminent power.
In the same way, God will avenge every person you've wronged. His name is Jesus. He has told us what is right and how we ought to live, how God requires perfection, how we ought to love our neighbor and even our enemies, yet all this we fail to do. Repent, turn from going your own way, worshipping your own gods and worship Jesus or He will punish you forever for your sins in Hell, where the maggots eating your flesh will feast continually, and your body will be aflame though you perish not.
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