Romans And Exodus

The Boat Of A Million Years, XIII, Follow the Drinking Gourd.

There are three more Biblical quotations in this single short chapter.

Edmonds says:

"'"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves..."'" etc (Romans 12:19) (p. 270)

He follows this by dreading God's punishment:

"'...of this sinful land, when it comes.'" (ibid.)

Is this an auctorial comment? Have subsequent national tribulations constituted divine punishment? Or, in nontheistic language, reciprocal consequences of earlier injustices? 

Edmonds reads:

"'"...And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people..."'" etc (Exodus 3:7-9) (p. 271)

Politically relevant on a world scale now.

Flora responds:

"'Let ma people go...'" (Exodus 9:1) (ibid.)

Readers might miss this but Flora's phrase is also a quotation.

She tells the Edmonds how old she is. (If this did not happen, then Chapter XIII would be pointless within the novel.) They think that her ordeal has made her lose her wits. Thus, the secret of immortality is kept. A slave owner, disturbed by her longevity, would sell her on, "down de ribber," (p. 271) without alerting the buyer to her oddness. Thus, even her oppressors colluded in keeping the secret.

Flora addresses Edmonds as "'...massa...,'" (p. 270) then, when she is corrected, "'...suh...'" (p. 271)

Edmond's language is so Biblically influenced that it can sound like quotations, e.g.:

"No, please, God, of Thy mercy, no. Withhold Thy wrath that we have so richly earned. Lead us to Thy light." (p. 273)

The Edmonds, good people by (almost) anyone's standards, appear only in this single chapter. They are like timebound helpers of Jack Havig's group in There Will Be Time.

We used to run a food thread here. The Edmonds serve Flora:

pork roast

mashed potatoes

gravy

squash

beans

pickles

cornbread

butter

jam

milk cooled in the springhouse

pie

coffee

I nearly missed "springhouse."

The Drinking Gourd is the Big Dipper.

Have we missed anything in this rich chapter?