it could be just too easy to read christian iconography into any old image, particularly involving martyrdom, because it seems to have formed a monopoly on the idea. Or mother and child, or armageddon, what-have-you. It's a system of religious capture that includes many aspects of previous religions, and in some modern forms, even adopts new ones to retain its control or continue its spread. but I doubt Zorn was trying to develop a specifically christian rhetoric of images in his choice of album covers. Some thoughts on the Jewishness of the radicle-izing root-pullers: When Zorn started on his Jewish identity trip, I was a little disappointed in him, not because of an anti-semitism on my part, but because I had already perceived his music as existing far beyond any such limited formulation of cultural identity. The beauty of his music for me was at least in part due to the fact that it held no particular culture above any other; it recognized the sphere of influence as being immanent and without hierarchy. But that doesn't mean I dislike the music or refuse to allow that it catalyzes radical becomings. And I'm really not too concerned with what the category explicitly ordains. I'll listen to it like any other music. We should all recognize that categories are at best a method of convenience for organizing music and hardly absolute. I think I would take issue with the use of the word 'purity' as well. I'd interrupt anybody using it to describe any music I hold dear. It should be a word reserved for chemistry, and even then only in relative terms. (e.g. "This acid is a hell of a lot more pure than that last batch. Let's do it tomorrow night, too.") --atomwrec
From: Joseph Zitt <jzitt@metatronpress.com> To: zorn-list@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: Zorn CD covers (was Re: Radical Jewish Culture) Date: Sat, 7 Dec 2002 23:17:22 -0800
On Sun, 8 Dec 2002 01:10:33 -0600 "Sanchez" <lupcato@flash.net> wrote:
I find amusing the idea that the covers of albums by an artist who is unmistakeably Jewish "can only bring to mind" Christian iconography.
Sure, what with them not having any iconography in common...
Hmm, this seems to conflict with the message to which I was responding, in which you mapped the images to the crucifixion, John the Baptist, and Madonna and Child. I think I can be correct in saying that these cannot conceivably be considered Jewish images, no?
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