Post: Week 1

Reeves_Week 1

Reeves_Week 1

by Neil D. Reeves -
Number of replies: 3

Fentress-Williams uses Exodus and music to assert that it’s important to tell a biblical story but the story should be told from the perspective of remixing than sampling. She states remixing “is another version of the song, once distinct from the original in that different tracks are realized and often appears on the same CD” [81]. She emphasizes that in remixing the complete story is available, but emphasis is placed from the perspective of the person telling the story. [81] Compared to remixing, she states sampling is taking a small segment of a recording and repeating it. She implies here that most would believe that the sample is the original song if they were unaware that it wasn’t. Fentress-Williams states the danger in sampling is “subsequent generations do not know the song in its entirety, the original artist, or the context.” [81]

She uses remixing in providing examples where often emphasis is not placed on the major flaws and strengths of characters in the Exodus. For example, she talks about how some have called many African-American male leaders the “Moses” of the day. She asserts that those who hold Moses in high esteem don’t realize that Moses never made had peace with his role of being a prophet and that Exodus depicted him as “a recipient of liberation and not the liberator”. [82] Fentree-Williams suggests that these people who hold Moses in high esteem don’t recognize women in Exodus as agents of redemption.

I think Fentress-Williams was effective in using the music concepts of remixing and sampling to highlight that the story of Exodus should be told, but should also be viewed from others’ social locations for insightfulness.


In reply to Neil D. Reeves

Re: Reeves_Week 1

by Ryan Tobin -

Neil - I agree completely that Fentress-Williams makes an apt comparison between the story elements of Exodus and the modern concept of remixing (and contrasting that with sampling). 

Her description reminded me of the parable that is recounted in the prologue to Elie Wiesel's book The Gates of the Forest (which I don't have at hand so I have to work from memory here). The basic shape of the parable is that a great mystic averts a disaster by performing a three-part ritual that causes God to intervene. Each of the following generations learns this story, but forgets one aspect of the ritual; they tell the story, do the part(s) of the ritual that they can remember, and God still intervenes. The last generation has only the story -- none of the details of the ritual are known, so the leader simply tells the story without performing any of the ritual, and God still intervenes. The moral of the tale is that "God created humanity because God loves stories."

This is a long-winded way of me saying that I'm not entirely sure I agree with Fentress-Williams view that sampling is more dangerous than remixing. While sampling may indeed lead to a loss of the original context of the story, I'm not sure that this is such a terrible loss even when the story comes from Holy Scripture. A story like the Exodus is very robust and can bear the more authentic process of "remixing" for a modern context, but there are other stories (say, Exodus 4:24-26) that are so far out of our reach that sampling might be all that is possible.

In reply to Neil D. Reeves

Re: Reeves_Week 1

by Gregg Kohlhepp -

Good morning! Yes, I also really appreciated the analogous dimension of music, especially the contrast with remixing and sampling. I agree with you and Fentress-Williams, in that sampling the stories of the Exodus creates an incomplete story, leaving only a perception such as the one with the heroic depiction of Moses. The process of sampling reminds me of Sunday School lessons that have shaped the story for youngsters - having grown from these roots into cultural references that have "shaped imaginations" (82).

A "better" story comes forth in the remix, right? The depth of strength and support for Moses comes from two women, his Hebrew mother and the Pharaoh's daughter. How telling is this story of deliverance and the influence of women in constructing the narratives of Exodus, running counter to the established patriarchal society of the times. Indeed, these "women who model God's act of redemption" (83) impact not only the story of Israelites but also have modern relevance in a world where gender issues require more than sampled snippets and manufactured political correctness.

In reply to Neil D. Reeves

Re: Reeves_Week 1

by Julia O'Brien -

Neil, you've done a good job of describing the musical metaphor that Fentress-Williams is using to describe how she understands Exodus.

It wasn't as clear from your post how you see her using "critical biblical studies" methods in her discussion. Was she using any methods that you encountered in BI100?  These would include translation, internal structure analysis, attention to literary context, source criticism, ancient sociology, etc.