YOU FUCKIN KNOW MEEEEEEEEE I ASCENDED STRAIGHT UP INTO WAKANDAN HEAVEN

WELCOME TO THE NICHE CORNER, MY FRIEND

As I’m sure you’ve guessed, this is a topic of much interest to me, and I love to read about it! This is a list of books I’ve read and heartily recommend for anyone interested in the Bible or biblical history, context, and interpretation. It is by no means exhaustive - I tend towards common sense writing with a sociological or history lens when it comes to non fiction, and away from anything scathingly atheist or overtly preachy - but it’s more than enough to get you started.

This may sound stupid, but you’d be surprised how many people who are interested in the bible haven’t read… the Bible. There are lots of reasons - people think it’s boring, people think it’s just for the religious, people have been scarred by Sunday school and/or scripture and/or those terrifying concerts your teachers made you endure with muppet like characters telling you the word of the lord was Totally Cool - but I’m here to tell you to think again, friends. The bible is a fascinatingly hot mess of a text that has influenced nearly every writer, politician, thinker, artist and layperson in the Western world and beyond for two thousand years. It is literally the basis of western civilization. The truth is, you probably have heard of or been influenced by stories and parables in the bible for your whole life - many people who read it as adults for the first time find themselves going, oh shit. That’s where that’s from, huh. The trick is in the telling - choose a bible that’s written in a style that’s not going to put you to sleep. I’m a fan of the King James version, because it’s the first one i read completely, but it’s flowery. The English Standard version is the most accessible, in my opinion (it’s what my new barbie bible is, lmao) - go down to your local bookstore and have a flick through whatever copies they’ve got. Another resource I love is biblehub - you can compare the way different versions have written verses + heaps of other tools.

The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls are another primary source vital to the way we view the bible and the time of Christ in the modern era. This penguin version is the one I own and it’s both well translated and comprehensive.

Judas: the troubling history of the renegade apostle - 12/10 HIGHLY RECOMMEND FOR ANYONE AND EVERYONE INTERESTED IN THIS TOPIC.

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth - there are a lot of biographical works about Jesus out there but this is the best one I’ve read. It’s all about examining context, baby - Judea in 4BC had no mass communication et al.

If you can get your hands on it, Biblica: The Bible Atlas is an amazing text. It is enormous - like, enormous, here is my copy:

that’s my tiger balm in the bottom left corner for reference. it’s A3 and at least 500 pages long but it has so much information, both written and visual, and it covers everything. If a place is mentioned in the Bible, it’s in this book.

Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible & Why We Don’t Know About Them is a great book to get you thinking laterally about the bible - about how the writing can change the message, about how it’s basically been a crowdsourced text for as long as it’s existed, how early scribes changed meaning and shaped the way we talk about the book even now. There is no one right way to interpret the bible - there never has been.

The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans and Heretics and The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus both tackle a topic that’s often overlooked: the inherent anti semitism in the passion story, and how that was specifically built upon in the creation of the early church.

I’m currently reading A Brief History Of Christianity and it’s an overview of the spread of the Christian church after the passion to modernity. It’s nothing world shaking or revelatory, but it does a wonderful job of threading together events through history with the connective tissue of the Church, and shows how religion has impacted nearly every stage of the creation of the Western world.

From Gabriel to Lucifer: A Cultural History of Angels - a fave. Takes a look at how angels are shown in the bible - terrifying, for the most part - and how that has been warped and transformed throughout history into the perception we hold of the host today.

Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity - doesn’t that title just get you HYPE?

After the Apple: Women in the Bible - I MEAN, DUHHHHHHH. A  reexamination of nearly 20 biblical women and their stories. Essential.

Out of the Garden: Women Writers on the Bible - THE FEMINIST TAKEOVER. COMIN FOR YOUR ESTHERS AND YOUR RUTHS

Hello! I am on tumblr still, just not so much this tumblr - I post much more often on my sideblog/writing blog, deuteragonism. 

Mmm yes, the frenzy of the fall TV season. I have to warn you preemptively that my barometer of good may be remarkably different to yours - I'll watch anything that’s entertaining to me - but I'll do my best to recommend some stuff for you! Here are shows that have premiered in the last few months that I've watched, reviewed and rated for your perusal 

WATCH

Queen Sugar - dynastic, messy family drama centered on an african american southern family. produced by ava duvernay and it shows - well acted, tense, gripping. if you like drama at the top of its game, give it a watch. 9/10

Luke Cage - WATCH LUKE CAGE. 9/10

Stranger Things - chances are you've already watched this, but in case you haven't, you should! a rare gem in our current remake swamped world that takes old tropes and pulp 80's narrative beats and turns them into something completely new. It manages to feel familiar and yet postmodern at the same time - nostalgia done right. 9/10

Westworld. Now I'm firmly in the fuck hbo forever camp, but this show has a premise (the singularity/dawning of AI consciousness) that is of specific interest to me, so I'm (deep sigh) in it for the long haul. It's got a brilliant concept, well acted, lusciously shot - there's that patented HBO Violence™ but if you can stomach it, give this one a go. 8/10

Timeless - TIME TRAVEL IS IN, FRIENDS. there are like three new shows about time travel airing soon and this is the first of them, and it was fun! the premise: the hot eastern european doctor from ER is a (maybe) terrorist with (unknown but probably sinister) motives who steals a time machine that a dude too wealthy for anyone to say 'dude, don't build a fucking time machine' to has erroneously built. to stop these Nefarious Terrorists from Destroying the Timeline a plucky history/anthropology/everything professor, a CW castoff marine, and a coder very very worried about going back in time to when jim crow was still around must follow the terrorists in another time machine and stop them from like, blowing up the hindenberg and ruining reality as we know it. I really loved Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego as a kid so this is the show for me. 7/10 

Pitch - the world's first female professional baseball player must fight the evils of misogny, racism, and the american sports system. go in, baby girl. 8/10

Victoria - BBC period series about, you know, Queen Victoria. ft. a rescued Doctor Who companion, Rufus Sewell doin his thing, and That Guy That Plays Everyone’s Slimy Brother. 8/10

Berlin Station - Thorin Oakenshield returns to his Spooks spy roots. The real question is: when will he come back to being a brooding Brontean period drama love interest? 7/10

TRY IF YOU’RE INTERESTED

Designated Survivor - the US Capitol gets blown up during the state of the union and Kiefer Sutherland, already well versed in how much terrible shit can happen in one 24-hour period, must pick up the pieces. Doesn't know if it wants to be west wing, quantico, scandal, or a combination of all three. Also doesn't seem to realise how much panic having the entire american government getting blown to smithereens would cause. Good acting, though. 6.5/10

MacGyver and Lethal Weapon - remake procedurals targeted at the ncis audience - so, like, your grandparents. Honestly they're both missable unless you really like watching dudes make stuff go boom. lethal weapon is the better of the two, but that might be because I can't shake the image of lucas till as the love interest in the hannah montana movie out of my head. a generous 5/10

This is Us - jess mariano and mandy moore's martial problems. this one has a twist that people are loving but i'm not so sure on - I think it may impact the longevity of the show. Watch if you like gilmore girls/parenthood esque family comedy/drama mashups. 7/10

Conviction - legal procedural starring peggy carter as the fuck up former first daughter who gets assigned head of a team of other tv show castoffs including beth from the walking dead, the other other hot guy from graceland, and one of the ashmore twins reviewing cases of already convicted prisoners. If you're not a fan of the format give it a miss, but if you like weekly case shows this one has promise - the show takes delight in knowing that ten years ago its main character would have been a sebastian stan-esque playboy and that it's subversive by just applying similar tropes to a female lead. 7/10

Riverdale has not dropped yet but I am excited for when it does. This show will sink or swim based on the bitchy evilness of Veronica alone - if they de fang her I'm OUTTIE.

Aftermath - Will This White Family Survive The Apocalypse? Skip. 4/10

Notorious - oh, Coyote Ugly and the main hot dude from Graceland. You both deserve so much better. 4/10

Shows that aren't new but maybe you haven't watched and definitely should

BLACK SAILS. PLEASE WATCH THIS SHOW. You're in luck as well, because it's three seasons in and you can bingewatch it all at once and get the most enjoyment possible - it is a hell of a slow burn of a show, but its follow through is completely worth the crawl at the start. Ive watched this show since it premiered and you can imagine my surprise when this nothing-that-special pirate show turned into the most brilliant, layered, nuanced character exploration on tv. It was like watching a beautiful, diverse, salt water crusted flower bloom before my very eyes. 

12 Monkeys - TTTIIIIME TRAVEL

Marco Polo and Sense8 - my netflix choices FOREVER.

Penny Dreadful - I am of two minds recommending this show - it was my absolute favourite show on television, bar none, and then the series finale happened. It’s a Victorian era supernatural drama that takes many famous monsters and stories from the era - Dracula, Frankenstien, the Wolf Man, Dorian Grey - and weaves them into a new, compelling narrative. You’ve never seen acting until you have seen Eva Green in this show. We coulda had it all......

From Dusk Till Dawn - not everyone’s cuppa, but certainly mine - the pulpy, bloody, diverse, subversive kind of paranormal tv that supernatural could never quite find itself being.

The Americans -

Outlander - as you may or may not know I am a longtime - like, long time - outlander fan, but the show still stands on its own two feet as a brilliant, original, time travelly period piece look at this scottish dude with his shirt off drama. 

okay buddy..... here we go......

hahaha. oh, my dude. I was so unbelievablely neck deep in wizard rock, you can’t even imagine it. Like I had a playlist of legit thousands of songs that was all I listened to for a good year and a half there in 2007-2008 in the great pre- and post- deathly hallows carpet book harry potter boom. I have this really incessant part of my personality that dictates that once I like or am interested in something, I have to know EVERY SINGLE THING ABOUT IT. like i really cannot overstate how fucking obsessed with these books i was. when i was nine my mum bought me a STUFFED MRS NORRIS toy with the creepy beady eyes and all and i used to TAKE IT TO SCHOOL WITH ME. Am I saying listening to wrock is on that cringe level? no way, I definitely still have a shitload of wrock on my good ol ipod classic. am i saying i used to get dragged by my family for singing along to the butterbeer experience’s ‘the magic hopping pot’ as i vaccuumed the house? Hell yes I am.

Anyway. Yes, I was a wizard rock connoisseur back in the day. Here’s some of the best in a completely biased and makeshift list for your listening pleasure. Wander back to the pre tumblr fandom world of yesteryear…..

the original wrock song is a surprisingly listenable unrequited love punk jam from ginny weasley’s perspective called ‘ode to harry’. YES THAT IS RIGHT THE FIRST WROCK SONG WAS WRITTEN BY WOMEN, THEY ARE THE PROGENITORS OF THIS ENTIRE SUBGENRE OF MUSIC DONT LISTEN TO PEOPLE WHO SAY HATP STARTED IT. like don’t get me wrong, the song is, objectively, terrible. but in a fun post no doubt’s ska era kind of way. I burned this onto a CD for myself in 2001 wedged between Nelly’s 'hot in herre’ and smashmouth’s 'all star’. for real. also have some respect, this song is older than the first harry potter movie. YOU HEARD ME. THE FIRST ONE.

harry and the potters are probably the most well known wrock band. They’re two Darren criss lookin dudes who pretty much started the whole 'upload our weird HP music to MySpace and travel around playing in public libraries then uploading it to YouTube’ wrock golden era. Best songs: PHOOENIX TEARS, WEVE GOT TO SAAAAVE GINNY WEASLEY FROM THE BASILISK

look okay Draco and the Malfoys started as a douchey rip off parody of harry and the potters and there was a lot of #BITTERNESS there initially. and then there was the whole whomping willows spinoff #scandal and like tbh there was honestly a lot of drama in this fandom for a bunch of dudes singing about Hermione Granger into their macbooks in their basements in massacheusetts. personally i was never big on datm’s music but like you do you….

Oliver and the rembembralls are the wrock band who wrote that song for that nostalgia video that got big and made you cry when deathly hallows part 2 came out. also i have an enduring love for hermione’s song (you and me) which is EXACTLY what you expect.

the Remus Lupins are my favourite of the traditional sounding wrock bands (yep, thats absolutely a thing). Not to be confused with remus and the lupins, they’re entirely different do not confuse them. I WAS A TEENAGE WEEREWWOLF , tbh the entire nevermind the furthermore album is quintessential wrock

the weasel king is some dreamy 00’s synth that would still be good even if it wasn’t about harry potter, know what I mean? I legit still listen to their eps lmao. Listen to the whole musical decree number 24 album if you’re interested but like if i haaad to choose a select few - through and through, red hair,  the flying motorbike.

ROONIL WAZLIBBBBB the best of the breathy female folksy wrock contingent. Green eyes (I highkey fucking LOVE THIS song. It is crazy sweet), the song of the locket (CREEPY AFFFF), the epilogue (this song legit makes me cry lmao....or at least it did when I was 15. I was pretty emotional at all times about hp back then.)  

the butterbeer experience - THE PEVERELL STORY. this song is some dope faux medieval lullabye that fits the deathly hallows story perfectly. The whole beedle the bard ep is pretty good actually. 

starkid/avpm is very much a part of this movement lmao…. they came late in the game but their #IMPACT cannot be overstated. Tbh like if you’re in HP fandom and haven’t watched this then wyd. CALM YOURSELF, YAXLEY