MDDM Chapter 45: Angels (p.451)

[Terrance]

Otto wrote:
> 
> I do not feel hijacked at all, and a little bit of fun in these serious
> matters is always good but I tend to agree to Robert that it is Wicks who is
> indeed having a little fun at Nathe's expense by trivializing angels. 

You are such a good sport Otto. Of course RC is both an arrogant young
bastard and a very serious scholar of religion. He's also in a a very
difficult position. He has been given a difficult task. I guess it's not
quite as tough as being sent ot convert the Igloo People as a friend of
mine was. He's written a book about his experience, worth reading if you
are interested in gods of the north. Remember when Mason and Dixon try
to get to see the massacre and Dixon puts on a dog and pony act for the
the locals? Well, what struck me about his entire put on is the fact
that what he actually says is true. He and Mason are in fact experts at
drawing boundary lines. 

Angels get married in the first book of The Torah, Jesus knew that for
sure. In fact, if they hadn't, he might have remained up in heaven.
Angels not only marry, they have sex. They have sex in Jude and in Peter
and Noah. Jesus knew this because all Jews knew this and know this to be
one of the most important events in the bible. The RC says something
like, I thought everyone knew that. The farting and smoking and drinking
is all good fun, depending on how you look at it. After all, it's
understandable, given the times and the religion/politics at play, that
an Anglican priest might seem like an alien, a strange person who can't
understand, empathize, relate to ordinary men and their secular habits.  
> 
> But what about Angels in an postmodern age when God, as we all know, is
> dead. This leaves the Angels with an ontological problem, a problem of
> identity:
> 
> "The death of God left the angels in a strange position. They were overtaken
> suddenly by a fundamental question (...) what are angels?"
> (Donald Barthelme, "On Angels", Sixty Stories, p.135)
> 


A lecherous Angel of Peoria
While in a state of constant euphoria,
took  seventeen wives
and ten thousand lives
While chanting the Sanctus and Gloria