Rushkoff's Testament Making The Old New Again
Intermittent Jewschool contributor and beloved perennial pariah Douglas Rushkoff has been keeping himself rather busy as of late. Amongst juggling a nine month-old, a brand new book slated for a December release, and the course he teaches at NYU, Rushkoff’s been hard at work on a comic book series for DC-Vertigo, entitled Testament, which hits the shelves December 21.
Somehow, in the midst of a schedule that leaves the poor bastid without time to breathe, he managed to sit down with Comic Book Resources for a provoking interview about the project:
A story is a powerful concept. If enough people believe in a particular story, it can alter the way we perceive reality. “Testament,” a new ongoing series from Vertigo set to premier in December — by writer Douglas Rushkoff and artist Liam Sharpe — explores the effects a story can have on society. CBR News spoke to Rushkoff about the series, which uses biblical parallels to examine the fight for freedom in a future society.
Rushkoff’s interest in stories and the way they can influence reality deepened with the rise of the cyber phenomenon and hacking. “The question of the era seemed to be, ‘How much of our reality is programmable? Redesignable? Up for grabs?'” Rushkoff told CBR News. “The newfound power of coding, hacking, and computing threatened a lot of established institutions.”
His exploration of the idea of an open source reality and his Jewish background lead Rushkoff to examine the sacred texts of Judaism. “As I explored the Jewish texts — Torah, really, and the rest of the Bible — I saw that it was really saying close to the opposite of what most of us think it’s saying,” Rushkoff said. “There’s a lot of Bible-thumping going on these days — in Judaism and Christianity alike. And it has left the impression that it’s some sort of book of rules to follow, tenets to believe in and historical events to set in stone. Where it’s actually the story of a revolution — both of a bunch of people, and of human consciousness. It’s a proposition for an open source reality and a set of guidelines for how to break the news to real people who love to believe in idols.”
those interested in comix on biblical themes (jewish or non) should hustle on over to patrick farley’s brilliant, absolutely freaking brilliant manga of the book of revelation, at http://www.e-sheep.com.
… except that the Book of Revelation is part of the New Testament and therefore most Jewschool readers don’t consider it sacred or part of their Bible.
But other than that…
Alas, poor Vertigo. Once it had original series by Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. Now? Looks like just one more obvious and tendentious politicization of the Bible. But let’s wait and see…
arrogant jerk much what?
Awwwww…
“be shammai all you like, but a) you are not in the position to give tokhakha, and b) your tokhakha sucks and is thus a chilul hashem and as such is assur. “
what does that have to do with tokhakha? i’m not rebuking you for failure to fulfill a biblical obligation. i’m just stating fact: you’re a jerk.
“i’m just stating fact: you’re a jerk.”
Glass houses, baby….state the facts not, lest someone state the facts about you.
But how can a groupie of someone who has the gall to subtitle his book “The Truth About Judaism” (which would be presumptuous even for someone who knew something about Judaism) be complaining about arrogance?
J – move on, already. You don’t like Rushkoff, we get that. Please move on, you’re boring us.
rushkoff didn’t entitle the book that; the publisher did. he was adamantly against it and they wouldn’t budge. the subtitle was supposed to be “the case for open source judaism.”
as far as being a groupie — i’m mentioned in the acknowledgements at the end of nothing sacred. i’m not his groupie. i’m his friend, and have been for eight years.
in the meantime, i can only wonder, if you hate me, rushkoff, and our work so much — why do you hang out here? just to pick fights?
dan, i think this guy hates me too! i think this is his life – hating. wow, did he think he was insulting you by calling you a groupie? that’s the best he can do? oy.
Is Fern really bored? Or does she just not want to hear any criticism of Rushkoff, but is too ignorant or lazy to actually say something substantive in his defense?
Mobius – if in fact the unfortunate subtitle was the publisher’s fault, that does mitigate the problem. But I fing it hard to believe that Rushkoff had absolutely no choice (maybe he could have agreed to no subtitle at all?)
I don’t hate you or Rushkoff, but I have a real problem with self-styled prophets who feel a need to radically restructure everything around them to suit their own peculiarities, while not even bothering to get the facts straight or to make real arguments for their beliefs. I hang out here to try to present to anyone reading what the other side is. And since everything you say and do is backed up with impeccable reasoning, you shouldn’t have any problem with that.
Yes, Barbara, any and all criticism of any of your positions is nothing but “hating”. That’s because you are automatically right, and you are above having to argue for and defend your positions like the little people do. It must be magic. Keep up the good work, and in 20 years you’ll still be exactly where you are now. (And calling other people “arrogant jerk” – what is that exactly? Loving?)