Anger

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

Page 306 of 447 · 20 per page

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  [1 Kin 11:1–11 ] 27 “Do we then hear about you that you have done all this great evil, acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign (pagan) women?” 28 One of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite, so I chased him away from me. 29 O my God, remember them, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. 30 Thus I cleansed and purified them from everything foreign (pagan), and I defined the duties of the priests and Levites, each one in his task; 31 and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times and for the first fruits. O my God, [please] remember me for good [and imprint me on Your heart]. Nehemiah 1 a 1:1 445 B .C . b 1:1 Artaxerxes I (son of Xerxes I) ruled the Persian Empire from 465–424 B .C . c 1:1 Or palace or citadel . d 1:6 In general, sons of Israel or Israel or Israelites refers to all the people (males and females) of the various tribes descended from the twelve sons (Gen 35:23–26 ) of Jacob (later renamed Israel by God). In verses concerning things such as warfare or circumcision sons of Israel or Israel or Israelites usually refers only to the males. Tribes of ancient people were identified by the name of their founding ancestor. Therefore, this same general rule applies when referring to individual tribal groups, e.g. sons of Reuben, Reuben, Reubenites and so throughout. e 1:9 This seems to be a hypothetical expression, but the grammatical form is that of a real possibility, to emphasize that God will find His people no matter where in the world they may be. f 1:9 See note Deut 12:5 . g 1:11 The cupbearer was an official of high rank in royal courts. He served the wine at the king’s table and sometimes tasted it first to be certain it was not poisoned. He was often a trusted confidant of the ruler, and his position was one of influence in the court. Nehemiah 2 a 2:10 Lit servant . b 2:18 The Hebrew verb “to stand” or “arise” is often an instruction to get ready to fulfill a command, somewhat similar to the military command “attention.” Nehemiah 3 a 3:1 Located at northeastern corner of the city. b 3:2 Lit On his hand . c 3:5 Lit bring their necks to . d 3:6 Located at the northwestern corner of the city. e 3:8 I.e. the western wall. f 3:15 Located on the lower southeast side of the city. g 3:16 This is not the Nehemiah who wrote this book. h 3:31 Or Muster Gate . i 3:32 Located at the upper northeastern corner of the city. Nehemiah 4 a 4:1 Ch 3:33 in Hebrew. b 4:7 Ch 4:1 in Hebrew. Nehemiah 5 a 5:5 Lit our hands are .

• From Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928)

  "If I could only get out and look at the damned thing!" he said, exasperated. And he sounded the horn stridently. "Perhaps Mellors can see what's wrong." They waited, among the mashed flowers under a sky softly curdling with cloud. In the silence a wood-pigeon began to coo, roo-hoo hoo! roo-hoo hoo! Clifford shut her up with a blast on the horn. The keeper appeared directly, striding inquiringly round the corner. He saluted. "Do you know anything about motors?" asked Clifford sharply. "I am afraid I don't. Has she gone wrong?" "Apparently!" snapped Clifford. The man crouched solicitously by the wheel, and peered at the little engine. "I'm afraid I know nothing at all about these mechanical things, Sir Clifford," he said calmly. "If she has enough petrol and oil--" "Just look carefully and see if you can see anything broken," snapped Clifford. The man laid his gun against a tree, took off his coat and threw it beside it. The brown dog sat guard. Then he sat down on his heels and peered under the chair, poking with his finger at the greasy little engine, and resenting the grease-marks on his clean Sunday shirt. "Doesn't seem anything broken," he said. And he stood up, pushing back his hat from his forehead, rubbing his brow and apparently studying. "Have you looked at the rods underneath?" asked Clifford. "See if they are all right!" The man lay flat on his stomach on the floor, his neck pressed back, wriggling under the engine and poking with his finger. Connie thought what a pathetic sort of thing a man was, feeble and small-looking, when he was lying on his belly on the big earth. "Seems all right as far as I can see," came his muffled voice. "I don't suppose you can do anything," said Clifford. "Seems as if I can't!" And he scrambled up and sat on his heels again, collier fashion. "There's certainly nothing obviously broken." Clifford started his engine, then put her in gear. She would not move. "Run her a bit hard, like," suggested the keeper. Clifford resented the interference: but he made his engine buzz like a blue-bottle. Then she coughed and snarled and seemed to go better. "Sounds as if she'd come clear," said Mellors. But Clifford had already jerked her into gear. She gave a sick lurch and ebbed weakly forwards. "If I give her a push, she'll do it," said the keeper, going behind. "Keep off!" snapped Clifford. "She'll do it by herself." "But Clifford!" put in Connie from the bank, "you know it's too much for her. Why are you so obstinate!" Clifford was pale with anger. He jabbed at his levers. The chair gave a sort of scurry, reeled on a few more yards, and came to her end amid a particularly promising patch of bluebells. "She's done!" said the keeper. "Not power enough." "She's been up here before," said Clifford coldly. "She won't do it this time," said the keeper.

• From The Well of Loneliness (1928)

  From the very first moment of Miss Puddleton’s arrival, Stephen had had an uncomfortable conviction that this queer little woman was going to mean something, was going to become a fixture. And sure enough she had settled down at once, so that in less than two months it seemed to Stephen that Miss Puddleton must always have been at Morton, must always have been sitting at the large walnut table, must always have been saying in that dry, toneless voice with the Oxford accent: ‘ You’ve forgotten something, Stephen,’ and then, ‘the books can’t walk to the bookcase, but you can, so suppose that you take them with you.’ 72 THE WELL OF LONELINESS It was truly amazing, the change in the schoolroom, not a book out of place, not a shelf in disorder; even the box lounge had had to be opened and its dumb-bells and clubs paired off nicely together — Miss Puddleton always liked things to be paired, perhaps an unrecognized matrimonial instinct. And now Stephen found herself put into harness for the first time in her life, and she loathed the sensation. There were so many rules that a very large time-sheet had had to be fastened to the blackboard in the schoolroom. ‘ Because,’ said Miss Puddleton as she pinned the thing up, ‘even my brain won’t stand your complete lack of method, it’s infectious; this time-sheet is my anti-toxin, so please don’t tear it to pieces! ’ Mathematics and algebra, Latin and Greek, Roman history, Greek history, geometry, botany, they reduced Stephen’s mind to a species of beehive in which every bee buzzed on the least provocation. She would gaze at Miss Puddleton in a kind of amazement; that tiny, square box to hold all this grim knowl- edge! And seeing that gaze Miss Puddleton would smile her most warm, charming smile, and would say as she did so: ‘ Yes, I know — but it’s only the first effort, Stephen; presently your mind will get neat like the schoolroom, and then you'll be able to find what you want without all this rummaging and bother.’ But her tasks being over, Stephen must often slip away to visit Raftery in the stables: ‘Oh, Raftery, I’m hating it so!’ she would tell him. “I feel like you’d feel if I put you in harness — hard wooden shafts and a kicking strap, Raftery — but my dar- ling, I’d never put you into harness! ’ And Raftery would hardly know what he should answer, since all human creatures, so far as he knew them, must run be- tween shafts — God-like though they were, they undoubtedly had to run between shafts. . . . Nothing but Stephen’s great love for her father helped her to endure the first six months of learning — that and her own stub- born, arrogant will that made her hate to be beaten. She would THE WELL OF LONELINESS 73

• From The Incendiaries (2018)

  Bleach, I said. For millennia, women have tried to induce home abortions. They’ve drunk bleach, hot lye—even the Bible gives tips about this. Quinine. Hippocrates advises a prostitute to jump up and down. I told Phoebe about a high-school friend, Stu, who’d punched his knocked-up girlfriend in the stomach until she fainted. She asked to be kicked down the stairs. He’d done it, blinded with tears. The abortion she wanted was too expensive, and she had Baptist parents she couldn’t tell. Once, a local wit, calling in to a radio show, was asked to explain what people did for fun in Carmenita, California. Get pregnant, he said. The kind of people she, Phoebe, knew would always be able to obtain abortions, while fifteen-year-old children in towns like mine spewed—what? Phoebe shook, laughing. No, it’s just, Will, you researched this. The quinine. You looked it up, getting all these points in line. Tell me why you picked Christians, I said. Excuse me? You chose the one set of beliefs I wasn’t going to be able to stand. I’m asking if it was on purpose, if it’s something I did. I can’t fight tonight, she said. She pushed away the tea. It sloshed in the cup, without spilling. I’m so tired. I don’t know what’s happened, why you’ve turned against Jejah, but, please, let’s go to bed. We’ll argue in the morning, if you like. I looked in the news, I said. From the spring before last, in Yanji, China. I searched headlines. John Leal’s a U.S. citizen. If he’d been abducted by North Korean agents, his organization would have reported it. It would be a big fucking deal. “Edwards student missing, presumed kidnapped.” But there’s nothing, Phoebe. I couldn’t find a single mention of him. Will— I think he’s lying. Well, I don’t. If you were taking up, oh, Buddhism, I wouldn’t mind. If you’d decided to collect old coins— Oh, she said, leaning back. Old coins. Will, if that’s what you want, I’ll be less of a hobbyist. I have to stop living in sin. No, let me finish. I’ve waited for God to hand me a revelation, but I don’t think that’s how He loves us. Hold on. This isn’t about you, Will. I’ve given it a lot of thought. If I did what people here do—if I chased high-paid jobs, and I wrote fifteen-page papers on Milton, I have no idea who that would help. But if I could find out what I am. If I have a soul. I’ve thought about what St. Augustine said, that we have to beg the Lord to know Him. It wasn’t until the 18th century that the church established belief as a precondition of Christian faith—if I act as though I believe, maybe I’ll also experience the divine. If I don’t, I’ll have tried. Isn’t that what you did?

• From Understanding the Old Testament (2019)

  Understanding the old testament 94 Haman has incited the king to a type of Judeophobia because they “want to follow their own Torah law.” However, the real reason is Haman’s anger at Mordechai. Mordechai did not bow when he passed by. A background factor of this situation is that the king has remarried Mordechai’s niece, the Jewish queen Esther. It is Esther who will save the day by revealing to the king that she is Jewish and that Haman’s law would exterminate her and her people. This is what provokes the king to allow her and Mordechai to do whatever they need to defend the Jewish people. The result is a happy ending for the saved Jews, but it reads rather uncomfortably, as they massacre many Persians. Conclusion Some biblical scholars focus on the final chapters and see the entire book of Esther as presenting a rabid Jewish hatred of gentiles. This is a misreading. For example, the book does not blame all gentiles. Chapter 9 says in the first three verses that a number of the Persians supported the Jews. Mordechai’s coworkers knew all along that he was Jewish and never had a problem with it. There is certainly no issue with intermarriage, because it is Esther’s marriage to a gentile that saves her people. This doesn’t mean that one can’t be a little uncomfortable with Jews’ actions in chapter 9. Even Jewish theologians like the Israeli Shalom Ben-Chorin have been clear to condemn it. However, the Persians were hardly defenseless victims after Mordechai’s edict. According to 8:11, Ahasuerus “permitted the Jews of every city to assemble and fight for their lives.” It goes on to say, “If any people attacks them, they may destroy massacre and exterminate the armed bands that attacked them.” Jews in the postexilic period never had the opportunity for any armed action like that depicted in the ending of the book of Esther. The real message of the book is clear if Esther stands for Israel. It’s fine to intermarry; it’s fine to work in the Persian government, as Mordechai does. One can be an integral part of the larger gentile society and still keep his or her Jewishness.

• From Delta of Venus (1977)

  Then Bijou turned and struck Leila hard, angry that she was so aroused and yet unsatisfied, burning and unable to put an end to the sensation. Each time she struck she felt herself palpitating between the legs, as if she were taking Leila, penetrating her. After they were both whipped to redness and fury they fell on each other with hands and tongues until they reached the full effulgence of their pleasure. IT WAS PLANNED that they would all go together for a picnic: Elena, her lover Pierre, Bijou and the Basque, Leila, and the African. They set out for a spot outside of Paris. They ate at a restaurant on the Seine. Then, leaving the car in the shade, they set out on foot into the forest. At first they walked in a group, then Elena fell behind with the African. She suddenly decided to climb a tree. The African laughed at her, thinking she could not do it. But Elena knew how. Very deftly, she put one foot on the first low branch and climbed. The African stood at the foot of the tree and watched her. As he looked up he could see under her skirt. She wore shell-pink underwear, tight-fitting and short, so that most of her legs and thighs showed as she climbed. The African stood there laughing and teasing her, as he began to get an erection. Elena was sitting quite far up. The African could not reach her, because he was too heavy and big to step on the first branch. All he could do was to sit there and watch her and feel his erection becoming stronger. He asked, “What gift will you make me today?” “This,” said Elena, and threw down some chestnuts. She sat on a branch swinging her legs. Then Bijou and the Basque returned to look for her. Bijou, a little jealous when she saw the two men looking up at Elena, threw herself on the grass and said, “Something has crawled into my clothes. I’m frightened.” The two men approached her. She pointed first to her back, and the Basque slipped his hand down her dress. Then she said she felt it along the front, and the African slipped his hand inside of her dress and began to search below the breasts. All at once Bijou felt that something really was crawling along her belly, and this time she began to shake herself and roll herself over the grass. The two men tried to help her. They lifted her skirt and began to search. She wore satin underclothing that covered her completely. She unhooked one side of her panties for the Basque, who, in everyone’s eyes, had more right to search her secret places. This excited the African. He turned Bijou over rather roughly and began slapping her body, saying “This will kill it, whatever it is.” The Basque was also feeling Bijou all over.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  And you have made a [new] agreement for yourself with the adulterers, You have loved their bed, You have looked [with passion] on their a manhood. [Deut 6:5 , 6 , 9 ; 11:18 , 20 ] 9 “You have gone to b the king [of a pagan land] with oil And increased your c perfumes; You have sent your messengers a great distance And made them go down to Sheol (the realm of the dead). 10 “You were wearied by the length of your road, Yet you did not say, ‘It is no use.’ You found d renewed strength, Therefore you did not grow weak. 11 “About whom were you worried and fearful That you lied and did not e remember Me, Nor f give Me a thought? Was I not silent even for a long time And [as a result] you do not fear Me? 12 “I will declare your [hypocritical] righteousness and your deeds, But they will not benefit you. 13 “When you cry out [for help], let your [ridiculous] collection of idols save you. But the wind will carry them all away, A [mere] breath will take them. But he who takes refuge in Me will possess the land [Judea] And will inherit My holy mountain.” [Ps 37:9 , 11 ; 69:35 , 36 ; Is 49:8 ; Matt 5:5 ; Heb 12:22 ] 14 And it will be said, “Build up, build up, clear the way. Remove the stumbling block out of the way [of the spiritual return] of My people.” 15 For the high and exalted One He who inhabits eternity, Whose name is Holy says this, “I dwell on the high and holy place, But also with the g contrite and humble in spirit In order to revive the spirit of the humble And to revive the heart of the contrite [overcome with sorrow for sin]. [Matt 5:3 ] 16 “For I will not contend forever, Nor will I always be angry; For [if I did stay angry] the spirit [of man] would grow weak before Me, And the breath of those whom I have created. 17 “Because of the wickedness of his unjust gain I was angry and struck him; I hid My face and was angry, And he went on turning away and backsliding, in the way of his [own willful] heart.

• From Unbought and Unbossed: Transgressive Black Women, Sexuality, and Representation (2014)

  In his essay on escape in the fiction of Gayl Jones, literary critic Jerry W.Ward Jr. notes that "the thinking in Eva's Man shows paralysis of consciousness, the inability to make certain decisions"; Eva "is the victim of her own passivity, her tendency to accept the Playboy fantasy of what a woman is. Her life history contains a series of sordid, dehumanizing sexual encounters."18 Ward's reading of Eva is based on a characterization of Eva as engendering a passive acquiesce to skewed conceptualizations, based on Playboy iconography and constructions, of what constitutes a "woman" that fundamentally implicates her and assumes she is responsible for her own purported degradation-sexual and otherwise. Given the aforementioned instances in which she does not acquiesce but rather flees or inflicts violence, I would argue otherwise: that, while Eva is often silent, her nonvocality is a deliberate resistance to vocalized expression that, in and of itself, overturns assumptions regarding her passivity. Such silence should not, then, be confounded and read as indecisiveness, acquiescence, or passivity, especially if passivity signifies silence rooted in Eva's "acceptance of the words and definitions of others."19 Eva is not so much paralyzed by complacency, nor does she capitulate to narrow masculinist fantasies of women as sexual objects for male sexual gratification or definitions others impose upon her. Such readings castigate, or at the very least implicate, Eva, while exonerating the sexual dehumanization she encounters-and later inflicts upon Davis as retribution for the cumulative sexual violations she has endured-and the larger social structures that perpetuate such conceptualizations of women. Instead, Eva, as well as the men she confronts throughout her life (and even the other couples throughout the novel-John and Marie, Jean and Alfonso, Queen Bee and her string of lovers), is caught in a conundrum of tenuous sexual politics laden with violence, tension, and problematic gender dynamics. What Eva experiences, along with other couples, are problematic politics governing gender and sexuality that forestall what feminist scholar Barbara Ehrenreich recognizes as "opportunit[ies] for men and women to [...] meet as equals without the pretenses involved in gender roles, and to get together against" their "common sources of oppression .1121 In other words, they need models of relationships not fraught with sexual tension but characterized instead by a different set of sexual politics. As Patricia Hill Collins deftly notes, "[s]exual politics can be defined as a set of ideas and social practices shaped by gender, race, and sexuality that frame all men and women's treatment of one another, as well as how individual men and women are perceived and treated by others."21 These dynamics surrounding sexual politics, particularly men's perception and treatment of women, are concretized in Eva's Man and manifest especially in Eva and Davis's interactions.

• From Unbought and Unbossed: Transgressive Black Women, Sexuality, and Representation (2014)

  This section begins with an evocation of transgression and the limit, marked by both certainty and uncertainty as it intersects with "thought," to elaborate on transgressive behavior. Whereas chapter 3 foregrounds an iteration of transgression predicated on the individual, a prioritized self invested in mutual personal and universal racial/communal freedom, transgression might also be understood as contestation or contestatory acts that exceed and violate the limit. "Violates" is the operative word, as it is precisely a violation of-or violence against-boundaries, whether sexual, racial, gender, or psychological, that are not only traversed but obstructed. Such instantiations of transgression are evident in Gayl Jones's 1976 novel Eva's Man, which provides rich insight into the linkages between transgression and the limit, as these very dynamics-the "play" between the limit and transgression, and an incessant crossing and recrossing of boundaries-pervade Jones's text. What I suggest is that in Eva's Man transgression manifests not only in its physicality but also vis-a-vis linguistics and an iconography marked by a perversity of desire that almost always erupts into violence. These, in turn, are mediated by "the uncertain," as well as "certainties," while shrouded in an ambivalence of madness, the material and psychological embodiment, whether real or performative, of transgression. Put another way, transgression manifests as a dynamic that exceeds comprehension: it cannot be articulated or understood in terms of reason. Jones limns individuals, Eva particularly, ensnared in sexual(ized) violence, transgression, and putative "madness" or mental/psychic instability. Society, including the psychiatrist and cellmates, characterize Eva and the (sexualized) assault of her lover as an irrational act of madness precisely because they cannot convey in words-there is no language, rhetoric, or logic-by which to explicate/understand her extreme excoriation of patriarchal sexual domination. Her violent act should, then, be interpreted as transgressive violence against or the demise of patriarchal racialized/gendered/sexualized limits placed upon her. Narrated from the vantage point of Eva Medina Canada, the female protagonist incarcerated in the psychiatric ward of a prison (after committing the horrendous, fatal sexualized crime of poisoning and then orally castrating her lover Davis), the narrative betrays linearity, logic, and conventional realism in the same way that Eva transgresses boundaries and convention. In her narration, Eva often vacillates between streams of consciousness and linearity (rationality/comprehensibility) and nonlinearity (irrationality/obfuscation), which results in shifts between "the uncertain" and "certainties" in terms of thought, consciousness, and temporality. Past and present, the cerebral and visceral, even sanity and madness collide and, to some extent, emulsify in ways that stymie coherence, order, structure, or the ability to distinguish between varied events. "Thought," truth, and accuracy/reality are in flux and rendered unreliable, if not downright inexplicable, to the extent that they resist simple or easy interpretability, as the following scene-Eva's recollection of her ex-husband James's reaction when her male classmate randomly appears at their home-makes transparent: [James] didn't say anything [...], and then he just reached over and grabbed my shoulder, got up and started slapping me. "You think you a whore, I'll treat you like a whore." [...]

• From Understanding the Old Testament (2019)

  l e Ct Ure 15 | a mos, Pro Phet of J Usti Ce 99 The Finale of Amos’s Speech There is a distinct difference in the rhetoric against Judah. Judah is not condemned for war crimes. They are condemned for rejecting the law of God. This opens the door for the start of the grand finale in verse 6: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals.” Israel is called out for several crimes, and they’re all against the poor. The line regarding sandals is about debt slavery. Then, Amos 2:7 decries the violation of a law that prohibits a woman from being a concubine for the whole house. If she is the concubine for the son, the father must treat her as a daughter. The next verse highlights another problem: “They reclined by every altar on garments taken in pledge.” In Amos 2:8, they are accused of sleeping on garments taken in pledge, and keeping the pledge garments overnight is forbidden. The fact that they’re sleeping in the temple of God shows the hypocrisy of these abuses. The Woes In a section of the middle of the book, Amos has three woes. One starts in 5:7, another in 5:18, and then in 6:1. The middle of those is the structural center of the book. Amos 5:18 reads, “Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord.” This is the earliest reference we have to the day of the Lord—or end of time—anywhere in the Bible. The passage doesn’t introduce the concept of the end of the world. Instead, it’s criticizing people who long for it. Why would someone long for the end of the world? Such people are looking forward to God coming in glory and conquering all of their enemies. Amos cuts off this security blanket by pointing out the day of the Lord will involve judgment. Later, Amos denounces the hypocrisy of thinking that one can treat the poor horribly, but make animal sacrifices and be fine.

• From Unbought and Unbossed: Transgressive Black Women, Sexuality, and Representation (2014)

  In black nationalist accounts, as literary scholar Wahneema Lubiano posits, the survival of the black nation depends upon its being constituted by "strong black families with strong (and responsible) black patriarchs"; thus, within this framework, the black nation and "family is perceived [...] as `weakened' by black female deviance (sexual and economic) or as `weakened' by external forces."31 Sula's ostensible sexual interactions with white men elicit unfavorable responses, particularly from black men, namely because her sexual "indiscretions" directly conflict with the community's goals of racial/communal advancement. Sula's sexual "misconduct" contributes to, if not justifies (presumably), the dominant culture's exclusion of black people from the privileges of citizenship, as well as civic and political subjectivity, and opposes black nationalist narratives of the black family and black women's expected role in its construction. Thus, Sula's intentional willingness to "sleep with" white men constitutes a direct threat to the black family, the nation, and (black) manhood/patriarchy, as cultural nationalists imagine these, and is thereby regarded as a deliberate and intolerable betrayal of the race. It also has larger implications regarding the shifting racial, sociosexual culture prompted by issues of interracial sexual intimacy (another aspect of the sexual revolution and litigation in this era) and miscegenation, as instantiated by the 1967 landmark case of Loving v. Virginia. Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, married in the District of Columbia, where interracial marriage was legal, in 1958. When they returned to live in their home state of Virginia, they were arrested for violating the state's miscegenation laws. With the assistance of Robert Kennedy, the United States attorney general, they filed suit against Virginia for violating their constitutional rights. They ultimately won their case, and, in so doing, they forever changed the course of history and the racial, sociosexual political landscape where interracial sex, marriage, and law were concerned, as well as demystified the discursive, ideological, and legal strategies deployed to "naturalize the categories of `black' and `white"' in matters governing race and sexuality. As Siobhan Somerville avers, the "boundaries between `black' and `white' were being policed and enforced in unprecedented ways, particularly through institutionalized racial segregation."32

• From Unbought and Unbossed: Transgressive Black Women, Sexuality, and Representation (2014)

  In Meridian, Alice Walker illuminates the ways in which individuality, especially women's individual freedom, and community are not antithetical or diametrical entities. Through her characterization of Meridian, she demonstrates the convergence, rather than disjuncture, of black women's autonomy in relation to the community at large. Instead of the community serving merely and problematically as a source of entrapment or marginalization for women, it, as Walker illumines, significantly provides a space for women's agency and choice, be it with regard to mothering and/or participating in revolutionary work. In so doing, Walker "takes into account the dynamics of collective identity along with the demands that social codes place upon the group, and she considers the structure of personal identity with its [...] social relations, especially family."35 Moreover, she destabilizes the very meanings and functions of the individual and collective, and their relational aspects to various conventional institutions and social relations: particularly family, motherhood, and community. To this end, she creates transformative and liberatory spaces, not without complications and complexities, for black women as well as generations of blacks. [image file=img/page0156_0000.svg] If post-civil rights black women authors limn the nexus of racialized gender and sexual transgression, employing erotic characterizations and theatricalities of desire, Eva's Man does just this. Yet, it goes even farther, exceeding the limit and traversing the boundaries in ways unparalleled in other texts examined in this book. It engages the radical sexual dimension, as well as contests the regulation of female sexuality through men, as does Sula. Like Loving Her, it refuses to privilege heterosexual intimacy, marked by male dominance, as a singular and solitary option; and, much like Meridian, it critiques silence-especially in the form of dissemblance (or the politics surrounding black women's sexuality)-as insidious. Even with these connections, Eva's Man is far more aggressive: it agitates; is crude and, at times, simultaneously titillating, pornographic, and offensive; and is both uncensored and unrelenting in its violence, sexual language, imagery, and tone. In fact, Jones's language, her calculated use of the sexually explicit (quasi-pornographic), operates as a direct contestation-a means to overturn-racialized Victorianism. Published during the sexual revolution, the novel reflects the ideological and sociosexual politics of the moment in its effort to liberate sex and libidinal forces from not only repression, but conservatism in terms of morality and what one might engage in during the sex act. Sensibilities undergirding the novel reflect the sociocultural and legal advances in the sexual realm, namely in the arena of the pornographic and public obscenity.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  12 Then a letter came to Jehoram from Elijah the prophet, saying, “Thus says the LORD God of David your father (ancestor): ‘Because you have not walked in the ways of your father Jehoshaphat nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah, 13 but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to be unfaithful [to God] as the house of Ahab was unfaithful, and you have also murdered your brothers, your father’s house (your own family), who were better than you, 14 behold, the LORD is going to strike your people, your sons, your wives, and all your possessions with a great disaster; 15 and you will suffer a severe illness, an intestinal disease, until your intestines come out because of the sickness, day after day.’ ” 16 Then the LORD stirred up against Jehoram the spirit (anger) of the Philistines and of the Arabs who bordered the Ethiopians. 17 They came against Judah and invaded it, and carried away all the possessions found in the king’s house (palace), together with his sons and his wives; so there was not a son left to him except Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons. 18 After all this, the LORD struck Jehoram with an incurable intestinal disease. 19 Now it came about in the course of time, at the end of two years, that his intestines came out because of his disease and he died in excruciating pain. And his people did not make a funeral fire to honor him, like the fire for his fathers. 20 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years; and he departed with no one’s regret (sorrow). They buried him in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings. 2 Chronicles 22 Ahaziah Succeeds Jehoram in Judah 1 T HEN THE inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his place, because the band of men (raiders) who came with the Arabs to the camp had killed all the older sons . So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign. 2 Ahaziah was a twenty-two years old when he became king and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri. [2 Kin 8:26 ] 3 He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his adviser [and she encouraged him] to act wickedly. 4 So he did evil in the sight of the LORD like the house of Ahab, for they were his advisers after the death of his father, resulting in his destruction. Ahaziah Allies with Jehoram of Israel 5 He also walked in accordance with their advice, and he went with Jehoram the son of Ahab king of Israel to wage war against Hazael king of Aram (Syria) at Ramoth-gilead. And the Arameans wounded b Joram (Jehoram).

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  3 Elihu’s anger burned against Job’s three friends because they had found no answer [and were unable to determine Job’s error], and yet they had condemned Job and declared him to be in the wrong [and responsible for his own afflictions]. 4 Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because the others were years older than he. 5 And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouths of these three men, he burned with anger. 6 Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite said, “I am young, and you are aged; For that reason I was anxious and dared not tell you what I think. 7 “I thought age should speak, And a multitude of years should teach wisdom. 8 “But there is [a vital force and] a spirit [of intelligence] in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding. [Prov 2:6 ] 9 “Those [who are] abundant in years may not [always] be wise, Nor may the elders [always] understand justice. 10 “Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me; I also will give you my opinion [about Job’s situation] and tell you plainly what I think.’ 11 “You see, I waited for your words, I listened to your [wise] reasons, While you pondered and searched out what to say. 12 “I even paid close attention to [what] you [said], Indeed, not one of you convinced Job [nor could you refute him], Not one of you supplied [satisfactory] answers to his words. 13 “Beware if you say, ‘We have found wisdom; God thrusts Job down [justly], not man [for God alone is dealing with him].’ 14 “Now Job has not directed his words against me [therefore I have no reason to be offended], Nor will I answer him with arguments like yours. [I speak for truth, not for revenge.] 15 “They (Job’s friends) are dismayed and embarrassed, they no longer answer; The words have moved away and failed them,” [says Elihu]. 16 “And shall I wait, because they say nothing, But stand still and say no more? 17 “I too will give my share of answers; I too will express my opinion and share my knowledge. 18 “For I am full of words; The spirit within me constrains me. 19 “My belly is like unvented wine; Like new wineskins it is about to burst. 20 “I must speak so that I may get relief; I will open my lips and answer. 21 “I will not [I warn you] be partial to any man [that is, let my respect for you mitigate what I say]; Nor flatter any man. 22 “For I do not know how to flatter, [in an appropriate way, and I fear that], My Maker would soon take me away. Job 33 Elihu Claims to Speak for God 1 “H OWEVER, JOB, please listen to my words, And pay attention to everything I say.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  Judges 15 Samson Burns Philistine Crops 1 B UT AFTER a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat [as a gift of reconciliation]; and he said, “I will go in to my wife in her room.” But her father would not allow him to go in. 2 Her father said, “I really thought you utterly hated her; so I gave her to your companion. Is her younger sister not more beautiful than she? Please take her [as your wife] instead.” 3 Samson said to them, “This time I shall be blameless in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm.” 4 So Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches and turning the foxes tail to tail, he put a torch between each pair of tails. 5 When he had set the torches ablaze, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and he burned up the heap of sheaves and the standing grain, along with the vineyards and olive groves. 6 Then the Philistines said, “Who did this?” And they were told, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took Samson’s wife and gave her to his [chief] companion [at the wedding feast].” So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. 7 Samson said to them, “If this is the way you act, be certain that I will take revenge on you, and [only] after that I will stop.” 8 Then he struck them a without mercy, a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam. 9 Then the [army of the] Philistines came up and camped in [the tribal territory of] Judah, and overran Lehi (Jawbone). 10 The men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” And they answered, “We have come up to bind Samson, in order to do to him as he has done to us.” 11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Have you not known that the Philistines are rulers over us? What is this that you have done to us?” He said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.” 12 They said to him, “We have come down to bind you, so that we may hand you over to the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not b kill me.” 13 So they said to him, “No, we will [only] bind you securely and place you into their hands; but we certainly will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock [of Etam]. 14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  3 Then the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate said to Mordecai, “Why are you disregarding the king’s command?” 4 Now it happened when they had spoken to him day after day and he would not listen to them, that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai’s reason [for his behavior] would stand [as valid]; for he had told them that he was a Jew. 5 When Haman saw that Mordecai neither bowed down nor paid homage to him, he was furious. 6 But he disdained laying hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him who the people of Mordecai were (his nationality); so Haman determined to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, who lived throughout the kingdom of Ahasuerus. 7 In the first month, the month of Nisan (Mar-Apr), in the c twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, Haman cast Pur, that is, the lot, cast before him day after day [to find a lucky day to approach the king], month after month, until the twelfth month, the month of Adar (Feb-Mar). 8 Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered [abroad] and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of all other people, and they do not observe the king’s laws. Therefore it is not in the king’s interest to [tolerate them and] let them stay here . 9 “If it pleases the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who carry out the king’s business, to put into the king’s treasuries.” 10 Then the king removed his signet ring from his hand [that is, the special ring which was used to seal his letters] and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. 11 The king said to Haman, “The silver is given to you, and the people also, to do with them as you please.” 12 Then the king’s scribes (secretaries) were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and it was written just as Haman commanded to the king’s satraps (chief rulers), and to the governors who were over each province and to the officials of each people, each province according to its script (writing), each people according to their own language; being written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s signet ring. 13 Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth [day] of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar (March 7, 473 B .C .), and to seize their belongings as plunder.

• From Emotional Beats: How to Easily Convert your Writing into Palpable Feelings (2018)

  Frustration and disdain were wrapped up in his instruction. “Listen to me,” he said, emphasizing each of the last three words.She spat out the words.…he said in a croaky voice.A twinge of anger laced his voice.He grated.He started to speak, but huffed out a breath first.She choked out.His voice/response was laced with irritation/impatience/frustration/anger.He growled.He retorted.He shot back.He snapped.He panted.He groaned.He snarled.He stammered.He exhaled a groan rivaling a rusty hinge.Every statement emerged as a growl."What?" he barked in answer.He flung a handful of words at her through the open window.…she mumbled, sucking back the bitter taste of past rejections.The man’s laughter dumped hot coals into the pit of her belly.Something bitter dripped from her tone.Her voice caught an angry swath through the air.She swore, tasting the bitter words. Their immediate heat burned her tongue and she worked her mouth to savor their rough, jagged edges.…he said, his voice a sharp bite.A hushed tone wedged itself between his words.… she hissed like a cornered serpent. DesireMany of the reactions mentioned in surprise, fear and nervousness may also be present with desire; for example, an increased heart rate; a reddening of the cheeks; talking faster etc. Here are some physical reactions pertaining to desire alone: A low and pleasant hum warmed his blood.Her brain fizzled.She forgot her left from her right.Her thoughts wouldn’t line up. Every time she tried to align one, it tumbled down, scattering the rest.She imagined herself melting, just sliding onto the floor in a puddle of hormones and liquid lust.Thinking about it gave her sharp palpitations.Those feelings took over and turned her mind to mush.The thought turned her mind into a buzzing mess of static.She clasped him to her.Her face lit up.Every hair on his scalp stood to attention, every skin cell tingled, every neuron fired.Warmth spread across his chest.His heart pounded hard as she finally came to a halt before him, inches from his face.…he said, his breath tickling her ear.…she asked, her voice a bare whisper in the night.With a crooking of her index finger, she beckoned him over.…his body draped all over her.He brushed his hand across her cheek.She tapped a finger on his lips.He grabbed her hand and brought it to his mouth, pressing a soft kiss to her knuckles.She hooked an arm.She gave him the thumbs up.She put her hands on her hips.She rested a hand on his hip.…she said in a husky voice.The heat from his hand burned her skin.Desire burned a hot spot in the pit of her belly, until his grin doused her heat.He flung a high-ended wolf whistle at her.His name felt smooth against her tongue, slightly cool.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  9 Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and everything that was good, and they were not willing to destroy them entirely; but everything that was undesirable or worthless they destroyed completely. Samuel Rebukes Saul 10 Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying, 11 “I regret that I made Saul king, for he has turned away from following Me and has not carried out My commands.” Samuel was angry [over Saul’s failure] and he cried out to the LORD all night. 12 When Samuel got up early in the morning to meet Saul, he was told, “Saul came to b Carmel, and behold, he set up for himself a monument [commemorating his victory], then he turned and went on and went down to Gilgal.” 13 So Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the LORD . I have carried out the command of the LORD .” 14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” 15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen c to sacrifice to the LORD your God; but the rest we have destroyed completely.” 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop, and let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.” Saul said to him, “Speak.” 17 Samuel said, “Is it not true that even though you were small (insignificant) in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the LORD anointed you king over Israel, 18 and the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, totally destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are eliminated.’ 19 “Why did you not obey the voice of the LORD , but [instead] swooped down on the plunder [with shouts of victory] and did evil in the sight of the LORD ?” 20 Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD , and have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me, and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have completely destroyed the Amalekites. 21 “But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things [that were] to be totally destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD your God at Gilgal.” 22 Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obedience to the voice of the LORD ? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed [is better] than the fat of rams. 23 “For rebellion is as [serious as] the sin of divination (fortune-telling), And disobedience is as [serious as] false religion and idolatry.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  14 For Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah and came to Samaria, and struck and killed Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria and became king in his place. 15 The rest of Shallum’s acts, and his conspiracy which he made, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 16 Then Menahem struck [the town of] Tiphsah and all who were in it and its borders from Tirzah; [he attacked it] because they did not surrender to him; so he struck it and ripped up all a the women there who were pregnant. Menahem over Israel 17 In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah, Menahem the son of Gadi became king over Israel, and reigned ten years in Samaria. 18 He did evil in the sight of the LORD ; for all his days he did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. 19 Pul, [Tiglath-pileser III] king of Assyria, came against the land [of Israel], and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver [as a bribe], so that he might help him to strengthen his control of the kingdom. 20 Menahem exacted the money from Israel, from all the wealthy, influential men, fifty shekels of silver from each man to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back and did not stay there in the land. 21 Now the rest of Menahem’s acts, and everything that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 22 And Menahem slept with his fathers [in death]; his son Pekahiah became king in his place. Pekahiah over Israel 23 In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah the son of Menahem became king over Israel, and reigned two years in Samaria. 24 He did evil in the sight of the LORD ; he did not turn from the [idolatrous] sins of Jeroboam [I] the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin. 25 But Pekah the son of Remaliah, his officer, conspired against Pekahiah and struck him in Samaria, in the citadel of the king’s house, with Argob and Arieh; and with Pekah were fifty Gileadites. So he killed Pekahiah and became king in his place. 26 Now the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, all that he did, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. Pekah over Israel 27 In the fifty-second year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekah the son of Remaliah became king over Israel, and reigned twenty years in Samaria. 28 He did evil in the sight of the LORD ; he did not turn from the [idolatrous] sins of Jeroboam [I] the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin.

• From Unbought and Unbossed: Transgressive Black Women, Sexuality, and Representation (2014)

  During the course of their relationship, Jerome rapes Renay, which leads to her pregnancy and, in turn, accounts for their decision to marry. Once wedded, Renay, miserable within the confines of her forced marriage, is expected to submit routinely to Jerome's will and to specific gender roles or, otherwise, suffer Jerome's violent beatings. Renay maintains the household, raising their daughter and working to pay the bills with little assistance from Jerome, who drinks heavily and never secures a steady job. Misdirecting and displacing his resentment (which stems from his inability to support his family and his abandoned dreams of finishing college and becoming a professional athlete) onto Renay, Jerome lambastes her as a salve for his bruised manhood: "You know we black men have a hard enough time as it is making it in the white man's world. [...] I could have been somebody if it wasn't for you. All you castrating black bitches want to keep a man down. Ruin him. [...] And you. What goddam good are you to a man? Not even a good screw!" (29). The myth of the black matriarchy resonates in Jerome's highly castigatory remarks (which fail, ironically, to acknowledge that his condition is the result of his own doing-of his having raped Renay). Promulgated by sociologist and later senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and later appropriated by some black nationalists, the myth assumes that black women, in collusion with the white power structure, emasculated black men, thereby preventing them from maintaining their "rightful" position in the black family and society at large.36 In his evocation of black matriarchy rhetoric, Jerome, as Shockley clearly intends, is equated allegorically with black nationalist discourse, which he epitomizes throughout the novel. Moreover, in his assertion that Renay serves no purpose for men-that she is, as he claims, "not even a good screw"-he not only objectifies her but, like those black nationalists who viewed black women's only position in the movement as "prone," he also reduces her to a marginal sexual role.37 Compensating for his inadequacy and negligence as a husband, father, and provider, Jerome espouses nationalist ideologies regarding "lost manhood" and asserts himself "by any means necessary"-through both physically and verbally abusive manners-as patriarch of his household.