Relief

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 53 of 88 · 20 per page

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  They had said to one another, “The king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come [and fight] against us.” 7 So the Arameans set out and fled during the twilight, and left their tents, horses, and donkeys, even left the camp just as it was, and fled for their lives. 8 When these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into one tent and ate and drank, and carried away from there silver, gold, and clothing, and went and hid them. Then they went back and entered another tent and carried [some valuable things] from there also , and went and hid them. 9 Then they said one to another, “We are not doing the right thing. This is a day of good news, yet we are keeping silent. If we wait until the morning light, some punishment [for not reporting this now] will come on us. So now come, let us go and tell the king’s household.” 10 So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city. They told them, “We went to the camp of the Arameans (Syrians), and behold, there was no one there, nor the sound of man there—only the horses and donkeys tied up, and the tents [had been left] just as they were.” 11 Then the gatekeepers called out and it was reported to the king’s household inside [the city]. 12 Then the king got up in the night and said to his servants, “I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know that we are hungry; so they have left the camp to hide themselves in the open country, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive and get into the city.’ ” 13 One of his servants replied, “Please let some men take five of the horses which remain inside the city. Consider this: [if they are caught then at worst] they will be like all the people of Israel who are left in the city; [even if they are killed then] they will be like all the people of Israel who have already died. So let us send [them] and see [what happens].” 14 So they took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army, saying, “Go and see.” The Promise Fulfilled 15 They went after them to the Jordan, and all the road was entirely littered with clothing and equipment which the Arameans (Syrians) had thrown away when they hurriedly fled. And the messengers returned and told the king. 16 Then the people [of Israel] went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So [goods were so plentiful that] a measure of finely-milled flour [was sold] for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in accordance with the word of the LORD [as spoken through Elisha].

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  Were the gods of the nations of those lands able to rescue their lands from my hand at all? 14 ‘Who [was there] among all the gods of those nations that my fathers utterly destroyed who was able to rescue his people from my hand, that your God should be able to rescue you from my hand? 15 ‘So now, do not let Hezekiah deceive or mislead you like this, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to rescue his people from my hand or the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God rescue you from my hand!’ ” 16 And his servants said even more against the LORD God and against His servant Hezekiah. 17 The Assyrian king also wrote letters insulting and taunting the LORD God of Israel, and speaking against Him, saying, “As the gods of the nations of other lands have not rescued their people from my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not rescue His people from my hand.” 18 They shouted it loudly in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them, so that they might take the city [without a long siege]. 19 They spoke of the God of Jerusalem as [they spoke of] the gods of the peoples of the earth, [which are only] the work of the hands of men. Hezekiah’s Prayer Is Answered 20 But Hezekiah the king and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz prayed about this and cried out to heaven [for help]. 21 And the LORD sent an angel who destroyed every brave warrior, commander, and officer in the camp of the king of Assyria. So the king returned to his own land in shame. And when he entered the house (temple) of his god, some of his own children killed him there with the sword. [2 Kin 19:35–37 ] 22 Thus the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria and from the hand of all others, and He gave them rest on every side. 23 And many brought gifts to the LORD at Jerusalem and valuable presents to Hezekiah king of Judah; so from then on he was exalted in the sight of all nations. 24 In those days Hezekiah became terminally ill; and he prayed to the LORD , and He answered him and gave him a [miraculous] sign. 25 But Hezekiah did nothing [for the LORD ] in return for the benefit bestowed on him, because his heart had become proud; therefore God’s wrath came on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. 26 However, Hezekiah humbled his proud heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD did not come on them during the days of Hezekiah.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  And even we [as Jews] have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law. By observing the Law no one will ever be justified [declared free of the guilt of sin and its penalty]. [Ps 143:2 ] 17 “But if, while we seek to be justified in Christ [by faith], we ourselves are found to be sinners, does that make Christ an advocate or promoter of our sin? Certainly not! 18 “For if I [or anyone else should] rebuild [through word or by practice] what I once tore down [the belief that observing the Law is essential for salvation], I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 “For through the Law I died to the Law and its demands on me [because salvation is provided through the death and resurrection of Christ], so that I might [from now on] live to God. 20 “I have been crucified with Christ [that is, in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith [by adhering to, relying on, and completely trusting] in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. 21 “I do not ignore or nullify the [gracious gift of the] grace of God [His amazing, unmerited favor], for if righteousness comes through [observing] the Law, then Christ died needlessly. [His suffering and death would have had no purpose whatsoever.]” Galatians 3 Faith Brings Righteousness 1 O YOU foolish and thoughtless and superficial Galatians, who has bewitched you [that you would act like this], to whom—right before your very eyes—Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified [in the gospel message]? 2 This is all I want to ask of you: did you receive the [Holy] Spirit as the result of obeying [the requirements of] the Law, or was it the result of hearing [the message of salvation and] with faith [believing it]? 3 Are you so foolish and senseless? Having begun [your new life by faith] with the Spirit, are you now being perfected and reaching spiritual maturity by the flesh [that is, by your own works and efforts to keep the Law]? 4 Have you suffered so many things and experienced so much all for nothing—if indeed it was all for nothing? 5 So then, does He who supplies you with His [marvelous Holy] Spirit and works miracles among you, do it as a result of the works of the Law [which you perform], or because you [believe confidently in the message which you] heard with faith? 6 Just as Abraham BELIEVED GOD , AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS , [as conformity to God’s will and purpose—so it is with you also].

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  12 “So shall we come upon David in one of the places where he can be found, and we will fall on him as the dew falls [unseen and unheard] on the ground; and of him and of all the men who are with him, not even one will be left. 13 “If he retreats into a city, then all Israel shall bring ropes to that city, and we will drag it into the ravine until not even a pebble [of it] is found there.” 14 Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai the Archite is better than that of Ahithophel.” For the LORD had ordained to thwart the good advice of Ahithophel, so that the LORD could bring disaster upon Absalom. Hushai’s Warning Saves David 15 Then Hushai said to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, “This is the advice that Ahithophel gave to Absalom and the elders of Israel, and this is the advice that I have given. 16 “Now then, send word quickly and tell David, ‘Do not spend the night at the g fords [on the west side of the Jordan] in the wilderness, but by all means cross over [to the east side of the river], or else the king and all the people with him will be destroyed [if Ahithophel is allowed by Absalom to lead an attack].’ ” 17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz [the priests’ sons] were staying at h En-rogel, and a maidservant [appearing to go for water] would go and tell them [what was happening], and they would go [secretly] and inform King David; for they could not [allow themselves to] be seen coming into the city [of Jerusalem]. 18 But a boy saw them and told Absalom; so the two of them left quickly and came to the house of a man in Bahurim, who had a well in his courtyard, and [with his permission] they went down into it. 19 And the woman [of the house] took a covering and spread it over the mouth of the well and scattered grain on it; so nothing was discovered. 20 Then Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house and asked, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” And the woman said to them, “They have crossed over the brook.” When they searched and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem. 21 After they left, Jonathan and Ahimaaz came up out of the well and went and informed King David, and said to David, “Arise and cross over the i Jordan River quickly, for Ahithophel has advised [an attack] against you.” 22 Then David and all the people who were with him departed and crossed over the Jordan. By daybreak, not even one was left who had not crossed the Jordan. 23 Now when Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set out and went to his home, to his city.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  10 He waited another seven days and again sent the dove out from the ark. 11 The dove came back to him in the evening, and there, in her beak, was a fresh olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water level had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, but she did not return to him again. 13 Now in the six hundred and first year [of Noah’s life], on the first day of the first month, the waters were drying up from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and the surface of the ground was drying. 14 On the twenty-seventh day of the second month the land was [entirely] dry. 15 And God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 “Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives with you. 17 “Bring out with you every living thing from all flesh—birds and animals and every crawling thing that crawls on the earth—that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his wife and his sons and their wives with him [after being in the ark one year and ten days]. 19 Every animal, every crawling thing, every bird—and whatever moves on the land—went out by families (types, groupings) from the ark. 20 And Noah built an altar to the LORD , and took of every [ceremonially] clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma [a soothing, satisfying scent] and the LORD said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intent (strong inclination, desire) of man’s heart is wicked from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. 22 “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.” Genesis 9 Covenant of the Rainbow 1 A ND GOD blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 “The fear and the terror of you shall be [instinctive] in every animal of the land and in every bird of the air; and together with everything that moves on the ground, and with all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hand. 3 “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; I give you everything, as I gave you the green plants and vegetables. 4 “But you shall not eat meat along with its life, that is, its blood. [Lev 7:26 ; Acts 15:20 ; 21:25 ] 5 “For your lifeblood I will most certainly require an accounting; from every animal [that kills a person] I will require it.

• From Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928)

  Now she had more time to herself she could softly play the piano, up in her room, and sing: "Touch not the nettle ... for the bonds of love are ill to loose." She had not realised till lately how ill to loose they were, these bonds of love. But thank Heaven she had loosened them! She was so glad to be alone, not always to have to talk to him. When he was alone he tapped-tapped-tapped on a typewriter, to infinity. But when he was not "working," and she was there, he talked, always talked; infinite small analysis of people and motives, and results, characters and personalities, till now she had had enough. For years she had loved it, until she had enough, and then suddenly it was too much. She was thankful to be alone. It was as if thousands and thousands of little roots and threads of consciousness in him and her had grown together into a tangled mass, till they could crowd no more, and the plant was dying. Now quietly, subtly she was unravelling the tangle of his consciousness and hers, breaking the threads gently, one by one, with patience and impatience to get clear. But the bonds of such love are more ill to loose even than most bonds; though Mrs. Bolton's coming had been a great help. But he still wanted the old intimate evenings of talk with Connie; talk or reading aloud. But now she could arrange that Mrs. Bolton should come at ten to disturb them. At ten o'clock Connie could go upstairs and be alone. Clifford was in good hands with Mrs. Bolton. Mrs. Bolton ate with Mrs. Betts in the housekeeper's room, since they were all agreeable. And it was curious how much closer the servants' quarters seemed to have come; right up to the doors of Clifford's study, when before they were so remote. For Mrs. Betts would sometimes sit in Mrs. Bolton's room, and Connie heard their lowered voices, and felt somehow the strong, other vibration of the working people almost invading the sitting-room, when she and Clifford were alone. So changed was Wragby merely by Mrs. Bolton's coming. And Connie felt herself released, in another world, she felt she breathed differently. But still she was afraid of how many of her roots, perhaps mortal ones, were tangled with Clifford's. Yet still, she breathed freer, a new phase was going to begin in her life. CHAPTER VIII Mrs. Bolton also kept a cherishing eye on Connie, feeling she must extend to her her female and professional protection. She was always urging her ladyship to walk out, to drive to Uthwaite, to be in the air. For Connie had got into the habit of sitting still by the fire, pretending to read, or to sew feebly, and hardly going out at all.

• From The Incendiaries (2018)

  That said, if she hadn’t written to him, it could also be a sign. I called his house. He didn’t pick up, but I was relieved. It had been a mistake, calling. I’d talk to him in person, I decided. I bought a flight to Los Angeles. ABOUT THE AUTHOR R. O. Kwon is a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow. Her writing is published or forthcoming in The Guardian , Vice, Buzzfeed, Time, Noon, Electric Literature , Playboy, and elsewhere. She has received awards from Yaddo, MacDowell, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, Omi International, the Steinbeck Center, and the Norman Mailer Writers' Colony. Born in South Korea, she has lived most of her life in the United States. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS With profound gratitude to Ellen Levine, agent extraordinaire, and to Martha Wydysh and Alexa Stark. To Laura Perciasepe, best of editors. To Glory Anne Plata and Jennifer Huang, splendid publicists, and to the rest of wonderful Riverhead, especially Janice Kurzius, Jennifer Eck, Melissa Solis, Mia Alberro, Lucia Bernard, Claire Vaccaro, Jaya Miceli, Helen Yentus, Katie Freeman, Jynne Dilling Martin, Carla Bruce-Eddings, Bob Belmont, Wendy Pearl, Brian Etling, and Brian Contine. To the National Endowment for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Steinbeck Fellowship, Omi International, the Norman Mailer Writers Colony, the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Squaw Valley Writers Workshops, the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, Hedgebrook, the Anderson Center, and the Creative Capacity Fund, for vital support. To the Corporation of Yaddo, for the remarkable generosity of three fellowships. To Michael Cunningham, my mentor all these years. To Jenny Offill, Joshua Henkin, Ernesto Mestre, Catherine Texier, Stacey D’Erasmo, Sheila Kohler, André Aciman, Christine Schutt, Peter Ho Davies, Charles Baxter, Amy Bloom, John Crowley, Katharine Weber, and Jennifer Kennedy, my inimitable teachers. To Tony Tulathimutte, Laura van den Berg, Vauhini Vara, Andi Winnette, Anthony Ha, Vanessa Janowski, Raja Haddad, Cristina Moracho, M. A. Taft-McPhee, and M. Brett Smith, admired friends who read drafts of this book. To my esteemed writing group, past and present, including Colin Winnette, Daniel Levin Becker, Esmé Weijun Wang, Rachel Khong, Alice Sola Kim, Anisse Gross, Karan Mahajan, Caille Millner, Katrina Dodson, Pola Oloixarac, Jennifer duBois, Annie Julia Wyman, Katherine Marino, Lydia David Fitzpatrick, Diane Cook, and Greg Larson.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  15 She said to them, “Thus says the LORD , the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, 16 thus says the LORD : “Behold, I am bringing a catastrophe on this place (Judah) and on its inhabitants, [according to] all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read. 17 “Because they have abandoned (rejected) Me and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore My wrath burns against this place, and it will not be quenched.” ’ 18 “But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the LORD , you shall say this to him: ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel, “Regarding the words which you have heard, 19 because your heart was tender (receptive, penitent) and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I said against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,” declares the LORD . 20 “Therefore, behold, [King Josiah,] I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be taken to your grave in peace, and your eyes will not see all the evil (catastrophe) which I will bring on this place.” ’ ” So they brought back word to the king. 2 Kings 23 Josiah’s Covenant 1 K ING JOSIAH sent word and they brought to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. 2 The king went up to the house of the LORD , and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house (temple) of the LORD . 3 The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD , to walk after the LORD and to keep His commandments, His testimonies, and His statutes with all his heart and soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant. Reforms under Josiah 4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second rank and the doorkeepers to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the articles made for Baal, for [the goddess] Asherah, and for all the [starry] host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel [where Israel’s idolatry began].

• From The Well of Loneliness (1928)

  Stephen’s hand closed over the Croix de Guerre, but the metal of valour felt cold to her fingers; dead and cold it felt at that moment, as the courage that had set it upon her breast. She stared straight ahead of her into the sunset, trembling because of what she would answer. Then she said very slowly: ‘ After the war — no, I won’t send you away from me, Mary.’ CHAPTER 37 I Aiae MosT stupendous and heartbreaking folly of our times drew towards its abrupt conclusion. By November the Unit was stationed at St. Quentin in a little hotel, which although very humble, seemed like paradise after the dug-outs. A morning came when a handful of the members were to- gether in the coffee-room, huddled round a fire that was prin- cipally composed of damp brushwood. At one moment the guns could be heard distinctly, the next, something almost unnatural had happened — there was silence, as though death had turned on himself, smiting his own power of destruction. No one spoke, they just sat and stared at each other with faces entirely devoid of emotion; their faces looked blank, like so many masks from which had been sponged every trace of expression — and they waited — listening to that silence. The door opened and in walked an untidy Poilu; his manner was casual, his voice apathetic: * Eh bien, mesdames, c’est |’ Armis- tice.’ But his shining brown eyes were not at all apathetic. ‘ Oui, c'est l’Armistice,’ he repeated coolly; then he shrugged, as a man might do who would say: ‘ What is all this to me? ’ After which he grinned broadly in spite of himself, he was still very young, and turning on his heel he departed. Stephen said: ‘ So it’s over,’ and she looked at Mary, who had jumped up, and was looking in her turn at Stephen. Mary said: ‘ This means . . . but she stopped abruptly. Bless said: ‘Got a match, anyone? Oh thanks!” And she groped for her white metal cigarette case. Howard said: ‘ Well, the first thing I’m going to do is to get my hair properly shampooed in Paris.’ Thurloe laughed shrilly, then she started to whistle, kicking the recalcitrant fire as she did so. 338 THE WELL OF LONELINESS But funny, old, monosyllabic Blakeney with her curly white hair cropped as close as an Uhlan’s — Blakeney who had long ago done with emotions — quite suddenly laid her arms on the table and her head on her arms, and she wept, and she wept. 2 STEPHEN stayed with the Unit right up to the eve of its depar- ture for Germany, then she left it, taking Mary Llewellyn with her. Their work was over; remained only the honour of join- ing the army’s triumphal progress, but Mary Llewellyn was completely worn out, and Stephen had no thought except for Mary.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  The Landgrave first arranged a private interview between the lions and the lambs; that is, between Luther and Oecolampadius, Zwingli and Melanchthon. The two pairs met after divine service, in separate chambers, and conferred for several hours. The Wittenberg Reformers catechised the Swiss about their views on the Trinity, original sin, and baptism, and were in a measure relieved of their suspicion that they entertained unsound views on these topics. Melanchthon had, a few months before the Conference, written a very respectful letter to Oecolampadius (April 8, 1529), in which he regrets that the "horribilis dissensio de coena Domini" interfered with the enjoyment of their literary and Christian friendship, and states his own view of the eucharist very moderately and clearly to the effect that it was a communion with the present Christ rather than a commemoration of the absent Christ.867 In the private conference with Zwingli, against whom he was strongly prejudiced, he is reported to have yielded the main point of dispute, as regards the literal interpretation of "This is my body," and the literal handing of Christ’s body to his disciples, but added that he gave it to them "in a certain mysterious manner."868 When Zwingli urged the ascension as an argument against the local presence, Melanchthon said, "Christ has ascended indeed, but in order to fill all things" (Eph. 4:10)." Truly," replied Zwingli, "with his power and might, but not with his body." During the open debate on the following days, Melanchthon observed a significant silence, though twice asked by Luther to come to his aid when he felt exhausted.869 He made only a few remarks. He was, however, at that time, of one mind with Luther, and entirely under his power. He was as strongly opposed to an alliance with the Swiss and Strass-burgers, influenced in part by political motives, being anxious to secure, if possible, the favor of Charles and Ferdinand.870 Luther must have handled Oecolampadius more severely; for the latter, in coming from the conference room, whispered to Zwingli, "I am again in the hands of Dr. Eck" (as at the colloquy in Baden in 1526).

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

  A multiplicity of factors-poor publicity and inimical reviews, editorial and regional biases, and racism, sexism, heterosexism, and homophobia-account for its neglect and have hindered, for more than a quarter century, critical examinations of Loving Her.33 Moreover, the novel is not without its shortcomings stylistically and otherwise: it is replete with authorial interjections; unsubstantiated generalizations regarding race, gender, and sexuality; and, largely unmediated ideological stereotypes about nationalism, as well as the gay and lesbian movements, that at times reify, rather than challenge, mythologies. Despite these shortcomings and scholars' tendency to largely dismiss the novel, it is, nevertheless, a seminal text: it participates in critical debates on issues affecting black women not simply in the 196os and 1970s, and it provocatively foregrounds same-gender loving, as well as confronts racism, patriarchy, and heterosexist institutions that threaten black women's agency.34 Challenging particular identity politics, as well as subverting narrow definitions of "woman" and "normativity" in American society, Loving Her further illuminates black women's multifarious experiences, thereby expanding limited constructions of black womanhood-while concomitantly situating sexual expression along a continuum of sexualities. The novel opens as Renay Davis, a gifted pianist and devoted mother, leaves her abusive, alcoholic husband, Jerome Lee-who embraces black nationalism and articulates masculinist and heterosexist ideologies-for Terry, a white self-identified lesbian. Not at all content, Renay transgresses her victimization and convention by taking their seven-year-old daughter, Denise, and deserting Jerome and their repressive heterosexual marriage. Rather than deny her sexual attraction to Terry, Renay rejects both essentialized blackness, which her husband espouses, and externally defined definitions of womanhood that label samegender loving, same-sex desire, and homosexuality as deviant. With Terry, then, Renay finds "what she wanted and needed most. She was now aware of herself and the part she had tried to deny" (28). In fact, Renay had never been attracted to men and had, on countless occasions, repressed and disguised her feelings. When the star football player and "best-looking boy on campus," Jerome Lee, pursued her relentlessly in college, she capitulated, dating him merely to avoid her roommate's increasingly persistent interrogations of her sexuality: "You do like men, don't you?" (14). Though Renay despised dating Jerome and especially detested him kissing her, she-in a deliberate performance of male attraction and desire-would on those occasions stand "as stone, feeling nothing, knowing nothing, willing nothing"; for, she was, as the novel's narrative voice asserts, "only superficially acting out the woman's role she thought she was expected to play in the context of their relationship" (15). Rather than disclose her lack of desire for men-and, consequently, be labeled, shunned, expelled, or reduced to a sexuality-Renay, through a pattern of constitutive acts, to evoke Judith Butler, performs the gender role socially constructed in strict heterosexual terms for women.35

• From Hot Rods: Gay Erotic Stories (2011)

  “Do you have the transmitter?” the director asked Straith, and then took it from him. “Well, Mr. McCallister. It looks like your recordings may give us just the edge we need to go up the chain and catch the top dog in all of this. You’re doing so well the prosecutor has mentioned shortening your sentence even more. But I think you may be in danger. I am going to assign Special Agent Anderson here to stay with you in your apartment until this trial is over. This could take several months; I hope you two feel you can get along all right cooped up in your apartment for that amount of time.” I looked at Straith and found him grinning at me. Nodding, and smiling slightly myself, I looked back at the assistant director and said, “Well, if you think it’s in my best interest, I guess I can’t refuse.” CHROME-OBSESSED Pepper Espinoza The only thing Teddy liked more than the smell of leather was smooth, cool chrome beneath his fingertips. He knew he shouldn’t touch the big Harley. If Howard Bell didn’t kill him for fucking around with the bike, then his father surely would. How many times had they told him to stay away from the bikes? How many times had he been told that you never, ever touch another man’s bike, unless you want the other man to lay you out with a fist to the face? Too many to count. That had been the story of his life ever since he had been a little boy. In fact, one of his earliest memories was of reaching for the shining chrome with chubby fingers—and having the same fingers slapped away with a harsh word. But even the promise of certain punishment wasn’t enough to restrain him. He bent over and inhaled deeply, capturing the combined scents of leather, Howard’s body, gasoline, oil and dust. Howard lived on his bike, traveling from one side of the country to the other, and the smell made Teddy think of the open road. There was a whole world out there that Teddy couldn’t even imagine, one that had never been accessible to him. The closest he ever got was when he started working in his father’s garage off the highway. He provided an eager ear to many of the men who stopped there for parts, and if they had to work on some guy’s bike for more than a day, Teddy happily provided more than just an ear.

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

  Gender further complicates this. Because larger American discourse had categorized white women as emblems of purity and lacking in sexuality (putative justification for the constructions of black women's and men's sexuality, as well as their respective sexual dehumanization and sexualized crimes against their bodies), the largely white second-wave feminists asserted sexuality in more public ways. Black women, castigated and stigmatized as always already sexually transgressive and the antithesis of purity, shied away from public displays of sexuality. Most white women associated with the women's movement were, unlike African American women, (upper) middle-class and benefited from the privileges of whiteness. Yet, unlike their white male counterparts, white women, in exchange for "protection" and white privilege, had been largely consigned to subordinate positions and narrowly defined roles within the male-dominated American social order. Invested in redefining themselves beyond the traditional roles of wives and mothers and outside the realm of sexuality, these second-wave feminists galvanized around renegotiating the dynamics of gender, identity, and sexuality within American society, which black women had long encountered and experienced. As Toni Morrison avers in her 1971 polemic "What the Black Woman Thinks about Women's Lib," black women had "known something of the freedom white women are now beginning to crave. But oddly freedom is only sweet when it is won. When it is forced, it is called responsibility."42 Black women were marginalized in the black and women's rights movements, but they were concomitantly influenced by their own efforts toward racial and gender egalitarianism. African American women themselves, forming their own feminist agenda, asserted radically subversive racialized gendered sexual identities and politics. The Combahee River Collective, an organization of black lesbians instrumental in black feminism, refuted notions of black women's sexuality regulated through, and as the sole property of, (black) men. They were "actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression" and viewed "[b]lack feminism as the logical political movement to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppressions" confronting black women 43 The black feminist movement also questioned the regulation of black female sexuality, arguing for a centering of black women's issues and the inclusion of black women who transgress communal circumscriptions-predicated on heteronormative gender and sexuality-for women in favor of more liberatory approaches to sexuality in and of itself. Politics of Sexuality, Race, and Representation-Or, "Has the Sexual Revolution Bypassed Black People?"

• From Vox (1992)

  Porn movies are almost always done with very repetitive cuts back and forth between two or three camera positions, so I knew what the images were and yet I could watch Emily’s eyes: say the alternation was between a close-in shot of the woman’s head bobbing as she was sucking the cock, and then a farther-back shot showing that she was kneeling on the bed holding her hair out of the way of the camera and he was lying on his back, A B A B, and I could see the mixture of colors change on Emily’s iris, and I could see it make these exact little adjustments. The miracle of sight. She had an expression of very alert frowning amused distaste. When that scene was over, I said, ‘What do you think so far?’ I just wanted to hear her voice. And she said, ‘As it happens, I’ve seen this movie before, about a year ago.’ Then we watched maybe three sex scenes silently. Maybe more. Once I asked some question like ‘Is that one of the counterfeiters?’ And she said, ‘Yes.’ Otherwise we were totally silent, while these hardworking Europeans struggled and jacked and sucked and moaned and came in English in front of us. The men came, anyway. It’s still a rarity to see a woman really come on a video, as opposed to thrashing around. There was more of the dimensionless electronic Europop music. After one giant come-shot Emily put her tea down and took a deep breath and puffed out her cheeks and smiled. I laughed with relief. I said, ‘Is it as you remembered it?’ And she said, ‘I’m a little chilly.’ So I unsnapped the plastic cover of the blanket and unfolded this big acrylic plaid thing and put it over her, but I did it wrong, evidently, because she said, ‘Could you turn it this way?’ and she showed me how she wanted it. So I tucked her in with the fringe of the blanket running under her neck. Then I sat down again, focused on the movie, and again there was the jolt—you have a moment of two fully clothed work friends in a living room adjusting a blanket, and I’m stuffing two of its corners behind her shoulders, probably the first time I’d ever touched both of Emily’s shoulders at the same time, absolute coziness, we should have been talking about the very first birthday we could remember or something, and then we turn to the TV and there are tits swinging around and a woman’s hairdo swinging around while she rises up and down on some expressionless Eurodick and we’re hearing ‘Oh Mario Mario!’ After a little while there were some movings around under the blanket, and then it started to shake, sort of. She didn’t say anything, she didn’t even change her breathing, she was keeping it very steady. Her mouth was closed.

• From Vox (1992)

  79 and a split-rail fence with a wagon wheel leaning on it, repeating over and over. Bad. " "Doesn't sound good." "So I painted it when I moved in," she said. "I painted it a color called Paper Lantern—and I put on two coats. Someone said, Tou know that you're painting over me tallic wallpaper, that's going to come through-hoo,' but I just couldn't make myself steam off all that old paper— the design would imprint itself in my psyche if I did that, it would rise up when I'm eighty years old, on my death bed. So I just painted it over, with two heavy coats. And the first year it was fine. But then we had that killer summer, and somehow the humidity sweated the metal lic pattern back out, so that now you can make out the split-rail fence and the wagon wheel. But it's very faint. Now in fact I kind of like it. But I really should repaint it. So in the shower I had this image of painting the hall wall with a roller. What a waste of time. And then I thought, wait, I have the money, this time I'll hire peo ple to paint it for me. And so three painters materialized, and then suddenly there was a large hole in the wall, about three feet off the floor, big enough so that I could fit through so that my legs were standing in the front hall and yet my head and upper body were in the living room. The hole was finished off and lined with sheepskin. I had nothing on. My hands were resting on two full paint cans. But the strange thing was the cans of paint were warm. There was one painter doing the living room, and

• From Vox (1992)

  See, I’d sounded quite confident when I actually asked her the question.” “What did she say?” “She just said, in a more official voice, but still a friendly voice, ‘I don’t think I’m going to answer your question.’ And I said, ‘Fine, I understand, okay, sure.’ And she said ‘Bye.’ Not ‘Good-bye,’ you notice—still the slight vestige of amused intimacy there. If she’d said ‘Good-bye’ I would have felt absolutely crushed.” “What did you do then?” “I sat up and ordered a pizza and read the paper. So you see, I’m not an obscene phone caller, really. I can’t smother an orgasm.” “Ho ho. I can,” she said. “Can you? Well, I mean I can physically do it.” “ I know what you mean.” There was a pause. “I hear ice cubes,” he said. “Diet Coke.” “Ah. Tell me more things. Tell me about the room you’re in. Tell me the chain of events that led up to your calling this number.” “Okay,” she said. “I’m not in the bedroom anymore. I’m sitting on the couch in my living room slash dining room. My feet are on the coffee table, which would have been impossible yesterday, because the coffee table was piled so high with mail and work stuff, but now it is possible, and the whole room, the whole apartment, is really and truly in order. I took a sick day today, without being sick, which is something I haven’t done up to now at this job. I called the receptionist and told her I had a fever. The moment of lying to her was awful, but gosh what freedom when I hung up the phone! And I didn’t leave the apartment all day. I just organized my immediate surroundings, I picked up things, I vacuumed, and I laid out all the silver that I’ve inherited—three different very incomplete patterns—laid it out on the dining-room table and looked at it and I gave some serious thought to polishing it, but I didn’t go so far as to polish it, but it looked beautiful all laid out, a big arch of forks, a little arch of knives, five big serving spoons, some tiny salt spoons, and a little grouping of novelty items, like oyster forks.

• From Vox (1992)

  Will you help me pick out a blanket?’ And she said, ‘Tonight?’ And I said, ‘Yeah it has to be tonight, it really does, because tomorrow I’ll want to send in the ad, and as you say I have got to include the size, the color, everything, if I want this to work. I need your help with this.’ And she said okay.” “What kind of blanket did you get?” “We went to this discount place, kind of a seedy place, blinding fluorescence, in a strip right near where we work, and we went to the blanket department, and there were all these big blankets stuffed into clear plastic containers with snaps, some awful-looking, but some not so bad, and it was very strange, it was as if the two of us were a real couple shopping for a blanket. She poked around, looking at this and that, and I’d go, ‘What about this?’ and she’d feel it, make a judicious face, nod. But then, when she’d covered both aisles, she said, ‘No, I just don’t see any blanket with a fringe, I mean a real fringe . I think I better get back.’ I said, ‘No, we’ll go to another store!’ and she said, ‘Nah, the good stores will be closing by the time we get there. If there’d been a decent fringe available here, I could have helped you with the selection, but I think you’re on your own now.’ I went nuts. I started really hunting through those blankets, I was ready to call the manager over and have him go in the back. And god damn it if I didn’t find this little acrylic blanket, jammed behind on a high shelf, kind of a standard green-and-blue plaid thing, no beauty, let me tell you, but with a long thick twisted fringe. She looked at it, she touched it, and she blushed, and she said, ‘This one will do.’ So I marched right over to the register and bought it. There was a cardboard insert saying, you know, SEEDYCREST FIRST QUALITY ACRYLIC BLANKET , and there was this stock picture of a woman smilingly asleep under a blanket, and as we’re waiting for the woman to enter in the SKU number Emily and I both looked at this picture, and I’m telling you, nothing, anywhere, was as obscene as that picture on the blanket insert.” “How much was it?” “Ten bucks, something like that, I can’t remember.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  32 From the tribe of Naphtali, they gave Kedesh in Galilee, the city of refuge for anyone who committed manslaughter, with its pasture lands and Hammoth-dor with its pasture lands and Kartan with its pasture lands; three cities. 33 All the cities of the Gershonites according to their families were thirteen cities with their pasture lands. 34 To the families of the sons of Merari, the rest of the Levites, they gave from the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam with its pasture lands and Kartah with its pasture lands, 35 Dimnah with its pasture lands and Nahalal with its pasture lands; four cities. 36 From the tribe of Reuben, they gave Bezer with its pasture lands and Jahaz with its pasture lands, 37 Kedemoth with its pasture lands and Mephaath with its pasture lands; four cities. 38 From the tribe of Gad, they gave Ramoth in Gilead, the city of refuge for anyone who committed manslaughter, with its pasture lands and Mahanaim with its pasture lands, 39 Heshbon with its pasture lands and Jazer with its pasture lands; four cities in all. 40 All [these were] the cities of the sons of Merari according to their families, the rest of the families of the Levites; and their lot was twelve cities. 41 All the cities of the Levites in the midst of the property of the sons of Israel were forty-eight cities with their pasture lands. 42 These cities each had its surrounding pasture lands; so it was with all these cities. 43 So the LORD gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers (ancestors), and they took possession of it and lived in it. 44 The LORD gave them rest [from conflict] on every side, in accordance with everything that He had sworn to their fathers, and not one of all their enemies stood before them [in battle]; the LORD handed over all their enemies to them. 45 Not one of the good promises which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel failed; all had come to pass. Joshua 22 Tribes beyond Jordan Return 1 T HEN JOSHUA called the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, 2 and said to them, “You have kept all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, and have listened to and obeyed my voice in everything that I commanded you. 3 “You have not deserted your brothers these many days to this day, but have [carefully] kept the obligation of the commandment of the LORD your God. 4 “And now the LORD your God has given rest to your brothers, as He has promised them; so turn now and go to your tents, to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you beyond the [east side of the] Jordan.

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

  In her deliberate and strategic avoidance of marital sex, Meridian circumvents her sexual role as wife and transgresses particular constructions of her, otherwise, restrictive heterosexual relationship-refusing to privilege her husband's sexual desires or allow him to "possess" her body and dictate the terms of her sexual behavior. Moreover, in her conscious use of her pregnancy, a direct repercussion of the reproductive quality of sex, ironically, as a pretext for avoiding sex, she exerts her agency and subjectivity. Through her elusory and regulatory sexual practices, she undermines social prescriptions that contain and require female sexuality within marital domains. And so, just as her methodical use of premarital sex had proven effectual in thwarting external male sexual advances and violations, her strategic circumvention of marital sex is equally efficacious in enabling her to permanently transgress her sexual role as wife. She is altogether "relieved" from sex with Eddie when he, upon the realization that Meridian is disinterested in and does not enjoy (or intend on) having sex with him, engages in an extramarital affair. By the time the baby was born, Eddie had found a "woman who loved sex, and was able to get as much of it as he wanted every night" (65). Unmoved by Eddie's infidelity or the subsequent collapse of their marriage, Meridian is, instead, perturbed by forced motherhood: Eddie's having left her with the sole responsibility of raising their son. For, as the narratorial voice asserts, he had automatically "assumed [...] the baby would remain with her," which, "was, after all, how such arrangements had always gone"; he had no intention of "see[ing] much more of either of them" (71-72). What Meridian resents and ultimately challenges, then, is the double standard and gendered nature of parenthood. While Eddie, as a man, shirks fatherhood and his responsibilities without remorse and/or communal repercussions, motherhood is imposed upon and expected of Meridian because she is a woman. "The meaning of `fatherhood' remains tangential, elusive. To `father' a child suggests above all to beget, to provide the sperm which fertilizes the ovum," as Adrienne Rich explicates in Of Woman Born, versus mothering a child, which necessitates a particular existence, a permanence or enduring presence. "A man may beget a child" and "disappear" to "never see or consider the child or mother again. Under such circumstances, the mother faces a range of painful, socially weighted choices: abortion, suicide, abandonment of the child, infanticide" or raising the child.26

• From The Beautiful Room Is Empty (1988)

  In town Maria and I felt better. At least I did. The streets had been cleared, traffic lights lidded in snow burned like mad eyes, Christmas shoppers submitted to their forced labor, there were other cars cruising around as old and dirty as ours, everyone seemed busy and indifferent—the rich anonymity of the city. Maria invited me for a hamburger, not at the fancy Petite Auberge where “half-pounders” were loaded with melting Roquefort, but, as she said, “At that adorable greasy spoon.” From my mother I’d learned that “nice” people should always frequent “nice” places, but here was Maria, certifiably nice, who relished the diner, twirled on the metal stool like a bobby-soxer, and punched out tunes on the jukebox. “Don’t you just love the Everly Brothers?” she asked. I shrugged, but I think in that one remark Maria changed my way of seeing things. My father was rich in his remote but solid way, and my mother, divorced from him ten years earlier, was poor in her flamboyant way, squandering money on clothes and economizing on food. They each disapproved of each other; my father especially disapproved of my mother; the net effect was to confuse me. I never felt right in any setting. That I also feared I might be some sort of pansy only made me feel all the more weird. I wanted to escape my childhood world and be superior to it. I’d read about Oscar Wilde. Wilde made brilliant repartee, but not in a void. People had listened, remembered his words. I, on the other hand, quoting Wilde, had said of the recently widowed mother of one of my junior-high-school friends, “I hear her hair has turned quite gold with grief,” and Kathy Becker, the class sweetheart who always wore baby blue cashmere, shook her head and said, “I feel sorry for you—you’re sick.” That Wilde was broken and Rimbaud driven into exile only seemed the reasonable price society demanded for such splashy transgressions. The lurid decadence of nineteenth-century Europe, with its mauve glasses and moth-eaten velvets, its melancholy lords and suitably untouchable ladies—that was a world I pined after, not this Detroit of behemoth cars, beetling their way through snow, these peppy renditions of novelty songs (Rosemary Clooney singing “If I’d Knowed You Was A-Comin’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake”). I felt a real nausea whenever I faced America’s frumpy cuteness, the Red Nosed Reindeer stamped out of dirty white plastic, the Hit Parade singers on TV dressed up to look like little kids, grown women in nylon Gretchen braids. But Maria turned this dross to gold by touching it, by holding it out and looking at it. She suggested it was sufficiently distant from her to appreciate. Rather startled, I said, “You mean you actually like this music?”