05-09-2024, 02:13 PM
Thanks for the mentions! I'm a very slow reader, but I hope to highlight an entry per day at some point. As for the overarching theme:
The theme is the Bible!
Day 1 - The loss of innocence, so Genesis.
Day 2 - Establishment of rules, so Exodus to Deuteronomy (aka the rest of the Law).
Day 3 - Genocide, which happened in Joshua.
Day 4 - A rainy day. Very very tangentially, Judges, specifically the story of Gideon and the fleece.
Day 5 - A list poem. Very very tangentially, 1-2 Kings/1-2 Samuel, specifically Hannah's song.
Day 6 - An eclipse. Very very tangentially, 3-4 Kings/1-2 Kings, specifically the sun turning back for Hezekiah.
Days 7 and 8 - Exile and the return from it. 1-2 Chronicles and 1-2 Ezra (or Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 Esdras).
Day 9 - Same-sex friendship. This one was where what I wrote directly touched on the inspiration, the book of Tobit (specifically the friendship between Tobias and the angel).
Day 10 - A heroic woman. A sort-of catch-all like the Syrian book of women, covering Ruth, Judith, Esther, and Susanna; again, what I wrote for this directly touched on the inspiration.
Day 11 - Torture or Elephants. 1-4 Maccabees, with 4 Maccabees graphically describing torture, and 2 Maccabees (and I think 3 Maccabees? but I haven't read that one) featuring elephants.
Day 12 - Involving your bed. Again, what I wrote directly touched on the inspiration, which is the Psalms (specifically the Psalm with the line "I watered my couch with tears").
Day 13 - A diatribe. Job.
Day 14 - An acrostic poem. Proverbs, which has a lot of those (though also the Psalms and the Lamentations, and their acrostics are typically just the alphabet. Recently I have been reading Greek and Slavonic liturgical texts (or rather translations of those texts xD), and those feature acrostics with actual "hidden" messages, which is pretty cool).
Day 15 - An existential theme. Ecclesiastes.
Day 16 - Describe maturity. Song of Songs. One interpretation of Proverbs-Ecclesiastes-Song of Songs is that they describe a kind of journey to wisdom, with Proverbs giving practical advice, Ecclesiastes giving more intellectual or psychological advice, and Song of Songs showing the height of spiritual maturity. Of course, one can also interpret "maturity" in the prompt as "sexual maturity", the book being one of the more explicit of the Bible.
Day 17 - Celebrate Hellenic culture. Wisdom. This book is noted as a combination of Hebraic and Hellenic ideas, for which it was prized by Herman Melville. At one point, the book even cites the Platonic virtues.
Day 18 - Advice of a parent/grandparent to their child/grandchild. Sirach.
Days 19, 20, and 21 - These involve things the prophets generally did. Day 19's prompt, to warn, is probably the one least specific to the set of prophets it was meant to refer to (the twelve). Day 20, to console, is a little more specific to Isaiah, since his work is most prized in Christianity as pointing to the then-coming Messiah. Day 21, to mourn, is very specific to Jeremiah and his Lamentations.
Day 22 and 23 - These involve things which are far more specific to their respective prophets, with Ezekiel's vision of the field of bones and the story of Daniel and the writing on the wall.
Day 24 - An argument on behalf of the inclusion of some piece of media into its respective canon. This basically covers all the books considered apocryphal by most traditional churches.
Days 25, 26, 27, and 28 - These refer, above all, to the Gospels, with Matthew being symbolized by a man (and, instead of giving an insanely vague prompt, I just went with the genealogy one xD), Mark by a lion (hence a cat), Luke by a cow (hence a cow and its relationship with some other creature), and John an eagle (hence the point of view of a bird).
Day 29 - A palinode. Somewhat tangentially, this refers to the Epistles, which are often seen as reframing and perhaps even refuting the Old Testament.
Day 30 - Innocence regained. Here referring to the Eschaton, which is described in the book of Revelation.
It is very specific to Christianity, but not to a proselytizing end. The resource I most go with when considering the Bible as literature is this book I read as a teen, which I continue to recommend:
https://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Classica...0802086950
Free pdf: https://www.academia.edu/49076403/BIBLIC...RN_CULTURE
Day 1 - The loss of innocence, so Genesis.
Day 2 - Establishment of rules, so Exodus to Deuteronomy (aka the rest of the Law).
Day 3 - Genocide, which happened in Joshua.
Day 4 - A rainy day. Very very tangentially, Judges, specifically the story of Gideon and the fleece.
Day 5 - A list poem. Very very tangentially, 1-2 Kings/1-2 Samuel, specifically Hannah's song.
Day 6 - An eclipse. Very very tangentially, 3-4 Kings/1-2 Kings, specifically the sun turning back for Hezekiah.
Days 7 and 8 - Exile and the return from it. 1-2 Chronicles and 1-2 Ezra (or Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 Esdras).
Day 9 - Same-sex friendship. This one was where what I wrote directly touched on the inspiration, the book of Tobit (specifically the friendship between Tobias and the angel).
Day 10 - A heroic woman. A sort-of catch-all like the Syrian book of women, covering Ruth, Judith, Esther, and Susanna; again, what I wrote for this directly touched on the inspiration.
Day 11 - Torture or Elephants. 1-4 Maccabees, with 4 Maccabees graphically describing torture, and 2 Maccabees (and I think 3 Maccabees? but I haven't read that one) featuring elephants.
Day 12 - Involving your bed. Again, what I wrote directly touched on the inspiration, which is the Psalms (specifically the Psalm with the line "I watered my couch with tears").
Day 13 - A diatribe. Job.
Day 14 - An acrostic poem. Proverbs, which has a lot of those (though also the Psalms and the Lamentations, and their acrostics are typically just the alphabet. Recently I have been reading Greek and Slavonic liturgical texts (or rather translations of those texts xD), and those feature acrostics with actual "hidden" messages, which is pretty cool).
Day 15 - An existential theme. Ecclesiastes.
Day 16 - Describe maturity. Song of Songs. One interpretation of Proverbs-Ecclesiastes-Song of Songs is that they describe a kind of journey to wisdom, with Proverbs giving practical advice, Ecclesiastes giving more intellectual or psychological advice, and Song of Songs showing the height of spiritual maturity. Of course, one can also interpret "maturity" in the prompt as "sexual maturity", the book being one of the more explicit of the Bible.
Day 17 - Celebrate Hellenic culture. Wisdom. This book is noted as a combination of Hebraic and Hellenic ideas, for which it was prized by Herman Melville. At one point, the book even cites the Platonic virtues.
Day 18 - Advice of a parent/grandparent to their child/grandchild. Sirach.
Days 19, 20, and 21 - These involve things the prophets generally did. Day 19's prompt, to warn, is probably the one least specific to the set of prophets it was meant to refer to (the twelve). Day 20, to console, is a little more specific to Isaiah, since his work is most prized in Christianity as pointing to the then-coming Messiah. Day 21, to mourn, is very specific to Jeremiah and his Lamentations.
Day 22 and 23 - These involve things which are far more specific to their respective prophets, with Ezekiel's vision of the field of bones and the story of Daniel and the writing on the wall.
Day 24 - An argument on behalf of the inclusion of some piece of media into its respective canon. This basically covers all the books considered apocryphal by most traditional churches.
Days 25, 26, 27, and 28 - These refer, above all, to the Gospels, with Matthew being symbolized by a man (and, instead of giving an insanely vague prompt, I just went with the genealogy one xD), Mark by a lion (hence a cat), Luke by a cow (hence a cow and its relationship with some other creature), and John an eagle (hence the point of view of a bird).
Day 29 - A palinode. Somewhat tangentially, this refers to the Epistles, which are often seen as reframing and perhaps even refuting the Old Testament.
Day 30 - Innocence regained. Here referring to the Eschaton, which is described in the book of Revelation.
It is very specific to Christianity, but not to a proselytizing end. The resource I most go with when considering the Bible as literature is this book I read as a teen, which I continue to recommend:
https://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Classica...0802086950
Free pdf: https://www.academia.edu/49076403/BIBLIC...RN_CULTURE