In Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, the protagonist is repeatedly approached with proposals to adapt her novel into a screenplay, all of which eschew the challenging societal critique at the heart of the book in preference for comfortable, familiar-story-arc reductions likely to please and appease a wide audience. It got me thinking about how we frequently and instinctively do that with the Bible – and about how much we risk missing or diminishing when we default to readings that conform to our prior expectations, rather than allowing scripture to conflict with and challenge those expectations.
No doubt I’m desensitised to this when it suits me. But I’ve grown quick to notice when the Bible’s accounts of female characters, already fewer in number than its stories of men, are read through a filter of familiarity and a priori gender assumptions. The book of Ruth is a prime candidate – partly because we do love a good love story, and partly because it is hard for us in the here and now to understand or imagine the daunting reality of Naomi and Ruth’s situation as women without a male guardian in ~5th century BC Israel. With that in mind, I thought I’d practice my heroic couplets (I’m no Robert Browning, sadly).
‘The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”’ (Ruth 4:14-15)
No doubt I’m desensitised to this when it suits me. But I’ve grown quick to notice when the Bible’s accounts of female characters, already fewer in number than its stories of men, are read through a filter of familiarity and a priori gender assumptions. The book of Ruth is a prime candidate – partly because we do love a good love story, and partly because it is hard for us in the here and now to understand or imagine the daunting reality of Naomi and Ruth’s situation as women without a male guardian in ~5th century BC Israel. With that in mind, I thought I’d practice my heroic couplets (I’m no Robert Browning, sadly).
A TREATMENT
Come in, do, please, be seated, and I’ll get
Right to the point. I’ve given it some thought
And, dare I say, it has potential, sure,
But it could really do with being more –
How best to put it? – more relatable.
I know our audience, and they are all
In favour of a female lead, as long
As she does not, that is, come on too strong.
They do not want her for an Abraham,
Forsaking certainty and mother land
(Received tradition and convention too)
To chance it in a place she does not know –
Engaged, not firstly to a husband but
A sister, and a people, and a God.
Nor do they want a Noah, rescuing
Her nearest and continuing her line
For the salvation of the world; still less
A Joseph-like provider-protectress.
I warn you they will wince to watch her woo
Her man – a girl should let the guy pursue:
It’s natural, and biblical, and there’s
Whole websites to the purpose nowadays.
So how about we tone down some of Ruth’s
Initiative; some of her brazen self-
Sufficiency; her hint of heroism
(Which is unbecoming in a woman).
As for that whole scene (*ahem*) with ‘feet’
Let’s keep it clean; we’ve parents to placate,
And such insinuations rock the core
Of values that our audience holds dear.
No need to be discouraged; there is still
A lot to work with – the material
For a terrific rom-com, I believe.
E.g., instead of a Naomi grieved
And bitter, we’ll have her cantankerous;
A sort of Widow Twankey, played for laughs.
(Who doesn’t love a mother-in-law joke).
And Orpah, after all, she does turn back;
It isn’t too much of a stretch to pitch her,
Therefore, as the piece’s “ugly sister”.
Then, you’ve got your classic transformation
Montage: our hard-working heroine
Exchanges her dishevelled farming wear
For something modest, yet beyond compare.
Prince Charming Boaz, smitten since he first
Laid eyes on her across the field, at last
Awakens to his opportunity:
He seals the deal, and they live happily,
The perfect pair. (Best not to advertise
The likelihood that he had other wives).
What do you reckon, hmm? There is a cost;
Some of the nuances perhaps get lost –
But this way (trust me, I would stake on it)
We'd guarantee ourselves a sell-out hit.
For lovingkindness makes the world go round,
But romance makes it pay up, and sit down.
Carolyn Whitnall, 2019.
‘The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”’ (Ruth 4:14-15)
[Thumbnail image cc. from Pixabay.]
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