Word: eden
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...East of Eden...
...hadn't seen Elia Kazan's film of East of Eden (1954) until last summer. I was stunned by its emotional power, particularly by the performance of James Dean in his first starring role. Though based on just a part of Steinbeck's giant novel, Kazan's film possesses an epic authority far beyond most American films. Ted McCord's camerawork is one of the first outstanding uses of cinemascope...
When he learns his life has been no more real than a Paddy joke-that he is Scottish on both sides-the news affects Jack like expulsion from Eden. What is a Scotsman? Jack undergoes a case of nine-year shock trying to answer. First he becomes a non-Irishman-a "neutral man," practically evaporating in the arms of his girl Elizabeth, a perfect colleen stereotype with "about seventy-six brothers and sisters, and a drunken no-good father...
Moon's main focus is the tragedy of the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve, intended by God to be joined in divine matrimony, were to have been the perfect parents, and form, with God, a kind of Trinity to shape the world. But Eve sinned by committing adultery with an archangel, who thereby became Satan. According to Moon, Jesus was supposed to be a second Adam, creating the perfect family. His crucifixion, before he had a chance to marry, redeemed mankind spiritually, but not physically-a task left over for the Lord of the Second Advent. In Moon...
...some American ears, unnervingly British. His two grandfathers were Anglican clergymen. He studied biology at Oxford and at the end of his life held a chair there at Christ College. He could (and did) recently write, "Our earth in 19697 Is not the planet I call mine/ ... My Eden landscapes and their climes/ Are constructs from Edwardian times." Early in his career, he could (and did) produce one of the most beautiful love lyrics ever written: "Lay your sleeping head, my love,/ Human on my faithless...