Closet Queeries by J. Neil C. Garcia

Author:J. Neil C. Garcia
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789712733550
Publisher: Anvil Publishing, Inc.

Love,

Neil.

four: Queer readings

Myth and meaning

M YTHS ARE STORIES about the origin of things. Every human culture produces myths to survive. Without myths, there would be no reason for any given form of life to exist, inasmuch as it would have no meaning (being incapable of justifying itself). Myths articulate what people in a given culture hold sacred, and what they hold profane. Myths are social values told—and retold—and actually lived out by those who participate in its many tellings. Myths give human culture its memory, so that nothing of importance ever disappears, as long as there are those who remember what myths are about, and what they say.

Myths can be classified in a number of ways. The most common form of classification is the thematic. Cosmogony myths, for instance, are those that talk about the origin of life, of the universe and the first human creatures. Not strangely enough, cosmogonies reveal so much about what a particular society thinks about its place in the natural order of things. And of course, stories of the first human parents can tell us a lot about ourselves as well.

The Judeo-Christian myth of creation is quite well-known. God made everything great and small in a span of six days, and on the seventh day He took a rest. On the sixth day, as well, He created Adam from a lump of clay, and breathed a soul into him. And then God realized how lonely Adam was, and so he caused him to fall asleep, which was when he took out a rib from his side, and fashioned it into Eve. And so the first man and woman (according to the Judeo-Christian bible) came to exist. And then Eve met the forked-tongued serpent coiled around a tree-trunk, and the rest is salvation history…

Lest my readers think I have turned biblical of a sudden, I must confess what this column’s real occasion is: as I was leafing through Damiana Eugenio’s Philippine Folk Literature: the Myths the other night, I came across a particular myth called “The Origin of Homosexuality.” I read it right away (but of course!), and found the whole story amazing in its lack of the same elemental quality to be found in the more familiar Genesis: light, waters, the deep, clay, etc. I mean, shouldn’t myths—especially those that concern the creation of new species—abound in such primal things? This story, which according to a footnote came from an American’s manuscript collection (circa 1922), suprised me in a way quite different from what I would have been capable of foreseeing.

Basically, the story goes this way: In one of their travels together, Jesus and St. Peter find themselves wanting to have siesta at an inn somewhere. Try as they may, they are not able to catch a wink of sleep, because of the neighbors who must be having a party or something just as uproariously noisy. Jesus, as expected, isn’t about to create a scene, but the primary apostle takes matters into his own hands by stealing into the offensive household and beheading everyone in sight.

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