{"id":443,"date":"2021-04-03T20:44:11","date_gmt":"2021-04-04T00:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/?p=443"},"modified":"2021-04-03T20:44:13","modified_gmt":"2021-04-04T00:44:13","slug":"outside-the-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/2021\/04\/03\/outside-the-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Outside the Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This week, I\u2019m struck by imagery of the Garden of Eden in our class texts. In Part I of\u00a0Giovanni\u2019s Room<\/em>, as David is worrying about Giovanni\u2019s sentence, Jacques comments to David, \u201cNobody can stay in the garden of Eden.\u201d David reflects that people \u201chave scarcely seen their garden before they see the flaming sword,\u201d a reference to Adam and Eve being banished from the garden (239). I\u2019m trying to think through a couple different ways of interpreting this motif, so I\u2019d love to hear any of your insights if you\u2019ve noticed this theme as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one level, it\u2019s easy to connect this Bible story of being banished from the garden simply to Baldwin\u2019s religious upbringing and\/or David\u2019s internalized homophobia, in which homosexuality is a sin. In particular, the Fall is associated with shame about the naked body, and especially queer shame in this context, so it would make sense that references to Eden in Giovanni\u2019s Room <\/em>are meant to evoke a backdrop of religious homophobia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also wonder if this idea of leaving the garden could connect to the literal geography of David\u2019s and Baldwin\u2019s lives. Both Baldwin and his character are in exile in France. For Baldwin, a Black, queer man, America has never been an Eden; and David is running from his identity. Leaving America for France is a sort of journey out of the garden. David reflects that \u201clife only offers the choice of remembering the garden or forgetting it\u201d (239). He connects leaving the garden to losing innocence\u2014a pain he must either remember or deny. Both he and Baldwin are faced with living \u201coutside the garden,\u201d working out how to move through a world that does not protect those with non-normative identities. In this light, Paris seems to be a neutral space outside the garden for both Baldwin and David to negotiate their identities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, I\u2019d be remiss not to mention Lil Nas X\u2019s reclamation of Garden of Eden imagery in \u201cCall Me By Your Name.\u201d Lil Nas X gives us an unapologetically queer reread of the Eden myth in the imagery and lyrics. I\u2019m curious if the rest of Giovanni\u2019s Room <\/em>will offer any hints of David and\/or Baldwin similarly reclaiming the Garden of Eden in some way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, I\u2019m struck by imagery of the Garden of Eden in our class texts. In Part I of\u00a0Giovanni\u2019s Room, as David is worrying about Giovanni\u2019s sentence, Jacques comments to David, \u201cNobody can stay in the garden of Eden.\u201d David reflects that people \u201chave scarcely seen their garden before they see the flaming sword,\u201d a … Continue reading Outside the Garden<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3909,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[489038],"tags":[53094,73607,492608,492942],"class_list":["post-443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-giovannis-room","tag-bible","tag-france","tag-lil-nas-x","tag-queer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3909"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":444,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions\/444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}