Monday, January 15, 2018

Amenhotep, becoming a god



It's just a drawing. Because I liked it. The picture is in a book titled Book of the Dead Becoming God in Ancient Egypt edited by Foy Scalf, through the University of Chicago. 

The picture is in the section on the importance of vignettes. And the whole time I was drawing it I was also thinking America has its analog to Pharaohs becoming a god. 

The American people, the world actually, are making Obama a god because they need to. Like they needed Kennedy deified and their idea of Camelot, and shining city on the hill to hold onto for generations and all that British mythology that cannot die. And Trump will make himself into a god by his own force of will despite the rest of America and spitefully toward the rest of the world, because he needs to, like Ramses I did, by sheer force and by living so long, by outliving his enemies, by enduring, by not being killed, by changing the country, the world.

Egyptian pharaohs were impressive and consequential. American presidents more so. Thousands of years elapse  plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose except now it's even bigger with far more wealth involved and far more consequential. Our American presidents are much bigger and more powerful than pharaohs ever were. 

2 comments:

The Dude said...

So let it be written, so let it be done.

Yul thank us later.

ricpic said...

Obama a god? Pshaw.