St Augustine - Tumblr Posts
SUBTEXT
so I've focused in on Perceval and Bors before, and I've done Perceval and Gender (for more on this specifically, see: Clothes Make The Man: Parzival Dressed and Undressed, Michael D. Amey) and did a whole comic that leaned into some subtext™ on temptation, but actually let's throw out the subtext! let's bring Augustine into this!!
Perceval, de Troyes (trans. Burton Raffel)
introduction to Confessions, Augustine (trans. Sarah Ruden)
so for perceval a knight is both the gender he wants to perform but also something that is expressly compared to god, and if god is a lover that seduces. well. does this not also apply to knights as well?
Homosexuality in the Renaissance: Behavior, Identity, and Artistic Expression, James M. Saslow
and while galahad might be the obvious choice, I think perceval's relationship with bors during the grail quest narrative is more interesting. it's not god that transforms perceval, it's the sight of knights for the first time. something in here specifically is incredibly intriguing to me, but there's a different text I need to finish reading to fully form some thoughts on it.
le Morte d’Arthur
and finally! tentatively. I think I might slowly start turning this idea I had a couple years back into a fully formed comic. we'll see! I had most of it blocked out, but halfway through reading augustine's confessions, I think was when perceval finally clicked for me as a character in a later narrative cycle setting. I think I might have to spend a lot of time doing some visual research first because my god I cannot consistently draw armor to save my life......back when I lived in new england, there was a museum with a wonderful medieval armor collection I could visit.....alas.........I will have to hit the books (literally, I have a collection of books on medieval armor but this is apparently the one thing I can't visualize properly in my imagination. save me, museum collections, you're my only hope)
⭐️ credits for the collage panels! (all open access or public domain, etc.)
-Saint George and the Dragon -Saint George and the Dragon (different one lmao) -Pages and Knights, Frontispiece for "The Man at Arms" -Cloisters
⭐ if you like my comics and have a couple bucks, I have a tip jar (ko-fi)!
⭐ and other places I'm at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app
“Let us understand that God is a physician, and that suffering is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation.”
— Saint Augustine
In the Garden of Eden, Adam & Eve experienced the friendship of God face-to-face. Yet in that same Garden, they committed the first sin, which we have inherited, and were cast out.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, our Redeemer prayed with fervor - not merely for himself, but for all of us. "And for [the Disciples] do I sanctify myself, that they may also be sanctified in truth. And not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me; That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou has given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, as we also are one. I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one; and the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me. Father, I will that where I am, they also may be with me; that they may see my glory which thou hast given me, because thou hast loved me before the creation of the world." (John 17:19-24)
Christ calls all men and women to himself upon the Cross, the sacrifice that opened the gates of Heaven. All can pass through those gates if we trust in him and have faith, if we are willing to uproot our lives and change our ways. All can pass through those gates if they are willing to be planted in the Garden of Heaven, nourished eternally by his Precious Blood.
