In a recent homework assignment, discussing the issue of "intelligent design" vs. evolution, one of my students (who really did an OK job otherwise) repeatedly referred to "God" as "Gog." [Before I continue, I'd like only to point out that students' opinions on any given topic are irrelevant to me, so long as they can express them coherently.]
Anyway, the first time I read "Gog" it brought a teacherly smile to my lips. By the end of her rather damning indictment of "intelligent design" (i.e. about 10 "Gogs" later), however, I was laughing so hard I had to run across the hall and share it with one of my colleagues.
We've all experienced it. If you repeat any word enough times, it loses all meaning...
I'm sure you knew this already, but from the book of "Revelations" -
ReplyDelete7. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
8. And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Oh Ma Gog! Maybe she's a latterday John the Revelator...
Tafkass,
ReplyDeleteThe Revelations reference never occurred to me. Maybe you're on to something. I'm also reminded of a town in the Eastern Townships of Quebec called Magog (I spent a couple of weeks there one long-ago summer).
Also to be borne in mind are the Gog Magog downs near Cambridge, where Pink Floyd used to drop acid in the heady, hazy early-mid 60s period of their youth. Definitely something revelatory going on...
ReplyDelete