ATP015 SO-8 Pressure Sensor

10.DeFilippi 28/05/07 12:20 Page 178SIMONETTA DE FILIPPISFrom earliest years right into manhood, like any othernonconformist child I had the Bible poured every dayinto my helpless consciousness, till there came almost asaturation point. Long before one could think or evenvaguely understand, this Bible language, these“portions” of the Bible were douched over the mind andconsciousness, till they became soaked in, they becamean influence which affected all the processes of emotionand thought. So that today, although I have “forgotten”my Bible, I need only begin to read a chapter to realisethat I “know” it with an almost nauseating fixity. And Imust confess, my first reaction is one of dislike,repulsion, and even resentment. My very instincts resentthe Bible. (Apocalypse, 59)But he had also to confess that he seemed “to have it [the Bible]in my bones” and that its language had “a power of echoing andre-echoing in my unconscious mind” (“The Dragon of theApocalypse,” Apocalypse, 54-55). Lawrence’s conscious rejection ofthe Bible contrasts then with its inevitable presence and influencein his unconscious; and this leads him to re-interpret the Bible as“the book of books”, the historic summa of antiquity, the book oflife:The novel is the book of life. In this sense, the Bible isa great confused novel. You may say, it is about God. Butit is really about man-alive. (“Why the Novel Matters,”Study of Thomas Hardy, 195)Reading the Bible in a new translation, with modernnotes and comments, is more fascinating than readingHomer, for the adventure goes even deeper into timeand into the soul, and continues through the centuries,and moves from Egypt to Ur and to Niniveh, from Shebato Tarshish and Athens and Rome. It is the very quick ofancient history. (“Dragon,” Apocalypse, 55)178