medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Rochelle Altman wrote:
: In fact, one of my former students, a devout
: Catholic and a life turn-around student with five
: step-stair children and a husband who deserted
: the family, did a lot of research on relics of
: saints. When she wrote up her term paper, she
: compared the Medieval desire to collect (and
: fight over) saint's relics to Graceland and what
: goes on there.
Coincidentally, just yesterday I saw a television advertisment
for one of those part-work thingies: this one is devoted to
Presley, and comes with "replica artefacts" from Graceland.
There may not be a literal belief in "wonder-working or salvific"
properties (to use John Dillon's phrase), but there clearly is,
for some, a kind of magic (for want of a better word) in
possession: how else does one explain the ability to keep
re-releasing recordings, for example, and have some of the same
people buy them; or the enormous prices attached to items that
have a direct link to performers (e. g., John Lennon's old guitar
string, in one case I recall)?
Terrence Lockyer
Johannesburg, South Africa
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