Introduction to the Orc

Second Anthropology Dear Dr. Reinhold: “Torah teaches that when you arrive in heaven, God first inspects your kidneys. Like a bouncer, like a mechanic, like a record store clerk when you’re buying a Rod Stewart box set, he casts on you a critical eye and reads your kidneys where you stand. She learned that from the time of Shakespeare, kidneys were seen as the origin of conscience, a ruminating organ, the place where the first pulse of introspection begins. When looked at laterally, kidneys appear like faceless fetuses, buckled inward and tucked tenderly around their renal arteries and veins. One kidney is good (see: flicking white overcoat, compassionate smile, pat on the back, banana cream pie to be savored and shared with the neighbors) and the other evil (see: black leather faded brown, dry flicking tongue, exasperated eye rolls, rubbing woodchips in your hair, lighting a trashcan on fire). Together with the heart, they conspire, driving you toward whatever your inevitabi...

  Note: Entering the water of the deep unsanctified maybe derives from “the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest.” Troubled sea, shadow flickers, dreams of passage in the bowels of earth are all images of sanctification sought. Another is the voyage into the sea of fire pictured as islands ablaze through which the boat weaves. These are early Anglo-Saxon quests, Beowulf descending the mere. So McNamee in An Allegory of Salvation says “in early book illuminations, especially of Anglo-Saxon and Germanic origins, Christ is frequently represented as leading souls out of fiery caverns.” Early celtic romances parallel these with water voyages to accomplish a quest in the Imrama, or sea expeditions. Water and fire decide the sanctification of those who travel there, which is almost the same as saying light and dark. A burning sea occurs in the Voyage of the Sons of O’Corra.” The sons, once plunderers have set forth on a sea voyage after accomplishing deeds of restitutio...