{"id":607,"date":"2026-02-09T06:12:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T11:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/?p=607"},"modified":"2026-01-30T12:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T17:59:14","slug":"%c2%a7-2-15-una-anabasis-secular-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/2026\/02\/09\/%c2%a7-2-15-una-anabasis-secular-1\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a7 2.15. A Secular Anabasis (1)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph translation-block\">In <em>The Passion, Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race <\/em> (1903), Jarry approaches the characteristic secularization, and banalization, of modernity with playful frankness, turning one of the most solemn scenes of the Christian imaginary into a sporting event not unlike the Tour de France:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Entered to race, Barabbas was scratched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The starter was Pilate. He pulled out his waterclock (or clepsydra), which got his hands wet, unless he\u2019d simply spat on them. And he dropped the flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jesus broke at full speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to that very good sports commentator, Saint Matthew, it was common practice in those days to flog bike sprinters at the start, the way a coachman does with his hippomotors. This whipping acts as a hygienic massage the same time as it stimulates. So Jesus started off in fine form, but immediately had a flat. A stretch of track seeded with thorns popped his front tire all the way around.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph translation-block\">After getting a flat, Jesus mounts the frame of his bicycle, his cross, on his shoulder and does the rest of the Golgotha course on foot. The idea of the passion of Christ as an uphill race recalls the idea of <em>anabasis<\/em>, the ascent from the underworld, which is equivalent to the act of coming out from a labyrinth (<a href=\"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/2025\/12\/13\/\u00a7-0-5-laberintos-1\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"107\" target=\"_self\">0.5<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/2026\/01\/02\/\u00a7-1-2-laberintos-2\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"290\" target=\"_self\">1.2<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/2026\/01\/02\/\u00a7-1-3-el-hacha-y-el-laberinto\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"295\" target=\"_self\">1.3<\/a>). In fact, at the end of the race Jesus is tied head to head with the two thieves. \u201cit\u2019s known, too, that he continued the race airborne\u201d, says Jarry \u201cbut that\u2019s another story.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>En La pasi\u00f3n, considerada como una carrera de bicicletas cuesta arriba (1903), Jarry aborda la secularizaci\u00f3n, y banalizaci\u00f3n, propia de la modernidad con juguetona franqueza, transformando una de las escenas m\u00e1s solemnes del imaginario cristiano en un evento deportivo parecido al Tour de France:\u00a0 Barrab\u00e1s estaba inscrito, pero no fue de la partida. El starter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274836558,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[786109115],"tags":[786109105,786108939,4938532],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitulo-2","tag-alfred-jarry","tag-anabasis-2","tag-anabasis"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYHfz-9N","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/274836558"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":609,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions\/609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}