Major problems, minor jokes – you cannot blame the patriarchy for being a machine not versatile in output. These wretched gifts all find their place in Shinie Antony’s Eden Abandoned , where we go back to one story of how ancient this man, woman, trouble plot really is. In this retelling of the Biblical creation myth, the fable of Adam and Eve is abandoned for the less puritan story of Adam and Lilith.
It starts in the garden of Eden as the holy narratives have described it to us: trees bear fruits fresh as hope, waters glisten crystal with God’s perfection, and nature dances in the glory of being. A world created for two, it bears the promise of abundance in eternity. Here, out of clay, God fashions Adam, the first man, and – this is where the book departs from the King James Bible – in that same moment Lilith is made of the same soil, the first woman.
Want and desire The two have each other, and they have the world; their experience of it all curious, hungry, exhilarating. They roam this magical land naked, man and woman each other’s companion and complement. In these first moments of being, love tiptoes its way in, naturally.
Written from Lilith’s perspective, in Eden Abandoned the rapturous feeling of the first experience of want and desire finds delicate expression, beautiful and full of abandon. Adam, however, is a man (more on this later). His mood turns, dark clouds appear.
As Lilith recounts, now he wants to make love his way, is emasculated by Lilith�.
