The Voice of God
Professional speakers are used to being introduced at large events by the disembodied announcer “Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome…” known in the business as the VOG or Voice of God.
The idea that God speaks in an amplified, authoritarian, disembodied baritone is central to the Judeo-Christian tradition. It goes with the misogyny and long white beard.
However, there seems some basis in human development for this belief. Consider the opinion of Robert Lepage:
“the first voice that a child hears when it is in the womb is not the voice of the mother, because the child is part of the mother. The important voice that the child hears is the voice of the father: that’s the voice that changes where the child lives because it excites or stresses the mother. So when we come out we desperately try to put a face on that voice. And that’s intimately connected to the voice of God - or the absence of the voice of God.”
Lepage is the director of Lipsynch, “an epic nine-hour performance which spans 70 years and explores the voice as a compelling metaphor for human expression and interaction” currently playing at the Barbican theater in London. Sounds fascinating.
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Amazing how quickly they figure out Daddy is NOT God
By Rich Hopkins on 09.07.08 9:47 pm
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