Eliot and Beckett's Low Modernism:
Humility and Humiliation (EUP, 2021)

During the Sermon on the Mount scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, there is some confusion as to who exactly will inherit the earth. Standing at the rear of the multitude, a group of squabblers is dumbfounded that one particular Greek should be the lucky heir. Soon it dawns on them that they had misheard: ‘Oh, it’s the meek! Blessed are the meek! Oh, that’s nice, isn’t it? I’m glad they’re getting something, ’cause they have a hell of a time.’ What heightens the irony of the scene is the apocryphal emphasis placed on humility...

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