Literature
March 28, 2005 2:38 PM   Subscribe

The narrative strategies of Genesis, according to EL Doctorow.
posted by semmi (8 comments total)
 
For me it all fell apart once Gabriel left.
posted by Peter H at 2:46 PM on March 28, 2005


I saw the revamped version with Phil Collins (still with shaggy hair and beard) on July 4 (I think) in Munich, and was highly impressed, told friends that Genesis was still great and that Collins would be a big star.

What a crying shame that I was right.

Don't like Doctorow, either.
posted by 1016 at 3:34 PM on March 28, 2005


i can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord...
posted by quonsar at 4:00 PM on March 28, 2005


For more awesome literary analysis of the Bible, check out the first chapter of Erich Auerbach's Mimesis. He manages to sketch basically all of Western literature as lying between the two poles of the Bible and the Illiad.
posted by lbergstr at 4:15 PM on March 28, 2005


i know there are a lot of people who like Cory Doctorow, but has he really graduated to 'El' status already?
posted by blacklite at 4:19 PM on March 28, 2005


The anthology this came from sounds very interesting, with essays - in addition to E.L. Doctorow- by the Dalai Lama, A.S. Byatt, Nick Cave, Louis de Bernières, P.D. James, Will Self, and Bono, among others. I hope it's only a coincidence of timing or something that this book is available at Amazon UK, but not at the US Amazon. I really hope there isn't another reason.
posted by taz at 10:59 PM on March 28, 2005


Ah, lbergstr — Good call ! Here is a selection from Mimesis that reflects a great deal of what Doctorow is talking about... Too much so, probably (see especially the last paragraph), to be entirely accidental.
posted by taz at 11:22 PM on March 28, 2005


Thanks for the link semmi.

King James ... is the version preachers quote from who believe in the divinity of the text.

The King James does not suffer at all from what is inconsistent or self-contradictory in the text any more than do the cryptic ancient Hebrew and erring Greek from which it is derived. Once you assume poetically divine authorship, only your understanding is imperfect.


Inerrancy of the King James Bible. Heh. I love EL Doctorow. He's a great writer on this subject. Wonder how the absolutists feel about museum exhibits like this?
posted by nofundy at 5:39 AM on March 29, 2005


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