MDDM 35 Christ and History

[Samuel Moyer]

Chapter 35 opens with an excerpt from the Rev'd Cherrycoke, Christ and History.  

I'm curious, and maybe this has been discussed already, but how do these excerpts get into the story?  Surely the Rev'd isn't reading them in... but they have been added later...by who? Cherrycoke?

Here Cherrycoke asserts that history is not truth or one official account of events past, but rather a collection, a story, a perception of events, gossip, and such, combining multiple views to arrive at a disorderly tangle of stories creating a common past.    

Historical Method for Cherrycoke is then that of collecting gossip, spying, and then entertaining?

Lawyers on the other hand create the truth - official account and chronology of events - out of facts, evidence, with the most convincing argument being the true state.

The name of this piece is "Christ and History."  The historical Christ (that of the bible? - but then wasn't Paul a lawyer?) is what? a collection of recollections... gospels and letters... not so much a true, or factual, account of Christ.

The Historical Wharfinger... asks Oedipa (Crying of Lot 49 p. 151):

"The historical Shakespeare," growled one of the grad students through a full beard, uncapping another bottle.  "The historical Marx.  The historical Jesus."

"He's right," shrugged Bortz, "they're dead.  What's left?"

"Words."

"Pick some words," said Bortz. "Them, we can talk about."


I hope that we can have some discussion of this opening bit from Cherrycoke, before moving on, and I will post on the family discussion ASAP.  Some questions though:

What does "Christ and History" say about the story of Mason and Dixon that Cherrycoke tells?

Does Cherrycoke consider himself a historian?  a Remembrancer? a Quidnunc?

Oh, "a great disorderly tangle of lines..." Can history (or truth) even be understood? Le Spark argues for a single version of history later... Cherrycoke suggests this is impossible.  

http://www.theonion.com/onion3631/christian_right_lobbies.html


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