Postal strike notwithstanding, Amazon delivered today Robert Crumb’s illustrated Book of Genesis. It may or may not surprise those familiar with Crumb’s work to know that he plays it straight. Press reports to the contrary there is nothing satirical about this at all and he has treated it as a straightforward illustration.
He has, however, read up on his subject both from the perspective of illustration details but also with respect to the text and issues with its construction and interpretation.
Reading it earlier I was forcefully reminded of several things, one of which was the melange of different sources which were edited together to make the book. Another is just how plain weird Genesis is. A third is a reminder of how sophisticated elements of the narrative are and how far back in human history literary creativity and inventiveness stretch.
The most obvious example of this is the contrast between the two creation stories preserved at the start of the book. The first (in Genesis Chapter 1) shows clear signs of its roots in an oral tradition with its repetitive phraseology (and it was evening, it was morning, the first, second…day); the second is the separate story preserved in Genesis chapter 2 which has a very different tone and structure and, I think, intent. There are readers of this blog who will be more up to date with critical thinking on Genesis (Hi Alex! Hi Neil! Hi Kenny!) and perhaps more familiar with the Hebrew sources, but I’m going to have to turn my brain up to 11 and think about it a bit.
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