Click here (Discovery) to read about the recent discovery of a literary lurking within the book of Genesis, using computer analysis programs... amazing stuff!
I am amazed at how old this "sandwitching" strategy is. I have seen this strategy done in Drama critiques and literary critiques as well (generally called "compliment sandwitches"). It makes me wonder how many other literary strategies that we use today can be found in the old and new testaments. I hope that these guys continue their work. Its gonna be neat to see what they find next.
This is really quite interesting. It just goes to show how talented whoever complied/wrote/edited the Bible. They must have been very literate/educated in writing techniques. I don't think that it was just by chance it was written this way, I think the writers must have wanted to make the stories sound beautiful or flow together well.
I laughed at the notion that "Genesis death sandwich" would be a good band name.
Anyway, though, this is quite intriguing; I do believe I've seen examples of this literary strategy before and the term sounds vaguely familiar, but I doubt I knew exactly what it was. It does help a narrative flow, though!
The sheer structural depth of the final text is what impresses me, especially considering that many of the Genesis stories were almost certainly independent traditions which had to be woven together coherently. Difficult enough to do in term of narrative contents, not to mention formal structures!
Thats really awesome that there is a piece of technology out their that we can look in to the structure of literary works. Without the technology would it have been possible to spot the death sandwich? I think that the death sandwich was a pretty interesting find and it makes sense that the nice stuff is at the beginning and end to soften the middle portion of the text. That aspect of writing i believe keeps the reader engaged.
5 comments:
I am amazed at how old this "sandwitching" strategy is. I have seen this strategy done in Drama critiques and literary critiques as well (generally called "compliment sandwitches"). It makes me wonder how many other literary strategies that we use today can be found in the old and new testaments. I hope that these guys continue their work. Its gonna be neat to see what they find next.
This is really quite interesting. It just goes to show how talented whoever complied/wrote/edited the Bible. They must have been very literate/educated in writing techniques. I don't think that it was just by chance it was written this way, I think the writers must have wanted to make the stories sound beautiful or flow together well.
I laughed at the notion that "Genesis death sandwich" would be a good band name.
Anyway, though, this is quite intriguing; I do believe I've seen examples of this literary strategy before and the term sounds vaguely familiar, but I doubt I knew exactly what it was. It does help a narrative flow, though!
- Eric Dutton
The sheer structural depth of the final text is what impresses me, especially considering that many of the Genesis stories were almost certainly independent traditions which had to be woven together coherently. Difficult enough to do in term of narrative contents, not to mention formal structures!
pdk
Thats really awesome that there is a piece of technology out their that we can look in to the structure of literary works. Without the technology would it have been possible to spot the death sandwich? I think that the death sandwich was a pretty interesting find and it makes sense that the nice stuff is at the beginning and end to soften the middle portion of the text. That aspect of writing i believe keeps the reader engaged.
-Taylor E.
Post a Comment