Chapter 5 - Deuteronomy

Personal Reflections

This is a shorter chapter with a distinct difference in tone and content, asking big-picture questions about the nature of history (and storytelling in general) rather than following the arc of the narrator's coming-of-age as we have so far in the novel. Since we're reaching the end of the "Torah" (or Pentateuch) selection of chapters based on their Biblical names, I believe this is representing a transition of sorts into the next stages of the story, mirroring the passage of Israel's leadership within the Bible from Moses to his second-in-command Joshua (whose name also graces the next chapter in this book). Something tells me that Jeanette's meeting of Melanie in the previous chapter will have something to do with it.

But for now, let's go over what is in this particular chapter. It's not much, but the different tone gives it a greater sense of dramatic weight, even if the import of the words on the larger narrative is unclear so far. Most of the chapter consists of the narrator waxing poetic about the nature of history and storytelling in general, and the overlap between the two (where it's hard to tell what is true and what is fiction) in particular. The narrator repeatedly claims that the boundary between fiction and non-fiction is blurrier than we normally like to think, and as evidence cites numerous cases throughout history (that we know of) where the history up to that point was destroyed, censored, or altered in order to suit the narrative of those in power at the time. I think there is a very important point, and one that is not often considered. History is not an absolute truth, because the accounts from which the historical record is made come from people who existed within that time and place, and who necessarily will have a subjective perspective on what was happening in their life and times. They may tell you their story, but you have no real guarantee that it is the true account of what happened; the best that historians can do is compare one account with others to see what multiple different sources agree on, in order to best rule out cases where someone is deliberately lying or their perspective is skewed to the point of it being inaccurate. But you can't eliminate the possibility entirely. So I'm in agreement with her argument at the end of the chapter that "if you want to keep your own teeth, make your own sandwiches..." Or, in other words, if you want to have a real understanding of what is true and what is not, you'll need to do your own research and tell your own story instead of letting someone else tell the story for you.

Critical Response

Given how short and devoid of plot this chapter is, I think the aspect I would like to focus on here is again on theme. I talked about this a little already in the personal reflections above, so I will center my attention on one passage in this chapter in particular:

When the Pilgrim Fathers set sail it was without the opinion of many that they were crazy. History has now decided otherwise...

The ones who came home were mad with a vision that had no meaning. And so, being sensible, the collector of curios will surround himself with dead things, and think about the past when it lived and moved and had being. The collector of curios lives in a derelict railway station with a video of various trains. He is the original living dead.

In this section, with the metaphor of death and the collector of curios as a way of protecting oneself from the vital instability of the once-living past, I think we are seeing some commentary on the way that certain dogmatic groups (such as the Pentecostal Church) twist and manipulate the past to create their own version of it for their followers. By isolating the members from other sources of information and other places outside of the community, since those others are not considered to be holy, it makes it easy for the leadership to control what people believe to be true, which amounts to a near total form of control. Given the cultish nature of the church as it is described in other parts of the book, I can't help but read this passage as related to this larger theme in the story. The church elders who have a set narrative about the world and what is good and bad in it are not curious, wanting to engage with the living story of the present, but rather the collectors of curios: they want to work with the past and the inevitable future promised by the afterlife, since that way they can control the narrative about the world instead of being forced to engage with the world as it is now. Perhaps this is how Jeanette (and, by extension, Winterson) felt being stuck in a community that limited her contact with the outside world so much.