A. C. Jacobs, the journalist who became well known when he told the story of how he read the British encyclopaedia
from cover to cover, and set about living a year following all the
doctrines of the Bible. True to all the challenges and carried out with
delirious humour, he has published the book called 'The year of living
biblically', which is being translated to multiple languages and soon
the entire world will be able to enjoy this extravagance of apparent
irreverence, but ending up being an extremely intelligent analysis of
the events documented, very entertaining and humorous.
Jacobs did an excavation of the text in the Bible, separated norms, obligations and rules, more than 700 of them. Leaving off the ones that were strictly metaphorical and, with what seemed possible or applicable, he tried following the teaching truthfully to the letter, then putting all down in a sort of diary. Like how his beard grew, what fiber or material to use to dress himself, what to ingest as food, and acted out or interpreted certain paragraphs actually quite brutal or violent. And, the limitation of his sex life, his pilgrimages and his adaptations to the daily prayers.
Before he embarked on this biblical journey, Jacobs practiced rather relaxed agnosticism, vaguely influenced by his Jewish origin. Adapting to the biblical doctrines was therefore a radical change which obliged him to maintain an latitude which he described with precision, so much so that the reader would assist the transformation with a mixture of intrigue, curiosity and fascination. He told the Bible stories with such skill and great humour that you wouldn't feel attending a sermon but rather being entertained by hilarious tales.
The conversion provoke all sorts of very comical situations, like when he decided to go around the New York streets in search of adulterers to stone them as prescribed punishment. Since he couldn't actually throw stones at people as this would break the law, he had to use stone dust, which was the same thing except in tiny bits.
He covered the 10 commandments diligently, in his own ingenious and comical way, and found the experiment so unforeseeable as life itself, with it's plagues and miracles. At the end of it, he came to the conclusion that he was a changed man, more tolerant, and had acquired some different aspects of his personality. And the biggest surprise is that, as a result, he had written this most entertaining and extremely successful book, well received the world over.
- Current Mood:
Accomplished
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