The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve: The Story that Created Us

by Stephen Greenblatt

How does something made-up become so compellingly real? How does a stone statue begin to breathe or a wooden puppet learn to stand up on its own and to dance without strings? And what happens when fictional creatures behave as if they were alive? Are they fated, for that very reason, to begin to die?

A good story can omit details, forgo motivation, sidestep analysis, and still remain utterly compelling.

The whole point about stories of creation is that no one can actually claim to have been an eyewitness or to remember it or even to be part of a chain of remembrance leading back to someone who had been there.

But history is a nightmare from which we can awaken.

The dehumanization of women, like the comparable dehumanization of Jews, was an invitation to violence.