That's a Sketchy "Text"...

When I read chapters 52, I didn’t really see the Book of Thoth being used much. Even the author of the Book of Thoth is quite sketchy to me. This is how Papa Labas describes him: “Well, there was a certain artist down near the harbor who painted arks. He was a man who had once made-out with Osiris’ mother and had a big reputation for his decorative work.”

Well first of all, Thoth doesn’t seem like a very trustworthy or honest person. He made out with a married woman (ok I’m assuming that she was married given she had a son and it would not make sense for somebody of that royal status to have an illegitimate child) which isn’t too respectful towards her marriage. Also, he is known “for his decorative work” which I took to mean that he can easily exaggerate things out of proportion just to draw attention.

With that in mind, let’s see how the creation of the Book of Thoth played out:

“[Thoth] called on Osiris 1 day and argued his theory that the outbreaks occurred because the mysteries had no text to turn to. No litany to feed the spirits that were seizing the people, and if Osiris would execute these dance steps for Thoth he would illustrate them and then Osirian priests could determine what god or spirit possessed them as well as learn how to make these gods and spirits depart.”

In this description, Osiris seems extremely desperate as well as gullible (since he does end up becoming good friends with Thoth.) Thoth is not a priest or anybody that has studied the dances of Osiris and yet, he comes up with this amazing problem-solving idea. The word “theory” suggests that there is not much evidence for what Thoth proposes, and yet the text he writes is something crucial to Jes Grew. When I first read this, I thought that Thoth was going to sell the Book of Thoth for big $$$ and leave the people possessed, but even that doesn’t happen.

Here’s my “theory”, Jes Grew never needed the text to begin with. It adds absolutely nothing to Jes Grew and nothing to the story except as a driving motive to learn about this metanarrative. “Jes Grew has no end and no beginning.” That must mean that the text never started Jes Grew, and never ended it (or cured it.) Jew Grew waxes and wanes with or without a text. Even the people dancing in Egypt eventually stopped and things cooled down during Osiris’ time. Papa Labas never credits the text for the restoration of peace in Egypt. Jes Grew is independent of the text. The creation or destruction of the text won’t harm or help Jes Grew at all, it never has and it never will.

Opinions?