The first chapter of Barnes’ history presents a revisionist version of the Deluge, told by a woodworm who was a stowaway on board Noah’s ark. The second chapter takes place in the Mediterranean and tells the story of Franklin Hughes, a historian and entertainer, who works on a cruise liner, the Santa Euphemia, which is hijacked by Arab terrorists. The third chapter presents the transcript of a trial, set in a small village in 16th-century France, in which woodworms are charged with destruction of property, more precisely, the infestation and consumption of the bishop’s throne in the church of Saint-Michel. Chapter 4 evolves around Kathleen Ferris, who may have survived a potential nuclear war by leaving the Australian mainland on a sailboat.
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Instead, this history focuses on an “array of historically insignificant protagonists” (Buxton 2000: 64), thus on rather ordinary people or even outsiders and their personal stories. In Chapter 4, for instance, the nuclear disaster of Chernobyl is mentioned, however, almost no details of the incident itself and its consequences are provided. Instead of concentrating on this tragic accident, which affected the lives of numerous people, Kath’s personal story is in focus. Similarly, the first story of chapter 7 does not evolve around the sinking of the Titanic, but the life of one survivor. Hence, the novel plays with the traditional procedure of selection, by choosing stories concerned with the lives of ordinary people or even animals and seemingly less relevant events. By highlighting aspects like this, instead of focusing on the major historical events, attention is drawn to the fact that selection is inevitably accompanied by exclusion and furthermore that all “past ‘events’ are potential historical ‘facts’, but the ones that become facts are those that are chosen to be narrated” (Hutcheon 1989: 75). Thus, with this unusual selection the limits of historiography are emphasized as the provisionality and incompleteness of history are
Instead, this history focuses on an “array of historically insignificant protagonists” (Buxton 2000: 64), thus on rather ordinary people or even outsiders and their personal stories. In Chapter 4, for instance, the nuclear disaster of Chernobyl is mentioned, however, almost no details of the incident itself and its consequences are provided. Instead of concentrating on this tragic accident, which affected the lives of numerous people, Kath’s personal story is in focus. Similarly, the first story of chapter 7 does not evolve around the sinking of the Titanic, but the life of one survivor. Hence, the novel plays with the traditional procedure of selection, by choosing stories concerned with the lives of ordinary people or even animals and seemingly less relevant events. By highlighting aspects like this, instead of focusing on the major historical events, attention is drawn to the fact that selection is inevitably accompanied by exclusion and furthermore that all “past ‘events’ are potential historical ‘facts’, but the ones that become facts are those that are chosen to be narrated” (Hutcheon 1989: 75). Thus, with this unusual selection the limits of historiography are emphasized as the provisionality and incompleteness of history are