Well, I think he meant this statement literally, not metaphorically.
We derive history from texts or other linguistic mediums.
On Wed, 15 Mar 2000, Bob wrote:
> >Historians, as Gadamer puts it, immerse themselves in the
> >stream of history - history is like one extremely large text,
> >and its events and epochs constitute chapters or books.
>
> And yet, "history" can hardly be reduced to a diachronic/linear
> model. While indeed it unfolds in time, it does not appear to me to
> be a text, which to me implies being read diachronically (granted,
> you may skip around, check the index, check the footnotes), but the
> experience to me inferred by "reading" is one of diachronicity.
> Rather I find history to be more synchronous, hence more like a
> matrix.
>
>
We derive history from texts or other linguistic mediums.
On Wed, 15 Mar 2000, Bob wrote:
> >Historians, as Gadamer puts it, immerse themselves in the
> >stream of history - history is like one extremely large text,
> >and its events and epochs constitute chapters or books.
>
> And yet, "history" can hardly be reduced to a diachronic/linear
> model. While indeed it unfolds in time, it does not appear to me to
> be a text, which to me implies being read diachronically (granted,
> you may skip around, check the index, check the footnotes), but the
> experience to me inferred by "reading" is one of diachronicity.
> Rather I find history to be more synchronous, hence more like a
> matrix.
>
>