Chapter 3 Summary

Next morning, there is a tape recorder beside the narrator's chair, to record for posterity whatever he has discovered about his doomed culture. The narrator can think of no creation myth other than Genesis but, challenged, talks about the not fully established but certainly non-mythical story of the Big Bang, 10-15 billion years ago, followed by the establishment of the solar system, 6-7 billion years ago, and life beginning in the chemical broth of earth's oceans 3.5 billion years ago. Bacteria and microorganisms evolve into more complex forms, which gradually spread to land; amphibians evolve into reptiles, reptiles into small mammals from which one branch, 10-15 million years ago, becomes the primates. Finally, man appears 3 million years ago. Ishmael asks how can the narrator expect him to believe this is not a myth, and plays the tape back. The narrator insists this is not...