(urth) Fringe

[Lee Berman]

>Matthew Knight: Au contraire--religious themes popped up time and 
>time again:
 
Well, sure. I didn't imply there were no religious references. I
meant references to conflicts between different faiths. I 
think the church-of-all-faiths, with the stained glass cross
co-existing with the mogen david, the star and crescent and a few
other symbols of major religions was meant to address the idea of
mending interfaith conflicts.
 
>Fraternal conflicts, yes; perhaps a reference to Judaism and Islam,
>although I saw a lot more Christian imagery overall.
 
Sure. My impression is that the jewish writers naturally focus on the
judaism/islam schism but their point is that the "brother vs. brother"
theme is at the root of all humanity's military conflicts.
 
>If we wanted to be slavishly literal, of course, the fraternal religious 
>split would actually be one generation earlier, between Isaac and Ishmael 
>rather than Jacob and Esau.
 
True, but it was continued in the next generation. Esau, dismayed by being
cheated out of his birthright, married into the house of Ishmael. I can't
be blamed for being skeptical that some jewish writers would create a
character named Jacob with an unnamed brother and be completely oblivious
to the possibility that people might think of Esau. 
 
If they didn't want people to think of Esau, they wouldn't have picked  the 
brotherly name "Jacob". The topic HAD to have come up in their discussions.  
I suspect "Samuel" was a red herring disguise from the beginning.  Like a 
denial of the possible dying dream scenario. It would ruin the whole thing 
if they simply gave such things away, and they knew that. Wolfe is the same 
way.