......Ok Ali, thats about as far as it goes re descent lines. Do Cohen/Schultz and Masudi/Muawa have 7C. precursers - I don't know; if they do I haven't spotted them yet. Similarly the Satans seem to have no 7C. charachterisations (with the exeption of Ateh who is a special case at best if I am correct about her and plain not one if I am wrong).
Ok I've said what I think the book to be 'about', I've outlined my ideas on the pathlines of the charachters - now what about the male and female paragraphs, the understanding of which are supposedly the key to the whole edifice. Well again I offer the following only as an idea - not right or wrong, but just the best I can come up with.
As a bit of background, Schultz has gone down to kill Muawia for the damage he inflicted on her husband in the Israeli/Egyptian conflict of 1967. As she is about to pull the trigger he hands her some sheets of paper on which to her amazement are purported copies of the thought to be lost 'Khazar Orations of St Cyril' from the 8th C.
In the male version of the book she reads the lines, thinking about Halevi's tree before doing so, and is shattered by what she reads.
In the female version she accidentaly brushes thumbs with Muawia and is shattered by the touch, to the point where the words on the papers have no meaning to her because she has learned more from the touch of thumbs.
Ok - what is this all about. Well the observations re the tree are no more or less than the reunification of heaven and hell via the intermediary of mankind as the bridge between the two. Elsewhere we are told that Christianity and Islam form the branches and flowers of the tree respectively and Judaism the roots. Shultz's thoughts are of the order that as we reach higher to God like the tree's roots we have to go deeper toward hell the two are insepparable from each other. At some point all will come together and unity will once again be established. To this end the dream walkers have striven in their own respective faiths to collect and colate all of the Knowledge about God, each to some extent unaware that the only the knowledge of all three faiths put together would elevate man to his rightful place at Gods side. In the male version the reading of Cyrils lost orations undoes the damage done by the inquisitions bastardisation of the text and for the first time indeed since the polemic the correct and unadulterated texts are in place ready to be brought together.
In the female version the touching of the thumbs brings the male and the female parts of the Dictionary together and imbues the text with motion and life. She experiences a glimpse of the completed work of the re-unification of the body of Adam (broken into the dreams of men, the lives of mankind) in the brush of thumbs with Muawia. So as I see it, in the male version she has the knowledge of the words, in the female that knowledge comes together with the reunification of the male and the female and the result is a momentary glimpse of the full force of the glory of the completed Adam, The Great Work. She briefly see's the prize that awaits mankind when man and woman, God and Devil, Heaven and Hell are brought back together into their unified whole.
And there you have it. This is where I have come to after all these readings and thinkings. It's the best I can do. There are still so many unanswered questions and unresolved connections that I would barely know where to begin to explain them - But, perhaps I cuold just list a few.
i) Suk's copy of the Dictionary was not found in his hotel room. Did he use the egg to save it (we were told the egg could be used this way) or did Mr Van der Spaak get the book when he killed Suk, or was he able, even, to save both himself AND the book.
ii) Whose female footsteps was Schultz hearing behind her in the corridor on her way to Suks room.
iii) Who was toasting bread by the fire in the hotel kitchen.
iv) Why did Manuil not want to damage Muawia's teeth and whats all this stuff about a blood necktie and ..............ad infinitum
Well that's it Ali. You've got the lot. Thanks for your patience and if ever you suss out where I have gone wrong or come up with a different explanation for it all then let me know. For now I'm done
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