From: Michael Straight <straight@email.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: (urth) The redhead
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 08:49:43 

On Thu, 10 May 2001, Roy C. Lackey wrote:

> However the theologians care to
> fit Lilith into the creation story, she, as you indicated, popularly is
> presented as Adam's first mate, necessarily before Eve, who herself
> antedates the Fall; therefore Lilith, too, existed before the Fall. 
> [...]How Wolfe
> thought to work her into the Cain and Abel story, I don't know, but her
> complicity makes at least as much sense as the Genesis account, and, as he
> has done with other mythological material (e.g., the Sidhe story in PEACE),
> he doesn't let the "facts" get in his way when he wants to incorporate such
> material into his work.

Still, that's a big problem - Cain and Abel, and murder particularly, are
definitely post-Fall, so it's hard to see how Adam (and Eden) could still
be glorified and unfallen if Cain has already killed Abel.

I suspose it's possible that Lilith is referring to the Cain and Abel of
the new President's timeline/universe/dimension/whatever, and marvelling
over what it led to.  Or maybe the Adam that gets grabbed by the changer
(and the Eden the new Pres gets changed to) are from a third timeline,
before the Fall.  But neither of those explanations seem very elegant.

Btw, what do you see as the incongruity in the Sidhe story in PEACE?  

-Rostrum


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