Subject: Re: Renault's speech
From: rhaller@oregon.uoregon.edu
Date: 1991-01-22, 13:37
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <1991Jan22.195358.28240@cs.cmu.edu> webb@CS.CMU.EDU (Jon Webb)
writes:
> >In article <1991Jan22.172551.8603@watserv1.waterloo.edu>,
> >alternat@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Ann Hodgins) writes:
> >|> Great theory, but who is ISHMAEL?
> >
> >In ``Moby Dick'', the confrontation between Man and Nature ends up with
> >only one survivor, Ishmael.  I think Truman will be left behind after
> >Cooper's death/transendance/disappearance/whatever to tell the story. --
> >J
> >
Actually, there is more to it than that. The Ishmael character in Moby Dick is
a reference to the Old Testament. When Abraham's wife Sarah was unable to bear
him a son, she offered her maid, Hagar instead, and the result was Ishmael.
Later Sarah also gave birth and insisted that Abraham expell Hagar and Ishmael.
 'Ishmael' became the archetype of the outcast and the name was used for this
reason by Melville.