Re: FIC: Ascension's Shadow (3/?)

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Alan,

Nice to see that this is moving well, and if, as in your last reply, you
even have explanations for what the Watchers' Council drinks and why,
then you clearly have this well-planned.

Some good stuff here, from Willow backing down the cop to Buffy drawing
strength from being near Faith (and Willow acknowledging it) to Spike
always ready to tweak a situation to his advantage to the reference to
Amy's "disappearance" to an unusually sympathetic for fanfic, but quite
valid, portrait of Sheila and Ira Rosenberg. And you're obviously
enjoying Cordelia Chase goes to Watchers' school, and so am I.

But since I seem to have cast myself in the role of critic, and because
something in this really honked me off, let's get to the carping:

First let me say, I yield on the Xander/basement thing. While I may
think I'm right, there's no conclusive proof and it doesn't really
matter that much.

Spike, of course, is NOT Angelus's childe, although that was
long-believed. "Fool for Love" shows us that Dru sired him; The line
goes The Master-Darla-Angelus-Dru-Spike, with Darla having been re-sired
by Dru in "Reunion".

If Oz has never been to an airport before, then where did that plane
that he and the rest of Dingoes Ate My Baby flew First Class in take off
from and land? And Dingoes are so successful that their label (they
have a label?) flies them First Class? BTW, coach sucks, and you have a
much better chance of getting harassed there than in First, because
First has a much higher attendant--to-passenger ratio, to break things
up in case of a situation.

But, and I repeat BUT, Ira Rosenberg does NOT, NEVER, UNDER NO
CIRCUMSTANCES think "Sweet Jehovah". In Judaism, the sacred name of God
represented by the Hebrew letters Yud-Hay-Vav-Hay is NEVER pronounced,
because it is unknown how to pronounce it, and any attempt to sound it
out or come up with a phonetic translation like the one you employ is an
enormous blasphemy, pretty close to the level of the one that got Nadab
and Abihu fried for touching the Ark of the Covenant. Arguably, this is
what the Third Commandment ("Thou Shalt Not take the Name of the Lord in
vain") prohibits, not the odd "Goddamn it". Only the High Priest could
say it, in the Temple on Yom Kippur, and therefore it has not been
pronounced (at least not properly, according to Jewish teaching) since
78 A.D. (The Romans destroyed the Second Temple in 79, but in August,
before Yom Kippur). When it appears in the text, we say Adonai ("my
Lord") instead. In many texts, the vowels have been removed from
beneath the four characters, so as not to tempt the unwary into
sacrelige. No major American denomination, Hasidic, Orthodox,
Conservative, or Reform, uses that "word" (which is a mistake anyway,
because the "J" wasn't invented until millenia after the Name was
written). Perhaps there's some fringe, quasi-Jews-for-Jesus group that
does, but this is severely at odds with standard practice and with your
portrayal of the Rosenbergs.

I guess I should just take a deep breath and laugh at the unintended
irony that has you having "Jewish Scholar" Ira Rosenberg upbraiding
Willow for falling away from the faith, and at the same time committing
the Jewish equivalent of wiping your butt with the Shroud of Turin. But
for someone not all that devout, I'm still a little wiggy, even though I
know it was unintentional. Anyway, not again please.

Despite getting worked up there, I still like the fic. Really. Please
continue.

Dan