Discovery of Heaven (spoilers galore)

[jd]

Eesh, it's been awhile...

Well, can't the 'divine forces' or whatever manipulate Quinten?  In
other words they can move him around but not the tablets, until he
gets ahold of them?  I'm somewhat foggy on it, because, like I said,
it's been a couple of years, but I don't recall being too put out by
the ending...  it did seem a bit deus ex machina-ish though I suppose.
 And I guess you're right, if they could move him around that easy
they wouldn't really have had to wait...  huh.  Interested to see what
other people have to say.

On 8/3/06, Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com> wrote:
> I just finished reading Mulisch's book and have to admit that it left an
> ambiguous impression. On the one hand I really liked the author's erudition,
> his ability to link disparate threads of the narrative, and the  idea of the
> Citadel (a very Borgesian construct) especially really appealed to me, made
> me aware of  Piranese's  'Carceri' that I came to like a lot. However, the
> main premise of the whole huge conspiracy doesn't hold much water, in my
> view. In the end, the novel seems to be self-deconstructing, as Mulisch
> transgresses the rules he's established himself. How did it all begin? The
> celestial creatures have to influence human beings and circumstances on the
> earth in order to get back the tablets of covenant as they appear to be
> unable to retreive them directly from that church, I mean just lift them to
> heaven. Therefore the complex process of getting two different men to meet,
> etc. so that the divine agent is born. That boy embarks on the crusade of
> getting those tablets, stooping to robbery in Rome, as, apparently, the only
> means of getting his hands on them. However, when it becomes evident that
> such a feat is impossible in Jerusalem, uzi-toting gunmen and all, presto!
> Citadel-ex-machina sucks in the godsent fellow, he gets to the right place
> without any hindrance and the divine letters rise back to the original
> 'sender'. Couldn't they have done it from the very beginning? Maybe I'm
> missing something here, so I would appreciate any comment or
> counter-argument from those who've read the book.
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE!
> http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/
>
>