ATDTDA (33) - p. 935-9 Interdikt

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Professor Werfner/Renfrew's crazy scheme of an Interdikt, a border composed of landmine-triggered phosgene traps, stretching across the Balkan peninsula, never comes to pass.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia:

An interdict is a censure, or prohibition, excluding the faithful from participation in certain holy things.

Who or what is being divided from whom or what here, and for what purposes?

The line that Cyprian et al are viewing on the map appears to be an ineffectual line, like the Maginot line in WWII.  Looking at the map leads to a general discussion of the looming war.  Is the map a depiction of WW1? 

 Cyprian thinks it might have something to do with Riemann's zeta-function.  He notices that the mere mention of this creates a moment of spiritual awe for Yashmeen.

So this line somehow invokes military hardware, leaps in time and space, religious divisions and some sort of mathematical/spiritual road.

Laura