V2, Chap 15 (Sahha), I, p 461 - "Mene, mene tekel, upharsin"

[Michael Bailey]

here Benny is drawing upon a Bible story of the captivity in Babylon;
earlier, with the condoms, it was the captivity in Egypt he referred
to.

because of the repeated self-deprecation, I've always tended to assign
little importance to the Biblical references - Benny seems so secular
and unobservant

but both times, he seems to be perceiving his relationship with Rachel
as a kind of captivity - or, a little more complexly, he is perceiving
his place among the social strata - while carrying on the relationship
with Rachel - as being one of unwelcome servitude.

Rachel's place in both metaphors is not cut-and-dried:
at the time of the condom incident, he's "finagl[ing]" himself into
love with her",
but the poker game is a "guys' night out" so if she's present it's in
her absence...

the distribution of the condoms is complexly symbolic in a drunken,
muddled way (like the business with urinating at the sun) - but it
does seem to place Profane, the menial summer employee, in judgement
on the wealthy resort-goers (and by extension, to suggest that wage
slave- er, employment partakes of some of the qualities of Israel's
exile in Egypt)
and it also precedes, doesn't it, the end of the season and of BP's "captivity"

Rachel isn't central to the condom distro, I guess I'm saying...
(except by inference, she is not demanding that he wear them, which
frees him to do the angel of contraception thing?)


however, in the Wall writing episode - Rachel is the writer, so in a
way she takes the same deific place here as she did when she played
the part of the Hand in the Yo-yo metaphor.

Benny himself has written on the wall of the Susanna Squaducci, but
the reception of that message isn't a big part of the story...

Translating Rachel's patois as "Mene, mene tekel, upharsin" makes
Benny the interpreter of the message (like Daniel interpreting the
original MMTU into colloquial Babylonian Yiddish?)

His prophecy, probably as accurate as the rest of his thinking, is of
final negative judgement rendered by Rachel upon him, his and her
relationship ("two-body problem") and perhaps the whole sick crew in
the bargain.
(he's nuts, the girl loves the whole sick crew, gave their
relationship the old college try, and will undoubtedly remember him
fondly)


Wiser heads may be aware of further implications of using the Daniel
story, or pertinent particulars?



-- 
"the life of a person is worth more than the history of a country" -
Carlos Fuentes (_The Old Gringo_)