"One metaphor of this juxtaposition that I found telling was the girls oiling Joanna's skin so that it won't be as the dry pages of the Bible." I also saw this as a metaphor for the sensual, the paganish embrace of the body vs. the way the Bible has created repression from its pages. - Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l