[Granville-Hough] 8 May 2009 - Esther

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 07:25:30 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Esther (5 May 2005) - 8 May 2009

Four years ago, I was deeply involved in a story about old Iran and the 
Jews in exile there about 2500 years ago.  My neighbor is planning a 
2009 party to celebrate the events.

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  Esther is like a fast moving moral play.  You can visualize the
actors moving in and out, and the grippers changing the scenes. Some
have compared it to the work of the Greek playwright Euripides.  Of all
the books in the Bible, it alone is not mentioned nor found in the Dead
Sea Scrolls.  Whoever assembled that group did not consider it as part
of the bible to be saved.  It seems not direct fiction, but what has
been described as faction.  You put the action in a factual setting
which you can verify, then you imagine what was going on.  I believe the
TV rewrite people also call it dramatization.. Dorothy, did you ever use
the term "faction," instead of "historical fiction?."  It may be fairly
effective for a culture you understand, but not likely so for one 2500
years before you were born, and in a foreign land. At least I got to
demonstrate what a pur is (lottery device), as in Purim; and I got to
show the meaning of a cubit (from the elbow to the end of the middle
finger, about 22 inches, the gallows for Haman, which he devised for
Mordecai, being 55 cubits high.)  (My Jewish neighbor tells me that
nowadays in Purim, they no longer beat the effigy of Haman to pieces,
but use a scratchy noise maker at appropriate times to show their
disapproval of his persona.)
    Next week I will go back and pick up Joel and the locust plagues,
which he described as well as anyone has ever done. With love to all,
Grampa.