What a queer work the Bible is. Abraham (who is a pattern of all the virtues) twice over, when he is going abroad, says to his wife: ‘Sarah my dear, you are a very good-looking person, and the King is very likely to fall in love with you. If he thinks I am your husband, he will put me to death, so as to be able to marry you; so you shall travel as my sister, which you are, by the way.’ On each occasion the King does fall in love with her, takes her into his harem, and gets diseased in consequence, so he returns her to Abraham. Meanwhile Abraham has a child by a maidservant, whom Sarah dismisses into the wilderness with the new-born infant, without Abraham objecting. Rum tale.

And God has talks with Abraham at intervals, giving shrewd worldly advice. Then later when Moses begs to see God, God allows him to see his ‘hind parts’. There is a terrible fuss, thunder and whirlwind and all the paraphernalia, and then all God has to say is that he wants the Jews to eat unleavened bread at the Passover - he says this over and over again, like an old gentlemen in his dotage. Queer book.

Some of the texts are very funny. Deut. XXIV, 5: ‘When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken.’ I should never have guessed ‘cheer up’ was a Biblical expression. Here is another really inspiring text: ‘Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say, Amen.’ St. Paul on marriage: ‘I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.’ This has remained the doctrine of the Church to this day. It is clear that the Divine purpose in the text ‘it is better to marry than to burn’ is to make us all feel how very dreadful the torments of Hell must be.

Hmm. And it occurs to me now that one of the oldest names for Jesus’s teaching, the way, could also be translated as the road. I think most of my favorite people are part of the Church of the Road.

I assume you’re referring to this bit:

Here they were: the drunks and the sinners, the gambling men and the grifters, the big-time spenders, the skirt chasers, and all the jolly crew. They knew where they were going, of course, but they didn’t seem to be particularly concerned at the moment. The blinds were drawn on the windows, yet it was light inside, and they were all sitting around and singing and passing the bottle and laughing it up, telling their jokes and bragging their brags, just the way Daddy used to sing about them in the old song.

“Mighty nice traveling companions,” Martin said. “Why, I’ve never seen such a pleasant bunch of people. I mean, they seem to be really enjoying themselves!”

I like it.

Of course, I also like this, which touches one of my personal philosophies:

“Do you realize what you’ve done?” the conductor panted. “Now we’ll never reach the Depot. We’ll just go on riding, all of us, forever and ever!”

Martin grinned. “I know,” he said. “But the fun is in the trip, not the destination. You taught me that. And I’m looking forward to a wonderful trip.”

(I confess, I’m a bit afraid to reread it, because I don’t know what I’ll think of Bloch’s style now. But purely on the story level, it’s great.)

What’s the connection? That the perfect moment might be partying with a bunch of convicts?

And craft is over-rated. Understanding point of view is nice, but that really just boils down to focus on one character in each scene. All you really have to have is a beginning, a middle, and an end, and you don’t need those in the first draft. Now get writing!

Also, you have read Bloch’s “The Hell-Bound Train,” yes?