Anything I know about the bible I probably picked up from the Arabic songs on cassette tapes my grandma used to listen to. So I knew enough to knew the first chapter header in Zulus was something biblical, but it was still indecipherable to me. So after looking at “B” and shaking my head, I just ignored that bit of paratextuality.
When one of our classmates who was smart enough to look up Absalom and Achitophel had told the class that it was an allusion to a satirical political allegory, written by John Dryden, that uses the story of the rebellion of Absalom against King David, a story I am not familiar with, something stuck out to me:
“…the wit was Solomon’s…So A is for Solomon for there are better for S and because Solomon was small and a little queer.”
Solomon, whose name means “his peace” in Hebrew, was King David’s son. Of course anyone rebelling against King David’s kingdom could not have known what King Solomon’s reign would be like. But David’s subjects in his war torn kingdom did want what Solomon brought – peace.
This short, slightly biblical, and slightly political, thus interdisciplinary, bit of paratextuality thus opens up a post-apocalyptic, post-war novel quite well: with hope for the future.