Richard Burnett Carter

The Peculiar Transgression of Pharaoh's Daughter: the Right to Do Wrong Richard Burnett Carter

I have long been struck by the biblical story which recounts Pharaoh?s daughter?s transgression of her father?s murderous law to kill all male Hebrew babies by saving a Hebrew baby boy whom she named ?Moses.? When that adopted child became an adult, he murdered an Egyptian, fled the country, and later received the law of Israel on Sinai, one item in which prohibits murder. This novel, ?The Peculiar Transgression Of Pharaoh?s Daughter?, is based on that story. Reading it, we are presented with what seems to be developing into a splendid drama whose theme is the eternal strife between Love and Law?a strife which often ends with an individual transgressing Law because of the demands of Love or, contrariwise, transgressing Love because of the demands of Law. In the Biblical treatment of this strife, however, Law simply trumps Love and Deity gives the Supreme Law forbidding murder to a man whose very life was spared because of the love in a young girl?s heart. Any writer who presents an end to this strife simply by dismissing the strife between Love and Law in favor of Law simply becomes an advocate for Law. In the real world, the best we can hope for is to moderate this eternal strife through provisional treaties my characters more or less grudgingly end up initialing. The absolute victory of either contestant dehumanizes them both.