Tin foil hats to the max but, having read the text of Salome this morning here are some choice quotes.
You would fancy she was looking for dead things.
how I loathe the Romans ! They are rough and common, and they give themselves the airs of noble lords
How black it is, down there ! It must be terrible to be in so black a pit ! It is like a tomb.
It is his eyes above all that are terrible. They are like black holes burned by torches in a Tyrian tapestry. They are like black caverns where dragons dwell. They are like the black caverns of Egypt in which the dragons make their lairs. They are like black lakes troubled by fantastic moons.
Get thee to the desert and seek out the Son of Man
Oh yes, I see it well, and the stars are falling like ripe figs, are they not? And the sun is becoming black like sackcloth of hair, and the kings of the earth are afraid.
The concept of fear, Herod's fear of Jochanaan is the core of the strauss work and there are plentiful references, as above, to spacey-type things, I have read that the moon is almost a central character in the work, as it is in reclamation.
Here's my take. Whats in the rift is fear, but it is something salome must face to exact her revenge on ... on something? In fact, no salome does not face Jochannan in the pit, she has someone do it for her, the executioner...
What do we get if we map the characters from Reclamation onto the characters from Salome?
