Here’s a puzzler for people who have seen the latest episode of the TV show?House.? In this episode (“A Pox on our House“), why did the writers choose to give the sick family a mini-Brady Bunch structure – a recently married husband and wife who each bring to the marriage a child from a previous relationship?? And what does this have to do with the Bible?
A House Puzzler
TAGS: Puzzles, television
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I give up.
So, the closest Biblical allusion I can think of is the conflict between Hagar’s and Sarah’s sons, Ishmael and Isaac (the son of the bond-woman will not be heir with the son of the free woman). In other words, there is an inherent insecurity in not being the child of both parents.
That is a little more complicated, given that Sarah recommended Abraham sleep with Hagar and they were both living at the time they were cast out.
But, that’s part of the drama of the TV Show: as the Dad dies, his kid has the fear of abandonment by their new mother.
As Jesus died, he turned to John and said, “Behold your Mother!” (about Mary) and “Behold your son!” (refering to John).
In a similar way, the dad in House hands off responsibility for his kid as he dies.
So the idea that the disease was somehow sexually communicated between the man and the girl would be less icky and more likely to float in viewers’ minds, heightening the mystery?
Well, regarding Pablo’s theory, the Bible does explicitly prohibit engaging in congress with your step-kids, even if you aren’t related to them.
I don’t think that is necessarily prohibited by US law, though it probably depends on your state.
pablo,
I did not notice mention or need for sex to spread either smallpox or the pox that it turned out to be.
I have no idea why it has anything to do with the bible, but whenever House has strange family relationships, it’s generally to explicity write genetics in or out as a possibility.
“He and his father both have it, it must be genetic! No, wait, they aren’t actually related.”
“She has it, but her mother doesn’t, so it can’t possibly be genetic. No, wait, her mother was bitten by a mouse during her childhood, so she’s immune.”
What does this post have to do with economics? Not clear why this blog is called “Freakonomics,” given its subject matter.