Still with the quotation marks.
The philosophical and religious discussion here are very like the ones I used in "After". We seem to be in agreement about the way in which Nooj views religion.
The very notion of the ultra-straight Nooj making a play for another man is challenging to the mind. I like very much the explanation you imply - that he is so competitive and supremely confident he will act as he chooses and always expect the win.
Thank you for this, stories about ideas are always more appealing to my tastes than those which simply detail action, whether bloody or romantic. This is a real treasure.
Author's response
It's my pleasure to write something like this. It's challenging, but worth it. I hope the formatting problem has been fixed. That was odd.