Why I dislike interpretation

[Rev. Rye]

I've always thought that it was more a metaphor for being Jewish in a Christian society that hadn't quite figured out that anti-Semitism was a bad thing (though, apparently he was pretty alienated from the Jewish tradition for most of his life, although the writing of the original novella does line up with his cultural awakening, and Prague was actually pretty decent to the Jews at that point in time). Of course, that's one guy's take on it. And, of course, there are severe limits to this line of reasoning (seriously, does the dude not know that Montenegro is an actual fucking country? I wonder what would happen if someone gave him a Nero Wolfe book; he'd probably be calling everyone in the Brownstone black because Wolfe was born in Montenegro.)