Summary of text [comment] page 39
[Consider the depiction of the Temptation of Eve in An Archaeology of the Fall.
The serpent was the reified projection of Eve’s unconscious thoughts. In Girard’s terminology, the serpent was the “rival whose desire Eve imitated”.
The serpent appears to be Eve’s double, because it appears to desire precisely what Eve desires. The serpent was both rival and advisor to Eve. The serpent was a golden calf.
When Eve ate the fruit, Eve and the serpent united against the Lord God. The joining was spontaneous because the serpent was a projection of Eve’s mind. Evepro-fruit was proven right. Lord Godanti-fruit was proven real. But the scapegoat was not a corpse. Oops.
The discrepancy between the fact that Eve and the serpent and Adam had scapegoated the Lord Godanti-fruit and the fact that the Lord God was not Lord Godanti-fruit must have been alarming. Eve and Adam realized that they were naked.]