{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/167", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 167, "subject": "Madam, I'm Nadan", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "1997-08-20T09:57:21+00:00", "last": "1997-08-20T09:57:21+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Peter Cash", "address": "cash at rsn.hp.com" }, "date": "1997-08-20T09:57:21+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Madam, I'm Nadan", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Jim Jordan wrote some very thoughtful comments on \"Seven American\nNights\" that sent me back to the text with my sharp pencil to find the\nmissing \"night\". After a careful recount, I now think that _eight_\nnights are enumerated in the narrative, and I'm more confused than ever." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Jim Jordan wrote:\n1. The missing night might be the Moslem sabbath (Friday night), but the\nstory does not seem have any break where this might occur. It is the second\nnight. Notice on p. 338 that Nadan begins to recount his first day in the\nevening, around 4 p.m. (midnight in Teheran). He describes that he slept\nlate, breakfasted, and then asked about visiting the city. He headed north.\nThen we have a break: Jasmin must not read this. It is later at night,\nbecause a candle is burning and something is beating against his window. He\nis full of fear, and mentions that he might have been drugged. Then there\nis a break, where he had edited something out, because section 4 begins\n\"That is out out at last!....\" The preceding stuff is not something that\nwould have been hard to write, so something has been edited, something\nrelated to his true mission, something related to Gassem (see below). " }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "He\nthen moves (\"Still...\") to a dream about bread that has mold on it, some\nkind of famous bread. Christian communion bread? " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Psychedelic communion? The mold is, to me, suggestive of the grain mold\nthat yields lysergic acid. Thus, this a perversion of the sacrament of\ncommunion." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At any rate, something has\nhappened during the day to make him rejoice that he is a Persian and not an\nAmerican. Then, the next section describes an actual visit to the Central\nCity of the north, which must be the next day, because it ends with his\nopening the shutters to watch the sun set. " }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Then he goes out to eat and to a\nplay. If it was on the previous day, which it seems at first reading to\nhave been, then this is a couple of hours after \"evening\" and also after he\nhas lit a candle to write by, and that makes no sense. So, here is the\nmissing night: the second night." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I'm not sure whether I agree with this or not. I agree that there is a\nhiatus of at least one day between the writing by candlelight and\nopening the shutter on the setting sun; I had missed that! But I'm not\nsure that I agree with you on where the breaks are. The problem is that\nthe more I think about this, the more confused I get. \n\nIt is true that he begins writing on the evening of the second day with\n\"Here it is evening again...\" (p. 338, ORB). And there appears to be a\nbreak between the section begun thus and the \"Yasmin must not read this\"\nsection. But how long is the break? Is it a few hours or a day (or\nmore)? It's clear that Nadan's mood has darkened in the interval, but it\nis not necessarily because some great evil has happened. Nadan says he\nis \"paralyzed by a fear that entered me--I do not know from\nwhence--yesterday...\" Thus, Nadan does not know the cause of the fear.\nHowever, it began at a certain point in time; it began _yesterday_, and\nI believe that's important. The \"fear\" could not have come upon him any\nearlier than the second day--on the first day, he is still burbling\nabout how he loves America. Thus, the writing about the fear (the\n\"Yasmin\" passage) must have taken place no earlier than the third night.\nThus, I agree with Jim (I think--let me know if I'm misrepresenting you,\nJim)--there is a day missing from the account, and it is the second.\n\nIf this is true, then the following account of the \"visit\" to the\nSmithsonian took place no earlier than the fourth day, for at the\nconclusion of the account, Nadan says that as soon as he left his guide,\nhe \"returned here\" (ORB, 343), and proceeds to open the shutters on the\nsetting sun. That same night (4), Nadan goes out to dinner and then goes\nout again to see a play. He returns to his room with the alleged\npsychedelic drug. \n\nThe next entry is on the morning of the fifth day--\"I am writing today\nbefore I go down to breakfast\" (ORB, 350), and Nadan resolves to visit\nthe park. He also recounts the visit of the three whores, which took\nplace late on night 4. When Nadan returns from the park, he notes the\nfact in his journal, and announces he is about to eat an egg (ORB, 353).\nAfter experiencing no effects, he goes out to dinner and sees a second\nplay.\n\nThe next entry is made on the morning of day 6. Nadan recounts the\nremainder of the events of the previous evening--which are strange\nindeed. Nadan breaks into the manager's office (isn't this a bit\nextreme?), gets what he hopes to be Ardis' address, and kills a monster\nwhile searching for her. As soon as Nadan has written of these events,\nhe rushes out to find the monster's body (still a bit high, eh?), but\nfails. He returns, makes another entry. He leaves to go shopping; when\nhe returns, he also notes that there are five of the original six eggs\nremaining: \"The five remaining candy eggs stood staring at me...\" ORB,\n360). Nadan then eats another egg, goes out to see the second play,\nwhere he meets \"Kreton\", gets him arrested, and finally makes the\nacquaintance of Ardis.\n\nOn the morning of the seventh day, (ORB 370) Nadan makes a brief note\nabout his disturbing dream. That evening, he recounts the \"sorry\" time\nhe and Ardis had dealing with the police bureaucracy, and eats his third\negg. He then goes out to meet Ardis for dinner. Late at night, he\nreturns to find only two eggs remaining, and assumes that his rooms have\nbeen searched. He says that he has eliminated all passages relating to\nhis true reasons for coming to America--but then continues to narrate\nthe events of that evening, in which he acted in a play with Ardis. \n\nThe passage that begins, \"Once again I am here\" (ORB 377) must be\nwritten on the evening of the eighth day (Sunday, when the Theater is\nclosed for Easter), when he recounts the picnic with Ardis. He then\nleaves to meet her for the final time, after eating his fourth (and the\nnext to the last) egg. At three AM, he he writes of his shocking\nrevelation about Ardis' true nature." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": " 2. It certainly appears that the last egg eaten was hallucinogenic. But to\na slight degree, it may be that all the food in America is hallucingenic;\nnotice the attention given to virtually every meal." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Or perhaps the first egg was psychedelic, and the effects of the drug\nare permanent...\n\nAs you can see, I have gone from a lack of days to having too many. Can\nanybody help me out?" } ] } ] }