Subject: (urth) PEACE: Roy gathers some scattered notes

From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at siriusfiction.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 19:56:09 +0000

Roy quoted me and wrote:
>>5) Weer's Christmas presents at age five: the knife and a book.  Is it the
>>one containing "princess and her three suitors" and ben Yahya?  Yes, it
>>seems! (167, 194)
>
>Den was about 6-and-a-half (May to December) years old that Christmas. (17)

Oops!  Right.  Says so right on the page that he was six.

>>8) Porcelain objects: the Napoleon figure, the elephant foot rest, the
>>china pillow.
>
>You forgot the famous egg! (106)

And I also didn't mention the "china" hen (really milk glass) that Olivia
left to represent herself (as she said) in the cave with the skull (the
cave leading to the hole in the side of the china pillow).  There might be
more porcelain as well.  The complex tangle of images surrounding Olivia
(bird, hen; egg; monster) -- she is definitely "China," among other things,
and I guess since Smart is short and her husband, then he becomes "emperor
of china" as a porcelain statue of Napoleon.

>>11) Writing materials: first mentioned in interruption of Tilly Tale (145),
>>notebook and pen (next para), scribbling (159).  The TAT card showing
>>writer comes later (166), so it is not being originated there.  Pen, paper,
>>illness (194).  Notebook and pen, writing in the apartment in the Commons
>>(216).
>
>I don't know if it is significant, but just before writing of Arabella's
>article he mentions using a pen, in the frametale memory-mansion office
>(181). As a child Den was probably using a pencil to "scribble on paper, and
>to draw little pictures", as his mother told Bella just before Bella started
>reading. After writing of the article, he says he has left the office for
>"Mab Crawford's kitchen", where he sits "still scratching with my little
>pencil, at her kitchen table" (187). It seems Weer has reverted from
>grown-up president to child, in the frametale, or is trying to.

Your 181 is my 194, I believe.  (Well no, I'm sure of it -- I'm looking at
it right now!)  Good point about the pencil -- I think he =is= regressing,
and I think he always regresses in these time-travel haunting episodes.

=mantis=

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