7AN

stoneox17 at aol.com · 18 Dec 2007, 22:21 · from 2007-December.txt.gz

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From: stoneox17 at aol.com (stoneox17 at aol.com)
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:21:09 -0500
Subject: (urth) 7AN
In-Reply-To: <f5d95ac0712181304n311f548pb51ae2ad04bd18fe at mail.gmail.com>
References: <BAY129-W151A840AEC7DEAA3C1EC1786630 at phx.gbl>	<872609.36188.qm at web38508.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
	<f5d95ac0712181304n311f548pb51ae2ad04bd18fe at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <8CA0FDB6CA949BF-E2C-1A7F at webmail-db04.sysops.aol.com>

I think Robert Borski has solved the problem of what happened to the
missing night (http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0205/871.txt.shtml).
I don't agree with all the rest of his interpretation, but I think this 
post,
as well as his followups to it, should be read by anybody trying to 
figure
out what is going on in 7AN.

Peter

-----Original Message-----
From: Joel Sieh <joel.sieh at gmail.com>

That's a good question, and I have to admit that I was too lazy after
reading it to go back and try to figure it out.  Is it safe to assume
that at least some of the journal is real?  If not, then I think there
would be little point to the story, as it would just become an
elaborate lie to the main character's family.  Maybe we could discover
some kind of motivation for the lie, but I don't think it would go
much farther than that.

So let's assume that at least part of the story is true.  Now, from
that, I'm tempted to say that the story is true starting at the
beginning, but has been completed by someone else.  Of course, it
would be easy enough for some fabricator to get a whole new journal
and replace any parts he wished, but it would be much easier to just
"finish" the story.

>From there, we should look for places in which it would make sense for
this to happen, like when the main character visits the police
station.  Voice changes or motivation/plot inconsistencies would be
useful clues to help determine fabrication....  However, I don't
remember seeing these off the top of the head.  Maybe the whole
drug-infused candy egg portion of the story is an allusion to a
fabrication, but I'm not sure.

Speaking of which, any ideas which day was hallucination day?

Anyway, determining if and where there was fabrication should be an
interesting exercise in puzzle solving.  Sorry that I'm not much help
with answers right now.  :)  I may take this as an opportunity to give
the story another look, though.

--Joel

On Dec 18, 2007 3:22 AM, Joe Riley <whamdoodler at yahoo.com> wrote:
> In the midst of all that is being debated:
>
> I just finished reading Seven American Nights.  I have perused the 
archives,
> but I have an unanswered question that keeps nagging at me:
>
> What evidence do we have that the journal is authentic?  Between the
> self-writing machine and the finale, where in response to the 
question about
> handwriting, the old woman says, "Perhaps, perhaps," we see nothing to
> confirm this story as factual.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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