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Archimedes, Archimedes Palimpsest, Archimedes Principle, Arquimedes de Sobreiro, cork oak, Doug Dorst, JJ Abrams, Perpignan, quercus suber, Signe Rabe, Sobreiro, VM Straka
There are several underlying elements of an unseen armature (I prefer the word armature to theme) within “S” that give the book its form. Some portions of the armature are apparent…
- Good vs. Evil
- Self-awareness (“Know Thyself”)
- Love
Some parts of the armature, however, are harder to see until our eyes become accustomed so well to the book and its complex story that we begin to see them emerge slowly from the text. This post is about one of these.
Consider the following portions of “S” to help your eyes adjust…
- The Chapter 10 cipher has been solved (mostly). What is perplexing is the sixth column of letters don’t make sense. There is a column of letters that do make sense (LONOE), but we have no apparent way of knowing what specific geographical coordinates should be dialed in on the EOTVOS wheel that make sense.
- Sobreiro means cork oak (quercus suber) – the kind of cork that floats on water and that is used to seal wine bottles. The Portuguese word for this tree is Sobreiro. Signe Rabe was born in Perpignan, France (see page 361). The economy there depends on the cork oak tree, which grows there. More on this.
- Arquimedes seems a clear reference to Archimedes, who is most famous for his story of sitting in a hot bath, suddenly receiving insight into a particularly challenging problem, and shouting Eureka! (I found it!)
- Caldeira comes from the latin caldaria, meaning a warm bath or a cooking pot. Also used to describe an active volcanic crater.
- Eric goes to Brazil to find Caldeira, and he does. He finds her in Maraú, Brazil. On the postcard to Jen he writes I FOUND HER! (p. 201)
- One of Jen’s favorite words in “S” is palimpsest (p. 379). One of the world’s most famous palimpsests is Archimedes’ Palimpsest.
- What begins at the water shall end there, and what ends there shall once more begin.
These elements of “S” seem to me to be puzzle pieces that form a recognizable object, or element of the armature: Archimedes’ Principle. Archimedes’ Principle covers water displacement and, more interesting, buoyancy.
It was seeing this subtle focus on Archimedes’ Principle that led me to my own moment of Eureka!
Eric shouted “I FOUND HER!” to Jen when he discovered Caldeira (“warm bath”) in Maraú, Brazil. The geographical coordinates of Maraú are 14°06′10″S 39°00′54″W. These coordinates give us the missing column of letters for the Chapter 10 cipher: LONOE.
It appears to me that FXC deliberately left one column of letters in the cipher a mystery in order to quietly announce her eventual whereabouts to VMS in case he was still actually alive and could come and find her.
I sense there is much, much more to the armature of Archimedes’ Principle to help us understand Sobreiro and The Archer’s Tales. I am interested in hearing your thoughts and findings as you read deeper into “S”.
Something which struck me after reading about Archimede’s Palimpest was the phrase “palimpests atop palimpests” – Archimede’s scrolls were scrubbed and written upon again with Christian writings. Archimede’s text was left to right, the Christian scripture in columns from top to bottom (see pics on the wikipedia page). I can’t help wondering if (or how) that might be relevant.
Thank you for this! Fantastic! I would never have found this on my own. Perhaps you can address something for me. I finished the book actually moments ago, and as you can imagine my mind is buzzing. I read the book straight through along with all the marginalia (perhaps a mistake, but what’s done is done and I did enjoy it) and the one thing I am intrigued by is Signe Rabe. Let me add a caveat: I need to go back and make sure I didn’t miss the answer to precisely who she is; I understand who she COULD be, and that she was presumably Desjardin’s wife. But since I’ve finished this while I’m at work (whoops) I thought I’d hop on the internet and do some poking around to see if I had indeed missed something…and got ONE hit in connection to S. Searching “signe rabe” didn’t even bring up anything about S at all (except now it will bring up mine!). I’m a little shocked — is there a reason no one’s discussing her? Or did I miss something painfully obvious?
Darla – Welcome to the party! There are many of us just like you, looking for answers. “Signe Rabe” is still a mystery to probably everyone, along with many other questions. If you want to get some spoilers on the ciphers and some other issues or just meet/greet others on the same journey, may I suggest this blog as a good place to start.
http://sfiles22.blogspot.com
New information. Signe Rabe was born in Perpignan. The Perpignan economy depends heavily on the cork oak tree (quercus suber). The Portuguese word for this tree is SOBREIRO.
https://whoisstraka.wordpress.com/2014/01/20/the-card-from-jean-bernard-desjardins/
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I love your use of the word “armature”–the framework around which the sculpture is built. The book includes a complex armature, allowing it to contain many individual themes. It reminds me of Stephen King’s description of the Dark Tower, the nexus of all reality. It has twelve beams coming out of it, and it acts as the skeleton upon which the multiverse depends for its continual existence.
The Chapter 10 cipher is fascinating, especially since I haven’t even started trying to unlock any of the codes and hidden clues of the book, as it appears that you and several other bloggers have. I love the fact that a clue is hidden in a message speaking about loving someone forever. The overt message (like the Ship of Theseus story) is the heart, or love, behind the message, which is the guiding force behind the nature of the clue. Without the message of love, the clue is merely a geographical location without any context.
One of the themes that popped out to me as I read the book was the pairings of a man and a woman, both working together for a common cause. One of these types of pairings is a writer and a muse. Muses can be seen as ethereal spirits or goddesses, but they can also be human beings. I see in S. a man whose muse is the human woman Sola. His connection with her is beyond explanation, for he who knows virtually nothing about her. Yet she seems to be working right alongside him, albeit on a different ship, and probably going back and forth in time while he travels in chronological order through time. When a man and his muse work together, they access the higher realms and are able to achieve things that are part of something bigger than both of them.
Your thoughts on the names Sobreiro Arquimedes and Caldeira were very illuminating. One of the themes is the connection between a man and his muse, and your description of Archimedes having a “eureka” moment while sitting in a hot bath is because he has connected with his muse. I’ve heard that very creative people will often retreat to a quiet, solitary place to become connected with their inner muse. This dark place has been compared to the void, which itself has been symbolized by water.
So you have S.’s ship “Sobreiro” floating on water like a cork–which can only happen if Archimedes’ Principle has been applied to enable it to float in the first place. Caldeira is the hot bath upon which Archimedes floats, which leads to Archimedes having a “eureka” moment. Caldeira, then, represents a type of muse–the watery void upon which the cork-ship Sobreiro floats in order to achieve inspiration. Caldeira is Straka’s muse, the woman who guides and inspires him–at least, whenever he is connected to her. When S. is on the ship either writing or sleeping, he only has peace when he feels his connection with Sola, his muse. The connection between S. and Sola is love, just as it is for Straka and Caldeira.
When the connection with the muse is made, that is when “eureka” moments happen. That is why Eric exlaims “I found her!” He is both referring specifically to Caldeira the human woman, but also to the overall connection with a muse. And that connection is always love. Water represents the void, or state of being necessary to connect with one’s muse. And like all created things, they begin with the void–the nothingness–and will eventually return to the void. This is what one of the meanings behind “What begins at the water shall end there, and what ends there shall once more begin.” Creating from the void must begin with love–because love is the beginning and end of all things.
I HAVE LOVED YOU FROM THE BEGINNING. I WILL LOVE YOU TO THE END.
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my question is quite easy: I am reading the book translated in my own language (italian). Thence I’m wondering to know if all the “codes”, “tricks”, “double meanings” have been translated too. Example: is the compass disk the same in all the translation or it has been adjusted accordingly? 🙂
I have the English and French versions. Both EOTVOS wheels are the same. This indicates the likelihood that all ciphers solves with the wheel are in English. To be sure, compare yours to the English version here: http://sfiles22.blogspot.com/2013/11/eotvos-wheel-code.html
Correction. The French code wheel is different. My mistake.
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