Tags
Archimedes de Sobreiro, birds of negative space, defenestration, Doug Dorst, Filomela Caldeira, FXC, JJ Abrams, Sola, VM Straka
There is only one window in S’s apartment
(The opening line of Chapter 9 on p375)
There is only one footnote in Chapter 9. There is only one window in S’s apartment. And there is only one window in another aparment where our one footnote is born. S hears the voices of two people – one of them most likely the infamous Archimedes de Sorbreiro – just prior to Sobreiro falling nine stories from that window to his death.
Is this a clue to our missing Chapter 9 cipher – one window, one footnote? The footnote refers to Straka’s struggle with two lines in the book and which voice, male or female, should utter which line. The first sentence of Filomela’s footnote implies that both lines in the original manuscript contain numerous strikethroughs and handwritten corrections, and yet her second sentence says that she reproduced the line (singular) as it was originally typed. There is only one line reproduced. Is this an intentional mistake, as FXC so often includes, to lead us to a cipher?
The Portuguese statement uttered is no one is. No one is. Is this a negative space play on words?
Another thought. On pp386-387, S stands beneath the ninth story apartment window, looking up at it from the sidewalk. As he does, he kicks one foot against the ground, trying to chase away the numbing cold. As he does, he breaks through a layer of ice and discovers the corner of a brass plaque set into the sidewalk. He kicks more until the entire plaque is revealed.
Given the manner in which S discovered the plaque, is this a foot note? And what significance might we find in the use of five perfect squares represented?
- 1 (January)
- 2 (4 S symbols)
- 3 (9)
- 4 (16 in 1625)
- 5 (25 in 1625)
Thoughts On "S" 
Which part do you believe to be the ciphertext? I am eyeing 380, 382 or 390. But not sure what to do with the portugese. Change male to female, and that maybe the keyphrase?
You ask the same question I have been trying to answer myself. A few thoughts: the French version’s equivalent of “Scrutiny Please and Confident” is 36 letters vs English’s 26. But there are still 13 lines to the body of the letter. I have toyed with the cipher text being the first and last letters of each line.
Well that seems to be a relief, bc monoalphabetic substitution will not yield anything to me atm. What is the french term for scutiny please, and confident? i guess it cannot be the literal examen s’il vous plait et confiant, since that doesn’t have 36 letters. does each first letter form the word space (spac) too?
great work compiling all this btw, it’s a great help. i think i am beginning to make progress finding some cribs.
Sidenote: this reply relates to the letter from desjardins; the keyphrase for birds of negative space might include Voce nao esta seguro – ninguem e, so you probably have more than one tab open, like me. 😉
Sorry for the mixup on replies. As far as a cipher text here, not sure as well. But have some thoughts I’ll add to the blog shortly.
I wonder if 4 is an instance of “negative space.”
The date 1/9/1625 omits 4.
Yes, there are 4 S’s on the plaque, but they are conspicuously absent from the date, which is otherwise a complete series of squares.
The fact that 4 is represented as a letter, apart from the date, may signify… something.
For what it’s worth:
The difference between consecutive squares–the “negative space”–is simply the consecutive odd numbers.
1+3=4
4+5=9
9+7=16
16+9=25
25+11=36
etc.
While 49-36=13, a prime
64-49=15, which is not….
Hmmmmm…
Oops, you said odd, not prime
Yes, (n+1)^2 – n^2 = 2n+1
There are two birds of negative space on the sleeve/envelope of SoT, on the top and repeated on the backside. One bird is looking down (perhaps Sola) and one is flying ahead (S.). They they might be used in partitioning the pages, but prob not.
I think the unearthing of the plaque is a good catch for the archeological hint. On the first page of the chapter, Jen and Eric seem to demonstrate another clue with the strike-throughs (and addition of opposite meaning). The strike-throughs are mentioned in FN, but not easily accessible in the text.
Maybe the plaque tells us that we have to find a window and fall 9 levels, most paragraphs begin with a small shifting, perhaps that is the window. 9 lines down and then 16 and 25 letters?
Since FXC gives special mention to the “are we safe” lines, maybe they are there to demonstrate how to find letter 16 and 25?
Another emphasis is on S.s description of the onion skin layers, where every person inhabts his own sheet. perhaps take onionskin and mark the words reffering to people (like “anyone”) and create a grille with that
I remember that Straka had to travel 6 Blocks to reach the Building where Sobreiro fell, and that there was a direction mentioned (like right or left), but cannot look it up atm.
Can anyone check that for me please? I like to test a theory about the footnote referring to the plaque.
Six blocks west of the plaza with the wooden bin containing the newspapers. From his building, though, it says he would have to brave another arctic half-mile (p385-386).
Thank you. i tried a columnar transposition by making the building 9 levels high with 4 character wide blocks, and ignoring the first 6 blocks he had to walk. i am not yet sure of the outcome. what i got so far is either “Ies et et sum soi era ja ed br Lo Lar de rol feny” or “Ie set et sued br LoLard feny ms olera ja”.
I assume i might still have to correct with the numerals as per Footnote instructions, so with 9 1625 which still change letters around or correct letters AFBE. and maybe i have to use a key like the title, alves etc. Another attempt was to turn the single line of the plaque = 3 lines of each 20 characters into numerals and subtract the correct two (of three) lines from each other and turn into characters again. i tried that also with another line of 20 characters (birds of negative space). might take me a while longer.
I found the word LIFE at line 9 pos 16 and some others by using the voceano line. reading in reverse does produce more words, but no names. last attempt was promising but checking for reading errors reduced most of the good results of block-attempt above, so could you please verify the spelling of VOCEANAO ESTA SEGURO? – NIMGUEM E? I have too many versions of that open atm and some have spelling errors.
with excusing spelling errors, i might have dig up sth like: my next life of this gho() is as the avat()r by s. to aks. but i am to coma am i be led to be us chil() my my lord.
which is still unconvincing because no names. the plaque at least has the name FXC included, if not much else.