On p319, there is a single red dot at the top of the page. Back on p87, Jen jokes with Eric that she could put a single dot anywhere in the book and Eric would notice. He responds “Like on p319.”
It stands to reason that this could be a way of telling us to focus more on p319. But on what?
My favorite quote from the book is on this page…
But you ought to understand, too, that there’s an attrition that takes place inside, one in which options and choices and even desires are ground ever smaller until finally their existence can no longer be confirmed by observation or weight or displacement but only by faith. Until desire is a ghost.
Juxtapose these two sentences with the following from pp372-373…
What is the story he tells himself? That he is a man in a boat on the edge of civilization? That he is a man floating on the edge of a life that should never have been his? That there is nothing? There is nothing. The woman who could save him, who could explain, is gone. His other selves are gone. His stitches are gone. His opinions are gone. His pages are gone, lost underwater or turned to ash. He has only this empty vessel of himself. He is a ghost.
S is compared to desire.
A quick look at the etymology of desire shows us that the word likely descended from the Latin de sidere, which means literally, from the stars and carries the connotation await what the stars will bring.
Perhaps we are being teased with this on p319 because there are four asterisks that follow the phrase Until desire is a ghost. An asterisk is a “little star.”
And then of course we have S‘s experience with the constellations drifting on pp46-49. He desires to make sense of himself and his world, but the drifting stars only make things worse. He then notices two other lights from a ship. A ship that he later dubs the ghost ship.
When S finds himself a ghost on p373, his next moment of awareness is in the Winter City, where he and everyone in it are ghost-like – transparent and untouchable.
It is not until the Sola finds S in the Winter City that desire returns to S. Sola asks him on p391 Do you still want to find Vevoda?S realizes that any time before now he would have struggled to answer this question. But now, with Sola present, desire returns to him. He replies, Yes. Definitely. And then he leaves the Winter City and his ghost-like state and returns to the ship.
In the climactic scene as S pauses when poisoning the wine…
This is not what he wants to do. Does it matter what he wants? Especially now, at this moment, a moment of opportunity that might justify decades of flight and struggle and terror and blood? Can it possibly matter what one man wants? It does, he decides. It does now, and perhaps it always has.
S‘s desire is what matters here. And when S decides that his desire matters, everything changes.
On the final page of the book, p456, S takes Maelstrom’s spyglass (discovered under the blanket on which the monkey sleeps) and looks through it. What he sees…
is not a ghost ship, no; she is a ship with flags flying and sailors working on deck, sails trimmed and humming in the wind, a glorious wake churning out behind her, and what looks like two people sharing the wheel. He can’t see their faces through the glass, can’t really see much about them at all, but he slides the glass closed and tells Sola that the ship is one of theirs, and as for the identities of the two people at the wheel, well, both Sola and he will let their imaginations fill in their features.
When desire is lost, life is empty and ghost-like. When it is awakened, life is full of purpose.
S is desire. And desire is waiting what the stars will bring.
On p69, we begin the chapter The Emersion of S. Jen writes two definitions of emersion and she and Eric discuss the second option…
2) (Astron) the reemergence of a celestial body after eclipse or occultation.
YOU’RE NOT SAYING S. IS A CELESTIAL BODY, ARE YOU?
I don’t know. I haven’t seen him.
((((RIM SHOT))))
I just think it’s intriguing, given what happened w/stars in Ch. 2.
This would also help explain the climax of the story in Eric and Jen’s world, which takes place in the margins on p453. The setting is the PSU Planetarium, and it appears that Eric is running the projector before Moody cuts the power and scuffles with Eric in the dark. Jen comments I wish we could have stayed and watched the stars some more.
S‘s name, I think, is Sidere (an anagram of desire). His life represents a group of stars – each star representing a choice – a decision based on a desire resulting in an act. How these stars connect tells the story of a life. Our desires – our passions – result in acts – or deeds. And they are all connected, forming one constellation, that reveals who we are.
8cht said:
either it is a strange coincidence that you chose this quote right now or you must be very clever to come up with such a profound interpretation this fast in reply to https://mobile.twitter.com/VMStraka/status/941350047689699328?p=v
Brian Shipman said:
I think the coincidence is on @VMStraka’s end. I’ve studied this quote for a long time (I posted it on reddit a year ago https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/4cw54a/make_me_want_to_read_a_book_just_by_posting_a/d1mmgsi/). @VMStraka’s tweet got me thinking about it again and the desire/ghost connection popped up.
8cht said:
i always thought that the one dot anywhere was to make us look for other dots. there are some, one on p. ix, one maybe in the drawing of the monk on 428, lots of splots in desj letter, one indentation bc of the eötvös wheel. but bc of desire connection(for sola and for corbeau who was killed by #8) maybe we might look for two points instead?
there are a great many repetitions of twin dots (the rolling eyes double dot [..] on pages 0(title page), 102, 186, 264, 328, 434, and two on 447.
Brian Shipman said:
To further nerd out here, the page that mentions the dot is 87. The page that has it, that Eric quickly found, is 319. Both page numbers are divisible by 29 (3 and 11, respectively). 11-3=8, which is the number of the Agent mentioned on p319. It’s unlikely all that means anything, but there it is in case it sparks something worthwhile.
8cht said:
Is there not also a second dot on p.293?
Douglas Bolles said:
lovely! Seems so obvious after you find it. Very nice work. Seasons Greetings!
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erikpischel said:
how poetic 🙂
8cht said:
Consider that Sidere may also be correctly referring to the scientific revolution around copernikus, gallileo, keppler etc, who are more or less in the correct time period of our Arquimedes/Sobreiro. One book, Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger) even includes the messenger (hermes), and jupiter’s moons (zeus, jove, symbolized by the eagle/oak) plays a great role in the heliocentric revolution. On one of the tracts, a sigil shows 3 bees, and around that time, a new map of the constellations is drawn by bayer (atlas Uranometria Omnium Asterismorum) who dies 1625. Around that time, The Assayer (Italian: Il Saggiatore) was written, and is generally considered to be one of the pioneering works of the scientific method. The conflicts we find in S represented by the capuchins may also represent the fight against papal orthodoxy and the inquisition.
Theseus destroyed/revolutionized an archaic religous/governmental system. we find something analogous in the scientific revolution. probably there are more layers/levels/revolutions to be found, but i find this one convincing regarding the star – asterion – constellations – labyrinth – bird thematic.
8cht said:
Hi Brian,
i am going to madeira next week. since you already assembled a few mentions of the isle elsewhere, do you have any suggestions if there might be real S inspired places? the place where S leapt from the mouth of the cave with Corbeau might be there somewhere because of the black scabbard fish? not sure if i remember which side of the island they would have been or if the B__ and G_ mentions relate there.
Brian Shipman said:
Fantastic. Enjoy your trip. Would love to hear about it.
Random thoughts…
1. Madeira used to be a contender for the prime meridian. Not sure where exactly.
2. Sao Vicente – St Vincent. Numerous references.
3. Santana. “The Santana March” inspiration?
4. Blackscabbards. Yes. Eat one for me.
8cht said:
Thank you, will consider all of those 🙂
8cht said:
I am back, with a bottle of Sobreiro. I have checked the few obvious hints, but can’t say to have had a big revelantion. Some small tidbits perhaps. Not sure if this is the right place to spam travel stories though, even if they are S. related.
8cht said:
well, maybe just a bit..
– i did not find the Nautical History Museum where Jen mentioned that she found notice of Sobreiro’s ship burning somewhere in the azores in 1619.
– i visited Santana but it did not fit the Desert description of The Santana March at all. Main attaction are reed covered traditional houses shaped like a triangle, somewhat like the celtic french may have had. there was a tracking trail called the great trail, going steep down towads the sea, but had no time to look at it. so idk if these are related. but there are thousands of kilometers of tracking trails on the island, and i did not see obvious symbols anywhere. Santana seems to generally be a shortening of St.Ana.
– Sao Vicente is at the norhern end of the island. it’s a great place for surfing, the waves are coming in big and crashing heavy and white. in the dark you may think there was a thunderstorm raging, only to realize in the morning that the noise is from the sea smashing against the rocks, with the small round pebbles rolling back towards the sea creating that peculiar sound.
there is a plateau above Sao Vicente, but i don’t think there is a place close enough to the sea for the bay where corbeau and s. fell. there are volcanic caves (grutas) where the outpouring magma left a system of tunnels, but none with visible glyphs, signs or paintings. creation was 890k yrs ago, hawaii has similar tunnels, created about the same time. no active volcanoes or caldeiras today, but one of the 19 isles of the azores has an active caldeira and hot springs. another is called corvo.
The Island San Vincent may be nearer to the clues in S., since the covarrubias connection is so heavy on pirates).
– there is a very comfy small wine bar in Sao Vincente. In the capital Funchal, there are a few producers of the heavy madeiran wine. the Blandy’s tour is quite interesting and grants you more than a handfull of tastings and access to storerooms chock full of old barrels, one room had the smell of thick, dark wine (mostly white oness though and no cellars though).
– the Black Scabbard is scary to look at. Prepared it is a clean white filet. I think it was mostly mentioned to show how very deep S. fell when he and Corbeau jumped into the sea. Wiki says they are found 1000m below the surface, which is impossibly hard to dive to unaided. therefore this should have been a very traumatizing event and his emersion after that the more dramatic.
– on a general note, the island is beautiful and worth a trip, if you can get to it. we could not land as planned because of the wind, which does not seem to be all that uncommon an event. the northern part receives more rain, which is led to the dry south through channels that make splendid tracking trails. some go through tunnels, so close to the mountains or gorges. main trees laurels and eucalyptus, the latter ones causing forest fires. highest amount of birds if found in ponta delgada, hawks at the nuns pen (former nuns monastery hidding them in the center of the island from pirates), and the highest diversity of birds at the stunning ribeiro frio outlook (the short trail). the island is everything but flat, and if you drive by car, you will find a ridiculous amount of new tunnels mostly at odd inclinations. at porto moniz, you have natural pools formed by cooled down lava basins, but the waves were too fierce to use them. plenty tiny vineyards to be found everywhere going up the hills.