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Thoughts On "S"

~ by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst

Thoughts On "S"

Category Archives: ShipofTheseus

Is this the Location of Vevoda’s Chateau?

26 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by Brian Shipman in S, Ship of Theseus, ShipofTheseus, Who Is Straka

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Tags

Doug Dorst, Filomela Caldeira, foothills, FXC, grotto, Hermes Bouchard, JJ Abrams, Juan Blas Covarrubias, pyrenees, VM Straka, VMS

We know that Vevoda’s chateau was in France in the foothills of the Pyrenees (p402).

The foothills of Pyrenees, the Monts Albères, run into the Mediterranean Sea in Banyuls-sur-Mer, France, creating a steep cliff line.

Compare FXC’s map in Ship of Theseus to Vevoda’s chateau and, simultaneously, a real-world map to the chateau/estate of Hermes Bouchard to that of Banyuls Sur-mer and the surrounding territory. The coastline of FXC’s map from memory and a real-world map are very similar.

Updated Post

The map-matching below is from @SimpinaLindale, who saw my original post (further below) and suggested a better match than mine – which I admitted had a few problems – by going just a tad North. It looks like a perfect match. 

 
Original Post 
Screen Shot 2016-01-26 at 7.23.52 PM

Though the coastline is roughly identical, there are two problems.

  1. The deep inset that marks the grotto used by Juan Blas Covarrubias does not seem to be present on the real-world map. This could simply be because the grotto is underground from above, but FXC “tore the roof off” to indicate where it was.
  2. The two islands or offshore rocks on the map are not present at all in the real-world map. If you use Google Earth and zoom in and around this area, there are a few rocks jutting out of the water very close to the coastline. But they don’t seem to resemble FXC’s drawing.

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The Daily Pronghorn – PSU Food Service to Reevaluate Beef

23 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by Brian Shipman in S, ShipofTheseus, Who Is Straka

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Daily Pronghorn, Flippin' Good, George Jurick, Prairie Majesty, Pronghorn Java, PSU, Stosh Szymczak, Tikka Town

beef

DAILY PRONGHORN STAFF REPORT

In the wake of last semester’s scandal about non-human grade beef being used by food concessionaires in Boyle Memorial Student Union, PSU Food Service has voluntarily agreed to help reevaluate the integrity of Prairie Majesty Fine Institutional Dining Supply’s supply chain. Prairie Majesty, it was revealed in a Pronghorn expose in November, through a complex network of wholly-owned subsidiaries, operates all food concessions on campus except for Pronghorn Java, Flipping’ Good, and Tikka Town, which will remain independent until their leases expire.

“We believe in Prairie Majesty and its fine-institutional-dining affiliates” said PSU Food Services Director George Jurick, “and they have been responsive to all of our concerns. The correction and remediation of any errors, oversights, or misjudgments that have occurred in the past is looked forward to and anticipated by all parties. We have a duty to provide Pollard State University’s students with nourishment of the highest quality while maintaining cost-certainty in regards to our expenses.”

When asked if the university was contemplating legal action against is food supplier, Mr. Jurick had no comment. He also declined to discuss student concerns about a private company’s having a monopoly over such a lucrative part of the internal economy of a public institution.

Not all students were concerned about the low-grade beef or Food Service’s domination by Prairie Majesty. “Who cares?” said freshman Stosh Szymczak. “Put some bacon on your damn cheeseburger and it’ll taste just fine.” Others, though, are looking for ways to take action…

See BEEF on page 8

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Whatever the Case May Be (The Valise) – Part 2

05 Saturday Jul 2014

Posted by Brian Shipman in S, ShipofTheseus, Who Is Straka

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Arquimedes de Sobreiro, Corbeau, Doug Dorst, FXC, JJ Abrams, Osfour, Ostrero, Pfeifer, Stenfalk, The White Chronicles, V.M. Straka, valise, VM Straka, VMS, White Oak

img_2766

Interesting observations about the appearances of the valise throughout “S.”

S. “Remembers” the Valise

He pounces on the few images that come to mind—a black sheep on a green hillside; a trout on a hook, dripping and jerking and flopping; a cold, dark room with a valise on the floor at its center; a coop full of burbling, pacing pigeons; a wall of fog rushing down a dark street. (p40)

Before the valise ever makes its first appearance, S. has a vague memory of it after being shanghaied. He is in his little room on the ship. grasping to remember his identity. The five memories, if arranged in the form of a quincunx, would have the snapshot of the valise in its center.

Stenfalk’s Valise Makes its First Appearance

Stenfalk reaches up to the dais and drags a small, worn-looking valise toward himself. S. notices Ostrero and Pfeifer exchanging a look of uncertainty as Stenfalk unbuckles and opens it. Out from the valise comes a rumpled and stained shirt, which Stenfalk hands to S. (p85)

The valise is resting on the dais – the same dais where S. first noticed Stenfalk and Corbeau, shoulder to shoulder, attempting to keep the crowd calm (p95-96). S. comments that this scene is an unexpected intimacy. The first thing to come out of the valise is a rumpled and stained shirt, which Stenfalk provides to S. Stenfalk also removes a well-worn gray suit jacket and hands it to S. Stenfalk’s friends act surprised, but he responds You don’t let a man catch his death of cold. No matter who he is or isn’t.

Later, as Corbeau and S. find themselves pinned down by the brown coats, Corbeau remembers that the S. symbol is on Stenfalk’s valise.

Stenfalk’s Valise Contains Supplies for their Wilderness Flight

On p127-130, our five friends S., Stenfalk, Corbeau, Ostrero, and Pfeifer are preparing to make a secret run through the forest to the city of G– to escape those who believe the bombing of B– was their fault. Stenfalk takes his turn slipping out of Zapadi’s house, and walks away. S. watches him through the shutters, and has a sense as he does so that he is missing something in the scene that he ought to notice. It is only later, as S. leaves, that we discover that what he failed to notice was the two S. symbols cut into the scrollwork on the shutters. S. notices the symbols while he is holding hands with Corbeau.

For some reason it is important that we see the valise literally encased in two mirror images of the symbol S.

Stenfalk’s Valise Sits in His Lap as He Sits Under a White Oak

On p138, the five friends meet again in the forest. We spot Stenfalk sitting under a white oak with the valise in his lap. This is an important clue. Notice in the marginalia on p139, Jen circles the word fox and comments that Fox is the guide and maker of paths in “White Oak.”

Jen is referring to the White Oak Chronicles – children’s stories written by Straka candidate Torsten Ekstrom. (See the list of Straka candidates on the EOTVOS wheel site). In addition, the name Ekstrom means Oak (Ek) River (strom).

Stenfalk is now clearly identified with Torsten Ekstrom. Does this tell us something about Stenfalk’s valise?

Stenfalk’s Valise Highlighted at the Moment the Black Vine Makes its First Appearance

On p154, Stenfalk is seized by a coughing fit and the others begin to notice that something is wrong with the air and the water. Stenalk is white-knuckling the handle of the valise. We find out later that this is their first encounter with the Black Vine – the mysterious and deadly weapon of Vevoda formed from substance that he mines from the earth.

Stenfalk’s Valise is Left at the Base of the Limestone Wall

On p163, Stenfalk and S. are the last two to make the ascent up the limestone wall to escape Vevoda’s detectives. S. says I’ll carry the valise when we go up. Instead, though, we discover later that S. forgets the valise while concentrating on helping Stenfalk make the difficult climb and in the exciting news that a cave has been discovered.

The valise sits at the base of the limestone wall, and surely will be seen by the detectives. Or will it?

S. Remembers that He Left the Valise at the Base of the Limestone Wall

On p170-172, we see S. awake in the cave to realize that he left the valise outside in plain sight. Though he is mortified by his mistake, he is also groggy from his long flight and slips back into sleep. In the morning, when he awakes, Stenfalk is gone and S. believes it is so that he can retrieve the valise. When the group looks outside, the detectives are talking with Stenfalk. S. notices, surprisingly, that neither Stenfalk nor the detectives appear to have the valise.

Corbeau Remembers that the S. Symbol was on Stenfalk’s Valise

Of the five fleeing friends, only two remain – Corbeau and S. These two are now pinned down at the end of a long tunnel that leads to an opening high above the crashing waves of the ocean. S. has just seen the S. symbol painted on the cave walls (p191). He sees this symbol while holding Corbeau in his arms. S. points out the symbol to Corbeau and asks if she has seen it. She thinks it is familiar, but cannot quite place it. The pair then run along a S-curve in the tunnel (p194) and arrive and the opening. It is here that Corbeau remembers that the symbol was on Stenfalk’s valise.

Just before Corbeau announces her memory, S. realizes that they cannot attempt their escape down what appears to be a makeshift stairway cut into the rock face. To try would be to plunge. It’s that simple (p195). This resonates with S.’s thoughts after they slam into the water. The way out was down. Is down.

There is a big clue here. This also aligns with FXC’s handwritten letter to Eric and Jen, the insert between p416-417. Her final words are…

It is my fondest wish
that this note finds you both
happy, healthy, and falling. 

S. Receives the Valise from Abdim in El H–

The entire purpose of the chapter A Sleeping Dog appears to be a journey to El H– so that S. can get his valise.

The details surrounding this acquisition are so filled with interesting connections that there is an entirely separate post devoted to it: Whatever the Case May Be – Part 1, which includes a connection to a mysterious tweet by Doug Dorst.

One interesting detail is that S. believes the valise may very well be Stenfalk’s, but he isn’t sure.

Someone Attempts to Kill S. and Steal the Valise

On p253-256, we see that S.’s guide, Osfour, has been killed by a sniper. Another assassin attacks S., sending the valise spinning and its contents spilling into the street. Just before S. succumbs, he manages to fight back and actually kill his attacker – using his poison pen for the first time. Someone else appears, gathers up the contents of the valise, and hands it back to S (p256). S. notices long hair hidden beneath the checheya. He later comes to the conclusion that this was Sola (p257).

Sola ensured that S. made it out of El H– with the valise.

S. Contemplates the Contents of the Valise

In the Chapter The Obsidian Island, between pages 260-274, S. examines the contents of the valise. He comes to the conclusion – based on the 57 pictures of men and women loyal to Vevoda that exist alongside apparent poisons, darts, instructions, and a pen with a sharpened nib – that his job is to be an assassin. It is important to note that nowhere is S. told what to do – he concludes that this is what he is being forced to do.

S. Uses the Valise to Become an Assassin

During the entire chapter Interlude: Toccata and Fugue in Real Time, we see that S. goes through a repeated pattern. He writes in the orlop, hears Maelstrom’s whistle that soon they will reach land, descends into his cabin to plot the next killing, removes the stitches from his mouth, takes his valise and disembarks to take another life (p306-307).

It is worth noting that this entire chapter takes approximately 23 years of S’s life. The first assassination (of Agent #4) takes place on June 28, 1914. The last, of Agent #2, takes place no earlier than 1937 – the first year Cord 810’s were manufactured.

S. Takes the Valise to the Territory to Kill the Governor

S. meets Waqar and Anca, and the valise is stowed beneath the fishing net of their small boat (p335). Later, S. himself must hide beneath the net, struggling to keep the valise from jutting into his bad hip (p336). Then he disembarks on the wooded shoreline far below the Governor’s mansion with the valise (p351-352). He takes what he needs, and then hides the valise in the hollowed trunk of a dying possomwood (p353). We do not see the valise again until Sola gives it back in The Winter City.

The possumwood tree is also called Monkey No Climb because of the sharp spikes that jut out of the bark.

It is very interesting that S. stows his valise in Monkey No Climb at the very moment he is attempting to Follow the Monkey.

S. Gets the Valise Back in The Winter City – at the Home of Arquimedes De Sobreiro

After a sojourn of unknown length in The Winter City, Sola finds S. and invites him to come to flat on the ninth floor. S. discovers a plaque on the sidewalk below that Sobreiro fell and died from this building (p387). After meeting Sola on the 9th floor, he discovers that Sobreiro lived and died here. S. even hears voices that may be Sobreiro’s final words and scream as he falls (p388).

While talking with Sola in the empty flat, S. watches her go to the closet door, open it, and retrieve his valise. S. then realizes that Sola really was in The Territory, and that she must have removed the valise from the possumwood (p392).

S. then clutches the valise as he “walks on water” over the ice and back to the ship. A question of trust. Or faith. (p392-393)

S. Takes the Valise to Assassinate Vevoda and His Associates – But Doesn’t

In the final chapter, a crew member of the ship helps lash the valise to S.’s back with ropes in preparation for the long ascent through the dry well to Vevoda’s chateau (p415-416). As they climb, S. thinks to himself that he should have checked the valise’s contents more carefully. Sola hears his thoughts and the discussion turns towards S.’s faith in Sola – his trust in her. It is here, as S. and Sola and the valise are all touching each other as they climb, that Sola says something important…

Listen. We are we, and we have been we for a long, long time. And in that way, I am you. (p419)

Our last glimpse of the valise is on p434. S. has just come to a conclusion: he has a choice in the act he is about to commit. He makes the choice not to kill the evil with poison, but to expose it with truth. He carefully selects the potion Avis veritatis (which means “bird of truth”) and ensures that the crowd of a thousand people all get a healthy dose – including Vevoda’s heir. The truth spoken in his speech earns him a bullet from someone in the crowd – probably an Agent.

We never see the valise again. We don’t need to. S. It’s purpose has been fulfilled.

The final appearance of the valise shows S. making a choice that goes against the implications of the people, things, and circumstances around him. It is no coincidence that the first appearance of the valise does the same – when Stenfalk goes against the paranoia and anger of his friends and gives S. a shirt and jacket to protect him from the cold.

Does the valise represent choice? That we all have the ability to treat others with kindness and truth rather than evil and harm – even when the evil is so great that it seems to warrant it? I think it just might.

 

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What is Happening April 28-30?

21 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by Brian Shipman in S, Ship of Theseus, ShipofTheseus, Who Is Straka

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

1939 World's Fair, Ash Wednesday, Doug Dorst, Eric Husch, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Jennifer Heyward, JJ Abrams, S, V.M. Straka, valise, VM Straka

UPDATE – ORIGINAL POST BELOW

Today, @EricHusch appears to have met with what he originally thought was a member of SERIN. He relayed the entire story to @JenTheUndergrad. The meeting took place at 1900 hours (7pm ET) at the Flushing Meadows – Corona Park in Queens, NY, on the 75th anniversary of the World’s Fair in NYC. The person that Eric met with…

  • Carried an old valise
  • Had a copy Compendium of Birds by P.T. Russell
  • Gave a new, yet-to-be-revealed alternative ending to Chapter 10 of Ship of Theseus to join the others (v.288)
  • Had an apparent copy of The Archer’s Tales, with a look promised to Eric if he could help identify Straka’s real ending
  • Quoted T.S. Eliot “April is the cruelest month”
  • Referenced Archimedes’ Lever
  • Claimed he was not with SERIN
  • Implied that @MCrinitus is with SERIN
  • Indicated he knew Jen and threatened them both to cease contact with SERIN and Crinitus – reminding Eric of the torn page in his pocket from April 28

——-

ORIGINAL POST

The normally quiet and otherwise innocuous twitter accounts of @EricHusch and @JenTheUndergrad erupted this past week with a —conversation indicating the Eric received more money from SERIN and a single round-trip ticket to NYC for next Monday, April 28. It looks like something may be happening. Given the recent clues about the valise stolen from FXC at Grand Central Terminal prior to 1949, it could be that we get a peek inside!

In addition, many S. bloggers (myself not included), recently received a MulHolland Books “S. Reading Group Kit.” You can see the contents for those who posted them here (if I missed links to your kit let me know)…

  • @Sfiles22
  • @Sistertsion
  • @MJHasOwlEyes

Some of the postcards appear to be those that Brazil distributed at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City. Interesting.

Next Wednesday, April 30, is the 75th Anniversary of the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City. And Eric Husch is leaving Prague on April 28, courtesy of the Serin Institute, to come to New York City.

This means Eric will likely be in town on the anniversary. Will he meet someone on April 30 on the old fairgrounds, now Flushing Meadows Corona Park? Perhaps at the (former) sight of the sundial (link courtesy of @JillAggieArg)?

Surely it is no coincidence that the press kits pointing to the 1939 World’s Fair in NYC, the 75th anniversary next week, and Eric Husch’s trip to NYC next week all occur so close together?

To make it even more interesting, the fairgrounds were built on the site of a vast ash dump. If Eric does go there next week on the anniversary, it would be an Ash Wednesday of sorts. 🙂

—

UPDATE

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It appears that Eric has arrived in NYC today – April 28. Someone put a crumpled page from Ship of Theseus in his pocket at the airport (p155-156) with a single set of margin notes…

Flushing Meadows
19:00
30th

This seems to indicate that Eric is to meet with someone (SERIN?) in the park at 7pm ET Wednesday, April 30th.

April 29 was an oddly uneventful day. No meetings with SERIN. Eric checked in with Jen via twitter since his phone is apparently unable to call Prague. He checked in from Grand Central, the New York Public Library, Bryant Park (next to the library), Washington Square Park, and Little Italy. Not sure if this is a way to kill time or walk us through Straka-related items? Washington Square Park is right next to Washington & Greene Streets – a nod to the titular 11th book by V.M. Straka. Is it also a reference to The Square (Straka’s 3rd book?) His trip to Grand Central could refer to The Winged Shoes of Emydio Alves since the GCT has a statue of Mercury on top. The library? Maybe this hearkens back to Doug Dorst’s tweet that the answers we seek may be found at the library.

Tomorrow seems to be the big day – but not until 7pm ET (1900 hours). What will Eric be doing until then? What will happen at the meeting in Flushing Meadows?

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Similarities between LOST and “S.”

20 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by Brian Shipman in S, ShipofTheseus, Who Is Straka

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Arquimedes de Sobreiro, black rock, JJ Abrams, LOST, orlop, symbolism, V.M. Straka, VM Straka

LOST

This is an evolving post of intriguing similarities between LOST and “S.” Perhaps one or more of these will spawn some clues. Spoiler alert – key parts of both stories are revealed below. Please feel free to add your own discoveries in the comments section – I may add them to the main article and will be happy to give you credit.

Water as a Key Symbol

LOST’s key symbol is Flight Oceanic 815. Jack decides to become a hero when he finds the first fresh water on the island (White Rabbit). Jacob and Jack each drink water in the ceremonies that makes them the island’s protector. Charlie’s character arc is “soaked” in the symbolism of water (his five greatest moments, for example). There are many more examples.

“S.” has What begins at the water shall end there, and what ends there shall once more begin. The book opens with S. soaking wet, though he doesn’t know why. Etc.

Cork as a Key Symbol

LOST: Jacob explains to Richard Alpert that the island is a cork that stops evil from escaping.

“S.”: Sobreiro is a key figure. Sobreiro means “cork tree.”

Trees are Symbols for Character Names

LOST: One of the main characters is Sayid Jarrah. The Jarrah tree is found primarily in Australia, and primarily in the Jarrah Forest. A key property of Jarrah is that it can regenerate even after apparent destruction – even by fire – because of its deep roots and underground growths.

“S.”: One of the main characters is Arquimedes de Sobreiro. The Sobreiro is a cork tree, where we get corks for wine and champagne bottles.

The Cabin with the Mysterious Guide

LOST: Jacob’s Cabin.

“S.”: The Lady’s cottage atop Obsidian Island (p284-292).

The Drive Shaft is a Mysterious Clue

LOST: Charlie Pace’s band is named Drive Shaft. Charlie’s middle name is Hieronymus. The inventor of the drive shaft is Hieronymus Cardanus.

“S”: Archimedes de Sobreiro references cork (sobreiro is the tree from which cork comes). A study of cork leads us right back to the drive shaft.

Ink on the Forehead in a Climactic Scene

In LOST, in the climactic 108th episode Lighthouse, when Jack first experiences enlightenment, Jacob points out to Hurley that he has ink on his forehead.

In the climax of “S.”, S. feels the drop of the blue-black substance/ink on his forehead and confirms it when he wipes some of it off and looks at it (p452)

A Location Holds a Key Clue

LOST: Hurley once said, Australia is the Key to the Whole Game (The Shape of Things to Come)

“S.”: Jen explains that It all goes back to Calais (p431)

Islands as an Axis Mundi

LOST: The island itself is an Axis Mundi – a sacred space.

“S.“: Eric’s pencilled marginalia refers to Obsidian Island as an Axis Mundi.

Time Travel

LOST: Coming to the island on the wrong vector can cause time warps. The Losties jump through time unexpectedly and randomly.

“S.”: Ship time and land time are decidedly different.

The Sky Turns Purple

LOST: During key events (the hatch explosion and time hops after “The Incident”), the sky turns purple.

“S.”: Just before the waterspouts destroy S.’s ship, “the sinking sun has gone wine purple, staining the whole western sky” (p62).

Numbers Have Secret Meanings

LOST: Need we say more than 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42?

“S.”: The number 19 is the key number of the entire book. S. is the 19th letter of the alphabet. Interesting things happen on page numbers that are divisible by 19.

Maps are Key Symbols

LOST: Maps are used repeatedly throughout the series to symbolize the cartography of the human soul. In Whatever the Case May Be, Sayid Jarrah studies Rousseau’s maps, which also contain the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. In Deux Ex Machina, Boone discovers maps in the Beechcraft. In Whatever the Case May Be, Kate’s toy airplane has the number 5025 on a wing. 5025 is the postal code for Flinder’s Park, Australia. This leads us to Matthew Flinders – the man who mapped and named Australia. There is a particularly important map over the shoulder of Benjamin Linus on his classroom wall. And there are many more examples.

“S.”: S. is obsessed with the chart room and tries several times to get a peak at the map that Maelstrom studies there. It continues to bleed red. The Lady on Obsidian Island confirms that the “map shows it.”

Caves Symbolize Creation

LOST: The cave that Jack discovers and the Losties live in for awhile contains the skeletons of a man and a woman. John Locke sees them and calls them “our very own Adam and Eve.” Later we discover that these two skeletons do indeed hearken back to the creation of the island story as we know it. We also find the coffin of Jack’s dead father, Christian. Christian’s body is not in the coffin, symbolizing his new creation in resurrection – the first of many to come.

“S.”: The cave of the K— contains magnificent cave drawings that, in one giant cavern, culminate in a creation myth.(p178).

Black Rock is a Key Symbol

LOST: The Black Rock is a ship, not terribly unlike S.‘s own ship.

“S.”: Obsidian Island and the obsidian pieces around the neck’s of S’s crew are black rocks.

San Sebastián as the Name for Important Locations

LOST:  The main character Jack Shephard and his father work out of San Sebastian hospital.

“S.“: The hotel where Filomena Xaldera Caldera (FXC) was supposed to meet V.M. Straka for the first time was the San Sebastián Hotel in Havana, Cuba on June 5, 1946. In this hotel, the translator and author would meet face-to-face for the first time, and the final manuscript for Chapter 10 of Ship of Theseus would be completed and handed over for translation.  Instead, just after midnight on June 6, FXC found VMS’s hotel room ransacked with evidence of a violent struggle. On the street three stories below, she noticed the police loading a body and driving away. FXC claims to have gathered up as much of Chapter 10 as she could. VMS was assumed dead and never heard from again.

(More on this)

Black Thread Stitched Through Human Skin

LOST: In Pilot, after Jack is done trying to rescue everyone else, he realizes that he has to rescue himself. He has a serious wound in his side that needs care. He finds a secluded place on the beach, takes off his shirt, and examines the wound. He realizes that he needs stitches. A woman approaches, clearly having her own internal crisis. It is then that Jack and Kate first meet. Jack asks Kate to stitch his wound. After protesting that she is too queasy, he convinces her. She holds up a sewing kit with multicolored spools of thread and asks his color preference. “Standard black,” he replies. Kate stitches Jack back together in a moving scene.

“S.”: Our favorite crew of sailors has their mouths stitched shut in an eerie part of “the tradition.” At one point, S.  himself joins the tradition and learns to sew his mouth shut when necessary.

Wearing a Dead Man’s Boots

LOST: In the first episode, Pilot, Kate tells Jack that she wants to come with him to help find the cockpit of Oceanic 815. Jack, thinking of the long hike through the jungle, looks down at Kate’s feet and says, “Well, you’re going to need better shoes.” Kate then reluctantly removes the hiking boots from a dead body. As she does so, she sees John Locke watching her.

“S.“: On p112, S. is offered the boots of Zapadi, whom we know by implication was murdered by Vevoda. On p119, we read, “the five people hiding in this dusty house, drinking a dead man’s tea, one of them even wearing a dead man’s boots.” This phrase is footnoted, and FXC explains in Fn4 that the same thing happened in The Winged Shoes of Emydio Alves as Alves is “stripped of the titular shoes and put to work in the fields wearing ‘a dead man’s boots.'”

The Reluctant Assassin Changes His Ways

LOST: Sayid Jarrah, in his beautiful character arc, for a time becomes a reluctant assassin in his attempt to combat evil. After what appeared to be a physical death and full spiritual death by aligning with the man in black, he experiences internal transformation and chooses to give his life rather than take others.

“S.“: S. becomes a reluctant assassin, often complaining that he never had the choice but to do things he has chosen to do. After he kills Pfeifer, the culmination of his assassinations, a magpie dies and his ship is destroyed – symbolizing his own spiritual death. After a purgatorial sojourn in The Winter City and counsel by Sola, S.’s final choice to assassinate climaxes in his choice to give up his murderous ways.

Baseball as a Key Symbol (baseballs have 108 stitches)

LOST: Dogen keeps a baseball in the temple with him. It serves as a reminder of the day Dogen had too much to drink, picked his son up from baseball practice, and crashed – losing his son’s life. Later, as Sayid drowns Dogen in the temple fountain, the baseball comes lose from his grip, and it floats to the top of the water – symbolizing Dogen’s future resurrection.

“S.”: On p.195, Eric tells the story of how he and his college roommate Griff blew off studies and drove for hours to make a San Francisco baseball game. They drove back just in time to make Monday morning exams. It was a great memory for Eric, but upon hearing the story, Eric’s father reprimanded him and reminded him of his role in the death of his Uncle Zeke. His roommate Griff would later commit suicide.

The Orlop Deck is a Key Symbol

LOST: The orlop deck is the location of key events. In the orlop, Richard Alpert is imprisoned and almost murdered. He meets the smoke monster. He meets the man in black. The dynamite is stored there. Sawyer meets and murders his lifelong nemesis there. Jack demonstrates his first act of real faith there by lighting a stick of dynamite and placing it between himself and the newly faithless Richard Alpert.

“S.”: The orlop is where the workin’s take place. It is where the crew takes turns writing and S., after many attempts to discover what happens in the orlop, eventually does the same. It is where S. has his vision of Vevoda’s Chateau and has Sola with him.

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The Waste Land

14 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by Brian Shipman in S, Ship of Theseus, ShipofTheseus, Who Is Straka

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Central Power, Doug Dorst, JJ Abrams, Joseph Campbell, Munro Leaf, T.S. Eliot, The Story of Ferdinand, The Waste Land, V.M. Straka, VM Straka

i_land

The sounds come at him in a sonic Möbius of whispers;
the words are indistinct, but the tones – 
Of rage and lament, of burden and cataclysm,
of dissent and vengeance and grief – 
are as sharp as blades.
(Ship of Theseus, p3)

T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land is mentioned on p158 by Jen Heyward in the margins. She highlights a paragraph that describes S.’s first encounter with Vevoda’s Black Vine weapon. She and Eric discuss…

Next paper’s going to be just as hard – it’s on The Waste Land. Which I hated. *

*I THINK WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO BREAK UP

YOU WOULD HAVE TO ASK ME OUT FIRST

Here are a few things that demonstrate resonance between The Waste Land and “S.” (Ship of Theseus)…

Joseph Campbell, a heavy influence on J.J. Abrams, says this about The Waste Land…

The Waste Land, let us say then, is any world in which (to state the problem pedagogically) force and not love, indoctrination, not education, authority, not experience, prevail in the ordering of lives, and where the myths and rites enforced and received are consequently unrelated to the actual inward realizations, needs, and potentialities of those upon whom they are impressed.

Compare this to the speech offered to the crowd at the Chateau by Edvar Vevoda VI during the climax in Chapter 10 (p444)…

We will thrive for as long as you choose extraction over creation, as long as you mistake commerce for art and destruction for progress, as long as you remain drunk on the juice that issues from the crush of a thing or place or person. We will thrive as long as you conflate power with influence, primacy with honor, goal with purpose, duty with responsibility, for thus is our business…perpetuated…thus does it hum with ever greater velocity. Our fondest hope is to continue to exploit your toxic dreams and to do so limitlessly, for thus may we claim our prenegotiated percentage of your—and, in many cases, your adversary’s—personal infinity.

And compare this to Governor Nemec’s destruction of the petroglyphs in The Territory in order to harvest the “substance” needed to create the Black Vine weapon (p362)…

“And the petroglyphs?”
“The chief understands that they’re no longer needed. There’s no proof they were carved by his people’s ancestors, anyway. It’s simply what the tribe had chosen to believe.” The man’s breathing has slowed.  “Their history, mine, yours…A story of…choices. They needed their stories only because they had nothing else. Think of what Vévoda does: he helps people reshape their world in dynamic ways. Inventive ways. He offers patterns of understanding. There is destruction, yes, but it is in the service of—”
He closes his eyes, opens them.
“Of creation. And this creation is as profound as, and more real than, shapes on hillsides…or colors on canvas…or scribblings on paper—”

And in the next moment, as S. is filled with anger over this destruction, he fails to realize that he has already become the very thing he hates. As an assassin, he has destroyed the lives of many in the name of “progress.” In this moment, as he kills a man he used to care about, he completes the destruction of his own soul. This is symbolized by the death of the magpie as S. flees and by the death of his ship and its entire crew when he returns to the water. He has become part of The Waste Land himself. The chapter The Territory aptly ends with these words…

His pages are gone, lost underwater or turned to ash. He has only this empty vessel of himself. He is a ghost.

S. spends the next phase of his life as a physical ghost in The Winter City during the entire chapter Birds of Negative Space.

It is only when S. is about to kill Vevoda that he comes to himself and realizes there is no point in participating in this ongoing destruction any longer. He realizes that there is a better way. It is only then that he returns to the ship, finds the spyglass (hidden under the monkey all along), and sees a vision of a brand new ship with himself and Sola at the wheel.

I leave you with an intriguing children’s story that parallels the theme The Waste Land in Ship of Theseus and how we, as humans with free will, have the choice to either continue our march to destruction or to find a way out.

This story was published in 1936. It is about a bull named Ferdinand who liked to sit under a cork oak tree (a Sobreiro) and, because of that, learned to walk a counter-cultural path to finding his purpose in life that avoided The Waste Land. It is called The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf.

Once upon a time in Spain there was a little bull and his name was Ferdinand. All the other little bulls he lived with would run and jump and butt their heads together, but not Ferdinand. He liked to sit just quietly and smell the flowers. He had a favorite spot out in the pasture under a cork tree. It was his favourite tree and he would sit in its shade all day and smell the flowers. 

Sometimes his mother, who was a cow, would worry about him. She was afraid he would be lonesome all by himself. “Why don’t you run and play with the other little bulls and skip and butt your head?” she would say. But Ferdinand would shake his head. “I like it better here where I can sit just quietly and smell the flowers.” His mother saw that he was not lonesome, and because she was an understanding mother, even though she was a cow, she let him just sit there and be happy.

As the years went by Ferdinand grew and grew until he was very big and strong. All the other bulls who had grown up with him in the same pasture would fight each other all day. They would butt each other and stick each other with their horns. What they wanted most of all was to be picked to fight at the bull fights in Madrid. But not Ferdinand–he still liked to sit just quietly under the cork tree and smell the flowers.

One day five men came in very funny hats to pick the biggest, fastest roughest bull to fight in the bull fights in Madrid. All the other bulls ran around snorting and butting, leaping and jumping so the men would think that they were very very strong and fierce and pick them. Ferdinand knew that they wouldn’t pick him and he didn’t care.

So he went out to his favourite cork tree to sit down. He didn’t look where he was sitting and instead of sitting on the nice cool grass in the shade he sat on a bumble bee. Well, if you were a bumble bee and a bull sat on you what would you do? You would sting him. And that is just what this bee did to Ferdinand. Wow! Did it hurt! Ferdinand jumped up with a snort. he ran around puffing and snorting, butting and pawing the ground as if he were crazy.

The five men saw him and they all shouted with joy. here was the largest and fiercest bull of all. Just the one for the bull fights in Madrid! So they took him away for the bullfight day in a cart.

What a day it was! Flags were flying, bands were playing…and all the lovely ladies had flowers in their hair. They had a parade ino the bull ring. First came the Banderilleros with long sharp pins with ribbins on them to stick in the bull and make him mad. Next came the Picadors who rode skinny horses and they had long spears to stick in the bull and make him madder. Then came the Matador, the proudest of all–he thought he was very handsome, and bowed to the ladies. He had a red cape and a sword and was supposed to stick the bull last of all. Then came the bull, and you know who that was don’t you? –FERDINAND.

They called him Ferdinand the Fierce and all of the Banderilleros were afraid of him and the Picadores were afraid of him and the Matador was scared stiff. Ferdinand ran to the middle of the ring and everyone shouted and clapped because they thought he was going to fight fiercely and butt and snort and stick his horns around. But not ferdinand. When he got to the middle of the ring he saw the flowers in all the lovely ladies’ hair and he just sat down quietly and smelled.

He wouldn’t fight and be fierce no matter what they did. He just sat and smelled. And the Banderilleros were mad and the Picadores were madder and the Matador was so mad he cried because he couldn’t show off with his cape and sword. So they had to take Ferdinand home.

And for all I know he is sitting there still, under his favourite cork tree, smelling the flowers just quietly.
He is very happy.


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Who Is The Lady on Obsidian Island?

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by Brian Shipman in S, ShipofTheseus, Who Is Straka

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Doug Dorst, Floris of Bruges, Follow the Monkey, JJ Abrams, Mind the Time, Obsidian Island, pouting sailor, The Lady, V.M. Straka, VM Straka

ObsidianIsland

Cambin plans, Maelstrom says. Y’got t’viz the Lady now.
“Sola?” S. asks, perhaps too quickly.
Maelstrom snorts. Dunt y’wish. Move y’self. Time’s scortin.

On p266 (266 = 19*14), S. descends to the main deck of the ship and has a curious encounter with the pouting sailor – a female. She appears to be trying to teach the monkey to swab the deck, but it isn’t working. The monkey doesn’t seem to understand, and in fact ends up leaving a puddle of urine on the deck.

We already have several indications in “S.” that the monkey and S. are connected in some fashion.  Both S. and the monkey are simultaneously being pursued/captured in Chapter 1 as S. says Run, monkey, run. Eric’s pencilled marginalia on p54 calls the monkey another iteration of S. On p401, S. comments to Sola that he thinks the monkey is following him. With an implied smile, Sola responds, “Or you’re following it.”

Back to the story on the deck between the woman and the monkey on p266 – if the monkey represents S., who does the woman represent? And what is she trying to teach S.?

Just 19 pages later, on p285 (285=19*15), S. meets The Lady on Obsidian Island. In the pages that follow, we see that The Lady has pinprick scars around her lips and an obsidian piece around her neck (p287) – indicating that she was once a sailor on a ship, if not the ship. In addition, she tells S that she doesn’t live on the island and that the hunters have found us on the waters (p288). Found us. That means she is part of S’s ship.

The Lady also bears the scars from a terrible burn accident. On p372, we see S. witness the remains of his ship after an attack by Vevoda’s warplanes. Every sailor on board is dead – including a reference to the body of the pouting sailor, floating face-down. As S. takes in this scene, all around him is the smell of burned flesh.

On p286, Eric writes in pencil that The Lady looks like Floris of Bruges. Back on p266, FXC comments that one of the candidates that served as a model for the pouting sailor is Floris of Bruges.

Is the female pouting sailor on S.’s ship also The Lady on Obsidian Island? And, if so, why her?

And if she is, how are The Lady’s interactions with S. to be compared with the pouting sailor’s attempts to teach the monkey to swab the deck?

Follow the monkey…

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Terra Australis Incognita

14 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by Brian Shipman in S, ShipofTheseus, Who Is Straka

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Antarctica, Doug Dorst, JJ Abrams, S, Self, Ship of Theseus Paradox, Soul, South Pole, The Glass Bead Game

The idea that there was a probable but unknown continent in the south originated with Aristotle. He reasoned that the known continents of the globe north of this area made the world somewhat top-heavy, and that a land in the south should exist to balance everything out. Aristotle referred to this land as Terra Australis, or “land of the South.” Nearly 2,000 years later, during the Age of Discovery in Europe and across the world, explorers and cartographers still believed that Aristotle was right about this missing land mass. They referred to it as Terra Australis Incognita, or “unknown land of the South.” Matthew Flinders, the first to discover that Australia was a continent, named his new land Australia – believing he had found the most southern land there would ever be.  It was only later during the discovery and exploration of Antarctica that the fabled land was finally proven to exist.

The simple phrase Terra Incognita was a phrase that grew out of cartography to refer to any suspected but unmapped region of the globe. It was, simply, a mysterious land – a hidden land.

Today, terra incognita can refer to any area of research that is still in need of exploration and understanding. We might agree together that “S” is definitely terra incognita.

With this floating in the back of our minds, let’s start with the following quote from page 213 in “S,” where Jen draws a rectangle around the word man-hauling and she and Eric converse in the margins.

He has the beaten look of one of those failed polar explorers, man-hauling his way toward death or something worse.

That’s a great term. In a terrible way, I mean. It sounds miserable.

THE BRITISH EXPLORERS WERE INTO THAT – THE NOBILITY OF SUFFERING.

Seems like you are, too.

THE NOBILITY ISN’T IN THE SUFFERING. IT’S IN THE DISCOVERY.

Those dead British guys probably told themselves pretty much the same thing.

The sentence in Ship of Theseus and the discussion between Eric and Jen refers to man-hauling in general, and more specifically how it likely led to the death of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and four companions on the return trip of the Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole.

Just one flip of the page back, on p210, we see FXC leave us a footnote that reads…

Here again, Straka may have drawn material from the spurious Tortugan Journals of the pirate Covarrubias. According to the journals (which, I must point out again, are obvious fakes), the French barque Belette struck a reef and sank near Martinique in 1647, but was spotted again in 1683, risen like Lazarus and sailing briskly through the waters off the coast of Peru.

Let’s focus on the phrase risen like Lazarus. Mikhail Lazarev (Lazarev is Russian for Lazarus) “took part in the discovery of Antarctica” in 1820.

And this. Lines 359-365 of T.S. Eliot’s poem The Wasteland were admittedly inspired by Ernest Shackleton, a British explorer of Antarctica. Jen Heyward mentions studying The Wasteland in the margins, and we have already seen numerous connections between “S” and T.S. Eliot, well-presented by geekyzen.

And this. In the The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, exactly 19 men died.

And this. There is an ad in the the McKay Magazine Review of Ship of Theseus that looks like this…

The astute Clare Fish discovered the source for this ad. Here is the original…

The book in the original, Ill Met by Moonlight, was written by W. Stanley Moss, a British soldier in WWII. In 1958, he went to Antarctica “to report on the arrival of the first Antarctic crossing achieved by the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1957-8 led by Vivian Fuchs and Edmund Hillary.”

And this. The magnetic North Pole and magnetic South Pole drift over time due to the Earth’s shifting outer core. The two poles are drifting twins.

And this. On p273, we see S. mention eating a miserable biscuit, which Jen circles and highlights. On p231 of Antarctic Adventure: Scott’s Northern Party, we see that often the explorers were limited to one “miserable biscuit per diem.”

And this. In Antarctica, we have Mt. Calais, the Ekstrom Ice Shelf, the Argosy Glacier, and a host of other locations that resonate with persons and places in “S.“

And this. Torsten Ekstrom (one of the Straka candidates), according to the EOTVOS wheel site, held a close friendship with Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen. Nansen’s exploration techniques for the North Pole heavily influenced subsequent Antarctic expeditions, including the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1949-1952) responsible for discovering and naming the Ekstrom Ice Shelf.

And this. The mysterious Arquimedes de Sobreiro, who is very connected to S. (see p404) seems to be, in part, a  strong reference to Archimedes, the famous Greek inventor and mathematician, among other things. He is often noted for his advancements on using the lever. He is known to have once said…

Give me the place to stand, and I shall move the earth.

Virtually ever artwork depicting Archimedes’ attempting to fulfill his promise looks something like this…

26A95D2F-BD54-419C-A858-12647CB86F46.jpeg

…with the point of contact of the lever and earth being the South Pole.

And this. It is in the Winter City that S. stands in the very room where Sobreiro lived and left life behind in his descent to death.

And this. A view from the South Pole shows that everything connects. All longitudes converge here. The South Pole appears to be the center of all things, and all else can be found at a spoke on this wheel. It reminds us how to play The Glass Bead Game.

And this. the first footnote in the first chapter of Ship of Theseus reads…

A sense of spatial disorientation afflicts characters throughout Straka’s body of work — most notably in Coriolis, which features a character afflicted with a fictional ailment called “Eötvös Syndrome.” The illness causes his sense of disorientation to intensify as his travels take him closer to the equator.

If the sense of disorientation caused by the Eötvös Syndrome intensifies as you get closer to the equator, where would the disorientation affect you the least? The South Pole (or the North Pole, depending on your preference for polar bears or penguins). You would be most yourself at the poles.

And this: Clues in the Foreword that point to the first map of the world that definitively shows Antarctica as a single, final continent.

And finally, this. The place where man first set foot on the new continent is the Antarctica Peninsula…

The journey to Antarctica is a metaphor for the discovery of the Self – the Soul – otherwise known as Terra Australis Incognita – the unknown land of the south. The journey inward is as challenging as the journey southward. We must brave the waters of the unconscious mind until we reach the shore beyond to where our true selves await. We must descend into the orlop, the lowest deck of the ship, and remain there until we become part of the tradition. We must spend time in the Winter City until we discover more about who we really are. From this vantage point, we finally find the place to stand from which we can move the earth.

For we LOST fans, this may come as no surprise. “S” isn’t the first time that J.J. Abrams led us on a journey to the soul using this metaphor. If you remember what Hurley told us in The Shape of Things to Come…

Australia is the Key to the Whole Game

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