• A Beginner’s Guide to Reading “S”
  • Inserts
  • Walkthroughs
  • Blog Posts
  • Other “S” Resources
  • Chapter 10 Alternate Endings
  • Welcome to the World of “S.”
  • About Mystimus

Thoughts On "S"

~ by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst

Thoughts On "S"

Tag Archives: Winter City

Art, Interrupted

15 Saturday Nov 2014

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Doug Dorst, JJ Abrams, Obsidian Island, S, Samar, Sola, storehouse, Szalome, The Territory, V.M. Straka, Vevoda, VM Straka, Winter City

ArtInterrupted

S experiences a pattern of experiencing great works of art, but before he can focus on them and truly experience them the way they were intended – he is interrupted by hardship and even tragedy.

The Tavern
In Chapter 1, S enters a tavern full of drunken strangers. But then, S notices a beautiful woman in an emerald green dress seated across the room. He gets the chance to sit with her briefly and talk with her, noticing that she is reading a large book called The Archer’s Tales by Archimedes de Sobreiro. But before S can learn the woman’s name or get a chance to peek inside the book, he is shanghaied.

The Wharf in B__.
After the bomb goes off, S lies in a semi-conscious state on the pavement. He has a flashback or vision of a young man on the same wharf with a young girl. She is rejecting him or his manuscript or both. The weight of the rejection in this tragic and poetic scene is so great that the young man appears to be about to throw himself into the sea. But then, S is interrupted by Stenfalk as he is wakened to reality and urged to leave.

The Cave
S, Corbeau, and Pfeifer race through the caves to escape Vevoda’s detectives and, as they do, stumble upon ancient cave paintings by the K__ people. The paintings appear to tell the story of their lives and even their creation. But S has no time to ponder them more than a glance as the trio rushes for safety. Even the paintings themselves seem to show the last cave painter interrupted as he attempts to tell his story.

The Storehouse at El H__
S spends less than two hours on land and probably less than a half hour inside the storehouse, but while there he sees priceless antiquities and scrolls and artworks being rushed underground to safety from the impending innovation of the city. He also notices an old painting of what appears to be Sola, here named Samar, painted by Archimedes de Sobreiro, author of The Archer’s Tales. Before S can learn more, his package arrives (the valise) and he is quickly rushed back to shore.

Obsidian Island
S enters the cabin atop the volcanic island and visits briefly with The Lady. S asks to look at the book labeled S and she says, “Sit. Look all you like. But mind the time.” S flips through the book, where every page is a charcoal drawing of his xebec in different states of assembly, and then realizes he must return to the ship. The Lady is gone because no one lives here.

The Governor’s Mansion
S climbs his way up to the mansion where the governor of The Territory lives. Along the way, he hears the out-of-place birdsong of a merlin, crow, oystercatcher, and magpie (Stenfalk, Corbeau, Ostrero, and Straka). But he is in a hurry to discover the identity of the governor. He finds the governor in an amazing rose garden, but he has not time to stop and smell them. He rushes to his task and then flees just as quickly.

The Winter City
S picks up a newspaper every single day in the Winter City. Each day he holds the paper to his nose and inhales, hoping to catch a whiff of the fragrant ink, but he never does. He takes the newspaper back to his modest apartment and writes in the narrow spaces between the newsprint.

Vevoda’s Chateau
As S prepares to poison the wine, he walks outside and notices in the distance a barn full of ill-gotten art. He longs for the time to investigate further, but he cannot because he must carry out his task. S. has no time to listen to Vevoda VI’s speech, which itself is interrupted later by the sound of a single gunshot. In the cellars, S moves past barrel after barrel of wine in his frantic attempt to locate Vevoda.

The End
It is only at the end of the book – the very last page – when finally S looks through Maelstrom’s spyglass and sees a vision of the xebec as it should be, with all parts in order and every board and sail in place and looking as perfect as can be.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

A Torrent of Words

28 Saturday Dec 2013

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

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Doug Dorst, JJ Abrams, torrent of words, VM Straka, Winter City

a-torrent-of-words-leon-gellert-a-writeraposs-life

While S. is in the Winter City, he passes much of the time by writing in the margins, between the lines, and even superimposing his written words on the printed words. As Straka writes, it is palimpsests atop palimpsests.

On page 380 we read this description of what S. has been writing…

It would be difficult to read what S. has written,
but a meticulous eye might notice,
amid the torrent of words,
mentions of the following:

This is followed by 24 scenes (note that 24x19 = 456, the #pages in “Ship of Theseus”)…

  • a taciturn sailor
  • children dying of snake-bites, trembling and feverish
  • a saint’s manifestation in an oil-slicked puddle
  • mass graves
  • a spinning bicycle wheel
  • a man with legendary mustaches
  • a love-struck adventurer with wings on his shoes
  • a factory fire
  • the lonesome death of the Spider Prince
  • soup lines
  • trenches
  • the smell of warm holiday cakes
  • bank notes passing between pink hands
  • a hanged man swinging from a yardarm
  • a panhandler’s homily
  • an archer whose arrows fly around the world and land at his feet
  • a tent-city aflame
  • railroad tracks that run through a mountain tunnel
  • a vanished tribe
  • a band of would-be revolutionaries
  • a young woman aboard a ship, shy about her accented English
  • an insane parade of monkeys
  • a driving rain of printed pages
  • infinite regret

This is bound to be a code or at least a clue, but how? Many of these scenes can be found explicitly within Ship of Theseus (e.g., a spinning bicycle wheel is on p103). However, many cannot – at least at face value (e.g., a hanged man swinging from a yardarm).

Perhaps this will help. There is a book entitled A Torrent of Words. It is the biography of Leon Gellert, an Australian writer and poet who fought in World War I. Gellert was born in Walkerville – a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia.

In LOST, the episode Whatever the Case May Be from Season One has two subtle references to Adelaide.

  1. The name of the banker is Mark Hutton. There is a real-life Mark Hutton, born in Adelaide, who played baseball for the Cincinnati Reds.
  2. The number on the wing of Kate’s toy airplane: 5025. 5025 is the postal code for South Adelaide.

Also, to go deeper into the rabbit hole, the McKay’s Magazine review of Ship of Theseus uses a particularly long and interesting word, omphaloskepsis, that also has a connection to the same episode of LOST.

Adelaide, which borders Gulf St. Vincent, is the sight of a very important historic event in the discovery of Australia. It is where Matthew Flinders solved the mystery of the new continent of Australia, or as he called it, Terra Australis. It is, in my opinion, why Australia is the Key to the Whole Game for LOST. Perhaps a meticulous eye will see Australia’s relationship to the torrent of words on p380 as at least a very important key for “S.”?

UPDATE
@Sistertsion just posted a blog of possible influences for Doug Dorst’s characters and events in S. She mentions a strong candidate for inspiring the Santorini Man Murders. And it leads directly to Adelaide, Australia.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Stats

  • 557,624

Recent Posts

  • Corbeau Holds S’s Hand(s) Three Times
  • The End of the Line
  • Follow the Monkey: Sound Advice
  • Shakespeare in “S”
  • You Can Find Me in Times Square?

Top Posts & Pages

  • A Beginner’s Guide to Reading “S”
  • Walkthroughs
  • Welcome to the World of "S."
  • An Intermediate Guide to Reading "S" - by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst
  • Other "S" Resources
  • Inserts
  • Thoughts on Chapter 1: What Begins, What Ends
  • Every 19 Pages - A Walkthrough
  • What it Means to Follow the Monkey
  • The Ship of Theseus by V.M. Straka - A Beginner's Guide to Reading "S"

Tags

Abdim Amarante Durand Archimedes Arquimedes de Sobreiro Art of the Fugue Ash Wednesday Bach Baruch Spinoza Calais cipher Corbeau cork oak Daily Pronghorn Doug Dorst Edsel B. Grimshaw El H-- Emydio Alves eotvos wheel Eric Husch Ermelinda Pega Ernest Hemingway Filomela Caldeira Filomela Xabregas Caldeira Filomena Caldeira Follow the Monkey FXC Godel Escher Bach Hermann Hesse identity It all goes back to Calais Jean Bernard Desjardins Jen Heyward Jennifer Heyward JJ Abrams Juan Blas Covarrubias Khatef Zelh LOST magpie McKay's Magazine Obsidian Island Osfour Ostrero Pfeifer PSU quercus suber Reader's Guide Robert Hooke S Samar Self Ship of Theseus Ship of Theseus Paradox Signe Rabe Sobreiro Sola Stenfalk substance Szalome T.S. Eliot The Archer's Tales The Glass Bead Game The Great Synthesis The Territory The Tortugan Journals The Waste Land The Winged Shoes of Emydio Alves Torsten Ekstrom TS Eliot V.M. Straka Vaclav Straka valise Vevoda VMS VM Straka Winter City

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
%d bloggers like this: