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0148 dividing the unknown between us
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Nathan "N.R.", James Mayn
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Sep 20, 2012 06:11AM
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Excellent again, Jonathan. Excellent to read your summaries. There is so much to anticipate; so much that's already sunk into my having-forgotten. I'm looking forward to other readers catching up with you and expanding your discussions.
Thanks again Jonathan; I really wish I could underline and annotate etc but my 1st ed. is too precious and unwieldy to do so. Thanks for elucidating some of the connections.
I'm using the eBook to highlight and make notes. I'm not touching my 1st ed., too.
Days now I've been meaning to follow back and through these threads, but mind (read, my mind) keeps shifting bookward when mind (ditto) has enough spirit to spend hereward, so thus I delay, delay, returning to these threads. So valuable they are (do we say two things with one word? No!). Witness again my journey this afternoon bookward rather than hereward (but what is this Charity, neé CHARITY)?
McElroy has shown that you can name many things with one name, repeatedly. Good going on the progress! Now, I'm still trying to figure out the mystery of one of the surprise reveal. How? Why? I didn't find my answer among the Pearl.
Aloha wrote: "McElroy has shown that you can name many things with one name, repeatedly. "The Interrogators seem to have a problem with that.
Definitely missing this mysterious Jonathan's input, since it seems to have been such a hit, five years ago.
Kyle wrote: "Definitely missing this mysterious Jonathan's input, since it seems to have been such a hit, five years ago."Some good stuff for sure. But I can assure you the deletion was totally accidental. He'd intended to leave his posts when he deleted his account.
I technically have a record of his comments, but not in a ready form to post. Here is his from this chapter (originally comment #2 above) ::
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Exile economist Mackenna sits at home, reading a letter from an inmate (his visit to a prison is discussed in the Choor Monster chapter, and again here), listening to opera. He doesn't hear his wife coming in, he's having problems with one of his ears (and has it plugged), but as he says later, he simply just knows that she is there. He is not alarmed when she places a gloved hand on his head.
They speak to one another playfully, flirting, touching one another. They seem happy, and yet there is a tension. Mackenna's research girl Amy saw Clara out (going into Grace's apartment). When Mackenna mentions this to Clara, she says "You have nothing to be jealous about". Would Clara leave her husband because he has put her in danger? Mackenna is 'proving that a preliterate American cartel appropriated it [mineral mines, I think] and destroyed our good man [Allende?]'.
Mackenna has torture on his mind, that's for sure, there are several variations on the line 'he would never testify under oath or torture' and he knows his children are menaced by the regime, though is sad to think it's only because of him, not because they stood against it.
This short chapter seems much less stand-alone than the first two, though the first two are likely more integral to the whole of the book than we can know at this point.
Let's look at some connections between this chapter and others.
--Mackenna sees Mayn out of his window! He remembers him from the launch and liked him, but was told that he was dangerous (by Spence?)
--Before we are told Amy saw Clara, we can know she's been to see Grace already when she says 'Design your own life'.
--We have a connection between the Mackenna family and Martin Marpe. So it's Martin, not Marvin. They know the free-lance diver. He just put down his dog. How do they know him?
--Clara may know Dave Shae, possibly, though we don't have enough information yet. If she knows him, she knows him through her volunteer work (under an assumed name) at a natural childbirth office.
--Mackenna's doctor 'was the doctor of a famous singer after all'.
What do you guys make of when Mackenna has his wife try to find the bedroom with her eyes closed? How does it relate to Mackenna knowing his wife is there without hearing her? What about the situation where Martin's girlfriend has him close his eyes and listen for the unknown sound?
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I can dig out comments from other chapters occasionally if you like ; just post in the relevant chapter thread and I'll see what I can do.
Thank you, Nathan! I will try to keep my requests minimal, as there's a lot of chapters here.
Kyle wrote: "Thank you, Nathan! I will try to keep my requests minimal, as there's a lot of chapters here."I should have a bit of time this weekend to post a few more.
Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Kyle wrote: "Thank you, Nathan! I will try to keep my requests minimal, as there's a lot of chapters here."I should have a bit of time this weekend to post a few more."
I got all of Jonathan's contributions restored. Very satisfying. Thanks for giving me that nudge to finally getting it done.
