4/13/19: HSE 3
I don’t have any immediate reaction to this Roxy&Calliope section(up to the Meat or Candy bit, at least) as it is, Appropriately, Impenetrable u_u
It does, however, really do a lot to set the Flipping mood, and Suggest(which, again, Appropriate; it’s the Void section. Everything’s There).
Well ok, I do have one thing: I get the feeling Calliope is aware of the Narrative, which is to say, John’s internal monologue, written as textual asides, by the authors. Not, necessarily, of what “will” happen(so: his choice), but what is happening Narrativewise, simultaneous to their picnic.
Also, while I know he wont, John should just flipping ASK Roxy about this stuff; She’d tell him. The funny thing about The Unknown is that it only stays that way until you go looking for it. Everything’s There, but you’ve got to Ask(or 1)know how to see it and 2)be Looking).
Ok ok I do have another, another thing: I don’t think John could have ever, actually, been involved with Roxy because he’s a bit too hungup about stuff and non-communicative to be comfortable with her relationship with Calliope, even though I think both would have been open to him having something with her beside, or as part of, their thing. And by that I mean NOT that John would have a problem with their relationship(he doesnt and he wouldnt have), but rather that he’d have a problem with NOT having a problem with it. Like: John both craves and fears “Normalcy”, as the USian society he grew up with defined it, and he doesn’t question either 1)that definition of “Normalcy” or 2)the desire to maintain it which his ambiguous feelings about it instill in him. You see this in him 10 years ago in his simultaneous desire to 1)escape that “Normal” life as stifling and isolating, and 2) regain that “Normal” life once it was gone. Though you can also see it in the intersection of various aspects of his personal metanarrative(like: what’s going on with him emotionally while the narrative of events is happening to him). Stuff like:
- how finding out his father was “just” a normal business man blue-screened him and yet he kinda hated clowns(which he initially thought his dad was), or
- his hostility to Rose’s concern for his emotional state, which existed next to an abiding interest in and piercing insight into the emotional states of others, or
- the ambiguity of his response to the idea of m/f relationships, and frequent choice to retreat from the realities of them to other subjects(like “simple” fun and adventure on The Battleship or, I’m guessing, his Grief with Roxy on Earth C)
ok, I have to stop for a bit to order and retrieve Pizza :|
