<html><body><div><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">I'm about 80% through my second reading of TLA and I have some other observances and questions that I'm interested in hearing others' thoughts on.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><strong><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;" data-mce-style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">The Invisible Leader</span></strong></div><div><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">First, as far as I can so far determine, until the end when they all meet in Leader's mountain house, when Grafton sees Leader, no one else does. Or they pretend not to. And when others see Leader, Grafton does not. From Chapter 9, "Free Almost", when Grafton is being taken from the prison to the warehouse:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><font face="geneva, sans-serif">'Every once ina while our driver said something. He was not talking to me or to the screws on each side of me'</font></div><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><font face="geneva, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style=""><font face="geneva, sans-serif">later:</font></div><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><font face="geneva, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><font face="geneva, sans-serif">'After I had listened awhile I got the idea that our driver was talking to somebody sitting next to him who was too short for his head to show over the back of the seat. Either that, or he was invisible.'</font></div><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><font face="geneva, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style=""><font face="geneva, sans-serif">This, along with the custom of police leaving the front passenger seat unoccupied, really has me stumped.</font></div><div><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><strong><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;" data-mce-style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">Home Possession</span></strong></div><div><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">I'm fairly sure someone or something or multiple things are possessed, but I'm not sure how it all works. I started thinking how people go into homes and 'possess' them the way a spirit might go into a person, which got me thinking about how in TLA the streets are not named, but houses are (The Willows, for example). I think that Martya and Kleon's house may be named Nuts due to the nut trees they have. From Chapter 9:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">'But thinking "Nuts!" reminded me that there were those nut trees all around Martya's house. They had nut trees ...'</span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">And later, in the final chapter, Grafton feels as if he's become the house for a moment, or a part of it:</span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">'Martya was on her knees blowing them out before I understood that she and Volitain were inside me somehow, and it was Volitain who had told me to blow them out.</span></div><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">Here is what I think. I think that he and Martya were really there, but I could not see them. The only Volitain and Martya I could see (the Volitain and Martya I thought I saw) were my idea of Volitain and Martya. Does that make any sense? Either that, or I was spread out all over the room somehow.'</span></div><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">No, Grafton, that does not make any sense. Not me anyhow. Anyone have any idea what's happening here, seems like a pretty big clue. Is Grafton a time ghost, is he possessing the house or vice versa?</span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style=""><strong><font face="geneva, sans-serif">Is the hand Yelena's?</font></strong></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">I feel as though the hand might be Yelena's, which would require some time weirdness and/or Grafton's sketchy narration. In the book, I believe the hand first appears when it runs over Martya's foot (like a rat) in The Willows. This is before the dead woman is removed from behind the mirror. But the sort of fetal position of the corpse is such that it might not be obvious that one of her hands is missing. We have a another dead woman in the story, Yelena. And the descriptions of Yelena, the corpse, and the ghost attached to the hand are compatible, with the possible exception being that the ghost is described as tall while Yelena is not. I'm stretching here, but some possible clues are here in Chapter 15, "Revisiting":</span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">'"... she said, "I would die standing, if I could. Take my hand."</span></div><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">I did.</span></div><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">"You are good man. I meet you so late. There are so few good men."'</span></div><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">Grafton prays after she dies. Later Papa Iason says of the hand that "prayers of the righteous might free such spirits, or at least assist them in gaining their freedom". Later when talking about the incident with Papa Zenon and Naala, Grafton says he held her hand while she died. The hand seems friendly to Grafton, jealous perhaps of Naala, and hateful of Ferenc Narkatsos. Also the distinct mention of her body position as she dies is strange. Grafton assists her in going from a laying position to sitting up, closer to the fetal position of the dead girl in the house. At Magos X's house when he sees the ghost girl 'just for half a second maybe', she is described as 'a tall girl with long hair and a good face'. </span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style=""><strong><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;" data-mce-style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">Multiple Version of People</span></strong></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">I think there may be a case of multiple versions of the same people in TLA. Is Leader just an older Grafton? Is Russ just an older Papa Iason. There is a religion in TLA built around keeping things the same, which may help describe why so much of the country seems outdated, but maybe there are multiple time tracks overlapping in TLA. We have a train that appears to go from a modern style to a steam engine, for example. Lots of seeming fathers and sons, as I've mentioned. Possibly some time tracks move slower than others, like the conveyer belts in the first chapter.</span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">We have two people who pull out magnifying glasses from a drawer to look at the hand. Maybe no big deal, but it feels a little too much like a clue to me. I mean, it's a big magnifying glass, sort of a universal symbol for a clue. The archbishop and Volitain. The first time we have a magnifying glass in the book Volitain is using it to look at Grafton's bee stings. The next time, the archbishop pulls out a magnifying glass to examine the hand. Finally, Voltain uses a magnifying glass to examine the hand. Note that Papa Zenon does not require a magnifying glass to read the tattoos on the hand when Grafton shows it to him.</span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">Grafton jokes about Butch and Aegis being the same guy until he meets them both in the same room.</span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;">The raw-boned, dark-haired lady who wears black and white polka-dot in one scene and quickly, it seems, changes to black and red stripes with a different hair-do.</span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style=""><strong><font face="geneva, sans-serif">So Many Questions</font></strong></div><div style=""><font face="geneva, sans-serif">What was Ferenc Narkotsos talking about when he said "She wouldn't sign. Everything I say to her, it is still no. She wants the police."</font></div><div style=""><font face="geneva, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style=""><font face="geneva, sans-serif">The chapter Getting Ahead, in which Grafton possibly lifts the shrunken head from the Narkotsos' shop, and Butch's severed head is tossed into Naala's apartment, got me thinking about The Land Across. The Land, A Cross? I don't know.</font></div><div style=""><font face="geneva, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style=""><font face="geneva, sans-serif">Russ told Grafton about Rosalee's aunt Lily who lived with her disabled husband. Then there's The Lily & The Civet shop(s). I don't believe we ever see Abderos Narkotsos, Ferenc's father, but perhaps he is Rosalee's purported uncle. Of course, the story Russ tells Grafton doesn't exactly stand up to Grafton's later theories about how and when Russ got into the country.</font></div><div style=""><font face="geneva, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style=""><font face="geneva, sans-serif">When Grafton is following the dark man in the woods with three wolves, the man stops and points and the wolves run off and kill something or someone. There's a little scream. Who did they kill?</font></div><div style=""><font face="geneva, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style=""><font face="geneva, sans-serif">I don't even know exactly where to begin with the dark man with fire in his eyes (who I assume is Vlad), Magos X, and the girl with the red pen.</font></div><div style=""><font face="geneva, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style=""><font face="geneva, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style=""><font face="geneva, sans-serif">Any thoughts are appreciated,</font></div><div style=""><font face="geneva, sans-serif">Jeff</font></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: geneva, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><blockquote type="cite"><div class="msg-quote"></div></blockquote></div></body></html>