MD3PAD 4-6

[Mark Smith]

Nice observations, Michael.  Along those lines I am reminded (though I
do not have the book in front of me) of an early part of GR, where the
principals are meeting at the Snipe and Shaft, across a wooden table
which is somehow beautifully compared to the Atlantic Ocean.  The
depth and complexity of wood grain can be both enchanting and
threatening... like narrative and memory itself, as you rightly point
out.

> Another memorable image on pg 4 is "Mahogany [with a] cheaper Wavelike
> Grain known in the Trade as Wand'ring Heart, causing an illusion of
> Depth into which for years children have gaz'd as into the illustrated
> pages of Books..."
>
> http://www.mjpfaux.com/pics/wood/image20.jpg
> is labeled as heart grain mahogany, though not specifically "wandering"
>
> and of this wood is made "a sinister and wonderful Card Table ...
> [with] so many hinges, sliding Mortises, hidden catches, and secret
> compartments that neither the Twins nor their Sister can say they have
> been to the end of it"
>
> Which makes me think of memory, and of narrative itself...