ATD the norse/nunatak/serpent/odialesque thing
John BAILEY
JBAILEY at theage.com.au
Sun Apr 1 22:05:31 CDT 2007
Robin wrote:
"If the Dante arch is indeed a portal, what exactly is it a portal into,
though? Another dimension, or another time? Of course, the line between
dimensions and time is a fluid one in AtD, but it seems to me that the
emphasis in the description of the Dante arch on p. 401 is on time:
"They approached a memorial arch, gray and time-corroded, seeming to
date from some ancient catastrophe, far older than the city." This seems
puzzling, ne?
The catastrophe is caused by the ancient force of the Figure, but the
catastrophe itself is surely not ancient. Or is it?"
Maybe it's more to do with memory - ironic that a "memorial" arch is
used to introduce a terrible catastrophe already forgotten. Part of the
uncanniness of the NYC destruction is the way nobody seems to remember
it. Something about the modern city's ability to replace itself, to
replace historical memory with symbols or icons that don't act as
memorial, only simulations?
As for the arch being a portal, I think of it (and other arches in the
novel) more as thresholds - not joining two distinct places but dividing
a fluid space. Drawing a line in the sand, as it were, saying "here" is
now different from "there". Crossing the threshold means acknowledging
that difference, interpolating it.
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