AtDtDA(34): The Baby Was Born During the Rose Harvest

[Bekah]

Well,  after some more reading (!) (I'd forgot a lot)  and reading  
further in the same places I'm not sure about the witch part  
anymore.  I think Mason doesn't know.  He's pretty messed up.

The original question was:   Why does Rebekah reincarnated as a cat?

Rebekah seems to be turning into a cat (although she may not be) on  
page 164 - 165:
"Her eyes have broken into white, and grown pointed at the outer  
ends, her ears are back like a cat's.
'But wait till you're over here, Mpery.'
'You refer to ...,'   he twirls his hand at her, head to tow,  
uncertain how, or whether, to bring up the topick of Death and having  
died.  She nods, her smile not, so far, terrible."

Page 167:  Mason is telling Dixon about seeing Rebekah:
"Not yet understanding the narrative lengths Mason will go to, to  
avoid betraying her, Dixon believes every word."   (Which means  
there's stuff not proper to tell):

Page 171:  Mason is still telling Dixon but the Cherrycoke scenes are  
back in the tale:

"('There are no records of her in Gloucestershire,' interrupts Uncle  
Ives.
'What, none? Shall none ever appear?'
'With respect to your Faith in the as-yet-Unmaterializ'd,  Mason was  
baptiz'd at Sapperton Church as were his Children,  - yet he and  
Rebekah were not married there. So mayn't they have met elsewhere as  
well, even at Greenwich?'
'Unless Ghosts are double, - ' ' - one walking, the other still,' the  
Twins propose.)"

"Country Wife open and fair, City Wife a Creature of Smoke, Soot,  
Intrigue, Purposes unutter'd ... her plainly visible Phantom attends  
Mason as if he were a Commissioner of Unfinish'd Business,   
representing Rebekah at her most vital and belov'd.   Is this like  
the Bread and Wine, a kindness of the Almighty, sparing him a sight  
he could not have abided? What might that be, too merciless to bear?  
At times he believe he has almost seen black Fumes welling from the  
Surface of her apparition, heard her Voice thickening to the timbres  
of the Beasts ... the serpents of Hell, real and swift, lying just  
the other side of her Shadow ... the smell of them in their long cold  
Waiting ... "

Page 172 - some very nice stuff there but then:
" 'I've betray'd you,'  he cries.  'Ah, - I should have -"

" 'Lit Candles? I am past Light.  Pray'd for me ev'ry  Day? I am  
outside of Time.  God, living Charles, ... good Flesh and Blood ..."  
Between them now something like a Wind is picking up speed and  
beginning to obscure his View of her.  She bares her Teeth, and  
pales, and turns, drifting away, evaporating before she is halfway  
across the slain Forest."

Page 179:
"His fondest Wish? that Rebekah live, and that - but he will not  
betray her, not for this."

Page 209-211  Stonehenge
"It's too familiar.  I've this feeling ... I know the place, and it  
knows me. Could it be our ancestors? ?even so ong ago, in  your  
family , or mine? "
 >>>>
"But of course, you are a Druid, aren't you, - frightfully awkward,  
thou' how would I've  known, you don't look Druid particularly - ...
 >>>
"...do you still, ehm, put people in those wicker things, and set  
them on fire? hmmm? or have you had a Reformation of your Faith as  
well?"
(she laughs him off)

"He wants to dream for her a Resurrection, nothing Gothic, nor  even  
Scriptural,  - rather a pleasant, pretty Ascent..."

Page 538 -  After meeting a look-alike (representation/ ghost) and  
not telling Rev. Cherrycoke everything,  Mason has a very bad dream  
about Rebekah in which she partakes in a sex ritual of sorts in a  
strange house with strangers.   She reappears in dreams but then  
flashes back to their engagement where it her sad past is revealed.   
(a prior relationship)

Page 540:  "Rebekah, her eyelids never blinking, for where all is  
Dust, Dust shall be no more, confronts him upon surfaces not so much  
'random' as outlaw, - uncontroll'd by any apparent End or Purpose, -  
in the penumbra of God's concern, that is if you don't mind   
comparing his Regard with a solar Eclipse."

******************
that's as far as I am -  I guess she could be an angel which the  
somewhat demented Mason, out of fear of Death,  can't recognize as  
such.  But...

Why is there no evidence of birth or marriage? (according to  
Cherrycoke - how reliable is this??)  She dies February 13, 1787.     
How did she die? (I can't find that.)   And then she comes to him in  
the form of a cat,  and fumes emanate from her.   Or Mason is  
hallucinating.   Or both.

Rebekah died on the same day as the Croatian Jesuit mathematician  
Roger Boscovich,S.J.  (why?)

Sorry to ramble,
Bekah




On Jun 21, 2008, at 3:36 PM, Ian Livingston wrote:

> I don't seem to recollect clearly -- was there some indication  
> Rebekah was a witch?  I guess I read M&D 10 years ago, is that  
> right?  When it was fresh on the shelves....
>
> On Sat, Jun 21, 2008 at 2:10 PM, Becky Alexander <bekker2 at mac.com>  
> wrote:
> Rebekah is turning into a cat probably as a symbol of witchcraft  
> and hell.
>
> a guess,
>  Bekah
>
>
>
> On Jun 21, 2008, at 11:29 AM, Dave Monroe wrote:
>
> On 6/21/08, Bekah <bekker2 at mac.com> wrote:
>
> I'm rather fond of Rebekah myself.  I hadn't noticed the little  
> possible
> connection here, being too immersed in Ljubica and roses.  But I've  
> thought
> of her often during the ATD reading and discussion.  Ghosts is a great
> theme.
>
> Why IS she seemingly reincarnated as a cat in M&D?
>
>