"He thinks he's hallucinating"

[bandwraith at aol.com]

It seems to me (always a risky venture), that
this aside(?) by Shasta, during the opening scene
of IV, is more significant than meets the mind's
ear. Who is she talking to? The easy, logical
answer is- to herself, and the narrator is sharing
this with us. Which, of course, being easy and
logical, I reject almost by reflex.There are a
couple- 2.7181... other choices, one of which I
prefer because it makes the story more intriguing
for me (my main criteria).

The first is that she is half talking to herself, as
well as to doc, in a manner of "in joke" style of
 mutual dialogue, prolly developed over the course
of their relationhip, by which they critique eachother,
to eachother, invoking the third person pronoun
instead of "you", in order to soften any possible
offense to their mate. Plausible, mildly interesting
as insight into their relationship, but not good
enough for me, especially in the all important
opening scene of a P. novel, whence things are
usually embued with heightened significance.

Next up would be a post-modernist take: Shasta
is addressing the reader directly. It's happened
before in P. novels. It's possible, but it doesn't
seem to fit his usual use of the technique, where
the narrator directly addresses the reader, not
the characters.

Finally, my preference- Shasta, in her new and
more elaborate "flatlander gear," is wearing a
wire. She is commenting, under her breath, to
her lapel- and to her control(s) about doc's
initial state of mind on seeing there, after all this
time, in this new updated version.

The rest of the novel, then, would be an exercise,
at least in part, to determine who is on the other
side of the wire.

It's how my screenplay would open, at any rate.