BEg2 ch33 section 2 brief summary

[Michael Bailey]

In bold is “Maxine continues to wander”

Leaving Lucas, she wanders the big ship looking at & having conversations
with different passengers.

She thinks some are veterans - or phony veterans as part of some con game -
of 9-11. No reason except how they look and a sense that such folks might
have more reason than most to hang in DeepArcher.

[brief sidebar - DeepArcher is shaping up as a metaphor for the Web.

Sliding into that interpretation, the sharing of information allowed by the
Web attempts to be so comprehensive  you can get almost anything you want
there, (like Alice’s Restaurant) - and its scale is vasty enough that it
can seem like its own world, though you’re continually reminded that it’s
not. Like speech or text, or pictures, the Web includes all those but it’s
still a map & still explicitly inside a territory.

Sliding out of that interpretation, Maxine’s experience involves her to the
point that we aren’t actually getting any narration of her getting those
reminders, it’s all about the virch as I think William Gibson called it?
Realer than a metaphor for the WWW needs to be.]

After absorbing the impression of WTC survivors, with whom she seems not to
have had words, her attention turns to avatars and mementos of deceased
persons posted by family.

These artifacts, with varying levels of complexity, all seem to be wanting
to communicate - she does try - but they are stopped by their limitations.
Kinda spooky. And sad. A reminder is better than nothing for a loved one;
Maxine isn’t really a party to that aspect, though (fortunate she!)

As in Manhattan, there are corner cafes - Maxine stops at one & is treated
to a woman’s description of her quest to the edge of the known universe -
walks with her to an observation deck outside the ship, where the woman
assumes a pose like the DeepArcher himself on the original splash page.

So she’s seen Marvin the rapper and also now this woman in a new light -
the DeepArcher is like an archetype, “humanity poised on the way to the
stars” or something, which once it’s impressed on your sensorium, you begin
to see it everywhere?

Or maybe the nameless woman is actually the DeepArcher in another guise?

No:

“You’re—”

         “The Archer? No. That one is silent.”