Notes & specific concepts for concluding the last book, six

             After noon. You and Carol voted and worked in the yard as leaf pickup is posted for Thursday. Carol has a doctor’s appointment later this afternoon. So, there are things to do. You became FB friends with Ann yesterday, the identical twin sister of Kay. Other than a few sets of students over thirty-seven years they are the only ones you know personally as they were high school (from fifth grade) classmates. You are inwardly concerned that you are going to offend old friends. Earlier it was because you had sent a Halloween forward – a German oriented ‘Halloween Stripper’ that reminded you of going off with your friends to the Gaiety ? Burlesque in downtown Cleveland in nineteen sixty or sixty-one where you saw Gypsy Rose Lee perform her tease, the only time you ever witnessed a professional ‘strip’ live. The next day you sent an apology to those you sent the 'Halloween strip' to because you were concerned that you had offended the women because the performance was obviously sexist and the women may have taken it the wrong way even though the strip ends with the woman taking off her skin leaving only bones.

         This is indeed a problem, Amorella. Politeness takes over in my head and I dwell on things too much. I don’t believe I will ever be able to resolve this major conflict between honesty and politeness. The first three books are crude in parts, language wise and other wise. I am not apologizing for this because the words symbolize how things are in this world from my perspective. Still, I mentioned to Ann and Kay that they may not want to read the books because of the heavy R rating from my perspective. I am usually polite socially and as these are social friends it makes me uncomfortable at times. Other times I could care less. I had to deal with writing the books and the readers have to deal with reading them.

         You speak the truth here as you see it. I see it as a cultural discomfort and not an intimate one. Many behavioral problems are cultural and the influences of family, friends and culture in the early years instill behavior modifications into and through adult life. Some become intimate, that is you freely choose to become who you are. Others are more complicated. This is the reason, in the books, that the Dead have time to think out their life and separate these things so they better know why they are who they are. It makes a difference in the long run, pun intended boy. Post. – Amorella.

         Sitting outside the new doctor’s office at Cornell and Montgomery Road waiting on Carol after getting your flu shot and you are thinking on how it would be for the Dead in real life were there a consciousness after physical death. You would like to project how it would be, and you can’t come up with anything I have not already presented.

         True. Very funny, Amorella. I have no imagination other than what you come up with, that is reasonable imagination. I used to wonder about all kinds of things because of all the stories people have, I just assumed that some of them had to be at least partially true. Wow. It is interesting that nothing comes up in terms of HeavenOrHellBothOrNeither. Certainly our modern culture would be different from the ancient Greek settings I am using – most modern cultures would be different. This is going to be a problem when and if I finally arrive at book six. What it the world kind of rebellion could there be? This first rebellion is really just getting started and the key is the mark of division.

“Division there will be, recognized the mighty Betweener goddess under table. Their methods will be the mark of division, not the goal. Nearly seven hundred more generations of Dead before this Rebellion will be resolved by a second.”

[30 October, Notes]

         I see I made a mistake. If you take 2700 years between the first rebellion and the second it is not seven hundred generations. Let’s say twenty-five years is a generation, four per hundred years, that makes it one hundred and eight generations. Not seven hundred. What was I thinking? No good at the simplest of math problems. Glad I caught the error.

“Division there will be, recognized the mighty Betweener goddess under table. Their methods will be the mark of division, not the goal. Nearly one hundred and eight more generations of Dead before this Rebellion will be resolved by a second.”

         Now I need to remember to make the change online. What does one hundred and eight generations really mean? In fact, this isn’t right either as the second rebellion begins shortly after World War II, doesn’t it?

         The time line is the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis in this series. – Amorella.

         Wow. I thought it was after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan or the first testing of the hydrogen bomb. Though as stated the other day, a good plague, one that wipes out half to three-fourths of the world population would be just as effective for catching peoples’ attention, even in modern day. The Cuban Missile Crisis is a strange time for such an unworldly event.

         You are not following the book, orndorff. Being among the Dead is not unworldly at all, consciousness after physical death is part of the natural process. – Amorella.

         So,  for the Dead in the books, what is the rationale for the Crisis?

         Arrogance catches up with the natural circumstance of a modern setting, plain and simple. Within the story it is time for the Dead to enact an earthly-like prophecy for the Living, not unlike the earlier parallel prophecy on the marsupials’ ThreePlanets – one of the reasons the marsupials come to Earth in the first place. – Amorella.

         I barely remember that. Besides, it wasn’t true, the marsupial priests thought the vision was for their planet only to realize it was for a ‘twin-humanlike’ species on the other side of the galaxy. What is this second prophecy then?

         Here’s where your gallows humor shines, orndorff, it is the same prophecy. – Amorella.

         But the timing isn’t right. In the story that is 1988.

         Like you said yesterday, the timing is off, only for you it is but some minutes between cultural time and solar time. It is a bit different in terms of timing between the Dead and the Living. This is already built into the story if you remember. – Amorella.

         Okay, good. I get it. One of the things I used to wonder about is that if a nuclear war had taken place during the Cuban Missile Crisis then we would all be dead, at least many of us would be, so, in effect we are dead among the living, those who would have survived the nuclear war in those days. I see where this is coming from. Very funny. This is the ‘twin earth’ of the other so something similar happens here too, but some years later.

         Not necessarily. From the perspective of the Dead everyone is pretty much dead already but don’t realize it. Nature doesn’t care one way or the other as you have recently pointed out. The Dead just want things better for the children, a better more civilized, but still imperfect ‘humane’ life, like the marsupials have adopted as an example.

         This is not the story in book six exactly but it shows direction you did not realize until now. Besides, one of your favorite stories of all time is The Lady or The Tiger. The concept from Wikipedia:

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"The Lady or the Tiger?" is a much-anthologized short story written by Frank R. Stockton for publication in the magazine The Century in 1882. "The Lady or the Tiger?" has come into the English language as an allegorical expression, a shorthand indication or signifier for a problem that is unsolvable. The underlying allegory is parallel to the dilemmas often faced by participants in problems predicted by game theory.  - Wikipedia

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        Which way does it go? Perhaps, like in book one, the marsupials arrive too late. Perhaps the Dead arrive too late also. A simple miscalculation just like you had in the number of generations, from almost seven hundred generations to, let’s say a hundred generations roundabout. – Amorella.

         I get it, and the ‘arrogance and circumstance’ is not the world’s – it is my own, as I am the author – it is my arrogance and circumstance that allows the books to be written by my own hand, so to speak. Very funny!

         I don’t think it should end in the dilemma like “The Lady or the Tiger”. Serious readers will have spent too much time invested in the books to be given such a conclusion.

         I agree with you on the final conclusion, orndorff. It will be made clear, but only by those who actually read the books carefully, Sherlock Holmes style. When you get home  post. – Amorella.

         I can accept that. These works are taking a few years of my life. Surely the reader will accept that sheorhe will still have some work to do, but that the correct conclusion posed by the final question is found within the books and will surely be discovered and borne out by some.

          If you survive to finish the books, that is a promise, old man. Now post.  - Amorella.