philosophy, psychology and other long words beginning with p. discussion

Originally the second chapter (right after the prologue), this was moved to be the second to last chapter. It makes more sense there, after all of Agrippin's explanations, and makes predictions for the final chapter.

Very interesting to hear that it moved...

Chapter 18 Behind the Scenes

Originally this was going to be chapter 2. Chapter 1 is Marigold’s one-page prologue, so this really would have been at the beginning of the book. There were a few reasons for that:

-It would have been a mood-setter.

-If it were written five hundred years or so before Lavender and Marigold’s journey, it would have kept the chapters in chronological order, for the most part.

-A lot of the more famous mythology is written in meter. I thought it appropriate to say early on ‘this is mythology’ with a short chapter that actually felt like it might have really been written three thousand years ago.

Over time I got more secure with certain chapters and more uncertain about others. This was one of the ones I felt more uncertain about over time. When I began looking for a publisher, a lot of them want the first three chapters in the submission. That’s all they’ll read before asking for more. So, for me, that meant a one-page prologue, a weird chapter with quatrains written in meter, and one ‘real chapter’ (Heather’s Account). Or, I could send them five chapters when they asked for three, and an explanation, “I know you asked for three but let me explain why I didn’t follow your submission guidelines…” Not a good way to start.

The reason publishers only want the first three chapters is because a lot of readers make up their mind in the first three chapters, too. Since the first three chapters are so important, it was too risky to have Polaris’ quatrains leading off.

So, where to put them? Or get rid of the chapter? Agrippin’s chapter is full of reveals and explanations about the true origins of Canada, Polaris’ origin story, and even the origin story of the quatrains themselves. We’ve read a few throughout the story, so we’ve seen them before. But now we understand their origin and the double-meanings behind a lot of them, and in the next chapter some of the quatrains predicting the future will be fulfilled, so it’s a perfect place to sandwich a bunch of them, as Marigold says, “For reference and relevance.” And it is Marigold who put this whole book together (for her contemporaries), so it’s her that placed these quatrains where they are.

For the record, since I’ve been talking about him a lot, I’m going to give a disclaimer for my own sake. I don’t place any weight into Nostradamus’ predictions. I see him as a man who had an ability to write eerie, interesting verse, and someone who found a way to agitate the soul in a fun way, but not a man with any ability to predict the future. Anyway, Nostradamus numbered his quatrains, usually grouping 100 at a time. I thought about numbering the quatrains, but that could actually paint me into a corner for future sequels. It’s just better to keep me out of trouble if the characters quote the quatrain without a sequential reference, especially since we’re supposedly reading the first and last batch of quatrains in this chapter. If I number the last batch, that puts a cap on it.

I wanted a certain symmetry in the beginning batch. A quatrain is four lines, and I wanted four quatrains, making 16 total lines in a 4x4 pattern. This is originally how it was, but the fourth group of quatrains (quatrains 13-16) were just too much. Within each of the remaining three groups of quatrains, the first quatrain of each (quatrains 1, 5, and 9) had eight syllables per line, making them iambic tetrameter. Quatrains 2, 6, and 10 had two extra syllables per line, and so on. In short, each line of the twelve beginning quatrains have eight syllables for the first quatrain, then 10, 12, 14, 8, 10, 12, 14, 8, 10, 12, 14. Just more symmetry I was hoping for. The problem, which I left in there, is that going from 8 to 10 then 12 throws off the rhythm in the reader’s head. Going from 8 to 12 isn’t a problem. It’s the 10 (pentameter) that disrupts the rhythm.

For the future-predicting quatrains, I didn’t bother with the symmetry. I just didn’t have enough to say to form any patterns, and didn’t worry about it.

So what do they mean, anyway?

It starts off with Polaris talking about how he came from his home, a star in the heavens, abandoning this home and coming to earth. He discusses an oil and being a slave, which is how they conducted their slave break: starting a big fire with oil.

He then goes into the importance of following his teachings for salvation, which would seem like instructions on being faithful and obedient, but is really more about surviving the slave break and difficult travels that will ensue to find a new place to live. Note that it also says, “a north Polaris faith, Celestial and true.” That’s a reference to True North, which Polaris is, compared to Magnetic North, which the Feathermen favor as the better guidance of the two.

He then goes into discussing how to use your life. It sounds like ethical codes, don’t commit suicide, that sort of thing, but with our extra background (from Agrippin’s chapter) on the original slave break, it’s also saying that we’ll need warm bodies when we found our new culture. So don’t kill yourself or lose hope, hang in there, oh, but if you die defending our new country, that’s okay.

It talks then about emerging from darkness, “Until the day the sun will rise and light the dark of space.” The slave break was during the season of darkness, when the sun almost never appears that far north. He’s saying that when they found their new culture, shortly after that the sun will start to dominate and it will be a bright new day for Canada.

Then he talks about the possibility of meeting up with other humans that already live there, if that happens. “The pilgrim” will be the slaves, and “nomad” would be anybody already living there.

As for The Future and the End of Time…

“The brush that lives by thorn” is Siberia. He’s saying “live by the thorn, die by the thorn.”

“The race that seeks to ring a greater deathly bell” is any culture willing to tolerate a huge weapon that could wipe out large areas. He’s saying that such a culture will kill themselves and peaceful people in the process. Live by the atom bomb, die by the atom bomb. That atom bomb will have a place in the final chapter, not as an actual atom bomb, but as a weapon capable of wiping out large areas.

The rest I can’t really get into without giving away too much about the final chapter. But, when the event that it predicts happens, Marigold will re-quote the quatrain to remind us what it means.

Thanks as always for reading, and enjoy the end! Next chapter is the longest one in this book, and at fifty pages, it’s high in the running for the longest chapter in any book.