Jack o'Lantern Girl
I read Jack o'Lantern Girl on the plane back to Singapore, actually. I had realized that I accidentally left my copy of The Chrysalids in the US, so I couldn't quite finish the work I wanted to finish on the plane, and so I ended up reading Jack o'Lantern Girl to cheer myself up and because two years ago I read An Unclean Legacy on the plane back to Singapore.
I have the following comments on it. They are spoilery, but I guess I'm not going to bother putting them behind a cut because no one is ever going to read it anyway.
1) ". . .and with the shadow they there dwell. . . ." and ". . .the deepest, bluest skin. . ." make it fairly clear that, at least for some time, Jenna's "mother" was Karen. Wow.
2) I had been wondering forever about how exactly Jenna died and then reanimated herself, and I think that Jack o'Lantern Girl makes this almost entirely clear. Since this is something that I have literally been using as something to think about when I proctor tests and am extremely bored because I just couldn't figure it out, I'm actually really glad that I finally know. But. . . the one thing I still just don't understand is, given that it is now explictly stated that Jenna was able to reanimate herself because she became a god, was she an isn't? I guess it would make sense on a lot of levels for her to have been an isn't, especially because there's no way that Jane is an isn't since that's what Martin does for people. And the end of the story is framed as Erin's question, "What could anyone possibly tell a body, that would make it not just wake up again but make a new fire for its own?," to which we learn Martin's answer, "He said I could." Which is basically exactly how Martin makes people real, so I suppose Jenna must have been an isn't. Which, okay, but really? The monster was using isn'ts as his crucibles? Would that even work? Is Liril an isn't? Or was she at some point? Also, why on earth is it that Jenna was able to survive transcendence - even if she became an isn't - in 1974, but Sebastien and the monster are doomed if they transcend even in 2004? I mean, okay, the monster is doomed if he transcends for other reasons, as well, but the text makes it pretty clear that he is also going to explode, and Sebastien's only problem is exploding, so I think there is something about the rules that I am still really not getting here.
3) "Martin is born on March 22, 1995, at 6:38 pm, on a night of screams and fire, on a world above the world." He goes down into the Underworld and answers the question that prevents him from becoming real. He frees Tantalus. We haven't learnt before how Martin left the Underworld, and we still don't know. But we now know how he comes back to the firewood world (and a very full exploration of "Then comes the axe: first for the wogly, and then for Bob."). Which is to say: "Martin educes himself from nothing. He has no precedents. There are no causal chains that lead to him as he rips his way into the world. He pulls himself out from the wogly and he gives it a little twisty grin." But isn't this phrased very oddly? It goes in line with the part "“You still think,” Martin says, “that I’m one of Jane’s gods,"", which remains a part of Jack o'Lantern Girl. So, Martin is not one of Jane's gods, and he has no precedents and no causal chains that lead to him. But I don't get this. Martin is not a typical god in the sense that he is real; he's not just an isn't. But how can he be not one of Jane's gods and have no precedents? There is a causal chain that leads to him, at least in the canon that's on the web - the monster sent a letter to Jenna on March 22, 1995, which implies that Martin came into being in response to that letter, in some fashion, and when he meets Jane's gods, he could be Lisa's twin, and when he talks to them it seems clear that he feels personal responsibility for Jenna, and he's Jane's brother, for Christ's sake. He created himself from nothing - he was an isn't and it is entirely due to his own power that he became real, sure, that's definitely true and inarguable. But he used to be Jenna's story, certainly? Jenna didn't make him real, but Jenna made him, and then he made himself. Why would making himself real stop him from being one of Jane's gods? Back in the days before the Buddha's answer, when Ella made Tanit or whoever else, Tanit wasn't an isn't, because there weren't isn'ts then, but Tanit was still one of Ella's gods. I suppose maybe this becomes a lot clearer in the second Hitherby book? It's something I really do want to understand, more than I care about where exactly Martin fits into the Hitherby taxonomy of gods.
4) Doing the research for that ended up with far more Hitherby than there should have been, unsurprisingly, but it reminds me of a completely unrelated question - what happened to Ella? We all know why Mylitta was a hero who didn't kill Nabonidus, but why didn't Ella kill Sennacherib? And Mylitta evidently had a brother - what happened to him? These are obviously not new questions. But damn, I still wish I knew the answers.
I have the following comments on it. They are spoilery, but I guess I'm not going to bother putting them behind a cut because no one is ever going to read it anyway.
1) ". . .and with the shadow they there dwell. . . ." and ". . .the deepest, bluest skin. . ." make it fairly clear that, at least for some time, Jenna's "mother" was Karen. Wow.
2) I had been wondering forever about how exactly Jenna died and then reanimated herself, and I think that Jack o'Lantern Girl makes this almost entirely clear. Since this is something that I have literally been using as something to think about when I proctor tests and am extremely bored because I just couldn't figure it out, I'm actually really glad that I finally know. But. . . the one thing I still just don't understand is, given that it is now explictly stated that Jenna was able to reanimate herself because she became a god, was she an isn't? I guess it would make sense on a lot of levels for her to have been an isn't, especially because there's no way that Jane is an isn't since that's what Martin does for people. And the end of the story is framed as Erin's question, "What could anyone possibly tell a body, that would make it not just wake up again but make a new fire for its own?," to which we learn Martin's answer, "He said I could." Which is basically exactly how Martin makes people real, so I suppose Jenna must have been an isn't. Which, okay, but really? The monster was using isn'ts as his crucibles? Would that even work? Is Liril an isn't? Or was she at some point? Also, why on earth is it that Jenna was able to survive transcendence - even if she became an isn't - in 1974, but Sebastien and the monster are doomed if they transcend even in 2004? I mean, okay, the monster is doomed if he transcends for other reasons, as well, but the text makes it pretty clear that he is also going to explode, and Sebastien's only problem is exploding, so I think there is something about the rules that I am still really not getting here.
3) "Martin is born on March 22, 1995, at 6:38 pm, on a night of screams and fire, on a world above the world." He goes down into the Underworld and answers the question that prevents him from becoming real. He frees Tantalus. We haven't learnt before how Martin left the Underworld, and we still don't know. But we now know how he comes back to the firewood world (and a very full exploration of "Then comes the axe: first for the wogly, and then for Bob."). Which is to say: "Martin educes himself from nothing. He has no precedents. There are no causal chains that lead to him as he rips his way into the world. He pulls himself out from the wogly and he gives it a little twisty grin." But isn't this phrased very oddly? It goes in line with the part "“You still think,” Martin says, “that I’m one of Jane’s gods,"", which remains a part of Jack o'Lantern Girl. So, Martin is not one of Jane's gods, and he has no precedents and no causal chains that lead to him. But I don't get this. Martin is not a typical god in the sense that he is real; he's not just an isn't. But how can he be not one of Jane's gods and have no precedents? There is a causal chain that leads to him, at least in the canon that's on the web - the monster sent a letter to Jenna on March 22, 1995, which implies that Martin came into being in response to that letter, in some fashion, and when he meets Jane's gods, he could be Lisa's twin, and when he talks to them it seems clear that he feels personal responsibility for Jenna, and he's Jane's brother, for Christ's sake. He created himself from nothing - he was an isn't and it is entirely due to his own power that he became real, sure, that's definitely true and inarguable. But he used to be Jenna's story, certainly? Jenna didn't make him real, but Jenna made him, and then he made himself. Why would making himself real stop him from being one of Jane's gods? Back in the days before the Buddha's answer, when Ella made Tanit or whoever else, Tanit wasn't an isn't, because there weren't isn'ts then, but Tanit was still one of Ella's gods. I suppose maybe this becomes a lot clearer in the second Hitherby book? It's something I really do want to understand, more than I care about where exactly Martin fits into the Hitherby taxonomy of gods.
4) Doing the research for that ended up with far more Hitherby than there should have been, unsurprisingly, but it reminds me of a completely unrelated question - what happened to Ella? We all know why Mylitta was a hero who didn't kill Nabonidus, but why didn't Ella kill Sennacherib? And Mylitta evidently had a brother - what happened to him? These are obviously not new questions. But damn, I still wish I knew the answers.