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| The original number of post-its was much larger, This is what I was left with on the final day of the post. |
I'm really happy to have that done.
Remember when I said I'd like to say something special about every Fantasy Masterwork that I review/look at? (Wait, did I even say that here on the blog?)
Weeeeeell...
About Ombria in Shadow I didn't have much to say for the longest time because behind the scenes I kept working on that aspect of the review. I had figured out by that point that my hypothesis or at least that parts of my hypothesis concerning Faey was correct. But I was stumped on how it all tied into the rest.
One of the most glaring problems then was my inability to comprehend the nature and workings of Domina Pearl.
And then I had a moment of revelation. It tied into a dream I myself had during this period.
In the dream I was chased by a bear. Or rather in the dream I kept seeing a bear in the distance that I knew would come after me. Now, normally I'm not a lucid dreamer and I bearly (sorry) remember much of them afterwards. But I ended up remembering this one though.
So. I kept seeing a bear in the distance. And you know how in dreams, scenes flow seamlessly from setting to setting, location to location, day to night and so on? I kept flowing between various dreamscenarios and at various parts I remember seeing the bear. It kept coming closer and closer. but always took a while to arrive in the dream or dreamlocation of the moment.
In the end I arrived home; from Alaskan wilderness, to corrugated scrap construction towering in the middle of a primordial forrest, to woods, to the underbrush at the back of the yard. And I was walking from the brush to the windows at the rear of the house, one of which is a sliding door working on a set of tiny wheels within the heavy frame of the wood. And when I arrived I looked around and saw that damn bear again.
It was perched on the fence dividing our yard from that of our back-neighbours.
It was already on my home turf. And then it jumped from the fence into the brush like some ridiculously large cat.
At that point the dream was already spiralling out of control.
I ran inside and threw/slid the door closed with such force that it slid open a bit again, and without waiting for it to stop moving or put it in an even marginally more safe position threw the lever that switches the door's resting point from wheels to frame, thus locking it securely, or so I thought.
I ran to the dividing door to the living room where my dad and various family members were gathered watching tv. I slid it open and closed it behind me. I looked at the various members of my family gathered within.
In the hopes of conveying how much trouble we were in I swore at my dad, using various expletives I knew he wouldn't like. I gambled that he would either recognize my seriousness and follow orders without questioning them or that he'd start to chew me out over using swear words. Of course, because my subconscious is a little bitch, he did the latter.
He started to harangue me and my shoulders slumped. I turned around, opened the door and looked out at the sliding door to the backyard.
A nightmare.
The sun had dissappeared, hidden by dark clouds and everything had taken on hues of gray.
The bear was still a bear, but it was transformed.
It was still covered in brown fur, but its arms had elongated.
The upper arms were very thin, the almost human hands and forearms were grotesquely large, swollen shaggy with matted black clots of hair. It stood on its hind legs pressed against the crack of the door that I, in my haste, hadn't closed. Black shadows pooled out of and covered his eyesockets where black glistening marbles lay hidden. Something dripped from its open mouth.
I can't remember if it made a sounds.
Worst of all; with its shaggy paws it was slowly forcing open the sliding door.
I turned around and closed the living room door and looked at my family.
They hadn't moved. They had in fact all gone back to watching the tv. Behind me the bear was still forcing its way in and it would be in the room by the time I could get everyone out of the living room.
At that moment the realization came that I could still run out of the door to the hallway, but that everyone in this room would die.
And so I woke up.
In a way that dream gave me a good look at the nature of the Pearl. Spoilers particularily how she keeps popping up from dream to dream, escalating everything as she does. I wonder if there comes a time when Faey just loses complete control and as a result, the dream just ends and Ombria just disintegrates? end spoilers.
Anyway; So the Interpretation post took a very long time.
I've been busy with it rather constantly. Writing, editing, fact checking, rewriting and re-fact checking whenever a new permuation of the theory presented itself. and believe me; there were more than a few times that that happened. A frustrating but at times also an exhilarating process.
I posted the final interpretation yesterday and though it isn't perfect by alot of standards, certainly not my own, I'm at the very least extremely glad it's now done.
The whole thing took me about 2 months maybe, from way back before I posted the Ombria in Shadow review itself. That original post took a while too. That was mostly because there was so much to look at and so many reasons and interpretations to think up for every aspect of the book, and at the time of the review, I still believed I could fit it in with the review itself.
Obviously that original intention didn't hold up.
There were times when I had given up and times when I just felt burnt out. But in the end it did get done.
Looking back at the whole thing I believe everything interlocks rather neatly, though still not perfectly. But you know, at one point you just have to say; this is enough.
Mostly because the focus on the interpretation devolved almost into a sort of mania and as a result everything else fell by the wayside. It's something that has happened a few times in the past whenever I bump on something that interests me deeply but that I can't immediately find any explanation for and I end up having to figure it out on my own. Most notably with a book I mentioned in the 'Extras' post: American Gods.
I took a stab at that book there But I'm really not of a mind to adress it any further.
Next up, a reading update.
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