Week Four Chapters 14-17: Scurry for the Truth

The Reading Room The Monarch Papers: Flora & Fauna
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It is week four, week four, week four, of speculation and confirmation and insight and lore!

Okay. That was bad. But still! It’s week four of book club! Last week, we drew for our first random giveaway (one post in any of the previous weeks was enough to put you in the running) and @Drus was our winner. This week, we will continue to venture forth and do good things, like conjecture and share crackpot theories. Again, a quick reminder that the discussion points below are totally optional and only there to stimulate your thinking. We welcome all your ideas and feels and comments.

1. Imagination is nothing more than memory transposed, as we all know well by now. And as Itsuki pointed out to us so long ago, magiq would not be possible if not for memory. What magiq have you created with your transposed memories?

2. If you could see the events of these chapters from another perspective, whose would you choose?

3. In these chapters we experience the magiq of the lie in a very real way, as things change and fluctuate even as we experienced them. Things disappearing, new things popping up, and alterations to what we thought we knew. Two realities existing side by side before one overcomes the other. Do you believe, as Marty proposed, that it is possible Brandon did not die in 1986? That he only appeared to have been found dead because that was what Marty believed?

4. These chapters involved a lot of footwork. What location, real or fictional, intrigues you most. And why?

As always, Mountaineers, if you can pick out any themes or Easter Eggs from this week, please feel free to share! Your original thoughts, related ideas, or favorite lines from the book are always welcome in our discussion. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to @ me or another Guild Leader for guidance.

CREATIVE PROMPT: The theme of the chapter selection of this week is “Scurry for the Truth.” Using the theme of this week for inspiration, please share with us your own written/visual/auditory creation.

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So my goal is to visit NYC this summer and haunt all the available TMP spots. I really wanna visit the library and the Cloisters and Triplets Bridge and Central Park. My mom wants to come too! I just want to experience these places that inspired so much of the books and really feel the vibe for myself.

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This is outside of any of the prompts above, but this came across my phone today and it reminded me of Marty:

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My tbr list grows and grows

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I want to touch on number three, the short answer being yes?

The long answer maybe not making sense to others and bridging the previous chapters. I don’t know have some thoughts.

I don’t think Brandon died in the sense of traditional death. I think he crossed over, and as Dey was talking about, there needed to be an answer for that in the mundane world that the mundane understood so cue Stranger Things-esque corpse. I think that was magic created from memories of what happens when little boys go missing for long periods of time, and what we assume happened, so all of the people looking for an answer and wanting closure - not just Marty, his family, his friends, the authorities - all of these people wanting an answer and working off of what had happened in the past (memories) created an answer for his departure.

I don’t think he died then. Maybe he left his physical body back there, and his spirit/soul/whateverness crosses over.

Going to bring up the crowd favourite: King Rabbit. He said on multiple occasions that he didn’t like being in this form, or being trapped in a human form at one point unless I’m misremembering. What if when you cross over, you can’t bring your physical form with you?
Ah, but then there’s still Neithernor to consider, or is Neithernor an exception?

Maybe between TMP and midterms my brain is finally fried .

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Huh, so traveling to the Fray is different and more difficult than traveling to Neithernor? I appreciate that observation. :cjtea:

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not sure how much information i can really use without spoiling things so im putting my queries and theory in the spoiler below.

its possible that travelling between any of the worlds outside our own have their consequences.
Travelling to neithernor, while relatively simple, requires that you dont stay too long or else you lose yourself to it, and cant return to the mundane, like what happened with sullivan if im remembering correctly.
Travelling to the fray may be a simply more astral type of travel, and even with KR, depending on where he is travelling from, he may have been subject to certain rules.
if there are any more worlds, like the place where the council of 18 gates is, could it be possible there are certain rules that need to be followed?
though im not the expert on this surely. It doesnt feel like planeswalking from MTG, more like truly finding the entry points in teh dimensional barriers, or the liminal spaces that connect our world to others.

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I’m not totally caught up with my chapters yet (shame on me) but I wanted to take this opportunity to geek out again about that refrain of the MAGIQ-verse.

“Imagination is nothing more than memory, transposed.” This resonated deeply with me when I first heard it, and it’s still one of my favorite concepts within The Monarch Papers. I know the term is used in mathematics and whatnot, but as an erstwhile musician, I instantly pictured a piece of music being played in a different key. Often this is to put the song in a more accessible range for a certain voice or instrument; people singing a capella to a song they heard on the radio will often do this to fit their own voice without even realizing. It created an instant parallel in my mind.

Everything our minds imagine is an expression of things we already know, things preserved chemically in our minds through repetition, emotional significance, and possibly even the stress experiences of our ancestors, but expressed with a shift, a rearranging of pieces, a distortion of color, a change in perspective, perhaps a different mood or a deeper meaning created by drawing in threads of other memories. The word “imagine” traces its lineage back to the PIE root meaning “to copy,” and really, how much more wondrous can you get?

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This section was actually really personal for me because its when I first became engaged in the Mountaineers. Triplets bridge is absolutely mystical, and was absolutely surrounded in raccoon guardians when I made my visit. If I can dig them up I will share the pictures and videos I took there too, there is a lot. (Also a pic of me on MM about a year later revisiting the spot).

I would love to go back, this time to see the Cloisters as well. It is def on my list to do while I am in the area for the summer!

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I remember coming up with that phrase, “Imagination is nothing more than memory transposed” and sending it to Simon, nervous that it didn’t resonate or wasn’t clear. He replied, “Wow. I love that. Who said that?” And I knew I had a winner. I was really proud of it.

And, lore drop, if you recall, Brandon first found that in a library book, written on a scrap of paper, which was left by our “soul’s providence”, timeswept Sullivan Green.

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I’d also love, if you lovely readers are so inclined, to pull any quotes you respond to during the week’s reading, because we can always use them for freebie wallpapers, social media, and future merchandise ideas.

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The chapter header quotes in TMP are honestly one of my favorite “extra features!” This is a great idea.

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I’m so behind in my reading :laurencry:

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Is it weird that I really love the last line of Ascender’s note to Eaves? “Where all our paths meet.”

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I still get chills over Eaves open letter to Ascender, and Ascender’s response, TBH. So much sun guild sass and power in them :heart_eyes:

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