Chapter 12
- (Fork Stoan; "The Bloak as Got on Top of Aunty"; the gethering dream and the 1/2 dream; the outpost; a boat)
- Following their "insterment," Riddley and Lissener continue through the dead towns, Fork Stoan and Do It Over, finding a guarded outpost among ruined machines, and then a dead messenger holding a bag of unusual stones.
- (89:4) "Blobs your nunkel"
From the British slang "Bob's your uncle," meaning "you've got it made" or "it's as simple as that." Hoban points out that "Blobs" is also suggestive of deformity. EE (Several interesting possible derivations of "Bob's your uncle" are here. DA)
- (89:14) "a mynd flash of colourt lites with clicking and bleaping .... a line of grean lite sweaping roun that circel from the senter"
One of the few cases where Riddley sees a piece of technology we would recognize: a radar screen.
- (90:7) "keaping the circel which thatwl be axel rating the Inner G"
Accelerating the energy. G is also the symbol for the force of gravity, or "hevvyness" as Goodparley later calls it.
See Places.
- (94:34) "its a fealing comes on you when youre falling a sleap. Youre jus going off easy when suddn its like a bersting in you like youre bersting in 1000 peaces then you come a wake with your hart going fas"
I have experienced this often. It's not the same as a myoclonic jerk, because I don't move. Is there a name for this? If not, "the 1/2 dream" is as good as any. EB
- (95:13) "MANY COOLS OF ADDOM"
Molecules.
- (96:) "the place they callit Rose & Power"
See Places.
- (96:28) "45 counting me. Which they axel rate it roun the circel you see .... They all ways breed us up to moren a nuff and then they kul us down to that"
As the Eusa folk are "accelerated round the circle" (see 19:27 and 90:7) their increasing numbers add up to 45, whose digits in turn add up to 9. Among other mystical significances attached to the number 9 (see Numbers), it is the number of the Muses—guiding spirits of the arts and daughters of Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. BF
- (99:7) "we come in unner some thing and out of the rain"
The main railway line in Folkestone enters a tunnel near the section of cliff-bordered shoreline that Riddley calls The Warnings (The Warren). Could the railway tunnel be what Riddley is describing here? The chalky cliffs between Folkestone and Dover contain numerous tunnels, caves, and other structures—many of them were built to defend England's vulnerable coast from enemy attack, some were dug to carry water pipes, others show evidence of having been mining sites. BJB
- (100:10) "they wer some kynd of iron dint rot it wer all shyning ... you cud see girt shyning weals"
It has been suggested that this is digging machinery left over from an old, unfinished Channel tunnel project. However, Hoban has denied having any particular structure in mind: "The broken shining machines at Fork Stoan don't come from anything I've seen. I imagined big flywheels that originally spun at high velocities. Maybe parts of turbines, but the ones in my mind are smooth. No edifice was the source for this." RH
- (103:19) "His dad ben 1 Stoan Phist"
"One stone" is the English translation of "Einstein." EE
- (104:24) "Hol it in your hans and you can feal it in them stoans and scrabbling to get out you can hear it hispering to its self and clacking like a skelter of crabs"
Sulfur has a very low melting point, but it is not a very good conductor of heat. If you touch a lump of sulfur, the heat of your hand will cause its surface to expand, making crackling noises as it fractures. BJB
Why is it the blind Lissener who takes the bow and arrows? SW Riddley has reason to be confident in Lissener's unusual senses, but it is an odd image for this grim character, since the most famous blind[folded] child archer is Cupid. EB
