From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis@sirius.com>
Subject: (urth) PEACE: Olivia's house expanded?
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 17:05:15 

Roy wrote
>He describes his aunt's house as having "rambling walls that never ran
>straight for more than one room at a stretch" (p.40), and in his
>museum-roomed house there is "the smaller of the halls, the crooked one"
>(p.135), and "Down the corridor and through my aunt Olivia's solarium"
>(p.79). There is a flower garden on one side of the room he wakes up in on
>the first page, as there was on one side of his aunt's house. Could it be?
>His memory mansion superimposed on the house where he was living for much of
>the time period covered by the book? Where he in fact heard his aunt's voice
>saying "Den, darling, are you awake in there?"

Crafty Roy seems to be saying that the memory mansion was begun on the
grounds and form of Olivia's house.  Outrageous!  And yet, here is another
strange detail that may back him up: one of the only other mentions of elm
trees in the book tells us that elms are along the street in front of
Olivia's house.

Or sneaky Roy might be saying that the memory palace (i.e., a purely
cerebral construction) has its mneumonic foundation in Olivia's house.

FWIW, Olivia's house is on the same block as John Weer's house, but across
the alley (and thus on a different street).  Since many of the streets have
tree names, does this mean that Olivia's house is on "Elm Street" (which is
not one of the given street names) and the other streets have their name
trees along them, too?

Back to memory mansion: the implication is that Den died and was buried in
the yard of his mansion, right?  (If we want to cling to the literal
interpretation and avoid the yawning chasm of pure solipsism.)  Like Elvis,
etc.

=mantis=



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