From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Jungle Garden
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 09:40:48 -0700

Yves Menard, not at all the author of the Quixote, points out thatthe 
animals
Isangoma mentions are South African in origin and observes that:

>This seems to point rather strongly to a South-American context.

Which is much better stated than my foolhardy and premature use of
"must." (Thanks, Josh. A very strong word indeed.)


>>So I'm thinking that they don't come from the "real"
>>South Africa at all, but from the South Africa of jungle movies.
>
>Or more generally speaking, from the jungle country of jungle movies, that 
>obscenely fecund, oppressively green realm that seems firmly rooted in our 
>20th-century subconscious, without any need for external validation -- or 
>consistency.

Bingo. Good catch.

And what do we know about the gardens and the people in them? That
some people whose psyches are attuned to their peculiar ambiance
wander in and are caught, and become part of the exhibit. (I'm not
even quoting from memory, I'm paraphrasing from memory, so I can't
cite page or anything.) It's entirely possible, and I suspect even
likely, that Isangoma, Robert, and Marie are actually citizens
of the Commonwealth who wandered in and were caught in this way.

Actually, I've suddenly entirely re-visioned the Botanic Gardens
in my mind ... In other words, Father Inire has built (for whose
amusement?) a theme park, a sort of posthistorical Walt Disney
World with living audioanimatrons.

(The horror! The horror!)

--Blattid

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