Saint James Infirmary 164: The Cone of Obliscence

[Daphne]

Coming Tuesday, February 26th!

[Werdna]

Best. Title. Ever.

Crackpot theory time:  I think it will either be about Dani's or Claudia's lost memories of the NY harem. 

[GodWilling]

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[Chettbaker]

I say Mallory/Nurse remix.

[jmundt29]

No Mallory and Marliese, but Mallory is back.

So, have we just seen Dani's two or three or four competing timelines come crashing together?  And which parts of which timelines are real?  She is a pilot.  Did she ever have school in England, or was this imagined or imprinted as a result of the first contact with The Watch?   At what time and under what circumstances did she tell which details to which of the members of the First Cohort?  Documentation seems to exist for The University of Paris, and Mons might be verifiable.  Certainly her logbook demonstrates that she IS a licensed pilot.  But--what's real and what's B.S.?   It's like sifting through the Manchurian Candiate multiplied by Inception combined with In Like Flint with this lady.

Two other things

1. Is there some organizing principle to the maze of stacks of books in Mallory's room?
2. What does the title mean?  And to what does it refer as pertains to our story? (the physical defenition of the phrase is open to inference, but its meaning in context and relevance to this plot juncture isn't readily apparent).

Lastly, is the pop-up another song reference?  It seems to relate both to Adrian getting lost trying to untangle the Watch's various knots and the physical state of Mallory's room.  Is there another reference I'm missing?

Does Laura live alone?  I gather we've been to her place twice.  Once for the blackout and sight gag of her Octoberfest costume, and once for Ladies' Night because Amy's sister didn't have a conniption fit in the background.

Oh, and while we're at it, where does Jacqui live?  We've seen Deep Black Vinyl, Sawyer's, and the diner, but DPB doesn't appear to have living quarters above it.  Where is it that she lives?  Apparently, it's within walking distance of the SJI in inclement weather, because we saw her go out in the rain to walk it on The Night of The Watch, but we haven't been back since, and we didn't get a very detailed look then.

[laguna85]

  I do not know this will help?

Obliscence
"We, amnesiacs all, condemned to live in an eternally fleeting present, have created the most elaborate of human constructions, memory, to buffer ourselves against the intolerable knowledge of the irreversible passage of time and the irretrieveability of its moments and events."
 Geoffrey Sonnabend

[Werdna]

1. Is there some organizing principle to the maze of stacks of books in Mallory's room?

She is a professional librarian, so it would either be the Do-Me Decimal System or the Library of Sexual Congress system.

Thank you, I'll be here all week.  

Lastly, is the pop-up another song reference?

More Billy Bragg.

As far as the title - well, that's complicated.  Geoffrey Sonnabend, who may or may not have actually existed (long story - look it up), was a theoretician of memory. Sonnabend coined the term "Cone of Oblisence", which is also the title of a song.  Without getting into a long discussion about the nature of memory and knowledge, I'll just say - look it up, along with the Museum of Jurassic Technology.

re: the actual issue - sexy librarian with books.  I tell you, good call on the imagery.

Also:  Adrian, you still should have walked Laura home.  Letting her go by herself is plain ungentlemanly.  Your only possible excuse is that you are starting to piece together the story of which you only know part:  Zenon hypnotizing people aggressively; Claudia Coulbeck involved; Dani's past and its inconsistencies; weird link to ex-girlfriend.

I wonder if he does start linking these disparate elements of the story?

[Daphne]

Top marks for getting the Museum of Jurassic Technology reference. (The MJT, by the way, is a real place in Los Angeles you can visit; I was just there this weekend!) For details, here is a summary of Sonnabend's theory.

[GodWilling]

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[Werdna]

Well, there could be as many as six different 'versions' of Dani.  (Not saying there are, just that there could be.)  By "version", I mean, compelled to behave in certain ways and to believe certain things.
1. "Original"
2. 18-year-old hypnotized Dani, described to Zenon early on.
3. New York harem Dani
4. Post-harem Wilmot Dani (as we first meet her)
5. Re-hypnotized Dani (by Zenon), likely activated by Derek, from which Adrian tells her to wake up
6. 'Reprogrammed' (by Jacqui and Mallory) Dani (as she is now)

That list doesn't count, of course, GodWilling's bit about whether anyone told her to 'wake up' prior to or after the latest hypnosis with the watch, or whether that would produce a new 'version' that we're seeing now.  So I guess that could be as many as seven?  Of course, 2 and 3 might be the same thing.  3 and 5 might also be the same thing.  Clearly, though, version 4 didn't know about the watch, but version 5 did.  Version 6 clearly has 'bleed through' issues that are affecting her pretty seriously.  We know she's a pilot (guest strip, when she's talking to her father), so the 'version' that she doesn't know she is a pilot (version 4?) looks to be in conflict with reality there.  We also don't know if she took that plane as version 1, 2 or 3, but I doubt she'd be under 18 and flying alone internationally even in a private plane.  (I think the guest strip established that she took off from Ottawa (most likely given the DND HQ reference) and was planning to fly to the States.)

My brain kind of hurts thinking about this.  I'm pretty sure I've got some aspect of my analysis wrong, so I'd welcome correction if I've got stuff wrong.

[GodWilling]

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[Werdna]

Yeah, just to be clear: Derek used the trigger on her, leading to the Night Of The Watch, then Adrian told her to wake up. But then Derek used the trigger on her again (at his place), and I don't think anyone told her to wake up from that. The Watch was used on her pretty much straightaway while she was still under the influence of the trigger.

Agreed totally; good points all.  Thanks.  But this part of your post makes me think that your #4 is weird - she's been triggered by Derek, then had the watch used on her while in a hypnotized state - a sort of 'nested' hypnosis.  That may be why the August nightmares have now become alarming hallucinations.

All this aside - is the significance of the pilot log just that it signals to Adrian that something's wrong, or is there something in the log itself that's significant?  (I go back to the Claudia reveal episodes, where the plane had Canadian call letters; maybe Dani was the harem master's (among other things) pilot?)  And when her harem memory is erased/altered/suppressed/whatever, she is handed the watch, records of the harem, told to forget about them and being a pilot?

Thinking out loud here.  I would say that things were curiouser and curiouser, but we used up that expression months ago, and we need a new word to describe the level of my confusion and curiosity.

Again, GodWilling, thanks for the post.  Lots to think about.

[GodWilling]

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[jmundt29]

We have rumblings that before WHATEVER woke/reprogrammed/rebooted Dani and encouraged her flight to Wilmot that she was the "Maitresse en Titre" which we've loosely translated as the leader of the New York Harem under its master--who has either disappeared or is taking an extended holiday or is experimenting by reprogammng himself.

So far, arguably, The Watch has been a convenient and effective prop and maybe any pocket watch in the right hands could be a convenient and effective prop.  However, it should be noted that it apparently broke down the will of some pretty strong-willed individuals (Erin, Mallory, Marli, Jacqui) with very little exposure.  It should also be noted that over and above the basic hypnosis programming prop functions, there are apparently a lot of switches and dials, and at certain points the watchback seems to take on a personality as the design on it mutates according to environment, situation, and mood.  This would suggest more than your average watch, but we haven't seen what all the bells and whistles are.  Also, with so many competing plans and manipulating forces at work, it's tough to tell where one (The Watch) ends and another (say, The Belltower) begins or how they interact with one another.  For instance, Laura is the only member of either of the current cohorts who has been exposed to both the Watch and Vik's derivation of Pink Clouds, and we don't know exactly what that did trigger or could have triggered within her, because we still have an illustration gap at that crucial point.

[GodWilling]

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