“So, I have to admit I had no idea what a counterpane was when I went into this.”
“The horror.”
“I saw pane and transfigured it as window pane.”
“Completely valid.”
“And my impression was basically like okay, are we still in the church?”
“From the other chapter?”
“Yeah, like the whole line about ‘parti-colored squares and triangles…’”
“Uh-huh.”
“I was picturing stained glass,” Ethan said. “Now, this misinterpretation only lasted a few seconds, with the mention of the patchwork quilt, so I then realized we’re talking about a blanket here.”
“Nice.”
“Did you know counterpane?”
“Maybe.”
“You did? Damn.”
“I don’t know where I’ve heard it before, but yeah.”
“I need to start studying SAT words.”
“Did you get your PSAT back?”
“I don’t think so, did you?”
“Yeah, I think we got them back last Monday.”
“Oh, damn,” Ethan said. “I have to check.”
“Any way, back to—”
“How’d you do?”
“On the PSAT?”
“Yeah.”
“I did fine.”
“Cool.”
“Yep, yep.”
“So what’d you get?”
“Uh,” said Levi. “1490.”
“Are you FREAKING kidding? Levi, you little genius!”
“Albert Einstein over here.”
“Levi, that’s like Harvard level.”
“Any way, want to get back into the book?”
“Okay, yeah.”
“So what I basically gleaned from this chapter is our narrator is completely unreliable.”
“Right, the whole dream versus reality aspect.”
“Yeah, like he transitions between stepmother and mother to refer to the maternal figure.”
“Okay, missed that.”
“Here, see, stepmother, then mother, the stepmother, like which one is it…”
“Oh I see,” said Ethan. “He also says here that ’she was the best and most conscientious of stepmothers.”
“Uh-huh.”
“So, like how many stepmothers did he have?”
“I don’t think that implies that he had multiple stepmothers. I think he’s just referring to the trope of a stepmother who is represented as the anti-mother, notoriously wicked. Basically, that his stepmother was the best kind of the worst kind, and maybe his peers also have stepmothers. Like, maybe he’s comparing his stepmother to the other ones he sees around him in his social circle.”
“On that point, did you hear about Cole’s parents?”
“No.”
“They’re getting divorced.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, apparently the dad cheated on the mom.”
“You know, I’m not totally against divorce if it means that each person can be happier.”
“But look what it does to the kids involved,” said Ethan. “I mean, Cole’s kind of an asshole.”
“Yeah, the behavioral issues.”
“Any way, sorry, I keep talking about anything else but this book.”
“No that’s okay.”
“What else?”
“Another thing that I was thinking about was the emphasis on June 21, ‘the longest day of the year in our hemisphere.’
“Summer solstice, right?”
“Yeah, and then the mention that ‘it was so light too…’”
“Okay.”
“It made me think of the reference to Iceland a few chapters earlier, and wonder is this Ishmael is a man who is really just a boy with trauma on the inside and a cruel mother figure, maybe why he’s such a loner and fearful of intimacy, sharing a bed and whatnot with Queequeg, or is Ishmael just exaggerating the whole bedtime situation, and this is a cared-for kid who comes from privilege, who’s a picky eater and didn’t want to have his bedtime.”
“Alway refusing bedtime…seems to me our Ishmael hasn’t changed much.”
“And how is Ishmael so worldly, like why mention Iceland unless he’s been to Iceland. So, this coupled with the fact that the day is super long and there’s this emphasis on the shining sun, and his mother or stepmother or whatever putting him to bed despite it being light out, it makes me think that he’s on a family vacation in Iceland and having a kid fit.”
“Sorry, I don’t really get the whole point about….where does Iceland fit in again?”
“In summer, Iceland only experiences a limited number of hours of darkness. The days are like super long, like the sun only sets for less than an hour or something. I think it’s called midnight sun.”
“Interesting.”
“Any way, I’m just spit-balling.”
“No, by all means.”
“Also, the mention of ‘our’ when he refers to hemisphere. I thought he was thinking of the hemispheres that Iceland and the U.S. share, instead of like the royal We.”
“Hmm, interesting,” said Ethan. “I thought the whole scene where the hand reached out for his, or was already just holding his hand. I thought it was this moment of spiritual awakening.”
“The hand of God.”
“Maybe he wasn’t in Iceland or America. Maybe it was heaven. Maybe foreshadowing.”
“Maybe he dies in the end.”
“Very how do you say, human of him.”