11 KiB
Unsong Chapter 60: O Rose, Thou Art Sick
-
Author: u/over_who Aleph you are going to die*
-
Score: 50
-
Created: 2017-02-19T21:46:05
Post:
Comments:
u/696e6372656469626c65 [+35] I think, therefore I am pretentious. (3 hours later)
Can I just take a moment to say that I really, really love Scott's writing style? I mean, look at this:
Anyone who gave their real name in a business like this was either a fool, or else so arrogant as to defy belief.
“And I’m Dylan Alvarez.
...
Not that he didn’t know. Head as smooth as an apple, frame that looked like she could stand to gain forty pounds or so, desperate look in her eyes. And here she was, seeking illicit magical help. Cancer, that was what it was. He could see it from a mile away.
“I want you to teach me to summon demons.”
...
She looked familiar. Alvarez squinted. If she had a little more flesh on her bones, a bit more hair, then…he still wouldn’t be able to place her. Damn.
...
He took a copy of the Greater Key Of Solomon off his shelf. Then a few other grimoires. The Goetia. The Sacred Magic of Abramelin The Mage. The Antichrist’s Cookbook. None were relevant to the issue at hand, but he was a ritualist; he played to an audience. Opening a grimoire was a way of saying hey, I’m serious about this demonology thing.
This is gold, man.
EDIT: Also, I just realized who Dylan reminds me of so much--Jack Slash, from Worm. The same charisma, the same amorality, the same flair for the theatrical (though in Dylan's case that last part is actually necessary to his line of work). I'm not sure what it says about me that I enjoy reading characters like that so much.
u/fubo [+14] (3 hours later)
I can see that comparison. Dylan always seems to be playing to a larger audience, though — maybe the largest audience, the universe itself — whereas Jack doesn't seem to really need an audience other than his victim.
There's also a bit of Regent in the way Dylan can gleefully show off his control of a situation. (Think Regent and Shatterbird, for instance.)
u/ScottAlexander [+10] (7 hours later)
Also, I just realized who Dylan reminds me of so much--Jack Slash, from Worm. The same charisma, the same amorality, the same flair for the theatrical.
Many commenters have already worked out that Dylan is the subject of the "Satan" verse in American Pie, eg "as I watched him on the stage my hands were clenched in fists of rage". That means that he has to do all the other things mentioned in that verse.
So, if Dylan is kabbalistically equivalent to Jack, then - Jack Slash sat on a candlestick, 'cause fire is the Devil's only friend.
u/Bowbreaker [+1] Solitary Locust (a day later)
You think Jack Slash ever sat on Burnscar's lap or something?
u/Frommerman [+1] (3 days later)
I'd be shocked if he didn't. Not that he had sex with her, just that he might have used close proximity and the implication that she could kill him right now but she'll choose not to as a means of control.
u/pku31 [+4] (4 hours later)
He reminds me of heath ledger's joker.
u/ketura [+4] Organizer (17 hours later)
Yeah, the writing style reminds me so much of Douglas Adams. It's uncanny.
u/over_who [+14] Aleph you are going to die (a minute later)
Short but thought provoking. I feel like once I know the ending of Unsong, I'm going to reread this whole book and see tons of answers where I didn't know there were questions.
u/FeluriansCloak [+14] (55 minutes later)
Just to be clear, this is like 85% likely the preamble to Robin either summoning or becoming the Other King, right?
, whatever it is you want from him – it’s not worth it.” “I think it will be,” said Ms. Rivers. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Alvarez.”
That seems to definitely support this view.
u/pku31 [+7] (4 hours later)
Alternatively, the source of Malia ngo (which may or may not be related).
u/Escapement [+2] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (15 hours later)
Is Malia Ngo's name kabbalistically relevent somehow? (malignant cancer and malia gno seem to be made of similar letters...)
u/None [+12] (23 hours later)
"Malia" means "bad", but is also a Hawaiian variant of the name "Mary" (note that this chapter is set in Magdalena - in the madonna/whore duality, Magdalene is the bad Mary - but note as well that both Virgin and Magdalene are good figures), "Ngo" is either non-government organization or a Vietnamese pop album by artist Quang Ha - in Vietnamese, "Ngo" means "look". We might thus take her name to mean "Behold the evil one!", or perhaps "A whore for an NGO."
Malia Ngo is an anagram of "Magnolia", which ultimately derives from "magnus", meaning "great". It gets there via Pierra Magnol, the French botanist most famous for setting the categorization of plants still in use today. In 1720, he published in one paper a pair of treatises that each focused on two divisions of plants, a duality that echoes God's two major plants in the Garden; life and knowledge. The magnolia plant symbolizes feminine beauty and is believed to be medicinal in Asian cultures (which, per Ngo, are assuredly relevant). Note that "shrub" is one of the categories Magnol used - and that the rose plant is also a shrub. "Oh rose, you are sick"? Or perhaps "Oh magnolia, you are sick"?
Factor in the name "Lola Rivers" as well - Lola is short for "Dolores", meaning sad, and "Rivers" is kabbalistically equivalent to "Reverse" (see chapter 3, among others) - thus we may understand her fake name to be "Reverse sadness", but nominative determinism suggests this to be a poor name to choose indeed - if Malia is Lola is Robin, then we may understand this pseudonym to be a foretelling: Robin is attempting to reverse the course of heaven and earth - and her own husband - to end suffering and the sorrow it brings, but in doing so has reversed her own moral arc and is set on a path of despair. However, this reversal may allow Malia Ngo's name to be inverted as well, which would produce something like "do not see goodness", a useful warning when none may look on the face of God and live.
We only have the question of Dylan. If he enabled this horrific set of events, then the fact that he's aiming to take down Malia now may be why the universe is letting him count as a good guy: his moral arc is towards mitigating the damage of his greatest mistake. However, it may also be setting him up as a fall guy (which is appropriate - note his similarity to Herod and other villains in killing all of his enemies except one, and the hubris in then taking this person into his own ranks) and the slaying of Malia Ngo may be a terrible mistake, an evil only allowed to happen because Dylan refuses to doubt himself.
Thus, we can conclude that Malia Ngo summoned Thamiel, became tainted and radiates evil, but is nonetheless a force for goodness and her impending assassination may be part of the cause of the apocalypse, or we can conclude that Malia Ngo summoned Thamiel, became "sick" and surrendered to evil, and that her impending assassination is one of the ways that justice will be done through the end of the world.
u/None [+6] (2 days later)
In quite nearly any other context, I'd be worried about your mental health about now.
u/Frommerman [+2] (3 days later)
This is why UNSONG is best song.
u/waylandertheslayer [+3] (20 hours later)
Scott's already mentioned that 'Malia' means bad, in the Obama interlude, and that Ngo = NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation) earlier on, I think. Those seem to be the two main threads you could pull out of the name.
u/MugaSofer [+1] (6 days later)
UNSONG is more of a governmental organization, though.
u/Fredlage [+8] (5 minutes later)
Well, who would've guessed, a chapter where Dylan isn't insufferable. I wonder if this whole summoning thing affected him somehow?
u/ulyssessword [+15] (an hour later)
He may not be insufferable, but he is still so arrogant as to defy belief.
u/CaseyAshford [+8] (13 minutes later)
He just trivially allowed a woman dying of Cancer to make an incredibly horrible mistake that could quite easily end up with her going on some kind of rampage. I view that as pretty insufferable and as a clear demonstration of his lack of morality.
u/696e6372656469626c65 [+15] I think, therefore I am pretentious. (3 hours later)
Well, I mean, yeah, he's obviously still an amoral bastard, but I'm not sure what that has to do with him being "insufferable"?
u/Evan_Th [+5] Sunshine Regiment (8 hours later)
As I said in the comments on Scott's site, this was also back when Dylan was working off the respectable aura of ritual magic, rather than the irreverent aura of placebomancy. If he's smart - and he is, at least in this way - that'd cause him to present himself very, very differently.
u/CeruleanTresses [+5] (42 minutes later)
Robin under a pseudonym, maybe? Not sure if the timing works.
u/UPBOAT_FORTRESS_2 [+4] (17 hours later)
In not-a-coincidence, the "Comet King visits Hell" arc is entirely pretty recent and thus easy to check
This chapter - September 3, 1999 (New Mexico)
Robin talks to TCK - August 1, 1999
TCK visits Hell - July 1999In the other direction, I searched a PDF copy for Never Summer and found the date for that - July 2001, in chapter 30
In March 2001, the necromancer seized control of Vegas in a spectacular coup. [...] The Comet King, still brokenhearted, at first refused to leave his mourning chamber. But when his children begged and cajoled him, he rose from his bed, gathered his armies, and took up the great sword Sigh for the last time. He marched west. The Other King and his undead legions marched east. On July 29 they met in the Never Summer Mountains near Fort Collins[.]
u/waylandertheslayer [+4] (a day later)
This seems amusing (and relevant to the Unsong readership) - new SMBC on anti-theodicy
u/monkyyy0 [+1] (3 hours later)
Is this robin or unsong lady?