Post by Dante on Aug 3, 2019 1:19:57 GMT -5
Do we ever find out more about the mail delivery? And does Ellington know 'Very Fast Delivery' is a VFD coded phrase?
We see a tiny bit more of the mail delivery, but it's not a resolved mystery; perhaps it's an allusion to W.A.S.T.E. from The Crying of Lot 49. Ellington probably isn't aware of the near-V.F.D. reference she made there, since it seems Lemony wasn't, either.
Kit and Lemony's 'coded' communication always makes me laugh in how transparent it is. Did they really think the librarians wouldn't pick up on what they were actually doing? They've been trained in sneaking around, spying, and using coded communication their whole lives!
It sounds like the idea is that Kit's role as an apprentice was to take interlibrary loan requests. If that's the case, they only had to fool Qwerty; but I agree that their ploy seems unusually transparent.
The illustration of the basement is sort of odd - it looks like a Roman bath or something. Is it actually described as having arches?
I don't believe so, but it's not as if the layout of the room makes any more sense as described.
People have questioned why neither Hangfire nor Ellington got their hands on the statue while it was in the attic of Black Cat Coffee. In Ellington's case, I guess it can be chalked up to an underestimation - she didn't think Lemony would be able to find it and thought she didn't have to rush back to get it. As for Hangfire, well, it seems like he still thinks at this pint that the statue is at the lighthouse, otherwise he would't have lured Moxie out the way he did.
This is fair.
'The sun was dying when I stepped back out into the street,' Wait, it's already the end of the day? I guess Lemony has had enough to do that it's not entirely surprising that that much time has passed, but until this, I was thinking that it should still be late morning or early afternoon.
Chronology is often mysterious in ATWQ. Lemony must spend many hours walking from one place to another, in this town which is supposedly so tiny.
Prosper allowing Hangfire up to the Far East Suite makes him seem sort of malicious - at least the way it's described, with him smiling as he tells Lemony what he has done.
Another reason why I think it's a shame that his suspiciousness isn't leveraged more.
Also, what could Hangfire have put on the doorknob, and why?
I don't think he put it there deliberately. I think it was merely a trace he couldn't help leaving.
Who took the mail? I find it hard to keep up with this particular subplot.
I think this is merely indicating that Lemony will subsequently encounter some of the addressees.
'"My parents can't help me," I said. "They're helpless."' I can't help but think there's something weird going on with Lemony's parents here - more on this later.
Yes, I also found these statements odd.
I'm still confused about the sleight-of-hand Ellington created in order to get the Beast. I don't see how she could have pulled it off.
I'm inclined to agree, though it's probably not the least possible thing to happen in the series.
It's weird that Lemony refers to Stew as 'Stewie' in the narration. I think this is the only time he does so, unless he does it another time sarcastically right after his parents had called him that.
His parents call him that on page 145, at least, but it is a more distant callback than I'd remembered.