Ahh! Sorry this is so late today. Between a cold, no sleep and a cranky toddler, I totally forgot what day of the week it was. Anyways, without further ado, let's jump in.
Ch. 34
The scene in this chapter opens and reads almost akin to a movie. The camera starts at the Cigar store front, as off in the periphery the audience is made aware of a parade happening through sound first. Bradbury describes the “Sunbright cymbals”, the “flourished drums”, and “the old-woman shriek of the calliope”and then through flashes, we catch glimpses of the parade.. The camera stays trained on the Cigar store front and it’s Wooden Indian, and then slowly pans down to the street, following the shadow of the statue’s hatchet. It then focuses on a silver grate in the sidewalk. We see as hundreds of feet pass over the grate, dropping pennies, trash and other miscellaneous items as they walk by. The camera then zooms in even further, allowing us to notice two shadows huddled in the dark space beneath the grill. It’s Will and Jim, hiding from the parade.
“Crouched knee to knee, heads up, eyes alert, they sucked their breaths like iron Popsicles.” Bradbury wants us to feel the tension they feel, watching person after person go overhead, and hoping that they pass unnoticed. Jim asks Will what they are doing under there and suggests that they leave, but Will tells him no. They watch Charles go by, and Will thinks about calling out to him, but Charles hurries away before Will can give in to the temptation.
Suddenly a small boy drops his gum into the grate and begins to fish for it. At that moment, the parade stops its progress and begins to disperse into the crowd, handing out flyers, talking to onlookers, etc. The chapter ends with the little boy calling to his mother: “Look Ma! There!”
Augh! Such tension! Will the boys get noticed?
Ch. 35
The story now jumps to Charles, who is getting a cup of coffee at Ned’s when Mr. Dark sits down at the counter next to him. I love the way we are introduced to the idea that it’s Mr. Dark. Bradbury is letting the tension build, and only gives us a small piece, which is so much more horrifying than just saying “The bell jingled as the door was opened. There stood Mr. Dark.” Instead we are simply told: “The door swung wide,someone entered and splayed his right hand on the counter. Charles stared….there was a single eye tattooed on the back of each finger”. It’s deliciously creepy because we as the audience know who this man is and to be afraid of him, but Charles has no idea of what has been happening up till this point.
We now jump back to the boys under the sidewalk. The boy continues to call for his mom, and manages to catch the attention of the Dwarf-who-used-to-be-Fury. The boys attempt to squish themselves invisible into the corners of their hidey-hole as the mother of the little boy pulls him away, but it’s all for naught. The Dwarf looks down and sees them. As he looks, Will notices that somehow they’ve turned him more machine than human. For the third time, someone associated with the carnival has their eyes compared to Cameras.
What do you think Bradbury is trying to say with this continued motif?
The dwarf sees but doesn’t seem to recogonize, like a camera with film that needs to be developed. Instead he “photographs” them and, distracted by the laughter of children, skips off.
The dwarf is a great example of how the Carnival can completely break a person. Do you think Jim is beginning to see the Carnival for what it is, or is he still drawn to the idea of it’s power?
The story again jumps back to Charles. (This back-and-forth narrative serves to continually heighten the tension until both parties are drawn together later in the chapter.) Charles is finishing up his third cup as he turns to leave and notices the Illustrated Man (aka Mr. Dark) staring at him. Charles nods and leaves as he hears Mr. Dark ask about two boys he’s looking for. Ned seems to start to answer him, but Charles leaves before he can hear the answer, but it seems the Illustrated Man doesn’t really listen to the answers either as he stares off after Will’s father.
Charles then leaves and stands outside the cigar store to smoke. Will and Jim see him standing there, and Jim tells Will to call to him. Will refuses thinking that his father looked even smaller than he had the other night in his house. He compares him to a boy and thinks that they don’t need a third boy to get in trouble with them, they need a general or a major general to help them in this fight. Charles ponders why he came back this way, to smoke a cigar he didn’t particularly want; he thinks he heard someone calling out to him once or twice, and so he came back. He drops the cigar band through the grate, and notices Will and Jim hiding there.
He attempts to question the boys, while the boys plead with him to not look down at them. The Illustrated Man leaves Ned’s and begins to walk down the street towards Charles. Charles straightens up just as the Illustrated Man approaches. He asks Charles if he would be willing to help identify two boys who won free passes to all the carnival rides. He then thrusts out his hands to show the face of Jim and Will tattooed onto his palms. Mr. Dark knows that Charles knows the boys names, but is too eager, alerting Charles that something’s up. Charles decides to lie about their names, and Mr. Dark informs him that he knows those names are wrong. He says that their names are Jim and Will, and they were simply fact-checking that information. Charles says there must be a lot of boys by those names in the town, and he’s not sure which ones they might be. Will ponders how Mr. Dark got their names, and thinks maybe the young-girl-Ms-Foley must have told him. Charles challenges Mr. Dark about his intentions and why a strange carnival man would lie to him, and Mr. Dark clenches his fists, digging his nails into his palms. Jim and Will both suddenly feel immense pain in their heads, while two drops of blood come from Mr. Dark’s palms. The blood falls through the grate and drips onto Will’s cheek.
Will's father says he cannot help and everything seems fine until the Dust Witch comes around the corner. She begins to sense the boys, but Will tries to mentally warn his father to do something or they’ll be caught. Halloway lights his cigar again and blows the smoke in her direction. She chokes and coughs and has to leave, taking Mr. Dark with her, but when Charles Halloway says something to Mr. Dark, the Illustrated Man comes back and asks him for his name. Halloway tells him the truth, where he works, and Mr. Dark says he will pay a visit. Will's father tells the boys to hide and then come to the library at seven.
This scene has always been particularly intense for me because of the tattooed images on Mr. Dark’s hands. In the Christian New Testament, Christ tells worshippers that they are “engraven upon his palms” and that it means he will never forget them. For me, it’s especially dark to have this very sinister character literally do just that - like an un-spoken threat to never forget what the boys have done.What do you think the symbolism is for having the boys faces tattooed onto his hands? Do you have any different thoughts than mine about the meaning behind it?
We get to see Will have a complete 180 turn in how he thinks about his father. He starts off seeing his dad as very small and helpless, and ends with thinking that he was wrong, and that his father was a giant. What do you think is the purpose of this change?
Ch. 36
The dwarf is making his way down the street when he very belatedly realizes what it was he saw under the grate earlier. He makes his way to Mr. Dark, and tells him, but by the time they reach the grate again the boys are gone.
Ch. 37
Charles wanders the rest of the festivities for a while, and eventually doubles back to make sure the boys have left their hiding spot. Satisfied that they successfully got out, he makes his way back to the library. Charles begins to read and think about the situation, surrounding himself with things that focus on oddities and the occult. Spread in a circle, similar to a clock lays several books and art pieces: A portrait of "The Prince of Darkness", The sketches of Giovanbatista Bracelli titled "Bizzarie Di Varie Figure", A copy of "Faustus" (the story of man who makes a pact with the Devil - also my favorite Wishbone episode), a series of sketches focusing on The temptations of St. Anthony (a saint said to have faced a series of supernatural temptations during his pilgrimage to the desert), a book on Occult Iconography. At the 6:00 position lay a book on the history of circuses, carnivals and shadow shows. There was also a book on things that fly through history, a book called “By Demons Possessed", “Egyptian Philtres" (a philtre is a drink credited with magical abilities), to name a few.
Charles thinks about how everything he knows and how it adds up. He looks at a book about "Physiognomie: The secrets of the individual's character as found in his face", and wonders if you can automatically tell if a person is good or bad. He decides that no, the boy's angelic countenances don't simply make them the "ideal for your Woman, Man or Child of Excellent Bearing, Color, Balance and Summer Disposition." Conversely, it doesn't mean that the freaks have the faces of the cruel, covetous,etc.
He decides only one thing in all of this is certain. (Here's the titular line folks!) As Shakespeare wrote,
“By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes."
He thinks it is so vague, and yet so immense - encompassing the whole strange experience in a few lines. He then waits and hopes the boys will come soon.
What do you think is the importance of using this line from "Macbeth" as the title and main phrase for the story thus far?
Ch. 38
The boys cautiously approach the library, sneaking through the grass and the dark. Will admits that he's even scared of the library - scared that the carnival might have gotten to his dad already and that he will be changed like the Dwarf was. He wonders if it's an ambush, and that someone won't know what happened to them until they accidentally get found pressed in the pages of an old book, years from now.
This is too much for Jim to takes off to the doors of the library and begins hammering on them. (Like when I'm outside at night and suddenly feel the need to sprint into my house. I know the feeling man.) Charles lets them in, and leads them back to where he was studying about the strange on-goings. He asks the boys to tell him everything, and they do. At the end, he tells Will and Jim that he believes everything. Will is so relieved that he says he might cry, but Jim and Charles tell him there's no time for that. He shows them his research and tells them that he found old newspaper clippings of the Pandemonium Shadow Show coming to town in 1888. The initials are the same for the two men (J.C Cooger, and G.M Dark) and Jim expresses disbelief that it could be the same men, though Charles disagrees. Charles then shows the boys more newspaper ads - from 1860, 1846, 1888, 1910, and then present day. Always in October, each time. He then remembers an old sermon telling believers to "Beware the Autumn People". He says most people are a mix of Summer people and Autumn people, and that up until now, he has been an autumn person.
The boys don't quite understand, and think perhaps the Carnival has gotten to him after all. Charles calms them down and tells the boys that if they're going to work together, they need to really know him. He realizes that he is determined to help them, even if it's late in the game.'
What is the importance of the discussion of "summer people" and "Autumn people"? What do you think Charles is saying when he says he's always been an autumn person, and what is the significance of him deciding to help at this point in the story?
Submitted October 21, 2018 at 12:51AM by tippytoesnmonkeyjoes https://ift.tt/2yPNieF
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