TFv01 CH 30 If anything... (annotated)

Annotations for If anything..., the thirtieth chapter of One Rainy Day In May.

## Page 787

**epigraph**

From Nox by Anne Carson. The ellipsis suggests we should look up what follows. Carson describes a myth mentioned by Hekataios about a sacred phoenix who makes an egg out of myrrh and puts his dead father inside. The phoenix then carries the egg to the temple of the sun in Heliopolis (this myth precedes the one about rising from ashes). Carson sees this as a metaphor for an activity of a proto-historian.

## Page 793

**planes racketing panes**

planes - wings?, panes - windows?

## Page 794

**refracting**

Mark Z. Danielewski seems to be suggesting posthumous life, when
the bird gets through the window and comes out on other side as someone
new. + "Considering that Narcon9 said earlier that every person has a Narcon, could Narcon3
 be implying that living things merge with their Narcons in death
(beyond) as they escape the remediation brought about by being confined
to a single “self”? If so, Narcon27‘s addition would certainly have grand philosophical implications."
(thefamiliar.wordpress)

## Page 804

X knew the cat was alive, because she felt/heard it in her self, in a similar way she heard the cat's cry

## Page 810

**worldess as worded**

wordless - voiceless/dead; worded - predicted in some ancient scripture?

## Page 827

**Xanther has almost no wounds**

sign of cat's healing powers?

## Page 828

**cashmere**

same fiber is used to enwrap the Orb

**towels**

like those Astair used to protect the envelope - suggests
that the envelope is a symbol for the cat and that the F is like the cat
 arriving dead

## Page 843 FONTS

(notes by Jesse Simms)

**Minion**

definition - A follower or underling of a powerful person, especially a
servile or unimportant one. I also found older meaning of “darling” and
“wanton girl”. But the most relevant meaning is another usage I found
from Shakespeare where the word is used to refer to the sovereign’s
favorite. I can't help but think this is a little nod to how much MZD
adores Xanther.

**Electra LH**

this is a great touch with Astair studying psychotherapy
 yet it doesn't bode well for her mother and makes me think Astair had a
 much more traumatic childhood than we've seen.

**Adobe Garamond**

 “adobe” is from Arabic (via Spanish) and means “the bricks”. In Spanish
it came to mean “to plaster”. This fits with the idea of Anwar's
“building” the software that runs The Familiar. I also love the tie in
with the Arabic Etymology. Garamind is named after Claude Garamond
(1499–1561), French type designer and publisher.

**Imperial BT**

 from the Latin “imperium” meaning “command, authority, empire” this fits
 Luther and his ambition quite nicely. It also points to Luther gaining
more power in later volumes.

**Baskerville**

 allusion to the Conan
Doyle story Hound of the Baskerville featuring Sherlock Holmes, another
perspicacious detective. Could also reference The Name of the Rose which
 also used this allusion in naming the main Inquisitor.

**Promemoria**

form Latin meaning “for memory” this refers to Shnorhk's
desire to help Mnatsagan with his documentation of first hand accounts
of the Armenian Genocide.

**Rotis semi sans**

 this is the font I had
 the most trouble tying to the story. Here is the background on the
naming: The typeface is named after Rotis, a hamlet belonging to the
German town of Leutkirch im Allgäu, where Otl Aicher lived. However,
Aicher named the font "rotis", in lower case, since Aicher thought of
capital letters as a sign of hierarchy and oppression. MZD seemed to
keep this alive in jingjing's chapters by not using Capital letters in
their traditional locations.

 + rotis semi sans is the font used on all official street signs in Singapore.

**Visage**

 from Anglo-French and Old
French visage "face, countenance; portrait," from vis "face,
appearance," from Latin visus "a look, vision," from past participle
stem of videre "to see". This fits with Isandorno's ability to be
clear-sighted and observant. It also probably hints at the terror his
visage has on the numbered victims

**Apolline**

 a French word using
the root Apollo. Apollo is a rather complex god. Some ties to Cas are:
Apollo being the god of truth and prophecy, healing, the sun and light,
plague and poetry. It's a bit ironic that Cas got all her clips from
DARK and her font references the god of light.

**Arial MT**

 Arial is a variant of the Hebrew name “ariel” which means
“Lion of God” or “hearth of God". Ariel has been called an ancient name
for the leontomorphic Gnostic Demiurge (Creator God). Historically, the
entity Ariel was often pictured in mysticism as a lion-headed deity with
 power over the Earth (SPOILER TF3…….is Narcon27 roaming this earth as
Satya?) giving a strong foundation for Ariel's association with the
Demiurge. It is possible that the name itself was even adopted from the
Demiurge's Zoroastrian counterpart Ahriman (who is likely the
predecessor of the Mithraic "Arimanius").

 In Thomas Heywood, Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels (1635) Ariel is called both a prince who
 rules the waters and "Earth's great Lord." In several occult
writings,[who?] Ariel is mentioned with other elemental titles such as
the "3rd archon of the winds," (!!!!!!!!!) "spirit of air," "angel of
the waters of the Earth" and "wielder of fire."

 It was also a
common name chosen for angels in classical works (This reinforces the
notion of Narcon as Archon (or angel). Quote from Pope’s The Rape of Lock:

 “Of these am I, who thy Protection claim,
 A watchful Sprite, and Ariel is my name,
 In the clear Mirror of thy ruling Star,
 I saw, alas! Some dread Event impend.”

 In The Rape of Lock Ariel is a sylph who can see the future but cannot prevent it (much like our Narcons)

 In The Tempest (another masterpiece with a storm in Act I) Ariel is a
spirit serving Prospero as his eyes and ears and uses his magical
abilities to cause the aforementioned storm. He also foils other
characters plots to bring down his master.

 Did Narcon27 cause the
 storm that brought Xanther the cat? Will he start actively resisting
any characters who try and change this world they’re in?

**MetaPlus-**

not sure why there is a dash at the end. I couldn't find a
listing of this font with that dash. It could be cancelling out the word
 "plus" to get just “meta” which matches much better with Narcon9

 Etymology:

Meta - word-forming element meaning 1. "after, behind," 2. "changed,
altered," 3. "higher, beyond;" from Greek meta (prep.) "in the midst of;
 in common with; by means of; between; in pursuit or quest of; after,
next after, behind," in compounds most often meaning "change" of place,
condition, etc.This is from PIE \*me- "in the middle" (source also of
German mit, Gothic miþ, Old English mið "with, together with, among;"
see mid). Notion of "changing places with" probably led to senses
"change of place, order, or nature," which was a principal meaning of
the Greek word when used as a prefix (but also denoting "community,
participation; in common with; pursuing"). This makes sense with Narcon9
 being with among or in communion with the 9 characters. The “change of
place” meaning also hints at Narcon9 emerging and interacting with the
characters.

 Definition

 Meta (from the Greek preposition and
prefix meta- (μετά-) meaning "after", or "beyond") is a prefix used in
English to indicate a concept which is an abstraction behind another
concept, used to complete or add to the latter. This fits with Narcon9
being the system that generates the story. And thus being being the
world of the characters.

 Godel Escher Bach also brought this word
 to prominence with the meaning of self referential, especially with the
 idea of strange loops. I always think of this when what's metaphorical
turns into a actual occurrence.

**Manticore**

 note that this fine
is also used for the GC (Great Cat) chapters which makes the appearance
of the shadow cat in those chapters that much more terrifying. Narcon3
is narrating these sections with Narcon27 adding dialogue (that 3
probably can't hear)

 The manticore (Early Middle Persian
Mardyakhor) is a Persian legendary creature similar to the Egyptian
sphinx. The Manticore myth was of Persian origin, where its name was
"man-eater" (from early Middle Persian مارتیا mardya "man" (as in human)
 and خوار khowr- "to eat"). The English term "manticore" was borrowed
from Latin mantichora, itself derived from the Greek rendering of the
Persian name, μαρτιχώρα, martichora. A relevant description by a Greek
writer is as follows: “The beast described by Ctesias in his Indian
history, which he says is called martichoras by the Indians and
"man-eater" [androphagos] by the Greeks, I am inclined to think is the
tiger.” This seems to match the great cat that stalks the prehistoric
people in TF.

**Dante MT**

 masc. proper name, most modern uses outside Italy
ultimately are in reference to Dante Alighieri (c. 1265-1321), the great
 poet; the name is a shortening of Latin Durante, from durare "to
harden, endure," from durus "hard," from PIE \*dru-ro-, suffixed variant
form of root \*deru- "be firm, solid, steadfast."This is the font that
MZD has used for the Title of all his works. This makes me think that
MZD’s works are designed with a fine craftsmanship and that after years
of taking reader's best shots, they will continue to hold up and serve.

**Future Kill**

 this one is pretty self evident and makes me think that
DARK chose this font. It is interesting that the title page “Our Common
Horrors” is within Narcon quotes but is not a Narcon font. It’s also
interesting that the”Astral Omega” page is NOT in Narcon quotes and also
 uses this Future Kill font. It makes me wonder if there would have been
 just the “Astral Omega” page and Narcon9 is decrypting what would
otherwise have been only black pages (see MZD black boxes for a cool
puzzle that relates to this).

**MetaPlus-**

 see notes on Narcon9 font

**Fairfield LH**

 Fairfield Name Meaning. English: habitational name from
any of various places, for example Fairfield in Derbyshire or Kent, both
 named from Old English as fæger 'beautiful' + feld 'open country', or
Fairfield in Worcestershire, which is named with Old English fo 'hog' +
feld. This resonates with letting the horses out of the paddock to live
in an “open” place. The concept of The Crossing seems to also arise with
 Isandorno and his unwillingness to do anything of the sort. This story
also seems to borrow some fictional ingredients from Cormac McCarthy's
The Crossing (teens, horses, death, the crossing, etc).

**Nimrod MT**

 "great hunter," 1712, a reference to the biblical son of Cush,
referred to (Genesis x.8-9) as "a mighty hunter before the Lord." It
came to mean "geek, klutz" by 1983 in teenager slang, for unknown
reasons. (Amateur theories include its occasional use in "Bugs Bunny"
cartoon episodes featuring rabbit-hunting Elmer Fudd as a foil; its
possible ironic use, among hunters, for a clumsy member of their
fraternity; or a stereotype of deer hunters by the non-hunting
population in the U.S.). This refers to our idiotic trio who are
“mighty” warriors by trying to shoot caged animals.

**Manticore**

 see note to Narcon3

**Synchro Let**

 synchronize -1620s, "to occur at the same time," from
Greek synkhronizein "be of the same time," from synkhronos "happening at
 the same time". This fits the idea of all the stories occuring over the
 time over one day as the reader hops from one character to another
(like a radio station, Xanther would say). Synchronicity (German:
Synchronizität) is a concept, first introduced by analytical
psychologist Carl Jung, which holds that events are "meaningful
coincidences" if they occur with no causal relationship yet seem to be
meaningfully related. This helps to explain the timestamp relationships
that emerge (11:11:11, etc).

**Transitional 511 BT**

 transition
(etymology) mid-15c., from Latin transitionem (nominative transitio) "a
going across or over," noun of action from past participle stem of
transire "go or cross over". This is as the epigraphs exist between
characters and their spheres and boundaries.

**Apollo**

 is this a
subtle hint that The Wizard had a hand in creating the books? Note that
her font is Apolline. It also may hint at the work being some sort of
Delphic Hymn to Apollo (god of music, truth and prophecy, healing, the
sun and light, plague, poetry). This one I am pretty uncertain of
however.

**Gilgamesh**

 alludes the The Epic of Gilgamesh and other
Ancient Middle Eastern mythology. The relation to the Attributions is in
 the form of the Signiconic Owl that is formed by the Attributions. In
Gilgamesh stories there is a Goddess named Ishtar. In the Epic of
Gilgamesh Enkidu is angry with Samhat for bringing him to “civilization”
 he curses her to be an outcast and have leaky rafters that will attract
 owls (Guess who else has a leaky roof: Astair). The owl is commonly
associated with women, sexuality and magic throughout history (the Latin
 word for owl evolved into the Italian word for witch). The owl was
known as the “Queen of the Night” (see the famous Burney Relief which
makes an appearance in Raeden’s owl room - the goddess picture on this
relief is in the form of an owl and most likely is a form of Ishtar, who
 is standing on two Lions). The also relates to Oria the Owl who appears
 in the TMD section. Oria is a name that means “golden” which matches
the Anwar, Astiar, and Xanther's name meanings (luminous, star, blonde).
 But mostly Oria matched with Astair. Both have word clouds to denote
their panic at loosing an offspring. Both have three children. Astair's
splash page has a nest with three eggs and the title “Bone’s Nest”. So I
 see a clear line drawn between Astair and Oria the Owl. I also see a
clear line between Astair and Ishtar the Divine Owl. The best piece of
evidence is Ishtar’s other name: Astarte.

**Legacy**

 is this MZD’s way of ensuring Carl lives on?

**Minion Italic**

 minion - the most relevant meaning is another usage I
found from Shakespeare where the word is used to refer to the
sovereign’s favorite. This font name works on two levels: one to show
the deep connection Xanther has with animals, almost like they exist in
the same world with the same voice. Second, it shows that the animals
are MZD’s second favorite after Xanther.