G'sG

Sip.

I've since gotten off of work, and am back hanging out at Starbucks. Tonight it's an iced green tea lemonade. Sweetened.

Don't you love how you sometimes get that recognition from people who know you reasonably well, but who see you outside of the setting in which they're familiar with you? It's like you can watch their thoughts play out as if they were written on their face (like a stock-market ticker in New York).

"Who is this guy? Why is he grinning at me, as if in recognition? Should I know him? Do I know him? Wait, wait, he does look familiar, but why? Wait...(grin) oh, yeah, I know this guy, he's from such-and-such. 'Hey, not used to seeing you at such-and-such, how are you?'"

It makes me grin.

Sip.

I don't know what it is about this song, I just really don't seem to like it. It's something like "In the arms of the Angels" by Sarah McGlaughlin, or something (and I probably butchered the spelling on that, whoops). It's just...I can't place it. Maybe it's too slow, and too monomelodic, and too...high and pretty, you know? I like pretty music, but the chorus of this is in that overly saccharine upper register and for some reason it gets on my nerves sometimes. Oh well. No offense to Ms. M.

So, Gerald's Game. I've gotten through a whopping 6 chapters since the last post. Hey now, lower those widened eyes. They're all rather short chapters; whereas some of the earlier ones were 20 pages, some of these were 3 or 4.

It's starting to get rather good. Getting the suspenseful, page-turning, can't-put-it-down effect that Stephen King is so good at. Which is fun.

So, since chapter two, a bit has happened.

We get a lot of back and forth between the various voices present. Between Ruth, Goodwife Burlingame, and Jessie herself (although I suppose they're all her-selves). Most of this chapter is a kind of character development. Jessie starts to count to ten in an attempt to get control of her emotions and assess her situation. This count, more than just onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineten, is a bit of a rhyme, and after Jessie has individualized it, it's rather self-degratory. This is mentioned by Ruth, I believe, and it's hinted at that Ruth feels that Gerald is to blame for Jessie's lack of self-esteem. It seems as if this might be an issue later one in the novel.

On a bit of a side-note, this gallery of voices was interesting to me. Initially, after reading the synopsis of the book, I wondered. How would it play out to have the majority of the story populated by one character? Stephen King is a master at having a gargantuan cast (ever read Under the Dome?), but I was curious how he could make it interesting to have only one character for an entire novel, and have it only span 28 hours? It seems as if maybe the other voices will be present throughout the novel, and become kind of their own characters. We'll have to see.

Another possible hint towards what happened to Jessie during that solar eclipse is on page 39.

"That was Dark Score Lake, the one where she and he parents and her brother and sister had gone all those years ago. Back before the voices. Back before-"

She then cuts it off. It would seem to suggest that, perhaps, the voices were caused by the abuse she suffered. If this is referencing that day, it would seem that her dad caused her to develop the voices as a kind of psychological coping mechanism. I wonder if, once she (if she) comes to terms with the event having taken place, her voices will disappear? Or possibly converge into one, similarly how Odetta and Detta became Susannah in The Dark Tower, with them merging into one, but with Susannah still having their personalities in hers. We'll, again, have to see.

The last note I have for this chapter is the onset of thirst. She admits that so far, it's not too terribly bad, but if Jessie is already thirsty, it's most likely going to become an issue pretty soon. And to think, she's thirsty with a glass of ice water within reach (normal reach) of her now. Oh, irony.

Chapter four is a rather short chapter.

On page 41, she's studying the handcuffs, trying to see if there's any way that she can escape from their grip, and mentions that they're police handcuffs. Are citizens allowed to have access police issue handcuffs? The only pairs I've ever owned (and not for similar purposes) are ones bought at somewhere like Wal-Mart, and have a quick release tab on the side. And couldn't Gerald have bought these handcuffs, especially considering the purpose they were to serve, from somewhere specializing in that sort of thing, a store that sells 'adult DVD's' and toys and such, rather than police issue? Maybe, because he's a lawyer, he'd have access to them. I can't imagine him, though, asking one of the officers he deals with for a pair. This is all I can think of:

"Hey, Sgt. Brady, I was wondering...do you have any extra pairs of handcuffs you're looking to get rid of?"

"Uh, we might have some laying around, Gerry...why?"

"Oh, I dunno, I...uh...have to punish my kid?"

"You don't have kids."

"Oh, Well...Um...Yeah...Never mind, then."

Hmm. Maybe he swiped them. Oh well.

Pages 41-2, introduce us to yet another voice, the 'UFO voice'. All it really says, so far, is a couple of jokes that are rather negatively speaking of women. Is this a further effect of a lack-of-self-esteem on Jessie's part? Or is it just kind of the bitter, dry, undiscriminating sense of humor that would be cynical of any situation? We'll have to look for more UFO voice.

Importantly in this chapter, she first tries, vainly, but still she tries, to escape. First she tries to just slip her fingers out of her handcuffs. This fails pretty horribly; she gets them to the point where they get caught on the bone at the base of her thumb, and gets them to budge no farther. These handcuffs can be adjusted for differing wrist sizes, but are adjusted slightly too tightly to enable her to escape. Perhaps if they were even one notch looser, she'd escape and the book would be over. She also (stupidly, in my opinion, but I suppose it's smarter to have tried than not) tries to no avail to remove the planks on the headboard, between two of which the other ends of the handcuffs are latched. Oh well. She's stuck.

Chapter five, yet another rather short chapter, makes an indirect reference to her solar eclipse. On page 49, after having realized that the dog is in the driveway (she sees its shadow), and thinking that there might (probably isn't, even she acknowledges this) be an owner nearby, she shouts. she is no longer worried about being found naked, chained to a bed, and the narration explains:

"This new panic-attack was like some weird mental eclipse-it filtered out the bright light of reason and hope and allowed her to see the most awful possibilities of all: starvation, thirst-induced madness, convulsions, death."

Now, admittedly, the word 'eclipse' may have merely been the first word King thought of, and it would fit the context even without the even we know about, but I think not. The main reason behind this certainty, or at least belief, is that it draws some very relevant comparisons. The eclipse blocked out hope and caused her to envision the very possible negative consequences of her situation. This is import, in that it links light with reason and hope and darkness with irrational chaos, negativity, and hopelessness. And was she not, in a time of unique darkness, subjected to a hopeless event?

Finally, at the end of this chapter, the dog enters.

Chapter six is very short, and is entirely in dog-perspective. Granted, it is still in third person, but it's a focused third person. The explanations and thoughts expressed in the narration are those of Prince that was, the dog. He thinks of Jessie as bitchmaster. Food has a very heavy weight. The logic and motivations are dog-oriented. This is something that Stephen King does well, it happens not-seldom in his novels that there will be a bit told from the perspective of the animals. I don't know how to explain it much better; I only know that I'm fairly certain that were I a dog, I would think in much the same way that King has his dogs think.

He enters the house, and is initially drawn by the smells of kitchen food: cereal, crackers, and the like. However, despite bitchmaster's shouts, he begins to make his way towards the blood-smell in the bedroom. He can intuitively know that, although bitchmaster is shouting at him, she is no immediate threat. And he's just so damn hungry.

In chapter seven, Prince sets about taking care of that hunger.

This chapter's fun, in that it switches back and forth between Jessie and Prince, and the narration matches that. We see the situation from both of their perspectives, and it's interesting. Prince comes into the bedroom, apprehensively assessing the situation but knowing that he soon will be powerless to resist his hunger, and will soon give in and begin his feast. Jessie realizes Princes intent, and is horrified. For some reason, even though her husband seems to be a bit of an ass, she wants to preserve him. Although, I don't suppose I'd want to be party to such a dinner, either.

This chapter is also very short, and nearly half of it is taken up by a bit of back story for Prince. His owner purchased him at a roadside seller, mainly because his owner's daughter had fallen in love with him. However, the state-taxes on dogs were a little more than Owner was willing to pay, and so Owner decides to just dump Prince in the woods. We hear about (well, read about) Princes nights in the woods, and can't help but feel bad for Prince. It's sad. He shivers beneath a tree, terrified by the midnight hooting of an owl and the movements of other animals. He slowly starves, being able to only get scraps out of trashcans. So, it's perfectly understandable that Gerald is too much for him to resist. Right?

Chapter eight is a bit longer. Still kind of short though. Prince starts to eat.

King gives us a very detailed, almost revolting account of Prince setting on Gerald. The grossest bits are the descriptions of the sounds. Snotty ripping sounds, smacking wet almost-kiss sounds. Oh, and theres the wallpaper-strip bit of skin. Ugh.

Jessie is likewise revolted, and retaliates (it should also be noted that there is a bit more of the back and forth in this chapter). She manages to get her fingers on an ashtray from the shelf above the bed, and chucks it at the dog, managing to hit him, despite her condition. I wonder if the fact that she can unthinkingly grab this ashtray means that she really has a bit more mobility, and with that, options, than she realizes she has.

The dog almost decides to run, but now that Gerald's been started on, he cannot resist the smells emanating from the body. He 'compromises' by merely ripping a bit of flesh from Gerald's bicep, and carries it into the other room to savor.

There's more to the chapter, it's certainly longer than three paragraphs, but in an attempt to avoid merely transcribing the text, I've stuck to a summary.

It should be noted that, again, the quotes from the book aren't my own work, and are quotes from the book (which, I surely don't have to say again) Gerald's Game.

It's pretty good so far. Intense at points, but that makes it all the better. Suspenseful. And the by-play between Jessie and Prince made for a good read. You should check it out.

And that is that for tonight, my nonexistent all. Have a good one.

'Til next time.

This has since been edited (as of March 20th at 10:12 pm). There should be few typos not, if any. Also, changed a few bits of phrasing to make them less awkward.