Chapter 12 Unknown Known GEC-Marconi
Note: Clusters of strange deaths or disappearances are compelling in terms of asking if a conspiracy exists. Further information on the scientists is at this site.
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The group arrives at Jeffrey’s Bethesda house. Gabriel is uncertain of who he is and who is around him. Joel suggests they call Chiang to help. They settle in for the night.
Chiang agrees to come down and help Gabriel. In the morning, Gabriel awakes and starts to go through withdrawal from the drugs Clement had him on. Jeffrey helps him clean up, and Zest has a doctor come by to examine him. Meanwhile, he hears Veronica’s voice on Geneva’s phone, and connects her to the owl he heard when he was under Clement’s control. The doctor arrives and suggests putting him under for a quick detox and they agree.
Gabriel gets through that misery but continues to have amnesia. Chiang arrives and starts to work with him teasing out his memory. He puts Gabriel under hypnosis.
Chapter 13 Unknown Known Michael Connell
Note: While we’re familiar with the debacle of the 2000 election, the debacle of the 2004 election is lesser known. Connell is one of several figures who perished in a plane crash. The Cleveland Scene has more on the case.
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Chiang has hypnotized Gabriel. Gabriel goes further into what happened with him with Clement. Gabriel’s mind is locked to protect people in his life. He does remember them, but not consciously.
Chiang halts the hypnosis for the time being. Gabriel and Joel go over some photos Joel has of their life.
Back under hypnosis, it’s determined that Gabriel has his memories in a library in his mind, a place that he felt safe as a child. He is stubborn about not letting his conscious self remember.
Meanwhile, Veronica and Danny arrive at Jeffrey’s house. They talk to Gabriel. Chiang puts Gabriel under again, and this time Veronica tells him it’s okay to remember.
Gabriel falls asleep and when he wakes up, he’s recovered his memory. Confused at first, seeing everyone around him he remembers what happened to him and is enraged. Zest is empathetic over Gabriel’s plight.
Chapter 14 Unknown Known Martha Mitchell and Dorothy Hunt
Note: When I was a kid, my mom avidly watched the Watergate hearings and explained what was going on. Once that was over, I checked out various books on the topic. The Seventies was a time of the good conspiracy theories (and the good conspiracy movies like The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor). I don’t remember where I ran across the ideas about Ms. Mitchell and Ms. Hunt, but probably got a clue from Hunter S. Thompson. Here is an old interview with Mitchell from the BBC. Here’s Wikipedia on the “Martha Mitchell Effect.” Conspiracy researchers will recognize the name of famed researcher Mae Brussell; here’s her article on Mitchell. Here is the original Chicago Tribune article on the plane crash that took the life of Dorothy Hunt.
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Gabriel is back in his apartment in Manhattan. He wakes up to find Zest in the apartment, babysitting. Gabriel has a conversation with him about Clement and what they went through–and Zest’s plans for the future. He doesn’t really have any. Joel arrives and the conversation continues. Gabriel presses Zest for information on the Tertullians. Zest explains the origins of the group, and even tells them the identity of Jacobs (who Ethan Nelson had mentioned in The Hanged Man). Jacobs is Lane Hunter, CEO of Mendel-Malthus, a notorious investment bank.
Gabriel convinces Zest to strike back and take the TS down. He reveals in turn his identity as Tom Paine. He wants to follow up on clues about Zach Mesereau, and they figure out where the building is–it’s the Foundation from The Hanged Man. They plan to go over the next night.
Gabriel and Joel go to bed, but Gabriel is disturbed by a feeling he has that keeps him from being comfortable with Joel. Joel can tell and is hurt by this, and Gabriel does his best to cover it up.
The next evening, Zest drives them over and explains a little of his background. At the Foundation, Joel reluctantly stays in Zest’s car as lookout, and Zest and Gabriel go down into the basement. They find a hidden room and inside, Zach Mesereau.
Between the Pages
- Gabriel handles getting his memory back pretty well. The aftereffects are understandable–being very cautious about what he ingests and who hands it to him. He doesn’t have much time to reflect on this, as Zest is up for doing something about the Tertullians.
- What I liked about these sections was Veronica’s importance to Gabriel. He is able to come back because he hears her voice, and has connected her to the owl V who spoke to him in his captivity.
- As mentioned previously, Veronica and Gabriel both have a belief in extrasensory existence, in the supernatural. Both believe in reincarnation and ghosts. The idea of Veronica somehow subconsciously being able to project herself to him as an owl who keeps him going is not a strange idea to her.
Beyond the Pages
- Two topics here. One is the symbolic meaning of owls. As I’m currently studying art history, I like to examine it through symbolism and semiotics. Owls mean wisdom in our general Western culture. But interestingly, at the time Francisco Goya was painting and creating prints, owls meant folly. This is seen in his famous print The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.
- Author Hope Werness in the Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in World Art states that owls represent the feminine, night, moon, magic, and dreams. Also feminine power, rejuvenation, and nurturing.
- A related idea is the totem animal, specifically of Australian Aborigines. I was not using their concepts in the books, but I wanted to share what I read from some time ago. Aboriginal people’s spirituality is animistic (meaning, everything natural has a type of spirit) and they have totem animals, which as described in this site on the Great Barrier Reef and this one from an organization called Australians Together, are significant to the clans and individuals in spiritual ceremonies and have protective qualities and contribute to an individual’s identity. In the book Unsolved: The World of the Unknown, Australian journalist Godwin describes the Aboriginal persons he met in Australia, and their description of their totem animals. According to Godwin, these are called djurabeels. A person in trouble can concentrate and psychically send a friend or relative a message through the appearance of the friend or relative’s djurabeel. Godwin described an emergency in which just such an event occurred. The book was published in the early Seventies. I can’t find much more info on Godwin but did find this obituary. and less on the actual term djurabeel. So of course some caution is involved here. The term may be wrong, misinterpreted, or not applicable to all Aboriginals, as clans differ. I did find a passage from comparative religions professor Jess Hollenback in his book, Mysticism, which you can read more here on djurabeels. (Scroll up and down, you can read a lot of it).
- Keeping that in mind, Godwin is an entertaining writer and I have three of his books. Unsolved, This Baffling World, and Occult America. These books were favorites of mine as a young person.
Questions for Readers
What sort of symbolism do you seen in animals? Asking “What is your spirit animal” seems trite if one is not raised in a culture where the term “spirit animal” has deep significance, but those of us who have not can still impose meaning upon animals. These might be related to fears or loves. An exercise in writing might be to consider what animals a character relates to and why. Consider that in movie pop culture, loving dogs is a heuristic to the audience that the character is a good person. This is often a lazy heuristic. Cats are seen with much more suspicion–Blofeld, anyone? Dr. Evil? Alexandra from Josie and the Pussycats? (Seventies cartoon version). And I suppose the Smurfs’ evil guy. If having a cat is not evil, then at least it’s strongly connected to basic witchery or being a lonely single cat lady.
Playlist
Death Cab for Cutie, Ghosts of Beverly Drive, for the internal monologue.
If only you’d have known me before the accident
For with that grand collision came a grave consequence
Receptors overloaded, they burst and disconnect
Til there was little feeling please work with what is left