Sunday, October 27, 2019

"Jump? How high?" - a researcher. Multiple researcher. #ftsf 🔐🖋✒️🦋▦

First and foremost and direct from my last [if you read that far down]: Springhole's COMMON BEGINNER WRITER MISTAKES when it appeared on the 15th October was positively providential - in the sense that it could have been written 'just for me'. Of course only universally good writing advice can do that; a bit like the Forer effect which is one you look upon when you try to think critically.

Now to the Jump? How high? part.

One day - 20 September 1990 - in a think tank near you: if you're in Sydney, that is, like Susan and Erik are - those two have been working in the think tank for the better part of two years.

[so the beginning is February 1989 and the end is 24 December 1990 - this is when most of the action of A cage of butterflies by Welsh-born Australian science fiction/young adult fiction author Brian Caswell takes place - as indicated by the first chapter].

I remembered that there was a Jump! part and someone replied How high?

You would think that these people would be ... more sceptical ... especially when we consider who we are dealing with.

A man whose nefarious deeds would have me hyperventilating and perspiring on a day in late March 1996.

So here are those lines from page 78 of A cage of butterflies:

Some setting first. Eucalypts and bark and leaf-grabbing are involved; especially from Susan when she is thinking. The ground is bare; as would be expected from this think tank.

Susan - If I could just persuade him to let me inside 
Forget it - Erik says - No-one goes in except the terrible twosome. How are the other researchers taking it?

SUSAN: THAT LOT? LARSEN HAS THEM WHERE HE WANTS THEM. HE SAYS ‘JUMP’, AND THEY SAY, ‘HOW HIGH’?

BESIDES HE’S ORGANISED IT PRETTY CAREFULLY.

THOSE HE COULDN’T SEND ON WILD-GOOSE ASSIGNMENTS HE GAVE A WEEK’S paid LEAVE.

THEY MUST HAVE THOUGHT IT WAS CHRISTMAS.
This is where the paragraphing and the emphasis diverge.

Here is a Queen Hammer to Fall from six years before the incident in the think-tank took place. [20 September 1984].

And that lot - the researchers - could jump at least as high as the Sydney Harbour Bridge by the time John Larsen is done with them.

Thank you Anna K for this illustration of the Sydney Harbour Bridge which is just right to jump and to climb.


I would quote some of the anniversary parts - the things that happened to the thinktankers and the Babies in 1989 [page 12: 21 October 1989] and 1990 [page 123: 21 October 1990] - some 30 years ago now.

Happy Grandparents' Day! Recently it has been Teachers' Day [25 October 2019] and Children's Day [24 October 2019].

And what a terrible; terrible mindset that is for a young researcher - or really, any researcher.

Here is another JUMP quote:

From high upon the cliff-top; Susan Grace tossed a small black box into the surf below and paused a moment to whisper a few words into the wind. Then she made her way back down into the waiting car; alone. [Caswell: 1992/160].

That paragraph made me think of The wind which Mariah Carey did as a cover in 1991.

And sadly there are no emoji of cages; not the literal kind nor the metaphorical kind. The closest I was able to come was a crosshatch.

All quotes are from the University of Queensland Press edition of A Cage of Butterflies.

I like what Gregory Rogers did with the cover. If you tear the butterfly from the face - you see a super large head. And the markings are very characteristic and unique.

An art project could be to capture the essence of each Baby - like I see Ian as a moth and Phetmany as a fritterary and Ricky as a spotted butterfly - maybe Monarch or Wanderer.

Myriam is the one who leads - and Rachael ...

This is a song which talks about the bond which developed - it is from Kinky Boots [Raise you up/Just be].

There is a great poem that Myriam got the youngest - Katie - to scribe.

In all the jumping; know first thyself. That's what the Delphic Oracle has to say on the matter.

This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday post for the week of 25 October 2019.

2 comments:

Kristi Campbell said...

Know thyself first is so huge, in all matters of jumping off, right? It sounds so easy, but over the years, I've realized how often I'm not actually sure about what I am thinking or feeling in the moment. I think I asked "how high?" too often in my younger days. Now, I hope I ask "WHY?" Or, at least try to.

Adelaide Dupont said...

Hi Kristi,

always good to ask WHY!

Why is always the first question I ask - because why can stand almost any hour - but there are certain hows I would never ask WHY to stand or not on its own. With some help.

About six months or so before I read Butterflies I read the actress Isla Fisher's book SEDUCED BY FAME.

When the protagonist was still a cow in a costume; she was told by someone in the acting/directing industry:

"Always ask *Why are they telling me this*?"

And it stood me in good stead here and there for 24 years.

Hope you keep finding your whyness!

Really appreciated your comment.