Mark Z. Danielewski, 2000 — Chapter II
The film Navidson meant to make: a family settles into a new house.
British spelling of “labors”: hard work.
I The labours of men of genius, however erroneously directed, scarcely ever fail in ultimately turning to the solid advantage of mankind.
Wrongly, by mistake.
I The labours of men of genius, however erroneously directed, scarcely ever fail in ultimately turning to the solid advantage of mankind.
Mary Shelley (1797–1851) wrote Frankenstein (1818). The epigraph comes from that novel: the work of men of genius, even when it goes in a wrong direction, nearly always helps mankind in the end. In Frankenstein, a scientist’s great experiment goes badly wrong.
I The labours of men of genius, however erroneously directed, scarcely ever fail in ultimately turning to the solid advantage of mankind. — Mary Shelley The Navidson Record actually contains two films: the one Navidson made, which everyone remembers, and the one he set out to make, which very few people ever detect.
A feeling that something, usually bad, is going to happen.
In many ways, the opening of The Navidson Record, shot back in April of 1990, remains one of the more disturbing sequences because it so effectively denies itself even the slightest premonition about what will soon take place on Ash Tree Lane.
The street of the Navidson house. In Norse myth the world tree Yggdrasil, which joins the nine worlds, is an ash tree.
… of The Navidson Record, shot back in April of 1990, remains one of the more disturbing sequences because it so effectively denies itself even the slightest premonition about what will soon take place on Ash Tree Lane.
About to happen soon.
Not once during those initial minutes does Navidson indicate he knows anything about the impending nightmare he and his entire family are about to face.
An invented critic who thinks Navidson acts from the first frame. The press name plays on hapax legomenon, a Greek term for a word that appears only once in a text.
Of course not everyone remains in accordance with this assessment. Dr. Isaiah Rosen believes, “Navidson’s a fraud from frame one and his early posturing puts the entire work at risk.”!0 Rosen assumes the beginning is just a case of “bad acting” performed by a man who has …
Behaviour meant to impress or mislead; acting a pose.
Isaiah Rosen believes, “Navidson’s a fraud from frame one and his early posturing puts the entire work at risk.”!0 Rosen assumes the beginning is just a case of “bad acting” performed by a man who has already envisioned the rest.
An ancestor; the thing from which something else comes.
In Navidson’s case, it is impossible to disregard his primary goal, especially since it served as progenitor or at the very least the “near origin” to all that followed.
An idea taken as true without proof.
Rosen’s presumptions!!
Two real American grants for artists. The Guggenheim Fellowship is a well-known award from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. The NEA is the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
Which is how I got the Guggenheim Fellowship and the NEA Media Arts Grant.
Johnny’s footnote. He reminds you that the film Zampanò treats as famous does not exist.
A small station far from the main centre.
Personally, I just want to create a cozy little outpost for me and my family.
Clean, fresh and not spoiled.
At least initially he succeeds, providing us with pristine glimpses of the Virginia countryside, the rural neighborhood, purple hills born on the fringe of night, before moving past these establishing shots and focusing more closely on the process of moving into the house …
The Navidsons move from New York to a small town in Virginia, a state in the American South.
At least initially he succeeds, providing us with pristine glimpses of the Virginia countryside, the rural neighborhood, purple hills born on the fringe of night, before moving past these establishing shots and focusing more closely on the process of moving into the house itself, unrolling pale blue oriental …
A wide opening shot in a film that shows where the scene takes place.
At least initially he succeeds, providing us with pristine glimpses of the Virginia countryside, the rural neighborhood, purple hills born on the fringe of night, before moving past these establishing shots and focusing more closely on the process of moving into the house itself, unrolling pale blue oriental rugs, arranging and rearranging furniture, unpacking crates, replacing light bulbs and hanging pictures, including one of his …
Perfectly, with no fault.
These shots are also impeccably composed.
Daisy’s way to say Bloomingdale’s, a large department store in New York.
“It’s nice here,” she giggles shyly, though she is not too shy to point out the absence of stores like “Bloomydales.”
To take a person away from a home where he or she was settled.
He is merely expressing anxieties natural for a boy his age who has just been uprooted from his home in the city and deposited in a vastly different environment.
The New Republic is a real American political and cultural magazine; the author and article are invented. The footnote gives Navidson’s exact age where the main text says only “his 40s”.
33-39, Helmut Kereincrazch puts Navidson’s age at forty-eight.
As people claim, but it may not be true.
33-39, Helmut Kereincrazch puts Navidson’s age at forty-eight. '9The question of lengthy narrative descriptions in what is purportedly a critical exegesis is addressed in Chapter 5; footnote 67.
A careful critical explanation of a text.
33-39, Helmut Kereincrazch puts Navidson’s age at forty-eight. '9The question of lengthy narrative descriptions in what is purportedly a critical exegesis is addressed in Chapter 5; footnote 67.
The Editors note that Zampanò retells the film at length in what claims to be a critical study. They point you to a later note on the question.
33-39, Helmut Kereincrazch puts Navidson’s age at forty-eight. '9The question of lengthy narrative descriptions in what is purportedly a critical exegesis is addressed in Chapter 5; footnote 67.
About a calm, happy life in the countryside.
Of course, Navidson’s pastoral take on his family’s move hardly reflects the far more complicated and significant impetus behind his project—namely his foundering relationship with longtime companion Karen Green.
The force or reason that makes something happen.
Of course, Navidson’s pastoral take on his family’s move hardly reflects the far more complicated and significant impetus behind his project—namely his foundering relationship with longtime companion Karen Green.
Failing; like a ship that fills with water and sinks.
Of course, Navidson’s pastoral take on his family’s move hardly reflects the far more complicated and significant impetus behind his project—namely his foundering relationship with longtime companion Karen Green.
Making peace again after a conflict.
Ultimately unable to make this choice, he compromises by turning reconciliation into a subject for documentation.
From chemistry: the power to join with other atoms. Here: the hidden pulls between two people.
In fact it requires some willful amnesia of the more compelling sequences ahead, if we are to detect the subtle valences operating between Will and Karen; or as Donna York phrased it, “the way they talk to each other, the way they look after each other, and of course the way they don’t.”!4 Navidson, we …
Redbook is a real American women’s magazine; the article is invented. “In twain” is an old phrase for “in two”, fitting a couple under strain.
In fact it requires some willful amnesia of the more compelling sequences ahead, if we are to detect the subtle valences operating between Will and Karen; or as Donna York phrased it, “the way they talk to each other, the way they look after each other, and of course the way they don’t.”!4 Navidson, we learn, began his project by mounting a number of …
Here: a set of similar things used together (“a battery of cameras”).
Navidson also keeps on hand two 16mm Arriflexes and his usual battery of 35mm cameras.
CCTV means closed-circuit television, the security cameras in banks and shops. The Real World (from 1992) was an early reality-TV show on MTV that filmed young strangers living in one house.
Nothing, for instance, like the constant eye of CCTV systems routinely installed in local banks or the lavish equipment and multiple camera operators required on MTV’s Real World.
With a small c: universal, covering everything.
He is not interested in showing all the coverage or attempting to capture some kind of catholic or otherwise mythical view.
A small piece.
Instead he hunts for moments, pearls of the particular, an unexpected phone call, a burst of laughter, or some snippet of conversation which might elicit from us an emotional spark and perhaps even a bit of human understanding.
To draw out a reaction or answer.
Instead he hunts for moments, pearls of the particular, an unexpected phone call, a burst of laughter, or some snippet of conversation which might elicit from us an emotional spark and perhaps even a bit of human understanding.
A detailed explanation.
More often than not, the near wordless fragments Navidson selects reveal what explication could only approximate.
So beautiful or great that it fills you with wonder.
Two such instances seem especially sublime, and because they are so short and easy to miss, it is worth reiterating their content here.
To say again.
Two such instances seem especially sublime, and because they are so short and easy to miss, it is worth reiterating their content here.
A chest of drawers.
Navidson finds some room on top of a bureau to set down his load.
Navidson’s cameras. Hi8 was a small consumer video format from 1989. Arriflex cameras, made by the German company Arri, are professional 16mm and 35mm film cameras. 35mm cameras are the standard film still cameras of a photojournalist.
Considering how beautiful she appears on the dreadful Hi 8 tapes, it is hardly surprising editors frequently relied on slides of her pouty lips, high cheek bones, and hazel eyes to sell their magazines.
The teeth of a comb or a brush, or the points of a fork.
“This is nice,” he says, removing a big clump of her blonde hair from the tines and tossing it into the wastebasket.
An invented critic who notes that Karen’s last words can point to “watch”, “bald” or “sorry”.
Using image and exquisitely controlled edits, Navidson has in effect preserved her hair, called into question his own behavior and perhaps in some ways contradicted his own closing remark, which as Samuel T. Glade has pointed out could refer to either “watch,” “bald,” or “sorry” or all three.!° Even better, Navidson has permitted the action and subtlety of the composition to represent the profound sentiments at work without …
Here: a disturbance or unwelcome interference.
… pointed out could refer to either “watch,” “bald,” or “sorry” or all three.!° Even better, Navidson has permitted the action and subtlety of the composition to represent the profound sentiments at work without the molestations of some ill-conceived voice-over or manipulative soundtrack.
A voice in a film that talks over the pictures and is not seen.
… to either “watch,” “bald,” or “sorry” or all three.!° Even better, Navidson has permitted the action and subtlety of the composition to represent the profound sentiments at work without the molestations of some ill-conceived voice-over or manipulative soundtrack.
Not sincere; pretending to be honest.
In keeping with this approach, the second moment also does without explanations or disingenuous musical cues.
Ford Models is a famous New York modelling agency (from 1946). Milan is a centre of fashion. Venetian masques are masked balls in the style of the Carnival of Venice. All three show Karen’s former life as a model.
Once a model with the Ford Agency in New York, she has since put behind her the life of Milan fashion shoots and Venetian Masques in order to raise her two children.
A masked ball or a festive show with masks.
Once a model with the Ford Agency in New York, she has since put behind her the life of Milan fashion shoots and Venetian Masques in order to raise her two children.
Of lips: full, pushed forward.
Considering how beautiful she appears on the dreadful Hi 8 tapes, it is hardly surprising editors frequently relied on slides of her pouty lips, high cheek bones, and hazel eyes to sell their magazines.
The string in a candle that burns.
The children are in the midst of a candle-making project which involves several empty egg cartons, a dozen long lengths of wick, a bucket of plaster of Paris and a jar full of crystal wax.
A white powder that you mix with water; it gets hard fast.
The children are in the midst of a candle-making project which involves several empty egg cartons, a dozen long lengths of wick, a bucket of plaster of Paris and a jar full of crystal wax.
Soft, sticky, messy stuff.
The result is some kind of candle with plenty of goop to go around, most of it ending up on the children’s hands.
So that something does not happen.
Karen helps brush the hair out of her daughter’s eyes lest she try to do it herself and end up smearing plaster all over her face.
Three invented articles in three real magazines: a science journal, a fashion magazine and a literary quarterly. The spread of sources is a joke: every kind of writer has something to say about one short scene with a hairbrush.
And yet even though Karen keeps Chad from overfilling the molds or Daisy from hurting herself with the scissors, 'SSee “The Heart’s Device” by Frances Leiderstahl in Science, v.
Too much of something; here, full to excess (“surfeit with love”).
Though clearly a matter of opinion, Karen’s gaze seems just as lost as it is “surfeit with love and longing.”'’ The reasons are in part answered when at last Navidson’s car pulls into the driveway.
To cry out in a high, sharp voice.
Daisy shrills.
To calm someone by giving what he or she wants.
This seems to appease the little girl, and she actually settles down, smugly eyeing Chad even as she continues to snip wicks.
In a way too pleased with oneself.
This seems to appease the little girl, and she actually settles down, smugly eyeing Chad even as she continues to snip wicks.
The entrance hall of a house.
Strangely enough, by the time Karen reaches Navidson in the foyer, she has quite effectively masked all her eagerness to see him.
Broken, not working.
“Hey, the water heater’s on the fritz,” she manages to say.
Vogue is a real fashion magazine; the article is invented. Zampanò quotes it for Karen’s look at the window.
Garten’s “100 Looks” in Vogue, v.
Footnote 18 is Johnny’s first long story. A small word in the main text (“water heater”) sets him off, and he goes from a cold shower to a night in a bar.
A close friend who goes out with you.
A pretty evil discovery especially when you’re depending on that watery wake-up call, me being massively dehydrated from a long night drunk my road-dog Lude and I winged our way onto last night.
Here: a bar or club.
As I'm remembering it now, we somehow ended up at this joint on Pico, and soon thereafter found ourselves in conversation with some girls wearing black cowboy hats, supposedly lost in their own private-blend of brainhatching euphoria—Thank you Herbal Ecstasy—prompting us to put a little Verbal …
Pico Boulevard is a long street in Los Angeles. Herbal Ecstasy was a legal pill sold in the 1990s as a natural “high”; it held ephedra, a stimulant.
As I'm remembering it now, we somehow ended up at this joint on Pico, and soon thereafter found ourselves in conversation with some girls wearing black cowboy hats, supposedly lost in their own private-blend of brainhatching euphoria—Thank you Herbal Ecstasy—prompting us to put a little Verbal Ecstasy on …
A feeling of great happiness and excitement.
… remembering it now, we somehow ended up at this joint on Pico, and soon thereafter found ourselves in conversation with some girls wearing black cowboy hats, supposedly lost in their own private-blend of brainhatching euphoria—Thank you Herbal Ecstasy—prompting us to put a little Verbal Ecstasy on them which would, as it turned out, ultimately lead them giggling into the night.
A gunfighter of the American West.
I think Lude started giving one of them a trim, whipping out his scissors which he always has on hand, like old gunslingers I guess always had on hand their Colts—there he goes, snipping locks & bangs, doing a great fucking job too, but hey he’s a pro, and all of it in the dark too, on …
Colt revolvers, the guns of the American West. Johnny compares Lude’s scissors to a gunfighter’s pistol.
I think Lude started giving one of them a trim, whipping out his scissors which he always has on hand, like old gunslingers I guess always had on hand their Colts—there he goes, snipping locks & bangs, doing a great fucking job too, but hey he’s a pro, and all of it in the dark too, on a barstool, surrounded by dozens of who knows …
“He is the shit”: he is excellent (positive slang).
… a barstool, surrounded by dozens of who knows who, fingers & steel clicking away, tiny bits of hair spitting off into the surrounding turmoil, the girls all nervous until they see he really is the shit and then they're immediately chirping “me, next” & “do me” which is too easy to remark upon, so instead Lude & I remark upon something else which this time round is all about some …
To pretend.
“Bw come on, they don’t want to hear about that,” I said with about as much reluctance as I could reasonably feign.
A long flat boat for cargo.
“Very well,” I said, starting then to recall for everyone how at the lonely age of nineteen I had climbed off a barge in Galveston.
Johnny tells the girls a tall tale about a barge, a Russian captain and bare-knuckle fights in Houston. The places are real (Galveston is a port city in Texas), but Johnny says later that the whole story is fake.
“Very well,” I said, starting then to recall for everyone how at the lonely age of nineteen I had climbed off a barge in Galveston.
A bet.
“See, I still owed my crazy Russian Captain a thousand dollars for a wager I’d lost in Singapore.
A silly, annoying person.
So I reach Houston and the first thing that happens, some twerp comes up and tries to rob me.”
To hit hard with the fist.
So I slugged him.
To pay, usually unwillingly.
A couple of bruises, a cut cheek, but I walked with two hundred bucks and Punching Bag forked for ribs and beer and even let me crash on his couch.
To sleep at someone’s place.
A couple of bruises, a cut cheek, but I walked with two hundred bucks and Punching Bag forked for ribs and beer and even let me crash on his couch.
A front tooth.
… broke your front tooth too?” a girl with a ruby pin in her cowboy hat blurted out, though as soon as she said it, I could see she felt bad about mentioning my busted incisor.
Money.
After three-four weeks, I continued, I had enough dough to pay back the Captain and even keep a bit for myself.
To laugh at something as silly.
Lude scoffed.
Of a fight or game: the result was arranged in advance.
They've all been fixed.
To lose a fight on purpose, for money.
fifty bucks to swing and dive.
A competitor who has little chance to win, so bets on him pay a lot.
“All month long, he and his partner had been boosting the numbers on me so that when Punching Bag—and at this point he was the long shot—slaughtered me, they’d walk with a small fortune.
A clever move, made to get an advantage (from chess).
They’d both originally planned to ditch me but my little gambit had worked.
To question someone hard and for a long time.
… the partner had heard me say, which I’m sure he shared as soon as he could with Punching Bag, they dragged me along, dumped some whiskey into me in their truck and then started grilling me about that stuff I‘d been babbling about, trying to find out what was worth a thousand percent.
Of a mob: to kill someone without a trial.
Still, if I stayed in Houston I'd probably be lynched by the bettors who by now had figured out something was sour which could only mean one thing to them (all explanations to the grave): Punching Bag & his partner and me were to …
To move with small side-to-side shakes.
The girls all engrossed and smiling and still shimmying closer, as if maybe by touching me they could find out for sure if I was for real.
To walk slowly and casually.
A few minutes later, he sauntered over to the duo, poured them coffee mugs full of vodka, and in his incomprehensible accent, began going on and on about pure New Guinea value.
That you can touch; real.
After all the Captain kept mentioning euphoria, Spanish explorers and paradise, even though he refused to show Punching Bag the tiniest bit of anything tangible, vaguely referring to custom officials and the constant threat of confiscation and jail.
When officials take property away by law.
… all the Captain kept mentioning euphoria, Spanish explorers and paradise, even though he refused to show Punching Bag the tiniest bit of anything tangible, vaguely referring to custom officials and the constant threat of confiscation and jail.
The fact that settles an argument or a deal.
“Now here was the clincher.
Thousands of dollars (“five g’s” = $5,000).
Without even examining what he’s buying, Punching Bag hands over five g's.
Frightened.
They weren‘t after us, but Punching Bag & his partner still got spooked and took off as fast as they could.
A real spring in Florida, at Ginnie Springs on the Santa Fe River. It opens into a large underwater cave system that cave divers explore. Johnny says he nearly died there, “an altogether different story”.
… his—I owed him for saving my life, not to mention transporting my sorry ass all the way to Florida, where I finally did end up going, nearly dying in a cold water place called the Devil’s Ear which is an altogether different story.
Colourful birds of New Guinea. The first skins that reached Europe in the 1520s, after Magellan’s voyage, had no feet, so people believed the birds lived in the air and came from paradise. That is why the Captain talks about paradise.
Over fifty Birds of Paradise.
A person who committed a serious crime.
“A few months later I did read somewhere how Houston Police busted two known felons trying to unload a bunch of exotic birds at a zoo.”
Word for word.
Maybe not verbatim but close.
A phone number.
No digits, no dates, not even their names, leaving me feeling dumb and sad, a bit like a broken théermos—fine on the outside, but on the inside nothing but busted glass.
Slightly sick in the stomach.
In fact just looking at this story makes me feel a little queasy all of a sudden.
To appear as a large, threatening shape.
It’s like there’s something else, something beyond it all, a greater story still looming in the twilight, which for some reason I’m unable to see.
Without harm.
Following the release of The Navidson Record, neither Karen nor Navidson’s reputation escaped unscathed.
To destroy a large part of something.
Karen, in particular, was decimated by a vituperative stream of accusations from the tabloids, reputable reviewers, and even an estranged sister.
Full of angry abuse.
Karen, in particular, was decimated by a vituperative stream of accusations from the tabloids, reputable reviewers, and even an estranged sister.
No longer close or friendly with a family member.
Karen, in particular, was decimated by a vituperative stream of accusations from the tabloids, reputable reviewers, and even an estranged sister.
Karen’s estranged sister attacks her in an essay. “Blows high the roof beams” echoes Sappho’s wedding song “Raise high the roof beam, carpenters”, which J. D. Salinger used as a title.
Karen, in particular, was decimated by a vituperative stream of accusations from the tabloids, reputable reviewers, and even an estranged sister. Leslie Buckman blows high the roof beams when she calls “Karen Green a cold bitch, plain and simple.
To talk on and on in a silly way.
Watching her burble on about her weight, her children, or how much she needs Navidson made me want to retch.
To try to vomit.
Watching her burble on about her weight, her children, or how much she needs Navidson made me want to retch.
Glamour is a real women’s magazine; the article is invented.
She’s also a slut.”!9 Buckman is not alone in her opinion. Dale Corrdigan has also pointed out that Karen was anything but a lovely housewife: “Karen hardly gave up the promiscuous behavior that marked her 20s.
Having many sexual partners.
Dale Corrdigan has also pointed out that Karen was anything but a lovely housewife: “Karen hardly gave up the promiscuous behavior that marked her 20s.
Careful not to attract attention.
She only became more discreet.”20 In retrospect, the rabid speculation over Karen’s infidelities seems driven by a principally sexist culture, especially since so little attention was paid to Navidson’s role in their relationship.
Wild and fanatical (literally: sick with rabies).
She only became more discreet.”20 In retrospect, the rabid speculation over Karen’s infidelities seems driven by a principally sexist culture, especially since so little attention was paid to Navidson’s role in their relationship.
Tattoos.
One of them, snorting on a dirty handkerchief, covered in tatts, Manson crucified on his back, told me it would be fixed by evening.
A tattoo of Charles Manson (1934–2017) on a cross. Manson led a cult whose members committed the 1969 Tate–LaBianca murders in Los Angeles.
One of them, snorting on a dirty handkerchief, covered in tatts, Manson crucified on his back, told me it would be fixed by evening.
A difficult situation.
Is it just coincidence that this cold water predicament of mine also appears in this chapter?
Bad, of poor quality.
I sure don’t believe it’s because of some crummy made-up story or a lousy (water) heater.
Johnny admits he changed the main text: he added the word “water”. It is the first time he says he altered Zampanò’s text.
Long, dark, worried thinking.
As it turns out though, the first hint concerning these dark broodings does not come from him but from Karen.
A name Navidson says in his sleep. Karen and his friends do not know who she is.
“He mentioned Delial again,” she says in an extremely clipped tone.
Of speech: short, fast and cold.
“He mentioned Delial again,” she says in an extremely clipped tone.
In Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), a sailor kills an albatross and must wear the dead bird around his neck. An “albatross” is now a burden or guilt that you cannot get rid of.
No one had any idea who she was or why it was she haunted his thoughts and conversation like some albatross.?3 That said, while the first sequence certainly hints at a number of underlying tensions in the Navidson/Green family, all brought into relief by this chapter, it is crucial not to lose sight of the …
Full of something.
In fact it is rare to behold such radiant optimism in anything these days, let alone in films, each frame so replete with promise and hope.
About the countryside and farm life.
Navidson clearly cherishes these bucolic, near idyllic impressions of a new world.
Very happy, peaceful and beautiful.
Navidson clearly cherishes these bucolic, near idyllic impressions of a new world.
The last edited version of a film.
Of course, nostalgia’s role in shaping the final cut must not be forgotten, especially since within a year these pieces were all Navidson had 21“ Horny Duo” by David Liddel, Utne Reader, July/August 1993, p.
The Utne Reader is a real American magazine that reprints alternative press. The article is invented. The quote “If he has horns …” plays on two old images: horns are the sign of a cuckold (a man whose wife is unfaithful), and horns and hooves are the signs of the devil.
Of course, nostalgia’s role in shaping the final cut must not be forgotten, especially since within a year these pieces were all Navidson had 21“ Horny Duo” by David Liddel, Utne Reader, July/August 1993, p.
An invented essay placed in a real university press. It argues that Navidson may show himself as worse than he is.
22Ascencion Gerson’s “The Vanity of Self-Loathing” in Collected Essays on Self-Portraiture ed.
A fast increase in number.
23Since the revelation, there has been a proliferation of material on the subject.
A list of invented works on the name Delial, in some real journals and presses (Afterimage, Ebony, University of California Press). The titles echo love and names: Beatrice is Dante’s idealized love, Dulcinea is Don Quixote’s imagined lady, and “What’s in a name?” is Juliet’s line in Romeo and Juliet. “Bedeutungswandel” is German for “change of meaning”; thumos is Greek for spirit or passion.
See also Chris Ho’s “What's in a name?”
“Change of meaning”, a term in linguistics.
31, December, 1993; Dennis Stake’s Delial (Indianapolis: Bedeutungswandel Press, 1995); Jennifer Caps’ Delial, Beatrice, and Dulcinea (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Thumos Inc., 1996); Lester Breman’s “Tis but a Name” in Ebony, no.
A man whose wife is unfaithful. Old pictures give him horns.
A painting method of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac (1880s): the picture is made of many small dots of colour. Zampanò uses it for the dots of paw prints on the wet grass.
left—Karen and the children a mere blur racing down the staircase, the pointillism of their pets’ paw prints caught on the dew covered lawn, or the house itself, an indefinite shimmer, sitting quietly on the corner of Succoth and Ash Tree Lane, bathed in afternoon light.
Painting with many small dots of colour.
left—Karen and the children a mere blur racing down the staircase, the pointillism of their pets’ paw prints caught on the dew covered lawn, or the house itself, an indefinite shimmer, sitting quietly on the corner of Succoth and Ash Tree Lane, bathed in afternoon light.
The cross street of the house. Sukkot (Succoth) is the Hebrew for “booths”: the Jewish festival of temporary huts that recalls the years of wandering in the desert. Succoth is also a place in the Bible where Jacob built booths.
… children a mere blur racing down the staircase, the pointillism of their pets’ paw prints caught on the dew covered lawn, or the house itself, an indefinite shimmer, sitting quietly on the corner of Succoth and Ash Tree Lane, bathed in afternoon light.