Posts Tagged “Joshua”
~ The text of the May 8 entry is very difficult to read. So I thought it might be a good idea to temporarily skip over it and go directly to the May 9 entry of the shared diary in hope that an understanding of the May 9 entry might help us to read the May 8 entry when we come back to it. As I think that the drawing found on the page of the May 8 entry might relate to the text of the May 9 entry, I have included that drawing above. I propose that the text of the May 9 entry reads:
I think that sense may be made of this reading of the text by referring to the May 8 drawing. In that drawing we see some sort of trail of black dots extending from the rose garden to some labeled thing(s) that is(are) red colored. Can you read (or make a guess at the reading of) the label? At any rate, I think that it might be whatever-it-is-that-the-black-dots-represent that W hopes will guide them (W and J) true so that they will successfully reach (or find) the labeled thing(s). Or perhaps help them (W and J) to go successfully from the labeled thing(s) to the garden at night?
I propose that the text of this page reads:
~
I propose that the text of the left page reads:
The accompanying picture is of a “Joshua” who, previously shown as a bear in the May 1 entry, and having received a “magic kiss” from the May 2 entry, now has magically transformed—with a burst of radiant energy—into human form. This event is reminiscent of the fairy tale in which a prince, who had been cursed into frog-form, has that magical spell broken when he receives a kiss from a princess. I propose that the text of the right page is:
The most uncertain word, in my opinion, is the word “curse“, on the left page, which I came up with mostly from the context of the fairy tale role-play between W and J.
For these pages I propose that the text reads:
The line by J, written on the page dated May 2, “My name is Joshua,” appears to be an answer to the request from W, written on the page dated May 1, “(Do) tell me your name.” There is a drawing of Joshua the bear as part of the May 2 entry, and a drawing of kissing lips (like a lipstick kiss-mark) as part of the May 3 entry.
~ New comment-maker on this site, Pennywise, has provided us, using Codebreaker, with a normally unobtainable shared diary written in by both J and W. Thanks VERY MUCH, Pennywise! During the next few days, I’ll post some pages of the diary and let’s see if we can figure out all of the text. Please help! I’ve adjusted the contrast and such to try to make the text more legible. Pennywise offers the reading:
I think we have a comma between “Hello” and “little“. Perhaps the last line is “Do tell me your name“? What do you think? I am very uncertain about the word after “little“. The best I can suggest at this point is a misspelling of “friend” as “frend“. This makes the “tail” at the end of the word just a curve to the period. I’m far from convinced about this reading, however, and I’d very much like to hear other suggestions.
Aug
09
2009
 
Ropes Symbolizing Jennifer’s Suppression Of Her MemoriesPosted by PokerNemesis in Plot Structure & Story, Symbolism
Now I want to propose an additional symbolic meaning: ropes as the psychological forces within Jennifer’s mind that suppress her memories. The evidence for this comes from something told to Jennifer by a pair of scissors, the scissors that cut her bonds at the beginning of the “Unlucky Clover Field” chapter:
According to the scissors, cutting Jennifer’s bonds made her “free to feel pain.” What does this mean? The cutting of Jennifer’s bonds allows her to start her task, assigned to her by Wendy-as-Prince-Joshua, of obtaining a gift-of-the-month. The the gift-of-the-month task, I propose, is actually only a pretense (in the dream-plot at least, if not in Jennifer’s forgotten past) that disguises Jennifer’s true task: the recovery of her memories. Wendy-as-Joshua makes this clear in between the “Unlucky Clover Field” chapter and the “Sir Peter” chapter when she says:
See also my blog-post Bad Ending vs. Good Ending for more on the central importance of the recovery and acceptance of Jennifer’s memories. So when the scissors tell Jennifer, “You might have been better off being bound than free to feel pain,” I think that the scissors are sending a message that pain will come with the recovery of Jennifer’s missing memories. And if so, the ropes that were cut seem to represent part of the psychological forces that have kept Jennifer’s painful memories bound up in her unconscious mind.
Jun
03
2009
An Over-abundance of JoshuasPosted by PokerNemesis in Clues, Mysteries, Plot Structure & Story, SymbolismRevenantChild asked, in the previous blog-post’s comment-thread:
The bear doll might well be a stand-in… but the issue is: for whom? Wendy began her first letter to Jennifer by addressing it: “To Mr. Joshua, the bear in distress”. At the end of “The Gingerbread House” chapter, Wendy chose to name the bear doll “Joshua”. Why? Is the bear doll a stand-in for Jennifer? Or does Wendy think of both Jennifer (whom she addressed as “my prince” in her letters) and the bear doll as a stand-in for the original Joshua, whom Wendy knew? Might the original Joshua have been the Prince of the Aristocrat club? And was Joshua the Bear used as a stand-in Prince after the original Joshua died? Did Wendy thereby keep Joshua’s death a secret from the Aristocrats, making up an excuse of some sort (such as feeling ill) for Joshua’s absence? Did Wendy ever stand in for the original Prince Joshua (Gregory’s son) herself by pretending to be Prince Joshua? At the beginning of the “Unlucky Clover Field” chapter, Wendy-disguised-as-Joshua said “I am the Prince, and the Prince rules!” If the Prince was never anybody but Joshua the Bear, what is the meaning of that scene, and the scenes of Wendy-disguised as-Joshua sitting on the throne in the first chapter, and during the in-between-chapters times on the airship? Did Wendy ever deceive the Aristocrats by disguising herself as Prince Joshua? It seems to me that there are many possibilities to consider. ~ |
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