Infinite Summer

As much as any other scene in the book, this sequence has stayed with me as being especially significant, for reasons that remain elusive (at least to me, this first time through). There's a neat kind of "dream-sequence" quality to it (it's hard to determine where, exactly, Hal begins to flash back in time and how much of the subsequent description is part of the flashback), and other details/previously-established patterns seem to converge here:
- various "squeaks": Hal's ankle (514), Tavis's desk (519), chair (520), and shoe (524)
- the "slight concave dent where the fear-instinct used to be," in CT's terrifying of young Tina (521)
- the "cruciform" stack of WhataBurger Jr. invitations (513)

Other details that stick out for me here involve Avril, such as her having had to duck her head under the door jamb to come out and see Hal. We know she's tall, but this seems to be a nice way to show how, to Hal, she's somewhat "larger than life." Another interesting detail is her giving the apple to Hal, and the meat of said apple smelling "like perfume." Is "the Moms" some kind of serpent, here? Hmmm . . .

Anyway, I don't want to ramble on, but I'd be interested to hear from those more in-the-know regarding this scene. What a book!

There's a point here where Avril rests her coccyx against the sill in the exact same way as Jim's mother (in the mattress flashback scene). I noticed the squeaks, too, but they actually continue through a bunch of scenes after the Antitoi/AFR "squeaks." It's a sort of echo of information throughout the book, subtle hints that everything is connected (including, even, that flashback to the mattress, which is all about a squeak).

We're constantly told not to underestimate the power of objects--and, to a degree, that's what language is. (Then again, we're also told by Stice while talking to Rusk that we shouldn't OVERestimate objects....)

Happy reading!