I'm of the camp that Molly Notkin isn't trustworthy (and also of the camp that Joelle wasn't hit by acid, but the two don't necessarily go together). The only parts of her interview that rang true seemed to be the ones that were corroborated by other parts of the book. I felt a bit like that was an underlying message of the scene being presented as an interrogation, and with the end note that precedes the start of the interview. For example, we know that Joelle was in IJ, but no one else has yet mentioned her being either nude or pregnant in it. Also, Notkin says that her face was blocked out, but again that's not something that anyone else has said, and not something (I think) that anyone could even know, certainly Joelle wouldn't know if that was true or not. (Finally, Lucille Duquette? That kind of brought it home for me that Notkin was thoroughly full of shit, also I think way back in the early 200s it's implied or stated that Joelle lies pretty regularly to Molly.)
On the acid front, I've started to think that Joelle made up the acid story and told it to Molly a) to stop Molly from asking her about the veil, and b) as a kind of homage to JOI. The latter being something I've recently though about since facial disfigurement plays a role in JOI's films right before and during the time he met Joelle. (Blood Sister ..., and Safe Boating ... both feature characters with facial disfigurement, the latter having Joelle's character being the one disfigured, and this was before the alleged acid throwing incident.) However, none of that can explain Joelle referring to Orin as a "dodger of flung acid" particularly well. But it is supported by Joelle telling Don that she's perfect, and the UHID mentions of the lethally pulchritudinous.
_________________ "Because so that was let's see."
|