TIME REFERENCES
In this part of the
paper, I am going to mention the Time References I found when reading the
hypertext, following the arrows order, and reading a story of one character interrelated
with the stories of the other characters. I chose this way of reading the text
because I think is better for knowing the connection between the characters.
The most important
thing to take into account is that all the stories of all the characters happen
the same day.
● Clicking in Angelo,
we go straight to the first text of Angelo’s story and we find in his story the following time
references:
"When are you going to get a job?
“Then, like he was so weighty and important, he'd shout, "Why, your life has no
substance!" “
“I stood with my hands in my pockets, letting the heat seep from my skin
to my bones, when I found my cloud.”
“But if I looked at it right, first
with one eye, then with the
other, I could imagine shapes”
“Suddenly, my whole
life seemed to take form”
(Clicking “next” we go to Hank).
“For the first time in my life,
I felt right side up.”
(After this, the only thing we can do is coming back home, but once at
home, we can keep on with Angelo if we click again in his face):
“I would be alternately condemned and idolized, sometimes adored and sometimes despised, but never, ever forgotten”
“And so,
when the cloud was directly
overhead…”
“…and although I could still smell the hot tar from the roof…”
(Clicking “next” we go to Doris).
“This time, I tie him to his
overstuffed arm chair”
“Then
I feed him oatmeal with butter and heavy cream…”
“…after
several hours of heavy eating…”
(Clicking “next” we go to Kevin).
“When it comes
to the moon, I am as helpless as the tide.”
● Now, we finished with the first story and we keep on with the
second one, Clara:
“I never would have
gone to Porgett's…”
“On the day the mirrors gave out,…”
“Now I did reach out and I did tap the glass, first lightly with
the tips of my fingers, then more sharply with
my knuckles.”
“I was still
there, all right. My hands were still
solid and warm, and when I
wrapped my arms around myself I could feel that I still had substance”.
(We click “next” and we go to Hank, but there are no
time references in here, clicking “next” again, we go to Angelo)
“then the smallest pinch”
“That day,
as I stroked the shapeless mist”
“It wasn't
long before the cloud relaxed and became pliable”
(We click on “next” and we go to Kevin but there are
no time references, we click again “next” and we go to Gifford but again we do
not find any time reference).
● Now, we finished
with Clara’s story and we keep on reading with Doris’ story:
“Now
I got to find my daddy”
“Then
he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and sets his cup on one blade of the ceiling fan, which isn't working, thank
goodness.”
"A bit of a problem
with my gravity today," Daddy says.
“Seemed like the only thing that held him down were those heavy
boots he always wore”
“And now
it had happened”
“with no one but me to keep him from whirling off into
never-never land.”
“I find the pot in the
refrigerator, and it's still mostly full.”
“After warming
it up”
(Clicking next we go to Hank)
“Then,
when my daughter Doris barged in, I knew that the ceiling was a damned good place to be.”
(Clicking “next” we go to Gifford)
“And yet, as I stepped
out into the hall, I was not concerned.”
“I was not especially
surprised when, at the far end of the hall…”
“I had never before
seen this woman, yet I knew instinctively that she was my wife”
“…whose name I now
knew was Doris”
“Now I was staining the carpet”
"Yes, yes, you're always
sorry”
“ "I'm
sorry," I said again, and for a moment I forgot that I was
Gifford R. Friedman”
“What are you up to now?”
“Gifford R. Friedman had
vanished, possibly forever”
(Clicking on “next” we go to Clara)
“Have you ever cupped a piece of yourself in the palm of
your hand? Have you ever seen a
single eyebrow glisten like a glowworm?
Have you ever tried to hold onto pure light? “
● We finishes with this story and we keep on with Elizabeth’s
story:
“Enchantment was my only
hope, because in recent years Gifford had grown so distant”
(We have no more time references in Elizabeth because the next texts are
also mentioned before)
● Now we keep on our reading with Gifford:
“For a long time
no one noticed that I was diminishing. Whenever I felt my lips
grow numb and saw that my fingernails had turned as transparent as glass, I
slipped away to do my vanishing privately.
Then one day my wife Elizabeth said: "Gifford. This has got to stop."”
“Until last night”
(We click on “next” and we go to Elizabeth)
“At first
I assumed he was lost in thought”
“after weeks of silent pondering, the words always came”
“one evening
at the ballet”
“he has always
had a special fondness for Stravinsky's Firebird”
“I whispered, and during
the next performance”
“Sometimes
I'd walk into a room”
“I wondered if he was angry at me for pushing
him so hard all these years”
(Clicking on “next” we go to Clara)
“After all, I had been a
loyal employee for over seven years”
“When their
daughter, Rita, (a stranger to me) got married, didn't I send a silver place setting, even though I'd never had a wedding of my own?”
“Did I ever
complain that they were Jewish?”
● When we have finished with this story
we go to Hank’s story:
“I was stretched out on the ceiling, sipping my
coffee, when Doris barged in”
“I was a bit dizzy at first”.
(There are no more time references in this story
because the next texts are also mentioned before)
(Once at home, we can click again in Hank and keep on
reading it)
“Later,
after she tied me to the chair, and the chair
drifted out the window, I could not help noticing that everything looked upside
down.”
● Now, we keep on reading with Kevin’s story:
“I couldn't sleep that night”
“My wife, Doris, has always been peculiar about the moon. Even when we were first married, she nagged. Three years of nagging, and I
gave in. I made all kinds of promises. But now
Doris was busy looking after her father. She wouldn't even
know. I closed my eyes again, and I could smell that sharp”
(We click on “next” for going to Rita, and then to
Elizabeth)
“I knew that before
long he would vanish completely unless I took strong measures.”
“on the
evening of our twenty-fifth anniversary—so often called the
"silver anniversary"”
“Twenty-five
years of marriage, and I knew nothing.”
● Finally, when we have finished with Kevin’s story, we go with Rita’s
story:
“Last night I
jolted awake to find that, after five years of marriage, Angelo had misplaced my soul.”
“But knowing this now did not fill the hollow place I suddenly felt
inside.”
“Then, behind
these sounds, I heard something else”.
(There are no more time references in this story because the next texts
are also mentioned before).
Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Ana Murciano Beta
amurbe@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press