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Hello Everyone,
I hope that you aren’t too upset with me over the Eric Sanderson incident. As we continue reading, hopefully you’ll enjoy the eccentric assignments we’ve completed, and will still complete, and see the world get a little bit smaller as we continue reading. Please read through p. 50 (chapter 5) for Thursday, and PLEASE DO post on here with discussion-generating thoughts/comments/questions. We probably won’t run out of things to discuss, but it will just serve as an anchor should we lose our place. Thanks!
I’m working on assembling all the RST links that exist out there, as there is a ton of info, but once it’s more complete, I’ll post it. See you Thursday!
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I don’t think that we should rule out the possibility that Clio isn’t dead. In the scene where Clio and Eric are together in the tent, she tells him how “If you need to leave me, if I’m making you unhappy, you have to just do it… I couldn’t stand it if I ruined you” (43). Considering the importance that Clio has in the story — she is the main reason why he wants to remember — perhaps she is not gone after all… Could she really be alive, and his memory loss been a way to cover up something?
And if she did really die, what happens when he finds out how she died? Her death must tell us something extremely important about his life? Let’s make sense of Clio’s role in the book.
~Demitri Skylar~
I agree with “Demetri Skylar” above that Clio is possibly alive. When she tells Eric to leave her if she is making him unhappy, the conversation goes unfinished and it seems like an important part of the book. She says something like “i’m a dick,” and “I couldn’t stand it if I ruined you”. She is definitely connected to his memory loss. Also, I’m really curious about the whole lightbulb thing.
Also, do you guys trust the first Eric Sanderson or do you think the “new” Eric should keep seeing Dr. Randle? Personally, I think that even though the first Eric may have made some seemingly dubious decisions in cutting himself off from his family and everybody he knows, I think that he probably had good reasons for it and the “new” Eric should read all of his letters.
I’m still a little out of it after the whole fake Eric Sanderson thing. But, I agree with Clarence that we shouldn’t overlook the possibility that Clio is alive. What do you think all the things in the dream symbolize? The old marble statute of the celebrity chef? The spider-webbed Humphrey Bogart? The Roman bathtub? etc. do you think they connect to the first Eric Sanderson’s life?
i’m trying to decide whether or not i trust dr randle. she seems nice and genuinely concerned about eric’s condition, however, since we know nothing of his past it’s hard to say whether or not she could be an enemy. i also think it’s odd that eric lost all contact with his friends and family purposely. it reminds me other something a spy would do, or something someone in really big trouble would do. i’m looking forward to learning more about the first eric sanderson because i think it will clear up a lot of questions.
do you think it would benefit eric if he read all those letters? do you think he should establish his own life or learn about the prior eric’s life and make decisions off the learned information?
i think clio (if she died) died of a shark attack. i hope there is at least one shark in this book because that’s what i originally thought the book was about based when i read the title.
Personally, I am really really hoping that Eric will open and read all the letters. Mostly just because I want to learn more about the “first” Eric, and the pure entertainment value (not that this book isn’t entertaining). If I were Eric, I would trust myself, and my own directions rather than a stranger’s. Clio also seems like a very strong and independent character, yet very delicate; which makes me think that she definitely has a role in the current situation. She has the willpower and means to create such a circumstance, as well as the volatility to want to do such a thing.