Well, O4S fans, here we are, trivia for the final book of the series, Going Forth by Day (The Order of the Four Sons, Book VI). I’m going to have to break this post into two parts because I kept thinking of good tidbits to share. I’ll post the second one next week.
If you’re reading this, I hope you’ve read the books, and that these posts have enhanced your enjoyment of them. I used to think that we’d never be able to top Books III/IV, and while Corbenic is still my favorite place, damn if I’m not proud of how Books V-VI turned out.
So while I sit over here stewing in sentimentality, I’ll let you get to it.
If you haven't already read them, the previous trivia posts are here:
Book I, Book II, Book III, Bonus Trivia, Book V
Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD.
1. Animal
Imagery
Some people
have asked me if BoJack Horseman was the inspiration for the
animal-headed creatures in Kate’s afterlife journey. No, I actually hadn’t
watched BoJack while I was working on this book. It was partially inspired by the
mushroom trip back in Book II (the diner, the minotaur and all the other
strange creatures Kate sees in her hallucination). The rest came from the TV series, Over
the Garden Wall.
One of the things I liked most about Over the Garden Wall was that it had all the trappings of fairy tales, but was firmly rooted in Americana. Most of the creatures Kate encounters in the afterlife are American animals—buffalo, armadillo, turkey, etc. She sees the Catfish again, (one of the creatures from her mushroom trip), driving a bus. Sarosh is a barn owl. The only exceptions to the American animals are the hotel creatures – Anubis (the jackal-headed concierge), Horace (the hawk elevator operator) the crocodiles, baboons and a hippopotamus – those are all animals from Egyptian mythos. They all work at the hotel. Also, when humans turn into their animal spirits, those aren’t necessarily American. (David Morgan becomes an elephant, living up to his middle name, Ganesh.)
Another place where animals are featured prominently is Cerulean—or, more accurately, Tarweja, the culture that was there before Joan and Michael came. The Tarwejans were shamanistic. Michael shows Alyssa what happened to them. While there, she sees the immense statues of a male and female figure guarding the city gates, their robes covered with images of animals. In the museum Michael has kept, she sees many representations of a Tree of Life, covered with animals.
Suong Pham, the Starry Wisdom psychic, is a natural witch who bonded closely with many animal companions in Vietnam. When she meets Joan, Joan also has a knack for enchanting wild creatures.
Leto has a toy mouse that Murphy carved for her, and later takes the name, Sir Mouse.
JD, as a cowboy/rancher, cares for livestock at his Cerulean home.
In Kate’s final confrontation with Joan, she turns into a hawk and a lion. I chose those animals, not just because they’re fierce, but because they are associated with the gospel writers, John and Mark, respectively. I thought Christian imagery made sense with anything regarding Joan.
2. Bird is
the Word
To continue from the previous item-- birds, in particular, have been a recurring image in the series. Millicent Kincaid’s younger daughter, Phoebe, has a stuffed owl named Mrs. Lew. I chose that name because Lleu Llaw Gyffes is a hero in Welsh mythology. The name Lleu is derived from Proto-Celtic Lugus, the exact meaning of which is still up for debate. It can mean, variously: light, pale yellow, darkness, swamp, oath, deceive, lynx, shining eyes, to mourn, or to break (as in, break the heart). I like that it has so many possible meanings, though I was thinking about how Cerulean is a place of ghosts and death, so the idea of a name that means “to mourn” seemed fitting. In one story, Lleu turns into an eagle and flies away. In that story, he also turns his wife, Blodeuwedd, into an owl for betraying him.
The Eerin – As mentioned in previous trivia posts, the word eerin is an Australian Aboriginal word that means “small gray owl,” fitting for nocturnal, subterranean creatures. Their home is Canungra, which means, “place of owls.” At the end, they are transformed into a flock of birds and fly away, significant because Carcosa had lost all of its birds in the catastrophe that made it the barren wasteland that it is.
Bathory gives Leto a white dove as a pet. When Leto gets Bathory drunk, Bathory sings a Hungarian folksong called Madàrka, which means “little bird.”
Kate’s real surname, Avery, means “bird.”
Sarosh’s real form is that of a barn owl. Owls are regarded as psychopomps in many traditions, so of course, he is her spirit guide to the afterlife. At the afterlife hotel, there are the hawk-headed hotel workers, which represent Horus. Kate and David dance to Charlie "Bird" Parker's music. Kate wears a hawk mask for the masquerade, and turns into a hawk later when she confronts Joan.
In Corbenic, the symbol of the empire is an ibis, which is associated with wisdom, Egypt, Thoth and the Emerald Tablets. Corbenic’s most valuable piece of currency, a silver piece, has an image of the ibis on it, hence they call those coins “birds.”
At the end, Leopold creates a crest for Alyssa—a phoenix, which is also the design on her wedding dress. Alyssa is also given a gift of 1,000 origami cranes from her fellow Oracles, symbol of long life. The crane is thought to live 1,000 years in Japanese folklore. Also, 1,000 cranes mean the recipient gets a special wish granted. While she never says exactly what her wish is, I think we can safely assume it came true. Clayton was Jack’s 1000th kill, and the Order says, “May he/she have a thousand,” when they die, to say may they have a thousand of all good things.
3. Prophecies
In all the
books, the Oracles’ prophecies usually mean something, even when they sound
like nonsense. It’s usually highly figurative language, but no less correct. In
this book, for example, there is the following scene:
“What
worth, the son?” Beth whispered.
“Sun
or son?” Joan asked.
“Four
sons and a fifth. But they are no one’s sons, son of no one, son of a bitch. A
fifth. Whiskey. A flask. Pour one out for the departed. Keep one in. The
world’s on me.”
“The
fifth is a moon,” another Oracle, named Camille, said. “The fifth moon, the
hidden face.”
Gwen
began to sing, “If I were hanged on the highest hill, mother o’mine, O mother
o’mine, I know whose love would follow me still!”
“Come
to my arms, my beamish boy,” Margaret put in.
“Mother,
mother,” the others chanted. “Mother, mother.”
“The moon and the yew tree,” Fannie said. “Lions and lambs. The plum and the hazel drop their fruit and stones. The moon is a door. The moon is my mother. She is not sweet. Her dress is made of owls and bats.”
“What worth, the son?” refers to Joan sacrificing Michael—the worth of her son, her own blood, is immense. It’s a cost she has to be willing to pay.
“Four sons and a fifth. But they are no one’s sons, son of no one, son of a bitch. A fifth. Whiskey. A flask. Pour one out for the departed. Keep one in. The world’s on me.” There are several references embedded in this bit of dialogue. Four sons obviously refers to the Order, and the fifth—throughout the series, five is a number of instability and bad luck. Hence, the next Oracle talks about the fifth moon, which refers to Carcosa. The hidden face is Akhenaton, disguised as someone the team knows and trusts. The fifth also refers to a fifth of alcohol. Murphy ultimately traps Akhenaton in his whiskey flask. “Son of no one,” refers to Akhenaton himself, who told Bill, “I am no one’s son.” “Son of a bitch” is Michael. “Pour one out for the departed/Keep one in” refers Murphy emptying his flask in order to put Akhenaton in it, and refers to the immense loss of human life that will occur before this book is over. “The world’s on me” was mean to be like “This one’s on me,” like buying a round. It refers to our heroes saving the universe.
“If I were hanged on the highest hill, mother o’mine, O mother o’mine…” Another reference to Joan selling Michael out. “Mother o’Mine” is a poem by Rudyard Kipling, which nicely captures Michael and Joan’s fucked up relationship.
“Come to my arms, my beamish boy” is from the Lewis Carroll poem, “The Jabberwocky,” after “my son” slays the Jabberwock. This refers to our heroes fighting monsters in general and living to celebrate after.
“The moon and the yew tree,” Fannie said. “Lions and lambs. The plum and the hazel drop their fruit and stones. The moon is a door. The moon is my mother. She is not sweet. Her dress is made of owls and bats.” – Another quote that has many layers of meaning. The yew tree was sacred to Druids. Michael’s father was a Druid, and Joan liked to sit beneath a yew tree back in Scotland because it reminded her of her lost love. Lions and lambs refer to the Christian idea of enemies lying down together, coming to some sort of truce, like Michael and Alyssa, Bill and Akhenaton, Joan and Kate, or Leto and Bathory. “The plum and the hazel drop their fruit and stones” – the plum stands for Suong, who always dreamt of a plum tree in connection with the love of her life, Joan. In Celtic mythology, it is believed there is a hazel tree that stands at the world’s end. It drops its nuts into a sacred well where it is eaten by the salmon of wisdom. If you eat either the nuts or the fish, you gain prophetic abilities. Joan essentially takes a bite out of Alyssa, trying to gain psychic powers. Also, the idea of a tree at the border between worlds is appropriate. “The moon is a door. The moon is my mother. She is not sweet” – refers to Joan, being a false light in the darkness, a doorway to death. “Her dress is made of owls and bats.” This line, and indeed, the whole bit of dialogue, moons, owls, bats and a woman’s dress, comes from the Sylvia Plath poem, “The Moon and the Yew Tree.” The dress of owls and bats can refer to the Tarwejan shamanistic/goddess figure, whose robe is covered with images of animals. It can also refer to Joan again—owls and bats are psychopomps, guides to the underworld. And owls, as I’ve already mentioned, appear several times throughout the series.
4. Clayton
Maybe this is random, but I realized I’d never put in any of the previous trivia posts that Clayton’s character was heavily inspired by Sidney Freedman in MASH-- a compassionate Jewish psychologist. I hear Sidney’s voice for Clayton’s dialogue, especially my favorite line, which actually showed up in Book V, “Plan? There was a plan? Typically, a plan involves foresight and organization. I must’ve missed that part of your process.”
5. The Obligatory References
Excelsior Springs – the afterlife town Kate goes to, which looks just like Excelsior Springs, is simply called Excelsior, which means “higher.” I think it’s natural for a westerner like me to think of the afterlife/heaven as a higher plane of existence. I also couldn’t resist tossing in the “onwards and upwards” motto for the town, a nod to Stan Lee.
Excelsior’s fashions and technology are from the 1920s/30s. I thought the afterlife must be at least a little behind the times. Everyone that’s there has left Earth, some quite a while ago, so they don't know what the current trends are. Also, the real Excelsior Springs in Missouri has an annual festival called Gatsby Days, in which people dress up in 1920s fashion to commemorate the last of the town’s heyday. I also have Sarosh appear in a suit inspired by The Great Gatsby, which I made one of Kate’s favorite books/movies. (Kate would obviously be a Fitzgerald fan.) The real town also has railroad tracks (that used to run to Chicago), and I like the idea of a train running through the afterlife, taking people to different destinations.
Another aspect of the afterlife was this whole idea of going back to our beginnings – for Kate, her journey really began in Excelsior. For Alyssa, it was the Order’s construct. For Joan, it was Scotland. Everyone seeks their roots, returns to what is familiar, for good or ill. And the story ends with Kate returning to her parents’ home in New York.
Kansas City - I always tip my hat to my hometown. Murphy mentions working in Cowtown, and at the afterlife ball, there's music by Charlie Parker, who was born in KCK.
Jesse James – no need to put a song in this book because—hey there, Frank and Jesse! They make an actual cameo this time, along with their partner in monster fighting, Jonas Whitefeather.
Stephen King – It’s subtle this time, but when Kate uses the staff segment to go after Joan, this is what she experiences:
A portal opened and it pulled her through. It may have pulled her through several portals, it was kinda hard to tell. It was like being sucked through a pneumatic tube. Her breath was ripped from her body. She was bombarded by a series of radically different temperatures and pressures, flashing lights and yawning darkness, noise upon noise, whistles, roars, an underlying vibration like the chime of some dreadful bell, dissonant, relentless, harrowing.
The chime Kate hears was inspired by the Todash chimes in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. Todash is the space between universes, and I think it’s very likely that Kate travels through that. It’s appropriate that Kate hears a bell-like sound, since we have referenced bells elsewhere, including her singing bowl.
Another King reference is when Akhenaton (in Bill’s body) summons Alyssa’s spirit back from the dead. She sees Akhenaton’s strange blue eyes as “eldritch blue lights.” It’s tenuous, but I was actually thinking of the Deadlights, which also appear in the Dark Tower books, as well as It.
This is the first half of the Book VI trivia. I will put up the rest next week. Thank you for reading, and always feel free to hit me up with questions!
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