We, The Infected

Did Mahler die?

Why did Flora and Elvy have this special connection, visions and understanding?

Where did the caterpillar things come from in the first place?

So very confused... please assist!

Burning In wrote:Did Mahler die?

Yes, quite horribly.

Why did Flora and Elvy have this special connection, visions and understanding?

Umm.. because it's part of the story that they did. I guess you could say that they did because JAL said so.

Where did the caterpillar things come from in the first place?

This one is a bit more ambiguous. The story implied that something sort of briefly malfunctioned in the machinery of the universe. The effect of this was the souls of the recently deceased returned to their former bodies. My interpretation is that, just as each character perceives the entity Death as something different because that is all that limited human understanding allows, so the disembodied souls are perceived as the small, white caterpillars. Also, as a literary device, portraying them as caterpillars immediately implies that death is not just a transformation, but a growth step of some sort.

Wolfchild wrote:

Burning In wrote:Did Mahler die?

Yes, quite horribly.

Why did Flora and Elvy have this special connection, visions and understanding?

Umm.. because it's part of the story that they did. I guess you could say that they did because JAL said so.

Where did the caterpillar things come from in the first place?

This one is a bit more ambiguous. The story implied that something sort of briefly malfunctioned in the machinery of the universe. The effect of this was the souls of the recently deceased returned to their former bodies. My interpretation is that, just as each character perceives the entity Death as something different because that is all that limited human understanding allows, so the disembodied souls are perceived as the small, white caterpillars. Also, as a literary device, portraying them as caterpillars immediately implies that death is not just a transformation, but a growth step of some sort.

Hmm, I see. Maybe I wasn't following the writing right at part where The Drowned Undead starts attacking him. I thought that Mahler just fell over and got knocked out by banging his head and then the Zombie got on top of him and examined him or something. I can't remember it actually attacking him or whatever the Zombie did.

Burning In wrote:

Wolfchild wrote:

Burning In wrote:Did Mahler die?

Yes, quite horribly.

Hmm, I see. Maybe I wasn't following the writing right at part where The Drowned Undead starts attacking him. I thought that Mahler just fell over and got knocked out by banging his head and then the Zombie got on top of him and examined him or something. I can't remember it actually attacking him or whatever the Zombie did.

Immediately after that the novel says:

When her father had started to send hate to the creature, toward the image of the eel in the chest cavity, she had tried to send the same thing as Elias was now doing: Think nice, but she had not reached him, and now it was too late.

It's a challenge to reason clearly when someone has just killed your father. Quite a challenge.

The story implied that something sort of briefly malfunctioned in the machinery of the universe. The effect of this was the souls of the recently deceased returned to their former bodies. My interpretation is that, just as each character perceives the entity Death as something different because that is all that limited human understanding allows, so the disembodied souls are perceived as the small, white caterpillars. Also, as a literary device, portraying them as caterpillars immediately implies that death is not just a transformation, but a growth step of some sort.

I have been picking my brain trying to formulate the best words to explain this phenomenon. What you said hit it dead on, in my opinion. This is just another testament of how great JAL's work is. I was captivated by the way Death was perceived by the different characters in this novel. So compelling and so thought provoking.

This one is a bit more ambiguous. The story implied that something sort of briefly malfunctioned in the machinery of the universe. The effect of this was the souls of the recently deceased returned to their former bodies. My interpretation is that, just as each character perceives the entity Death as something different because that is all that limited human understanding allows, so the disembodied souls are perceived as the small, white caterpillars. Also, as a literary device, portraying them as caterpillars immediately implies that death is not just a transformation, but a growth step of some sort.

I'm going to add on to this a little further...my interp of the novel goes along these lines.

I agree with you Wolfie that the machinery of the universe breaks down and thus it results in the dead re-awakening. My perception of the novel is that the dead remain due to the energy that is now shared to them by the living. I find it funny that at the beginning of the novel there is that massive power surge of energy (appliances not turning off and such)...it's almost like the energy of the dead crossing over and then pop, it's a network breaking down and then pop, the fabric breaks completely and the dead return to the world in form of the caterpillars (souls) reentering the recently deceased. It's anarchy to the universe and the dead (reliving) are now connected to the energy powering the living. But the problem is, these two entities cannot co-exsist (as is seen in the novel)...and the energy shared between the two entities is like crossing a positive and negative battery terminal...they cannot connect, they will resist. The dead ultimately end up reflecting our energy source...if you notice through out the novel, the terrible things start happening because of the emotions shared between the living and dead (Magnus' bunny is killed because of the horrible thoughts he shared to Eva, she reflected those thoughts, same thing with the drowned man killing Mahler, he reflected Mahler's own hate and negative energy)

My view is that the dead and living can not co-exsist...and that's why Death manifest itself throughout the novel in various ways...its as if Death is trying to bring order back to the failed system and trying to correct the wrongs. But, because the dead are now living off that energy, it is the living's own selfishness (or even curiosity) that is keeping them on this plane of exsistance, hence the fabric of the universe cannot correct itself due to that energy that the dead is now feeding off. In order for the universe to correct itself, the living have to let them go so Death can restore the order of balance to the Universe. That's ultimately what Flora ends up understanding and ends up communicating to Eva, who communicates it to David, who communicates it to Anna and so forward.

It is only once the living lets go that order can be restored to the gaps in this universal fabric

Or at least that is what I took from the novel as a whole...that the dead have crossed back over from their plane of exsistence to ours, and the manifestations of death through out the novel is apart of the universe trying to correct the mistake in the system by bringing the dead back to that plane...the problem is that the dead are connected to the living and our energy is keeping them here

Or at least that's what I took from the novel...I'm sure I'm probably not alone here in thinking that.

A lot of this is elaborated on more in the epilogue - The Final Handling - which will be included in Paper Walls/Let The Old Dreams Die once it's published in English.