Commentary 03

11. ...Joe's being plagued by Sex. Pamela, as a character, makes her one and only appearance here. I don't know why. She's a good gal and would do well in any number of scenes. But it just wasn't in the cards. A supporting actress award, perhaps. The more enteresting point is that Joe is captivated by only her smile as she leaves.

12. Now, a radical shift happens. I had been thinking for some time that the pace was too slow, too mundane. So we had this abrupt shift happen (as dreams sometimes do to us all) where Joe is now a jungle-treading explorer, ala' Indiana Jones or someone. Vines, bluffs, rivers, mosquitoes - and just as he concludes there is nothing to be found, he drops into a bottomless hole... And breaks his fall like a tomb raider. Of course, this is where he gets practical and diverts from either Jones or Jolie movies - but he's still hanging by one hand, but probably that he's got his feet under him somehow. Unclear. But he got a light and sensibly clips it on to himself.

The last thing here is not a cliff-hanger, but calming himself. Effect still there, though - what's next?

13. And winds up on an Hawaiian beach with his kahuna mentor. While this kahuna is always irreverent, he still is there to point a way out. This is probably the anomoly, as Huna has been to my own thinking as I discovered it. It continually punches holes in most all conventional wisdom about self help and enlightenment. This section actually tells about the 4 ways of analysis, which I've not seen anywhere except in one of Serge King's books. (And I've read a LOT of self-help books, as you'l see shortly.)

14. Here's where Sue and Roger really get into manipulating Joe's dreams. They pull out a wicked dream which every red-blooded male has, just to get him back under their control.

15. We don't know really who this mystery woman is who invades Joe's room that night. And did you notice that somehow, he's back in his room and asleep? Even now, I don't know who this woman was supposed to be. It could have been the Entertainment Director, or one of the nurses, or even the un-named woman he met outside the garden. She is trained in massage, and also strong. Again, it could have been almost any of the women so far in this novel. But, unlike Joe, I don't lose sleep over it.