Once again, I've collected enough bits and pieces to create a new edition of The Monkey's Marginalia.
1. Ever wonder why "follow the monkey" sounds so familiar? It might be due to its similarity to the phrase, "follow the money,' which was popularized in the film, All the President's Men about the Watergate Scandal.
2. Amritsar, India (as in A Hundred Aprils in Amritsar) was the site of a massacre April 13, 1919 and may be a reference in itself to the century-long control over India held by the East India Company before control was turned over to the British crown and/or the almost century-long rule of India by the British Crown.
3. Geekyzen was on the right path with the morse code from the whoisstraka.com website, but I think her error was in adding too many dashes. I only added a dash when there was a space under a corresponding dot at the end of the lines of what we think is the encrypted message to get this: dot dash dot dash dash dash dot dash dash dot dash dash dot dash dash dot dot dash dot dash dash dot dash dot dot dot dash dot dash dash dot dash dash dot dash dash dot dot dot dash dot dash dot dot.
The only translation that I could get to work was: ROW AN MEET AT A STATE MAN INNE or ROW AN MEET AT A STATE MAN IN NE (New England). I think it's a reference to George Washington at the Delaware River. Washington would have been a "state man" in his support for the colonies' independence from British rule. At the time of Washington's crossing, the war was not going well for the colonies. The revolutionary forces were seriously demoralized from a series of crushing defeats by the British who had more men and better equipment. Washington's subsequent victories on the other side of the Delaware turned the tide for the American Revolution. There is also also an inn at the spot where Washington crossed which is known today as the Washington Crossing Inn, which makes sense; we know Dorst likes his layers.
One of the images on the website says, "safety in numbers won't keep you dry." According to one of the soldiers who crossed the Delaware with Washington, "It blew a hurricane." Facing rain, sleet and snow during the crossing, the revolutionaries were cold and wet having reached the other side.
4. Zorro first appeared in print in 1919 in The Curse of Capistrano. Written by pulp fiction author and screenwriter Johnston McCulley, who wrote under several pseudonyms, it was originally written as a one-off story. It was the silent movie version that prompted to McCulley to write additional Zorro novellas and short stories, causing some discontinuity problems with the original story and those following after.
Zorro is a composite of the Scarlet Pimpernel, Robin Hood, several real-life bandits, perhaps a guy named Lampton and maybe even a penny dreadful version of Spring Heel'd Jack, who instead of terrorizing London like he does in other versions, he is a nobleman/vigilante. Also interesting as some of these guys were real criminals, but the Scarlet Pimpernel was a a nobleman saving French nobility during the Reign of Terror; so their purposes and intents changed over time.
McCulley, creator of Zorro, also wrote a story featuring a bad guy known as the Spider. Many of McCulley's stories were printed in the The Argosy magazine founded by Frank Munsey. Several of his authors used pseudonyms and he was known to completely retool/rename his magazines, sometimes overnight.
5. Jorge Luis Borges continues to be fruitful in subtler ways. I bought an anthology he edited and one of the stories, Enoch Soames, features a "black wine" that is connected to a Mephistopheles-type character. I should note that Enoch Soames in the story wears a grey oil-cloth cloak and a black hat described as "clerical."
6. I suspect that Stephen King is the Nazca king. More to come.
There was a blogger who found a Stephen King connection. He stopped blogging and turned his focus on finishing the novel and hasn't come back yet. But I listed the posts he talks about King. You may find it interesting: http://wp.me/p4bg2Y-2lA
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