The worm turns...
The Mckay's review of Ship of Theseus calls the book "a vulgar ouroboros of a novel." Ourobos, the snake that eats its own tail. According to wikipedia,
The Ouroboros often symbolize self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things such as the phoenix which operate in cycles that begin anew as soon as they end. It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished. While first emerging in Ancient Egypt, the Ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist's opus. It is also often associated with Gnosticism, and Hermeticism.Based on what I have found, I suspect that almost everything in S. is a "ship of Theseus." An unreliable narrator with subterfuge in mind and a reclusive author; both of whom seek to encrypt and misdirect. The people, the dates, most footnotes appear to be composites of real and literary references and individuals with some intentional misdirection and fictions thrown in to obscure and muddy the waters.
Palimpsests, archaeological strata, literary references that don't quite make sense; pastiches, layers and composites join in to obscure.
The archaeological strata of literature...
That snake that eats its own tale can be a metaphor for literature that takes what came before. Whether we like it or not, much of what is written, painted or discussed is based in part on something that came previously. That's not to say the work can't be original and engaging, but it can't exist without history. Works like Tristram Shandy, The King in Yellow, Finnegans Wake, Ready Player One, The Waste Land and now S. all owe a debt to history.
It's a literary genealogy that Tolkien referred to as the "cauldron of story." Sterne was inspired by Rabelais, Locke, Pope and Swift and their influence is well documented. The King in Yellow owes a debt to Ambrose Bierce from whom Chambers appropriated Carcosa. These works went on to inspire the likes of Lovecraft, Goethe, Marx and many, many others. And it continues to this day, as Mystimus discovered with the Glass Bead Game.
Prehistoric pastiches...
Juan Blas Covarubbias, the Portuguese pirate is fictional. Yet the name Covarubbias is not, nor does it originate from Portugual, but Spain. It comes from Burgos Province and some of the surrounding areas to describe the red caves found in that area; many of these same caves feature prehistoric art. Don Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, amateur archaeologist, discovered the Altamira cave on his property in nearby Cantabria (which used to be part of Burgos and was in 1590), but it was his young daughter who spotted the drawings on the ceiling. Cueva de La Pasiega, also in Cantabria has sanctuaries or galleries of cave paintings from different ages not unlike the cave S and Corbeau escape through. It was officially discovered when researchers were told by villagers in the area of its existence 1911.
The city Burgos of Spain, and located in the province of the same name, has two interesting looking museums, one for books and a museum on evolution (following the monkey, perhaps?). Both opened in 2010, so it's possible that DD knew of their existence while he was writing S., or it could just be a happy accident.
I also found in researching Burgos, that the word "karst" as in Karst & Sons, the now defunct publishing company (page v), is a part of a geological term called karst topography which is described as the erosion of a layer or layers of bedrock.
Mulligan Stew, or It's All Burgoo to You, Part 2
