Robert Stevens

Ch. 8 basically reveals how much of a fraud Marana truly is, although he attempts to make himself appear legitamite. It turns out Flannery has met Lortaria, Ludmilla, and the Reader at different points in the story. The latter 3 of the 4 eventually end up in Ataguitania, a South American nation with a serious legitamicy problem. Apparently a Revolutionary movement and a Counterrevolutionary movement have become so cross infiltrated it is nearly impossible to discern who is on what side. In the process many stories have been banned, falsified, reprinted, etc. all in the name of whatever cause you can think of. Eventually they wind up in Ircania (most likely a Slavic nation), Ataguitania's polar opposite, where still more antics occur. Eventually the story moves on to a circle of readers commenting in a library about stories that have no beginning and no end, and a discussion of the stories laid out in this book. The Reader then ends up married to Ludmilla and they proceed to read "If on a Winter's Night, a Traveler" by Italo Calvino.

The stories in this section cover a wide variety. From a story about a Japanese academic that ends up sleeping with his mentor's wife, to a young man in the Southwest who searches desperately for his mother after his father dies, to a man who can seemingly make the world disappear, except for the mysterious Section D. None of the stories follow any tag line, as is true with all the rest.

This novel has basically gone in a circle backwards. It began where it should have ended and it ended where it should have began. How confusing!

Robert Stevens

Now the story is starting to make sense, sort of. The Reader and Ludmilla are starting to become aware of the web they've gotten themselves into. Mr. Cavedanga, who works at the publishing firm, tells of Ermes Marana, who apparently works as a translator and agent for Silas Flannery. He has a history of translating stories into different languages and passing them off as new stories. He also claims to have brought the half-novels to life by only translating parts of stories for the wife of some Sultan in the Persian Gulf so as to uphold his marraige contract. It appears as well that Marana is the founder of a paramilitary group that has since expelled him and then split into two factions. Also, Flannery has been caught red handed plagiarizing a book (or books) by a Belgian author.
The side story "Looks Down in the Gathering Shadow" talk about a man who recently murdered his old "business" parter JoJo and is now going through the process of disposing of the body. The second story, "In the Network of Lines that Enlace" revolves around a college professor that is obsessed with answering phones, and is apparently willing to throw one of his students under the bus to save his reputation when his urges get the best of him.

What is the story behind Marana's militant group?

Robert Stevens

This book is still somewhat difficult to peice together. Another of the 10 novels within one novel starts at this point, while either pausing or stopping the first story. The reader is also made a character in the novel, although your role is pre-scripted, much as it would be in a play. Unfortunately the acts do not seem to be coherent with one another. What about the story about the travellers on the train from the first story? What is the significance of including the Cimmerian and Cimbrian languages in this piece?
I know Natalya already covered this, but it did seem as though he was more interested in Ludmilla than his mystery novel too.