306.a Map on Napkin

Completely isolating himself from society, Eric has decided to sneak through the tunnels of PSU to get to and from different locations.  The map he has drawn for Jen points out a few different themes of the novel, through Eric’s tendencies, and draws some connections to the real world.

First of all, Eric has written notes about avoiding different areas.  These areas include the dorms connected to the tunnels, where the kids drink, and the faculty and graduate student housing.  While neither of these locations are typically tempting for a man in his position, the theme of isolation repeats itself here.  Eric has never wanted to be with others, and initially resisted even meeting Jen.  S has been separated from all his connections with others in this book, while constantly seeking to rediscover his identity.  On the other end, Eric could have plenty of connections with people, but he either destroys relationships or avoids them all together.  It seems almost as if this napkin was included to highlight this conflict.Comorant

In addition to this, a number of the named buildings are named after real, while strange, things and people. First of all, in the top left corner is Lake Cormorant.  Playing on the theme of birds from SOT, the cormorant is a family of coastal bird all of whom hunt fish and nest in colonies.  While birds are repeated throughout the novel, my understanding of their use is very little.  For a further understanding of their usage, other pages in this blog must be consulted as well as outside sources.

Also mentioned in this map is Pronghorn Java.  The popular meeting spot for Jen and Eirc, Pronhorn Java references the Proghorn, a mammal from central and western North America that closely resembles an antelope.  Unlike the cormorant birds, the Pronghorn force the males to live in solitary, just as Eric wants to, and S has to.

The last reference on this map is JonathanJonathan_Pollard Pollard.  Referenced in both Pollard Plaza and the Pollard Historical society, Pollard sticks out tremendously on a college campus due to the fact that he is an American traitor who has been incarcerated for the last 30 years.  Pollard sold US intel to Israel and other countries.  Ironically, a lot of the intel he traded was about how the United States gathered all of our intel from other countries.  Dorst seems to point out some sort of hypocrisy which runs through the united states government here, as the rest of the book also criticizes big governments as well.

This napkin, while a fun addition to the novel, gives us very little intel at the moment.  However, while Pollard shows up in other parts of the novel as well, some sort of connection between him and the novel may be drawn in the future.