Inside the store that Osfour brings S to, S peruses the store’s goods aimlessly as Osfour instructs. The store is cluttered and disheveled , “a scene of subdued industry” but a “terrific bustle compared with the desolation S has found in the city thus far.”
A man purchases a book, handing his money, a currency that S does not recognize, to the book vendor. As the m
an receives his book, a thick ancient, bound leather novel, he immediately opens it as if to start reading it. The whispering voices that S once heard in the Old Quarter come rushing back to S during this instant, “overlapping, sharpening, then fading, twirling through one another in a chorale of lament.” S reacts to this suddenly and starts searching around him to find the source of the voices, which startles Osfour. He then realizes that the voices seem to be coming from inside his head.
Certainly the mystifying leather-bound book has some bearing on S. The voices may be coming from the book itself, yet S is the only one who can hear them. Perhaps S has an association to this book in his past life. The scene certainly echoes an otherworldly occurrence however. Yet again, readers experience another instance of magic in Ship of Theseus not unlike the mysterious ship or the time passing on the ship versus land.
(There were no notes from Jen and Eric on this page.)