File #62 (S2-22) - Judging a book by its cover

[Oneiros]

Woah - a veritable meeting of minds this week as Daisy's tape discovers that two of Magnus' significant women did come face-to-face after all. 

There's a lot to unpick this week from the avalanche of lore, but I will leave that to more accomplished web spinners than I  . The Keays, Gertrude's own digging, Leitner, Elias, mysterious books and hidden laptops... the swinging lamp shines on them all.

Suffice to say that background sounds are once again used superbly to effect discoveries and that Carrie Cohen (@carrielondon / carriecohen.co.uk) was a fantastic special guest as the voice of Mary Keay.

[archangel1313]

This episode was off its chain!

So many interesting things: Gertrude's mysterious mentor figure, mentioning of mysterious dark forces protecting the Keay family though perhaps not very well, the 'true' purpose of the archives, more information withheld by Elias, the end goal of the tomes, a mysterious figure behind the tomes, a necroscope style book and where that is, and who's skin was it that Mary used for the creation of Getrudes page? So so much happened, a veritable treasure trove of red string to pin together.

Btw, did anyone else wonder about the broken, unscrewed light in the doctors passage?

[cannonlongshot]

Some of the little details:

• Mary says that "predictably" she's more attracted to watching murder than doing it - presumably related to her (and her family's) eyeball obsession, and maybe to Gertrude removing the eyes from her book covers?
• This goes at least a little bot of the way towards explaining how Mary was able to talk to Dominic Swaine despite being dead.
• Do we know who Eric is? It's not her husband, who was Michael Keay, I believe.
• Nice callback to Mary hating tea and her appalling lapsang suschong in MAG4!
• If Mary is 9 in this statement, in 1955, then someone somewhere has been telling lies - the Mary Keay descended from the von Closen's was born in 1924, allegedly (see MAG23).
• "You [the Institute] and your patron" - patron singular? Maybe the Lucas' aren't at the top of the food chain after all... 
  

• Can't believe I missed this before - Pinhole Books (the Keay's shop) is a reference to the pinhole camera, the first device humanity invented to mimic the eye!
• Assuming grbookwork1818 is Gertrude, she probably already had The Book of Solomon hidden in her secret place when this gift from Mary Keay was there! No implications, there, just a "fun" "fact".
• I'm calling it now - ain't no way that animal bone book is useless.
• Nice to see that Gertrude shares a facade of skepticism with her successor, even if she knows exactly how real the "magic book" is.

[spooniermist]

Apr 27, 2017 9:31:47 GMT cannonlongshot said:

Some of the little details:

• I'm calling it now - ain't no way that animal bone book is useless.

Isn't it Ex Altiora? We've seen that Dominic Swain's book does this when passed through shadow. If so, it's anything but useless! Really interesting if this is Ex Altiora, because it would indicate that the book has totally changed from what it was: a book with animal poems to a book about an impossibly large creature.

EDIT: Herpy-derpy-nope. Although Ex Altiora does have the small animal bones, Mary Kaeaeaey's book also does this, which is not Ex Altiora. Makes me wonder if it's just something that all the Leitner tomes do.

Interested by the implications for the Institute here. It feels like there is some deity or creature that Jonah Magnus and the Lucas family owe fealty to. We already know that the archives are usually a 'neutral body' in whatever spooky war is going on, does that mean that the owner of the institute is trying to stop them being impartial and using the Archives to sway the tide? Or are they making sure that the Archives are staying neutral?

It was really interesting to hear about Mary and Gertrude. They obviously have a history, and one where Gertrude is a bit tired of trying to change Mary's mind.

I'm guessing that the last thing that Mary didn't understand about the book was how to bring back someone for good? Maybe she discovered how and that's why she's not dead after she was murdered.

Why are all the Gertrude ones so good?! The actress who plays her is really phenomenal. 

[cannonlongshot]

I thought it was just her book that did bones? I thought Ex Altiora just gave a sense of falling an the appearance of the Lichtenburg Figure when it was passed through shadow?

[archangel1313]

All books mentioned so far have the ability to produce animal bones, presumably a side efffect of its power to warp them

[omjs]

Apr 27, 2017 11:16:12 GMT spooniermist said:

It was really interesting to hear about Mary and Gertrude. They obviously have a history, and one where Gertrude is a bit tired of trying to change Mary's mind.

Gertrude mentioned that Mary "broke with the Institute," and Mary's mother was a researcher. So I'm guessing they're ex-coworkers. Mary's desire to access occult power instead of just study it is presumably against the Institute's operating principles. I just wonder what she found out while she worked there...

Agreed, though, the voice acting on this one was phenomenal. I hope we get to hear more from Gertrude and/or Mary.

[isengrim]

Quick thoughts before bed

• Who is tied to the page Mary gave Gertrude? My current wild guess is Leitner. Maybe that's why he disappeared.
• The doctor asking her patient about "measurements" called to mind the med students in MAG34. To me at least.
• At first I thought the syringe the doctor injected her patient with was the same one from MAG45, but now I'm not entirely sure how the timeline lines up.
• The animal bones... What are their purpose? It can't be a coincidence that they've shown up a few times now. Maybe they have no purpose. Maybe they're a byproduct of something. What, I'm not sure though.
• The flesh book is a way to trap people between life and death, so I'm wondering if it's somehow connected to MAG29. Probably not, considering Thorp didn't say anything about having someone write things in Sanskrit on his skin, then flay it. And that's really the sort of thing you'd think a fellow would mention.

(I think these thoughts are getting more and more "reachy" the more bullet points I list, which is a sure sign it's time for bed.)

[regiskobalos]

Well well well, now we know why Mary Kaey's skin had the Sanskrit on it, and that Gerard may be carrying her around.

[aslee]

I seriously considered that maybe reading the page killed Gertrude until I realized that was ridiculous, and this page probably contained the soul of Eric or whoever.

... Also, you know, she said she would destroy it, so it doesn't really matter either way.

[cannonlongshot]

May 4, 2017 23:59:39 GMT aslee said:

I seriously considered that maybe reading the page killed Gertrude until I realized that was ridiculous, and this page probably contained the soul of Eric or whoever.

... Also, you know, she said she would destroy it, so it doesn't really matter either way.

Because if there's one thing we've learned from the last 60 episodes, it's to take people at their word.

[kea]

May 5, 2017 8:49:35 GMT cannonlongshot said:

May 4, 2017 23:59:39 GMT aslee said:

I seriously considered that maybe reading the page killed Gertrude until I realized that was ridiculous, and this page probably contained the soul of Eric or whoever.

... Also, you know, she said she would destroy it, so it doesn't really matter either way.

Because if there's one thing we've learned from the last 60 episodes, it's to take people at their word.

Unreliable narrators all the way down.

One of the things I love about this podcast is that it does solve some of the mysteries - how is Mary Kaey still around, for example - and then sets up others. It's good at both payoff and also at forming new questions.