. Spinning .

In this multiple point of view, first person narrative, it is usually narrator reliability that may be questioned. Here, however, I find it points more directly to the creator of the many voices, that being Matthew Sharpe himself.

I just find it difficult to believe that the smartest most philosophical and practical person in the two groups (possibly three, counting the Manhattan characters left behind on this trip) is the nineteen year-old Pocahontas.  With everyone running around killing each other as the main form of activity, and the return of her tribe to the old traditional forms of mating and communicating, I just don’t feel her character would have the insight:

But I love this day, which has shown that a big wooden wall around a small port of air can serve to make two folks work hard to say what they mean, and that one can sometimes understand what the other thinks and wants despite the great impediment of the matter between two minds.  (p. 158)

There seems to be the writer’s touch here, and elsewhere, that endows only certain characters with any common sense. The rest, a parody of a society gone wayward by its own machinations. The only Indian of the tribe besides Pocahontas who was firmly but briefly rounded as a character was the short-lived scout, Albert.  The rest seem to revolve around Pocahontas’ whims and reflections.

There may be some discrimination here as well since the Northerners have a bit more character–good or bad–built into them.  Or maybe I’m just taking it all too seriously.

Up to this point in the story, I’ve sort of gotten a feeling of the Three Stooges meet Planet of the Apes.  There has been a dramatic effect–whatever the cause–on the two societies which we are seeing.  Both are mistrustful and readily hurt one another with little provocations.  But there’s an underlying sense of knowing that whatever happened, these people have adjusted to their new world in what appears to be a universal outlook.  This, from John Smith, gives it voice:

It’s good to have someone to like in a time and place in which nature whispers to your heart, Like nothing, care for nothing, respect nothing, believe in nothing, attach yourself to nothing but the wish to live.  (p. 142)

That’s powerful. And, it is sad.  I dont’ know exactly the time frame here, at which point the event has happened and the time since, so it’s hard to guess at what stage these people are in recreating their lives.  It seems that they’ve gone through their resources in Manhattan and are looking elsewhere, exploring further south.  The Indians appear to have adjusted to whatever poisonous substance ruined a good amount of food and water. 

But this is more than despair.  This is an acknowledged way to survive.

Have gotten through some more of Jamestown in between other demands and what I’m seeing now is rather a clever employment of multiple POV in combination with the characters preparing psychological evaluation of each other via Rorschach testing.

What this does is allow us a deeper examination of the characters not only from their responses, but from the interaction of one-on-one between the two sides or groups of society.

Dialogue has always been an excellent vehicle for pacing, backstory, infodump and indepth character study.  Sharpe uses it to great advantage here.