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I've been thinking a lot about the idea of Ragged Robin writing The Invisibles, and I wanted to post some theories/speculation about that element of the book.
One of the major things I'm having trouble reconciling is how exactly Robin writing herself into the story is consistent with other events. For most of the events it's easy, but one line has me perplexed, the panel where Robin "saves" Jolly Roger from death, and says that in her version of the story, Jolly Roger won't die. This is confusing for me for a number of reasons.
Thinking about this for a while, I developed a theory that would account for some of those discrepancies I pointed out above:
In 1988, Kay was born, and she lived an uneventful life until 2005, when she begins to use a machine that allows her to experience the simulated reality of a fiction, specifically "The Invisibles." The Invis of her reality is a book written by writer, Kirk Morrison, aka King Mob, based on his own experiences from 1994-2000, including his experiences interacting with Ragged Robin, a time traveller from 2012.
Seeing that she is similar to this Robin from the story, Kay becomes obsessed with the character, and goes into the liquid chamber in an effort to become an Invisible, like her hero, Ragged Robin. She begins to dress like, and wear the makeup that Robin from the text wears, and it becomes an obsession.
At this time, Robin becomes one with the story, and manipulates it to her own accord, just like The Harlequinade do in the real text. Because she is at a higher level of existence than the characters who are trapped in their 3D world, she can do what she wants (same as the Harlequinade, who are in a 4D plane, can manipulate those of us in the 3D world). In the reality of The Invisibles, she sees a flaw. When writing about the events of Black Science II, Mob realized how implausible it was for everyone to walk out of the facility alive, so instead of tacking Roger's death onto the ending of the book (as happened in reality), he uses it as the ending to Black Science II, where it has more dramatic weight. Robin doesn't like this, and as a result, she manipulates the action back to how it really happened, and in the process, returns into reality.
This brought up the question of why Robin would save Jolly Roger, considering that in the book as we read it, they seemed to be something of rivals for KM's affection. However, going with the idea that she is reading KM's account of the events, it's logical to think that Mob would leave out any conflict between Robin and Roger, and as a result, Kay would not feel any animosity towards Roger, and would want to save her.
Throughout the series, Morrison presented certain events from the perspective of those who experienced (Last Temptation of Jack, Boy's Story, etc.), and it's odd that he would choose to present the events of Black Science II from Robin's perspective considering she wasn't even there when the events occurred. I think the reason he did this was to show that you don't have to be there to have something affect you, the mere act of reading the story was experience enough to change Robin, a theme he goes back to later.
So, Kay continues to play the role of Ragged Robin, the Invisible, and it eventually consumes her, and gets her placed in an insane asylum. It's here that her reality and the reality of the book begin to merge. Robin meets Mister Six from the text, and eventually meets Mason, who rescues her from the institution, and then "everything became a film." Kay becomes an Invisibles in her time, and eventually meets up with all the characters from the book, and then fulfills her destiny by going back in time, where she plays the role of Ragged Robin, a role that she has already heard about in Mob's novel. This could be why she experiences Deja Vu in Volume I, she's already lived it all already.
What's the point of all this? I think it's the first major break from reality that Morrison presents, and a precursor to the more esoteric events of Volume III. It's the first presentation of The Invisibles as a game, and everyone in it as playing a role.
Thematically, it ties into the end of Volume III brilliantly. At the end of Volume III, when Jack says "your sentence is up," the reader is "free" from the story, but can never really escape it. By reading the book, the reader is forever changed, and has evolved beyond the dualism of The Invisibles at Volume I, and gained a new perspective on the world, just like the characters did. In this respect, every person who reads the book is just like Robin. They've become part of it, and find the book intertwining with the reality of their life.
The idea that this girl's entire life is altered because of a book is a perfect tie in with the fact that Morrison has altered the reader's life. Robin's experience in the tank is symbolic of what the reader goes through as they read the book, and when Dane presents the badge to the reader at the end of 3.2, he's pointing out that you've been changed, and that The Invisibles is real.
Robin writing the thing is also crucial to the series becuase it lends it a reality, and provides a guide for the reader, for how to become invisible. Robin wanted to become like The Invisibles so much that she started dressing and acting like the characters, she changed her mind, so that she was Ragged Robin. Morrison is advocating the reader to open up their minds, and evolve like the characters do, to "play the role" of the characters in reality, just like Robin does in her reality.
Tied in with the Dane scene at the end of 3.2, it strains the lines between fiction and reality. Kay and the girl from 3.2 both exist in a world closer to our reality than that of The Invisibles, and they both see characters from fiction intrude onto their reality. Morrison is saying that The Invisibles are real, becuase it's changed you, and something that's not real couldn't change you.
When I first read it, I found that element of the story merely confusing, but the more I think about, the more it becomes the perfect means to plant the seeds for Volume III in the brain of the reader. The mere fact that I last read that section in November, and four months later, I'm still thinking about it is fact enough to prove that.
So, any thoughts on the issue, or your theories about how her writing the narrative connects with the rest of the work? |
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