Diagramming Babel (Part 25)

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Diagram 25: How long, O Lord? How long can these diagrams possibly continue? Well, I have good news. There are only six more to go.

Consider this my belated Groundhog Day present to you.

From the bottom:

W

ST
JB
GF

V/N

1. Salem Toussaint’s Office

2. The Cluricauns

Revisionist History

3. The Acclamation

4. The Burning Man

BM

5. The Aftermath

Annotations:

The various initials stand for Will, Salem Toussaint, Jimi Begood, Ghostface, Vickie and/or Nate, and everybody's favorite fanatic, the Burning Man. You’ll note that this is an awfully quick sketch, basically a map of how much I hoped to accomplish that day if at all possible. Acclamation is misspelled and I drew a character line for the Burning Man next to the incident labeled “The Burning Man,” neither of which I would have done if I’d been paying much attention.

The line for Victoria (never call her Vickie) and/or Nate travels alongside Will's when they're together and darts away when they're apart. Note how suddenly and finally they separate. That's a major plot point right there.

Note also the scribbled-over “The Dragon’s Sermon.” I originally meant to give Will’s inner demon a voice, rather like Faust's sermon in Jack Faust. For artistic reasons, I decided to replace that with a revisionist history. Which may be just as well. It was alarming how many people thought that the caustic cynicism in Faust’s sermon was a naive reflection of my own true opinions. Reading is a dying art.

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