
Re: The Drowning Girl - Chapter 3
Imp is
definitely odd. All those obsessive compulsive rituals that need to be repeated 17 times.
She raises the question "Do crazy people have the ability to perceive order and commotion in ways closed off to the minds of 'sane' people?" There was a TV show a year or two ago about an autistic boy who had a supernatural connection to events all over the world--this author isn't the first to suggest the idea that what appears to be 'crazy' is a different kind of sanity. I tend to agree with Imp, though, that the answer is "No." The brain is an organ of the body like the heart or the lungs, and a cancerous tumor is not an enhanced way of experiencing breathing.
The Drowning Girl: the title of the painting seemed paradoxical at first. How can the girl in the painting be drowning when she's standing ankle deep in the water? Then there is the evolving discussion of Saltonstall's history.... Could this be a painting of a ghost? Is
The Drowning Girl the one who is drowning, or is she one who causes others to drown?
One of my favorite lines:
I'm still not sure if this book is a realistic novel exploring sanity or a fantasy novel about supernatural creatures. I enjoy not knowing. That doubt feeds into my compassion for Imp--this book puts me a little bit in the same place she's in, not knowing what is real and what is unreal. I don't even know what is "factual" in the story. Did Eva really know Imp's and Abalyn's names? Did Eva really exist, even, or could she be a construct Imp created to explain Abalyn's leaving?
Did Perrault and Saltonstall both really dream of a woman dressed in red? Is that factual?