Serpents, Angels, and the End Time

Hey y'all. I'm only on pg 55. Hoping to catch mostly up this weekend. But I told Victoria I'd blog, so here I am.

I am really struck by the character of Buzzworm. The sleepless, philosophizing, tree loving altruist, and walking, 24/7 social service center. I wondered immediately about his watches, and his habit of giving watches away to people who need them. Time is an invented concept, and its only use is to allow us - people - to coordinate with one another more efficiently. I wonder if the author intended that for Buzzworm - who cares so much for homless, junkies, and other downtrodden and disenfranchized people - to give them watches, might be a symbol of their regained humanity. Or that Buzzworm is encouraging them to rejoin the "real world" and human collective. Then I thought, maybe I'm making too much of it. I later found out about Buzzworm's deal with Gabriel, to supply him with information about the unseen and unsung city residents - and Gabriel's attempt in his writing to "humanize the homeless" (43). Also share half of his prize money if he wins the Pulitzer. I wonder what noble purpose Buzzworm has in mind. I wonder if he'll surprise us by using it selfishly, haha.

I get the same feeling from Buzzworm, that I got about Transito Soto in House. I think he is going to play a very important role in this story. I was thinking about his name, in the context of some of the other names in the book. And here, I really might be making too much of things, but I'll say it anyway: "worm" derives from the Anglo-Saxon "wyrm," which means snake or dragon. Then of course we've got Quetzal (Arcangel), old as time, and named for the beautiful tropical bird, which was associated by the Aztecs with their Quetzalcoatl - who was the winged serpent god. This was also the god that the Aztecs took Cortéz to be when he showed up on their shores. Speaking of which, I really like the idea of a prophesy of doom, and the prophet is sure it's going to happen, but just doesn't have the date down for sure . . . and doesn't know which reference year to use . . . but it will be in your lifetime! He just needs to recalculate.

This brings me to something totally unrelated to the book (or is it? I guess I'll know when I read more). I hear a lot of talk about 2012, and doomsday prophesied by the end of the Mayan calender. I heard from an Anthropology professor once (and never checked to confirm), that the Aztecs had also calculated the year in which the world would end. Their calculation correlated with the Gregorian year 1519 - the year Cortéz landed. Their calculation also had specifically to do with their belief in 52 year cycles, which cycles are mentioned (a lot) in chapter 7. Just something to think about.

Back to things more relevant to the book: does anyone else think their might be a connection to the fact that Arcangel appears possibly to be a real angel, and that there is another important character in the book named Gabriel?

See you all at the meeting, if I don't post again first.