One Voice to Connect Them All
In the narrative, characters keep hearing a faint voice described as a baby’s cry or a kitten meowing. This cry has been experienced by all of the characters, but I will elaborate on three of them: Luther, Anwar and Shnorhk. Luther heard a kitten crying, Anwar heard a babies cry, Shnorhk thought it might be a baby bird. It is my belief that this voice, whoever or whatever it is, is reaching out to them, trying to connect or warn them in some way.
I believe that this voice is Cas talking through her orb. She is calling out for help and the voice is being transmitted through the air to those who are receptive to it. Do you think Cas is the voice of these cries? Could it be the narcons, who have been briefly mentioned? If not, who do you think it is?
On another thought, Cas may also have tried to contact the others through the use of media, like spamming the Ibrahaim’s phones and causing a bug in Anwar’s video game. There is also the strange black-ribboned-black-box app that Xanther has on her phone that is a forum where she can share or “parcel” thoughts and pictures with just friends or the whole world. This may be another way Cas tries (has tried?) to connect with Xanther. Are there any other ways Cas may try to contact other characters?
UPDATE: 1-29-2015
As I have finished the book, it has come to my attention that I now believe that these “voices” are the characters familiars trying to connect with them. The only one who truly heard the voice and responded to it was Xanther, and we now all know that her familiar is in the form of a strange (demonic, evil, and soul-sucking) cat. What form do you think the familiars will take for the other characters? We have heard mention of an owl already. Whose familiar is that?
Discussion board for Mark Z. Danielewski's THE FAMILIAR, Volume 1 
I’ve been hoping that some enterprising soul would map the cries and then we can play connect the dots to see what shape emerges. 🙂
If it is Cas talking through her orb, why doesn’t it sound like a human? Why does it sound like a kitten or a baby or a bird?
I’ve mapped the pages where the three dots occur (we’re talking about this in my class today): 153 (The Wizard), 271 (jingjing), 296 (Isandórno), 354 (Luther), 390 (Anwar), 413 (Shnorhk), 433 (Özgür), 437 (Astair), 470 (Xanther), 486 (Xanther), 490 (Xanther), 768 (but in a different way; Anwar). Note that these are the page numbers where the three dots appear, not the pages where the cries appear. Note, also, that these pages are unnumbered.
the cry usually appears before the dots, and also appears on 463…
For the cries, (and correct me if I have missed something!) I found…
pg 295 Isandorno (El Tajin, Mexico)
pg 354 Luther (Esperanza Street? at their hideout?)
pg 389 Anwar (In office at Culver City)
pg 412 Shnork (Western Ave, near Fountain Street? I put it as the place near square one dining where Xanther and Anwar ate breakfast, given that is on Fountain Street; purely a guess)
pg 432 Ozgur (Long Beach, South of Wilmington, West Paseo Del Mar)
pg 438 Astair (Echo Park-is this where their house it?)
Pg 463 Xanther (Venice Beach)
pg 701 Jing Jing (Singapore-I thought this was a meow event because Jing Jing asks where the cat is)
Danielle (last comment) did in fact produce a map. Our class tried briefly to imagine that it spelled VEM but then again we have started to see W̶A̶S̶T̶E̶ VEM everywhere.
So Xanther is the last of the 9 characters to hear it and then 3 times in a row. Thanks for starting the mapping, Danielle. Now we just need some collaborative cartography that includes the time of each cry. (!)
Another thing I have noticed with the cries that may be relevant (or irrelevant?) is that each character hears them in a different way that pertains to his or her personality. For example, Anwar and Astair hear a child crying and this plays on their parental nature. Isandorno hears the cry as if something is dying, playing on his pessimistic fear. Luther mistakes the sound for a cat because he is annoyed by the sound and is fond of dogs. Shnork thinks the cry is “meowling for help” because Shnork is in the process of helping someone. Ozgur hears the cry as a call he is too late for, giving us an insight into his own thoughts about his detective work. And Xanther hears the cry and immediately goes to help the crying “thing” without a second thought which helps us understand her impulsive nature.
Yes!! Connecting back to the unnumbered Narcon pages, which could relate to the three dots that don’t have page numbers. If Cas is trying to send out signals to the other characters it would most definitely be through the use of an overarching force that can broadcast to all of these places at once, which is with in the capabilities of the Narcon, and possibly the Orb (I’m still not sure if the Narcons ARE the Orbs or if they live inside or if the Orb is what controls them…?) The voice being heard absolutely connects the characters and their own psychological particularities, as you, amanduholsen, have placed in concordance to how the sound sounds different to each person.
I also think it is interesting that we find out the cry that Xanther hears is in fact a real thing- a baby cat (Ca{s}). Also, Narcon^9 has told us that Narcons can appear in the form of animals…so it’s possible Xanther’s new pet is an advanced piece of technology that will eventually wind Xanther in a sticky situation, but one where she might have the power to change the circumstance of the story- maybe find Cas, like she found the cat. Or find Mefisto. Or VEM!!! WHO KNOWS!?
I love this idea and think it makes so much sense. After our class discussion about the VEM corporation and why they are out to kill everyone with information about the Orb, we kind of came to the conclusion that the VEM is outside the world of the Orb but is also fully aware of and potentially in control of the future of the Orb due to an idea we discussed about circles of awareness within the entire book including the characters, the Orb, VEM, Danielewski, and the readers. If those quiet sounds through the book were from Cas through the Orb, this would mean the Orb potentially has more power than we are aware of if Cas is not only able to see past, future, and presently happening events but also able to communicate with those involved while these things are happening in an attempt to alter the outcome. This would even further support the idea that it is the VEM who is responsible for the deaths of these programmers. If VEM knows that Cas has the ability to communicate through the Orb to possibly change the future, but the VEM wants to be the only one with that kind of power, it would make sense for Cas and Bobby to be on the run.
I just finished the book and I kept waiting for some big plot twist on this. That maybe a definite voice or character would be identified with these different “cries”. I agree with the earlier comment that maybe each character hears it as it pertains to them. I think though that maybe Xanther might be the first to really hear the cry for what it is, which could be a person. I had also thought that maybe the cat was just calling out to different people to just see who would hear it or if it was calling to it’s “person”, which was Xanther.