Sorry, Anna, I should have replied before now, but I have been really busy. And yesterday, when I was going to post a reply, my access to the boards was down. And the access I have now is spotty at best. I have already had to re-start my computer twice because my access to the boards has just died. Things seem to get worse when I have two MBS windows open at the same time. But that is what I have to do if I'm going to quote, you know! But since I don't know if I can keep my access to the boards if I have two windows open, and particularly if I switch between two MBS windows, I'm afraid I'm not going to quote this time. Sorry!
Anyway, this was a very emotional chapter, and very interesting. Personally I love the idea that Lois and Clark have a very deep connection that is almost mystical in nature. (Yes, I, the old skeptic, love to indulge in this fantasy when it comes to Lois and Clark.)
Much of this chapter dealt with what happens when a person is slowly approaching death. What is really happening at this point is something we don't know until we get there, so I'm not going to argue that one scenario is more likely than any other. But when I'm thinking about your story - not reading it, remember, because I don't dare to switch between two MBS windows - it seems to me that you are using ideas that seem Hinduistic or Buddhist in nature to me. A fundamental idea in Hinduism and Buddhism is that the individual should eventually become one with the All, thereby losing his or her individuality. I think of it as a drop of rain falling into the ocean and merging with it forever, never to regain its individual identity again.
I remember your story as Lois slowly walking towards a mist of forgetfulness and loss. It is herself that she is about to forget and lose. I like how you make her name so important to her. I'm not into magic, sorry, but I do believe that in magic names are hugely important - names are almost synonymous with the being or thing they designate. If you know a person's true name, you can control him or her - well, according to the tenets of magic, of course. Anyway, that means that when Lois is forgetting her name, she is certainly on the way to losing all the rest of herself, too. But when Clark calls out her name to her, just moments before she would be lost forever, Lois can "see" and remember and recognize her "Loisness" again. And she can reclaim herself, and her love for the man who called her back from death. That is very, very beautiful, Anna.
I also loved how Clark cried when Lois came back to him. It was particularly lovely that he cried while dressed up as Superman. And I also loved - I wish I could quote this better, but you know how it is - that Lois told him to "lose the Suit" if he was going to stay the night and watch over her, while she slept.
Beautiful, Anna! I'm looking forward to the next part!
Ann
