𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙨 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙
Annotations and author notes to 𝘉𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩.
Can be read alongside the novel as a companion work, but not recommended for those who simply want to read in peace. For complet...
Quote This is from Cosmos by the astronomer Carl Sagan, a best-selling popular science book and spin-off from the TV series of the same name. I was obsessed with this book when I was in high school, and read it until my copy fell apart.
Waystation Noel tells Julian that there are no children at the Waystation (and therefore Julian was needlessly worrying about Noel's age). Julian had noticed that they hadn't seen any children, but didn't think about it, apart from vaguely assuming no children or teenagers had died in the past week. He asks Noel what happens to them, but apart from saying that they don't get assessed, Jeannie is mysteriously silent on the details.
Most theologians agree that children below the age of 13 will automatically be admitted to Heaven by the grace and mercy of God. Those 13 and over are judged the same as adults. In the film Defending Your Life, Bob Diamond says that children get a free pass, but teenagers have their own Waystation – because they are too annoying to have around at the adult one!
Later in Between Life and Death, there is an extremely strong implication that very young people are automatically sent Forward when they die, sparing them not only from assessment, but from going either Sideways or Back to Earth.
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Sideways Julian shows Noel a picture of Sideways from the book he borrowed from the reading room, which depicts a deep valley with a river running through it. This combines two well-known images of death – The Valley of the Shadow from Psalms in the Bible, and the River Styx from Greek mythology.
It is also a reference to Dante's Purgatorio. In the poem, Dante is taken to the Valley of Princes in Ante-Purgatory, a beautiful place, while at the very top of Purgatory's Mountain are the rivers of Lethe and Eunoe, where penitents wash away their bad memories and have their good memories strengthened.
Food Noel tells Julian that he is already growing slightly bored with the abundant and delicious food at the Waystation. Although you never feel uncomfortably full after eating there, nor do you ever get really hungry – it is impossible to starve, or even feel ravenous. The people living it up at the Waystation are apparently doing so without any imperative to eat; it is just for the pleasure of it (and probably from habit, as well).
I would guess that after going Forward, most people would gradually lose interest in food, just as Noel seems to be doing already.
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Julian Reality Check Noel says that the first thing that attracted him to Julian is that he smiles like a wolf. In real life, Noel said the same thing – that it was the first thing he noticed and liked about Julian. Julian does have a rather sexy wolfish smile.
He also says that Julian looks tortured and wound up, as if he should be playing Hamlet. I think that's a common opinion on Julian from journalists and some fans, that he's prickly and "difficult". Julian's character Howard begins reciting Hamlet's soliloquy in The Mighty Boosh, like Withnail in Withnail and I. One of Julian's favourite films is An American Werewolf in London, funnily enough.
Noel Reality Check Noel says that he's not good at following TV series, preferring to hang out with friends or work on his own art projects. I can't remember if I heard Noel say that, or if I just made it up. He does strike me as the sort of person who would love certain TV shows, but not have the patience to follow through on a regular basis (a certain amount of discipline was needed in the days before streaming and bingeing). Julian, on the other hand, seems like someone who would be prepared to fully commit to a weekly viewing schedule. He gave up Boy Scouts because it clashed with The Six Million Dollar Man.
The outfit that Pauline gets for Noel with black leather jacket, black leather boots, and a black leather studded belt is taken straight from the one Noel wore in the "Eels" episode of The Mighty Boosh.
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Characters Phil In this chapter, Julian discovers that Phil the taxi driver, who he earlier learned had been a professor in Forward, is Dr Philip Denn, the author of The Intelligent Pilgrim's Guide to Sideways. Notice that Phil Denn sounds very much like Noel's surname of Fielding – Noel portrayed the character of Phil the taxi-driving Reaper in The Mighty Boosh.
