The Marianne Trilogy by Sheri S. Tepper gives
an example of someone who, just like Lucy Snowe in Villette, gets into the
exact nightmare situation that she dreads the most.
In the article about the Marianne books I mentioned
a laundry world. This alien dream world appears in Marianne, the Madame, and
the Momentary Gods, the second book in the trilogy. The city that Marianne has
been banished to by the evil witch Madame Delubovoska has a very strange
attribute: it changes its name and rearranges itself every day around midnight,
so the inhabitants need a new map for each day.
The rules are very strict; maps must be
bought on the previous day, and it is a both a crime and extremely dangerous not
to have one. Being without a map is something to be avoided at all costs.
Marianne runs a public laundry in the city.
Her worst fear comes upon her one day when she forgets to buy her map for the
next day. Despite increasingly desperate efforts in
dangerous surroundings, she fails to get a new map. This puts her into even more danger, and there
is a good chance of permanent homelessness and destitution.
It all ends with a safe return to the
laundry, but not before she has gone through a terrible ordeal which she has had
to cope with entirely on her own.
Marianne’s nightmare scenario starts
The nightmare scenario starts late one
evening when the laundry closes and Marianne suddenly realises that she has
forgotten to buy her map for the next day. She has been extremely busy, working
non-stop since early morning with no time to go out to get some lunch - or
anything else.
Although the panic starts to rise, she thinks
that she still has ample time to get her map.
The description of the way things gradually
turn into a nightmare is very unsettling to read, particularly as it brings
back painful memories.
The nearest supplier is out of stock, but
there are two others within reasonable travelling distance. She decides to take
a bus, which is chancy as the service is unreliable and they don’t always stop.
She waits and waits, then decides to walk.
Trying to make the right decision is in
itself a nightmare: surely a bus must be due if she has been waiting so long, yet
if one is not coming the sooner she starts walking the better. It has been a
long, busy day with no chance to rest; she is very tired and also has some
injuries so would rather wait, yet the more the time passes the worse the worry
about the map gets. The consequences of not having one will be very serious if
not fatal.
She starts walking out of fear of being too
late, and, of course, a bus passes her. She runs to catch it and just manages
to touch the back before it moves off - without her.
She keeps on walking although it gives her a
terrible pain in the side and makes her injuries hurt even more. She is no
longer able to run. She gets quite close to her destination but is faced with a
massive concrete overpass with many ramps. She soon realises that it allows
access to every street except the one she wants.
She plots a route to the map seller. It is
not a pleasant one; the street lights are dim and she must walk past some
sinister alleyways. Her route takes her to an unlit underpass that will bring her out
close to her destination.
She panics; she is afraid to go in, and with
good reason. She has heard some horrible stories. Anything or anyone could be
down there, and map-less gangs are a great danger. She has no choice: time is
running out and there is no other way to get to the map seller. Huge lorries
roar past her as she walks through the underpass in semi-darkness.
Marianne’s worst fear comes upon her
While Marianne is still in the tunnel, she
feels the shift. At first she refuses to believe it. She tells herself that it can’t
be the changeover, it is too early; it must just be vibrations from the heavy
trucks. The self-destruction of her map and an announcement from a nearby loudspeaker force
her to accept reality:
“The map she had used was obsolete. There was
no more Badigor. She was too late. Now she could not buy a map that would tell
her where anything was today. It was illegal – perhaps impossible – to sell
anyone a map of today. Only tomorrow’s maps would be available. It was illegal
– or impossible – for anyone to share a map with her. She would be unable to
find anything except by chance. And if she did not chance upon a map vendor,
then the day after today would be even further lost.
She had had nightmares about this, as she
imagined most of the people of the city did, though many would not admit doing
so. She had considered what she would do if ever she found herself without a
map. The one thing she had resolved upon was that she would kill herself before
she would join the mapless ones…”
All Marianne’s efforts and ordeals have been
for nothing. She has missed all her chances. She is completely lost. She has
money, but she needs to search for somewhere to sleep and a place to get her
map for the following day. She walks and walks; like Lucy Snowe she experiences
harassment from unpleasant men. She must sleep outside like Jane Eyre if she
can’t find some hotel to stay in.
By chance, she comes upon a place that sells maps. Now, she just has to rest and fill in time until the next shift. Daylight
comes; she trudges on and on and by chance finds a public garden. She finds a
miniature house inside the park, a suitable place to hide and sleep the day away
in.
It is dark when she wakes up; she finds the
park has been locked up. The high metal fences topped with barbed wire make it
impossible for her to get out. She cries because she is afraid of being trapped
there when the shift comes, but she pulls herself together and finds a way out.
The end of Marianne’s nightmare
The changeover comes as Marianne is sitting
in a café. Her map for today tells her that she is now close to her laundry.
One last fear is that she has been fired from her job and replaced so will
still be homeless. She tries not to cry; she even remembers to get her map for
tomorrow.
She returns home to find all as she had left
it. New problems arise and she puts the ordeal behind her.
This tale of loss and restoration is just an
episode in Marianne's story, but for me it is a case of once read, never
forgotten. Although the whole map business seems a little contrived for the
sake of the plot, this nightmare scenario could have been written as a teaching
aid. It has familiar elements; it reminds me very much of some nightmare
scenarios and near misses of my own.
The Marianne Trilogy and her other books show
that Sheri S. Tepper had a very vivid and creative imagination, but the
details and the description of a gradual descent into hell are so convincing that she surely experienced something similar to Marianne’s ordeal
herself.
There are more nightmare scenarios and
associated commentary to come.
