"Crumbs" in the centre margin

[tyrone_slothrup]

If anyone hasn't seen last week's NOVA on PBS about origami, it just about sent my neurons into frenzy with implications not only for the crumbs in the center margin, but the nature of SynSnap/balloon parade.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics...evolution.html
also: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/...rigami/513638/

Specifically, there's a guy who is applying theories of origami/folding to unfold/re-fold proteins and design proteins that bind to other proteins to create drugs. In the PBS special, Baker uses the example of targeting a specific protein on flu viruses to destabilize, or essentially turn off the flu virus so it doesn't even make the host sick.

Anyway, I don't think we have enough information yet to fully draw this conclusion, but I have working theory that 1) the crumbs signify brain activity--there have been some mentions of "crystals" in the mind in v.1 and in v.4 Ozgur mentions something akin to "plaque" on his mind (don't have the pg #s handy); 2) the crumbs are origami patterns, folding instructions--perhaps if we start layering each character's crumbs they create something like origami instructions? 3) the color, while surely the pink signifies flashback, we have also seen blue and obviously black--I'm beginning to wonder though, with the function of SynSnap being the creation of false memories (v.3), if the pink crystals might be representation of the use of SynSnap or the pink balloon, as a kind of simulation of memory? and 4) does this drug somehow utilize origami of protein folding to function--there's also some more tenuous thoughts about the way the characters link into each other to create a whole in the way that proteins link/fold together.

This is mostly incoherent, I know; just a thought-salad buzzing around my brain that I wanted to get down and out there.

[yanforest]

The crumbs look like opened up meshes.

[LooseCannon]

I just finished Volume 4. Did anyone else notice that the "crumbs" change for the first time (as far as I can tell) on page 745 and appear when Xanther describes the sense of rage she felt while having the seizure on stage. I feel like the crumbs have something to do with algorithms and codes that underly my sense that the Xanther story is some sort of game being played by the Narcons but my thoughts around this are to inchoate to put into words here. Every time I feel like I know what the Narcons are doing, their text is blacked out. Who is doing the redacting!?

[jsimmsphx]

Who indeed! I will say that the crumbs bled out one other time TFv2.779. another thing of interest about the crumbs is that they only appear when there is text and disappear when there is graphical elements involved. I see the crumbs as being in line with the dog ear color tags. I.e. when xanther enters her forest of the mind the "trees" overlay and then complete erase the color tags in the corner (she had escaped her prescribed sphere) Also of note is how the orb shaped negative space in Cas' chapters occludes or blocks out the crumbs. Interesting because it's just white space and there is nothing else graphically to denote that the crumbs shouldn't be there.

[Inressa]

I agree with QuiteBaffled's assessment, the pink margin lines have basically always been denoting flashbacks and "stops in time" to keep the separation clear. They align with paragraphs, which is why sometimes black and pink will be present on one page. My personal theory, and this ties in to of Leaves and my Yggdrasil theory, is that the lines are the branches of the tree connecting the characters together. All 9 of them, as tying in to the 9 realms of the tree that it connects, have their own branches that run along their interconnected texts. It's tied to the spine of the book in a way, the binding of the leaves of the book. Perhaps under this pretense, Redwood is the central tree that holds them together (and in a way Redwood is OBVIOUSLY what connects or will connect everyone together and make them become ), the middle white column surrounded by 9 in the neverending temple that Cas scryed. More directly tying in to The , though, I think that the lines are absolutely code and 3D model polygons, made up of the triangles that MZD has said are what The is about, and they are probably officiated by the NarCons to keep the story together. Each of them are different and construct the 3D model of each character and when they're altered, like when Xanther alters them and they jut out, it is only in the case of something deeply altering to the makeup of their character.