I am a devotee of both the ring structure and parallel series theories.
I think one simple connection between TRG and COE is that in both we're revisiting dark periods from Strike's past, with key protagonists who knew the young Strike and his mother.
Reading TRG it seemed to me that there were more connections and reflections of other books in the series than ever before. As well as the noted 1-4-7 connections and 3-7 links, there are strong connections to 5 and 6, and some to 2, although those seem weakest to me.
The connections that occur to me with 2 are the mention of Roper Chard and the criminal behaviour of a famous author. Also Kevin's manuscript goes missing and is the subject of speculation.
With 5, there's the fact that the disappearances of Daiyu and Margot are both cold cases that Strike and Ellacott reveal to have been murders. There's also the job of trying to decipher the lunatic scrawling in books and on walls by a previous investigator who may or may not have been onto something.
And with 6, there's the whole situation of Robin going undercover to join a cult-like community containing vulnerable young people and dangerous manipulators.
Those are broad plot links, but to me it felt that this book and more callbacks and easter eggs than any other. That could be detrimental to hypothesis about ring, asterisk or any other structure as the only book in those that is connected to every other is the one in the middle of the asterisk, which kinda has to be book 4. Which leads me to wondering about other shapes and structures...
We also have the fact that this structure needs 10 nodes to represent the ten books. My initial thoughts on adding the (final?) 3 books while maintaining the model of the turn and latch, is that book 7 latches with 1, but is also another turn, turning back again so that 8 ties with 2-6, 9 ties with 3-5 and 10 latches back with 4.
I would be disappointed if there weren't some clues to this mystery hidden in plain sight in the books! Perhaps the pentagrams of book 5 were one clue, and here we have the pentagonal temple containing a pentagonal pool with triangular covers that open out to create a shape of satanic significance which happens to have 10 nodes.
However... Another shape also occurs to me. Looking at the posts with images of rings, asterisks and tetractyses, I found myself picturing a single shape that combined all these others. A circle, a triangle and a straight line right through the middle. Is it too much of a stretch to think Rowling might have the Deathly Hallows symbol in mind at least as far as the structure of the first 7 Strike books?
I'm not sure how I'd map the 7 volumes onto the 7 nodes of the DH symbol. TRG having so many connections suggests to me it should be in the centre of the base, then perhaps 1 at the top, 4 in the middle, 2 and 3 on the base corners and 5 and 6 at the points where the circle touches the sides. Perhaps the key to figuring that out is to identify which books have themes of resurrection, power and invisibility and allocate on that basis.
That also doesn't leave any space for the remaining three books, and I'm not sure if this could also be applied to the HP series. You'd think it more likely to apply there than to Strike in fact, given the origin of the shape in question.
When I came up with this idea a phrase from Strike's TRG epiphany came to mind, "complete, balanced and smooth", just like the Deathly Hallows themselves.
John, I applaud the insight and discipline you brought to this monumental effort. It was enlightening to read the correspondences you found, even when I couldn’t bring myself to agree with all of them. (As much as I look for intentional relationships, sometimes a cigar is just that.) Also, your honesty in recognizing the investment you have in this and your desire to “make it so” is commendable.
My reservations about a seven-book ring have less to do with your analysis than with the clearly Herculean task of ANY author contemplating a series of books structured as rings within a ring from the outset. Am I wrong in believing that JKR would’ve had to map out the entire series in advance and know the arc of each character and events to a level of detail that would allow the correspondences to flow, both from book one to book seven and from beginning to end within each book? That seems improbable.
Possibly it’s my own limited narrative skills, but it seems that crafting each story while touching all the bases of ring structure would be, even with JKR’s formidable talents, the work of a superhuman. I haven’t read much about ring structure in the Potter series and maybe that would prove me wrong. But I also don’t see how anyone who’s obsessively invested as much time and effort into creating a perfect rings-within-a-ring series would torpedo it by adding three more books. Maybe she’ll come up with a new ring model, substituting the turtle back for a centipede?
All that said, one argument in favor of ring structure is that it might explain some of the more serious gaffes—Robin finding the pictures in the box, the UHC failing to perform even cursory background checks and countless other ex machina coincidences—if Rowling were actually shoe-horning these stories into an outrageously complex predetermined structure.
Finally, I was intrigued by your idea that Robin might be sterile. Clearly, she can’t be aware of it or she wouldn’t be on birth control. I’ve wondered if the Bijou pregnancy isn’t a case of classic Rowling misdirection. What if Robin wasn’t fully protected after being off the pill for 16 weeks and Murphy gets her pregnant? The seemingly gratuitous mention of his “ejaculating” comes to mind—albeit before Robin went undercover. If Murphy then dies, relapses or they break up for any other reason, Strike would face the ultimate test of his love for Robin and whether he could make a better go of fatherhood than Rokeby has. If any of this happens, you heard it here first!
Until Book 8 appears, I’ll look forward to future speculation on where all this is headed.
I am a devotee of both the ring structure and parallel series theories.
I think one simple connection between TRG and COE is that in both we're revisiting dark periods from Strike's past, with key protagonists who knew the young Strike and his mother.
Reading TRG it seemed to me that there were more connections and reflections of other books in the series than ever before. As well as the noted 1-4-7 connections and 3-7 links, there are strong connections to 5 and 6, and some to 2, although those seem weakest to me.
The connections that occur to me with 2 are the mention of Roper Chard and the criminal behaviour of a famous author. Also Kevin's manuscript goes missing and is the subject of speculation.
With 5, there's the fact that the disappearances of Daiyu and Margot are both cold cases that Strike and Ellacott reveal to have been murders. There's also the job of trying to decipher the lunatic scrawling in books and on walls by a previous investigator who may or may not have been onto something.
And with 6, there's the whole situation of Robin going undercover to join a cult-like community containing vulnerable young people and dangerous manipulators.
Those are broad plot links, but to me it felt that this book and more callbacks and easter eggs than any other. That could be detrimental to hypothesis about ring, asterisk or any other structure as the only book in those that is connected to every other is the one in the middle of the asterisk, which kinda has to be book 4. Which leads me to wondering about other shapes and structures...
We also have the fact that this structure needs 10 nodes to represent the ten books. My initial thoughts on adding the (final?) 3 books while maintaining the model of the turn and latch, is that book 7 latches with 1, but is also another turn, turning back again so that 8 ties with 2-6, 9 ties with 3-5 and 10 latches back with 4.
I would be disappointed if there weren't some clues to this mystery hidden in plain sight in the books! Perhaps the pentagrams of book 5 were one clue, and here we have the pentagonal temple containing a pentagonal pool with triangular covers that open out to create a shape of satanic significance which happens to have 10 nodes.
However... Another shape also occurs to me. Looking at the posts with images of rings, asterisks and tetractyses, I found myself picturing a single shape that combined all these others. A circle, a triangle and a straight line right through the middle. Is it too much of a stretch to think Rowling might have the Deathly Hallows symbol in mind at least as far as the structure of the first 7 Strike books?
I'm not sure how I'd map the 7 volumes onto the 7 nodes of the DH symbol. TRG having so many connections suggests to me it should be in the centre of the base, then perhaps 1 at the top, 4 in the middle, 2 and 3 on the base corners and 5 and 6 at the points where the circle touches the sides. Perhaps the key to figuring that out is to identify which books have themes of resurrection, power and invisibility and allocate on that basis.
That also doesn't leave any space for the remaining three books, and I'm not sure if this could also be applied to the HP series. You'd think it more likely to apply there than to Strike in fact, given the origin of the shape in question.
When I came up with this idea a phrase from Strike's TRG epiphany came to mind, "complete, balanced and smooth", just like the Deathly Hallows themselves.
John, I applaud the insight and discipline you brought to this monumental effort. It was enlightening to read the correspondences you found, even when I couldn’t bring myself to agree with all of them. (As much as I look for intentional relationships, sometimes a cigar is just that.) Also, your honesty in recognizing the investment you have in this and your desire to “make it so” is commendable.
My reservations about a seven-book ring have less to do with your analysis than with the clearly Herculean task of ANY author contemplating a series of books structured as rings within a ring from the outset. Am I wrong in believing that JKR would’ve had to map out the entire series in advance and know the arc of each character and events to a level of detail that would allow the correspondences to flow, both from book one to book seven and from beginning to end within each book? That seems improbable.
Possibly it’s my own limited narrative skills, but it seems that crafting each story while touching all the bases of ring structure would be, even with JKR’s formidable talents, the work of a superhuman. I haven’t read much about ring structure in the Potter series and maybe that would prove me wrong. But I also don’t see how anyone who’s obsessively invested as much time and effort into creating a perfect rings-within-a-ring series would torpedo it by adding three more books. Maybe she’ll come up with a new ring model, substituting the turtle back for a centipede?
All that said, one argument in favor of ring structure is that it might explain some of the more serious gaffes—Robin finding the pictures in the box, the UHC failing to perform even cursory background checks and countless other ex machina coincidences—if Rowling were actually shoe-horning these stories into an outrageously complex predetermined structure.
Finally, I was intrigued by your idea that Robin might be sterile. Clearly, she can’t be aware of it or she wouldn’t be on birth control. I’ve wondered if the Bijou pregnancy isn’t a case of classic Rowling misdirection. What if Robin wasn’t fully protected after being off the pill for 16 weeks and Murphy gets her pregnant? The seemingly gratuitous mention of his “ejaculating” comes to mind—albeit before Robin went undercover. If Murphy then dies, relapses or they break up for any other reason, Strike would face the ultimate test of his love for Robin and whether he could make a better go of fatherhood than Rokeby has. If any of this happens, you heard it here first!
Until Book 8 appears, I’ll look forward to future speculation on where all this is headed.