Just an opinion

An analysis of the final correspondence between Griffin and Sabine

Ed. note: Apparently everyone in the free world except me knew that Mr. Bantock was inspired to write this trilogy by a poem called "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats. I don't touch on this at all in this analysis, though the inspiration seems obvious when you read the poem. If you are curious as to how the poem and the story intertwine and connect, please see WITWAG&S, a fascinating set of analyses by Stephen De Long.

I reread The Golden Mean after a few years of having been away from it; this is the book in which the trilogy concludes. The words of the final postcard don't say a whole lot about what happened to this pair of space-and-time-crossed lovers, other than giving some trivial advice to a physician in Africa; but this time, in the final pieces of correspondence, I noticed more than just the words.

I noticed that with the last few exchanges, Griffin's handwriting begins to slant. Then it slants some more and he begins to print in lower case letters, which he had never done previously (excepting the typewritten notes).

Then I noticed Sabine's writing. Suddenly, in mid-postcard, her ink colour turns to black; this is Griffin's ink colour. And in addressing that particular card, she uses upper case letters. This is something she has never done before.

Cut to the last card. Look at the stamp: it's the first picture they talk about in their correspondence. The card has the mark of Gryphon Cards. Sabine writes it, but signs it "Sabine M. Strohem".

And this means . . . ?

It's either the most wonderful romance that ever was, or the completion of a hellish descent into madness. There's kind of a case for both sides.

	Romance	Madness
The final card's picture is of a little baby, and the title is "And what rough beast...slouches...to be born ." [sic]	They've managed to connect through time and space, and this is the fruit of their union.	The two personalities have joined to form a third, mad one.
The "M."	Sabine has taken "Moss" as her middle name — perhaps a Sicmon Island tradition?	Griffin has merged both personalities into one and in his madness has become Sabine as much as he ever was Griffin, and expresses that in a mixture of names.
The subject of the card appears to be medical advice to a doctor in Kenya.	Their physical nearness has strengthened both of their abilities to psychically 'see' something happening, and they altruistically offer advice when applicable.	Sabine/Griffin, now completely mad, has loosed her/his madness onto another person for some unknown, probably insane reason.

I'd really like for it to be the former, but my first, gut reaction for the non-sequitur postcard to the doctor was that it was the latter (strengthened by the fact that on the audio tape, they both begin to read this final postcard together, until 'Griffin's' [Maxwell Caulfield] voice fades away, leaving only 'Sabine's' [Marina Sirtis]).

Lastly: is it possible that Sabine is some kind of Soul Vampire, sucking in hapless victims and incorporating them into herself? Is the final postcard in The Golden Mean an attempt to contact her next prey? This concept doesn't really fit into either Madness or Romance, but rather is a third option, Predator/Victim. Griffin is a willing victim to the desirous Sabine, much like how the sirens dashed sailors upon the rocks after tempting them with their desirous cries. Or, in the terms of a more modern mythology: Griffin has been assimilated.

(Yes, I had included this concept in the table at one point, but after much reflection, I decided it didn't really fit under either of the above categories.)

A Rose By Any Other Name

There has to be great significance to the names used in this and the other two books (because I've noticed that Bantock rarely does anything without a reason). To the best of my knowledge, neither the Sicmon Islands nor Paolo exist — this could be creative license, or, it could be a deliberate indication that Griffin was in la-la land.

I did discover that there is an island nation in the south Pacific called the Solomon Islands. I asked the author of that page, Mike McCoy, if there was such a place as the Sicmon Islands. He tells me that he has never heard of it (and he lived in the Solomons for 26 years, so I tend to take his word as expert :) ). There's an obvious similarity in names, though, and the location is almost dead-on identical to the Sicmons. (Here's the page I found the above linked from, which lists Solomon Island statistics, if you're into that kind of thing.)

Both "griffon/griffin/gryphon" and "Sabine" are taken from Roman history/mythology:

Everyone has some idea what a "griffon" is — According to the Webster's New Modern English Dictionary (1930): "A fabulous animal with the body and legs of a lion, the wings and beak of an eagle, and with listening ears; a watchful chaperon". "Griffith" (close to Griffin) means "having great faith". He did, didn't he? The griffon is also said to be the guardian of Apollo's treasures, and is also fabled to be mute.
The Sabines were an Italian people that lived in the Apennines, neighbours to the Etruscans and the Latins; the plight of the Sabine women is well known, depicted in various paintings: the Romans, suffering a shortage of women, carried off the Sabine women (usually referred to as "The Rape of the Sabines"). The Sabine women later stepped in to bring peace between the Roman captors and the avenging Sabine men. After this they were assimilated by the Romans. I can't seem to find much else in the way of legends and myths of the Sabines, but the very fact that the Sabine culture was lost into Roman culture may be why Sabine becomes lost in Griffin. Who knows.

I'd wager that 'Victor Frolatti' means something too — 'Victor' is obvious, and the closest I can find to 'Frolatti' in my Italian dictionary is 'Frollo', which means 'high' or 'tender'. Perhaps an allusion to The Ultimate Winner? I'll keep looking.

A Final Word on The Golden Mean

While browsing the internet for Celtic artwork sources, I stumbled across a most interesting chunk of information, something I had likely once known and had forgotten. It has to do with the golden mean: that is, the seemingly unnatural yet natural number, phi, that "appears clearly and regularly in the realm of things that grow and unfold in steps". There's a wonderful page by Michael L. Wright all about it here (which is what I quote from in my previous sentence), but the line that caught my eye was this one: "It is thus perfect proportion; you could think of it as the place on some imaginary graph where the curved line of multiplication crosses the straight line of addition."

I think it no accident that Mr. Bantock gives the final book this title. If you are only to imagine Sabine as the curved line and Griffin as the straight one . . .

So, in the end . . .

This is only one woman's opinion. If you've got one of your own, don't hesitate to mail me. I've recently gotten some 'interesting theories' sent to me via email, so, as promised, I've created this page to showcase them.

An email acquaintance told me that he preferred to think that Griffin and Sabine had indeed met up across space and time, and now spent their time doling out 'magical advice'. That could easily work for me. :)