#i could maybe integrate all of those under the Lacanian trauma of being born into language

[mmmmalo]

I don't fully know what to make of this but the fact that Roxy has a spiral on her head and spirals are Calliope's symbol makes me think the spiral serves the opposite function of the scratch/scars left on Cronus by Lord English, the Amporas serve as wizards on a similar way to the Lalondes, so while one is scratched by the Lord the other is like, spiraled by the Muse.

Another spiral I think of is of the trickster sucker, just bc Alt Calliope has control over the candy timeline that is represented by the spiraled candy, I don't know if the spirals are ever mentioned in text, but they feel like ominous symbols of Alt Calliope's surveillance over certain events and people to me now

Was this inspired by that post about the leftover spiral watermarks from the stock image host? This feels primed for Watsonian integration of that.

I'm not sure I agree with spirals being Calliope's symbol. Both of the cherubim have the Saw spirals on their cheeks until they predominate, and both Caliborn and alt-Calliope (the ones without spirals) suck red/green suns into the spiral of a black hole, fulfilling Callie's vision. The yellow spiral in which Callie hides contains the stage of Caliborn's masterpiece. Seems about even

Likewise I wouldn't call the lightning bolt Lord English's symbol... it has a strong association with wizards from the get-go (eg the little green W mustache coveys lightning going between Rose's finger, eventually begetting the Amporas' v/w quirks), it becomes an emblem of the scratch on Dave's record... it's intimately connected to the arrow ==>, that which embodies both the gap between panels and their positive connection. Jade seems to affiliate it with the spark of life, which she resents... I could see Cronus's scratches being analogous to the scratch of his session, insofar as they might indicate being marked for predation in some sense, but the lightning bolt doesn't strike me as bound to English.