Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

“‘What do you seek in these shelves?’” 

This is the question Mr. Penumbra poses to Clay the first time he enters the Bookstore in response to the “Help Wanted” sign. His somewhat archaic phrasing makes the question an enigmatic one and reinforces our impression of the bookstore as a mysterious space. Penumbra’s assumption that people enter bookstore’s in search of something—rather than just to browse or pass the time—emphasizes the novel’s interest in books as a repository of knowledge. 

“You see, to go with the second store, there’s a second set of customers—a small community of people who orbit the store like strange moons. They are nothing like North Face. They are older. They arrive with algorithmic regularity. They never browse. They come wide awake, completely sober and vibrating with need” 

This quotation marks Clay’s increasing suspicion that something strange is happening at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. His description of the people he will later discover are novices of the Unbroken Spine alerts us to their status as a community, even though they are always alone. This, in turn, raises the idea of a knowledge community, people joined together not necessarily by acquaintance or proximity but through a shared interest and knowledge of a particular subject. The language of orbits and algorithms also foregrounds the idea that these people are joined by a strange knowledge that is difficult to decipher.

“I set my chin in my palm and count my friends and wonder what else is hiding in plain sight” 

Clay makes these remarks in response to Mat’s revelation that he has romantic feelings for their roommate, Ashley, but it has a larger significance in the novel too. The concept of things being hidden in plain sight is one that will ultimately lead Clay to discover the key to Manutius’s codex vitae through his close examination of the punches—or molds—of the Gerritszoon typeface. This need for close attention to detail can be contrasted with the extravagant resources used in Kat’s attempt to digitally decipher Manutius’s book and suggests, again, that the kind of deep reading performed by the members of the Unbroken Spine, remains relevant today.

“I tell him and I write it down as I go. It makes me feel better, as if the weirdness is flowing out of my blood and onto the page, through the dark point of the pen” 

Writing the logbook entry for his encounter with Eric is a calming experience for Clay. By transforming it into a narrative, he takes control of the event and no longer feels frightened. This suggests that narrative can perform a significant psychological function.

“‘Each big idea…is an operating system upgrade,’ she says, smiling….‘Writers are responsible for some of it. They say Shakespeare invented the internal monologue.’… ‘But I think writers have had their turn,’ she says, ‘and now it’s the programmers who get to upgrade the human operating system’” 

Here, Kat draws a comparison between Shakespeare—as a representative of literary greatness—and computer programmers. What she is interested in is the way in which the kinds of language we use affect the way we think. Shakespeare’s plays, she suggests, didn’t merely represent characters’ internal monologues, they introduced the very idea into our culture. Similarly, Kat argues, computer programming has the potential to change the human brain and human culture, enabling us to imagine things that we couldn’t conceive of now. 

“‘I suppose that is a relief.’ Penumbra sighs and passes [the Kindle] back to me. ‘Our books still do not require batteries. But I am no fool. It is a slender advantage” 

Penumbra considers the fact that the increasing popularity of e-readers poses a threat to the publication of ordinary, paper books. Yet, that same popularity suggests that literature itself retains its cultural value, so much so that people are seeking new ways to access it. 

“This exercise in telepresence…does not have a point” 

This quotation expresses Clay’s frustration when he “attends” Kat’s party via video chat. While earlier, the two had wondered at the possibility—and banality—of being in two places at once, Clay’s experience points to the limitations of what he calls “telepresence”, suggesting that such virtual forms of relating with people can’t completely replace physical proximity or intimacy. 

“There’s a real limit to the relationship I can build with Kat in her non-Google hours, simply because there aren’t that many of them, and I think I want more than that. I want to earn entrance into Kat’s world. I want to see the princess in her castle” 

Throughout the novel, Sloan makes reference to the genre of fantasy fiction and this quote is an interesting example of that. Typically, the princess in fairytales or fantasy stories needs to be rescued from a castle or tower, but here, the castle points to the fact that Kat’s work is her world, a separate domain to which Clay has limited access. His desire to enter the castle then is not a desire to “rescue” Kat but rather a desire to understand her and to be a more significant part of her world. 

“‘You know, old books are a big problem for us. Old knowledge in general. We call it OK. Old Knowledge, OK. Did you know that ninety-five per cent of the internet was only created in the last five years? But we know that when it comes to all human knowledge, the ratio is just the opposite—in fact, OK accounts for most things that most people know, and have ever known’”

This quotation is from Kat’s Google colleague, Raj and usefully pinpoints one of the novel’s key concerns: the importance of forms of knowledge that are considered “old” or irrelevant today. Raj’s statistics—that around ninety-five percent of human knowledge doesn’t exist in a digital form—challenges the widely held notion that everything you need to know can be found on the internet. At the same time, as Raj points out, this fact in itself presents a problem; if society is becoming increasingly digitized then are we in danger of losing or missing out on the vast majority of humanity’s accumulated knowledge? The apparent opposition between old and new forms of knowledge and technology is something that is addressed throughout the novel , with Sloan ultimately seeming to suggest that finding a way to mediate the relationship between them is the only way forward, as suggested by Clay and Penumbra’s new business. 

“‘I see it now. You cheated—would that be fair to say? And as a result, you have no idea what you have accomplished’”

Here, Penumbra admonishes Clay for unwittingly solving the Founder’s Puzzle. His criticism of Clay exposes the emptiness of achievement without understanding. Thanks to his knowledge of different kinds of software, Clay has managed to solve a puzzle many people have labored over for years in a matter of hours, and yet, Penumbra suggests, his success is hollow. He has not learned any of what the novices have learned; he has missed out on a particular kind of education.

“I tell Neel what has emerged. I explain it like the setup for a Rockets and Warlocks adventure: the backstory, the characters, the quest before us. The party is forming, I say: I have a rogue (that’s me) and a wizard (that’s Kat). Now I need a warrior” 

Once again, Clay frames his actions in terms of a fantasy narrative. This is just one occasion in the novel when Clay’s reactions are filtered through popular culture and suggests the degree to which narrative conventions and genres mediate our relationship to reality. 

“Kat bought a New York Times but couldn’t figure out how to operate it, so now she’s fiddling with her phone” 

This is a wry comment on just how quickly forms of technology become obsolete. The idea of someone not being able to “operate” a newspaper is absurd, but highlights the growing dependence of a new generation on digital forms of media.

“Neel takes a sharp breath and I know exactly what it means. It means: I have waited my whole life to walk through a secret passage built into a bookshelf” 

This quotation captures the sense of adventure that permeates the novel and, coupled with Clay’s frequent references to the Unbroken Spine as a cult, points to the sense of mystery, secrecy, and even inaccessibility associated with certain forms of knowledge and certain kinds of books.

“‘The nature of immortality is a mystery,’ he says, speaking so softly that we have to lean closer to hear. ‘But everything I know of reading and writing tells me that this is true. I have felt it in these shelves and in others.’ I don’t believe the immortality part, but I do know the feeling Penumbra is talking about. Walking the stacks in a library, dragging your fingers across the spines—it’s hard not to feel the presence of sleeping spirits” 

Here, the novel raises questions about the relationship between immortality and art—and specifically literature. The question of what constitutes immortality and whether it is desirable or not is a central concern of Sloan’s text and in associating immortality with books, he echoes older arguments that suggested art was a way of ensuring the artist—or author –“lived on” even after their death.

“San Francisco is a good city, and beautiful, but it’s never this alive. I take a deep breath—the air is cool and sharp, scented with tobacco and mystery meat—and I think of Corvina’s warning to Penumbra: You can squander what time remains out there. Jeez. Immortality in a book-lined catacomb down beneath the surface of the earth, or death up here, with all this? I’ll take death and a kebab” 

Throughout the novel, Clay is cynical about both the possibility and the appeal of immortality and never more explicitly than in this quotation. For him, pinning your hopes on living forever requires forfeiting the present. His description of the Reading Room as a “catacomb” suggests that the Unbroken Spine’s search for immortality is, ironically, itself a kind of death; it is a failure to live. 

“Turning the pages of this encoded codex, I realize that the books I love most are like open cities, with all sorts of ways to wander in. This thing is a fortress with no front gate. You’re meant to scale the walls, stone by stone” 

Here, Clay points to the perceived inaccessibility of certain types of books. The contrast between a city—home to a multitude of people—and a fortress—a building designed to protect a select group of people—suggests that this inaccessibility is deliberately constructed by some people or organizations, like the Unbroken Spine. His preference for “open” books is also a preference for a more democratic approach to literature.

“Corvina’s got it wrong. Penumbra’s schemes didn’t fail because he’s a hopeless crackpot. If Corvina’s right, it means nobody should ever try anything new and risky. Maybe Penumbra’s schemes failed because he didn’t have enough help” 

This quotation encapsulates the difference between Corvina and Penumbra: while Corvina is conservative and unwilling to take risks, Penumbra isn’t afraid to try something new, even if it might fail. At the same time, Clay suggests that change and progress cannot be achieved by people working on their own; they require friendship, faith and teamwork. 

“The screens leap to life, a blitzkrieg of data visualization and exploration. The text of MANVTIVS blinks bright and jagged, set in the squared-off letters favored by code and console. This isn’t a book anymore; it’s a data dump” 

This description of Kat’s decoding project employs militaristic, aggressive language that suggests it is a kind of assault on Manutius’s book—so much so the at the codex “isn’t a book anymore”. By failing to take the nature of the Manutius’s work, Kat’s team fails in their attempt to decipher it. Here the novel seems to call for a more careful treatment of different types of information, rather than just throwing powerful analytical resources at them. Turning a book into a “data dump” does not make it easier to understand, it is only when Clay pays attention to the specificity of the codex—a book printed in Gerritszoon typeface—that he works out the key to the text.

“When you read a book, the story definitely happens inside your head. When you listen, it seems to happen in a little cloud all around it, like a fuzzy knit cap pulled down over your eyes” 

Once again, the novel points to the different experiences of reading that are made possible by technology, without creating a hierarchy of value between them. Clay doesn’t suggest that it is better to “read” a book than it is to “listen” to it. Indeed, the image of a “fuzzy” hat suggests that listening to an audiobook is a comfortable experience. In drawing attention to e-readers and audiobooks, Sloan challenges the rigid distinction between books and technology. Indeed, the novel’s interest in a fifteenth-century printer—Manutius—highlights the fact that printed books were once a technological innovation themselves. 

“Edgar Deckle is hedging his bets: immortality by book and immortality by blood. Do any of the others have kids?” 

While Kat is interested in the possibility of a person living forever, here, Clay points to two other ways of conceiving of immortality: by book and by blood. The Unbroken Spine members are searching for the secret to eternal life in the encrypted work of Manutius, but there is another school of thought that considers that an author’s work allows them to “live on” even after their death. Similarly, having children is thought to be another way to achieve a certain kind of immortality, in which a person’s name—usually the father’s—continues to be used after their death. 

“Resourceful: full of resources. When I think of resources, I think of Neel. But maybe Deckle is right. Everything I’ve done so far, I’ve done by calling in favors. I do know people with special skills, and I know how to put their skills together” 

Clay’s first instinct, when he considers the word resourceful, is to think of his very wealthy friend Neel. However, his realization that he, too, is resourceful challenges us to rethink what constitutes a “resource”. In this quotation, resources are no longer limited to monetary wealth. Knowledge can also be a useful resource: knowledge of people combined with the type of innovative thinking necessary to bring them together. 

“You know, I’m really starting to think the whole world is just a patchwork quilt of crazy little cults, all with their own secret spaces, their own records, their own rules” 

In the internet age, it often seems as if we have all necessary information at our fingertips and that the world has become a smaller, more accessible place. This quotation, however, highlights the fact that even in today’s society people seek out groups; people have always tried to stake out a particular “space” that they can call their own and regulated that space according to their own rules. Rather than changing this tendency, the internet has allowed these groups to work more efficiently and, sometimes, changed the kinds of spaces they are able to claim. Rather than being confined to subterranean libraries, these “cults” might now operate in online forums or other digital “spaces”. At the same time, the image of the patchwork quilt suggests that these groups are all part of a larger whole.

“We’re like an orphanage for a lot of things” 

This comment is made by Cheryl, who works at Consolidated Universal Long-Term Storage LLC., regarding the vast number of artifacts they store that are no longer owned or wanted by anyone. She points to the huge amount of history—represented here by physical artifacts—that has been put into storage and forgotten. At the same time, her comparison of the facility to an orphanage attributes a certain human quality to these objects. These “things” are part of human history and, as such, are part of the story of humanity.