47 pages • 1 hour read
Robin Sloan, Rodrigo CorralMr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Fellowship
Friendship operates as a motif as well as being a central theme in the novel. Clay, in particular, makes a number of references to the idea of fellowship in popular culture. For example, the questing party is a foundational concept in the fantasy novels and role-playing games that Clay and Neel share an interest in and the recurring references to The Dragon-Song Chronicles are another reminder of this. Clay also describes Rosemary Lapin’s home as “the burrow of a bibliophile hobbit” (101), making a reference to the work of J.R.R.R. Tolkien whose The Lord of the Rings centers on the adventures of the Fellowship of the Ring. Similarly, when Clay, Kat and Neel have agreed to participate in Penumbra’s plan to make a digital copy of Manutius’s book, Clay refers to them as the “rebel alliance” of the popular Star Wars movies. Interestingly, the symbol of the Unbroken Spine itself, “two hands, perfectly flat, rising out of an open book” (8), suggests the open hands of friendship, a reading that is reinforced by Gerritszoon’s final message, which confirms the importance of his friendship with Manutius.
Gerritszoon Typeface
There are a number of references to the Gerritszoon typeface even before we learn the significance Griffo Gerritszoon holds for the Unbroken Spine. As well as acting as clues for the reader, these references retrospectively reinforce Clay’s remarks about the prevalence of Gerritszoon’s legacy. The typeface becomes a symbol of both endurance and of the way that important things are often hiding in plain sight. This is particularly true given Clay’s discovery that the key to Manutius’s codex vitae was actually hidden in the Gerritszoon font and had, as such, been under the nose of the Unbroken Spine for centuries.
The Dragon-Song Chronicles
Much like the Gerritszoon typeface, recurring references to Clark Moffat’s books, The Dragon-Song Chronicles, point to the way in which things are often hidden in plain sight. The books also echo the journey Clay and his friends take to solve the mystery of the Unbroken Spine, one which Moffat himself had previously undertaken. By encoding the solution to the mystery in his published work, Moffat not only hides it in plain sight, but also emphasizes the need for deep and careful reading
Using a familiar and ubiquitous name like Google allows Sloan to represent all things technological while also grounding Clay’s fantastic adventures in the reader’s reality. Google comes to stand not only for technological innovation but also for resources so vast that when Kat is given use of the Big Box to try and decode Manutius’s book, the entire internet shuts down for three seconds. Google also represents our growing reliance on digital sources for information. When Kat expresses surprise that Clay doesn’t know—or know how to calculate—the circumference of the earth, his response is “I’d probably just Google it” (210). Here Google is a verb as well as a trademark and suggests that services such as search engines might, to some degree, be a substitute for thinking.
