Opening Imagery
The novel opens on a metaphorical image of being pulled out of the illusory quality of dreamland back into the harsh cold light of the real world. It will turn out to be shockingly appropriate as it replicates the means by which readers are shot out of the comfortably real world around them to violently land within the unpredictable fictional construct of the narrative:
“He was not merely awakened, but detonated out of an uncommonly long and repetitive dream.”
Confusion
The title is plural, but what is the singular meaning of confusion to the novel? Fortunately, this is not one of those questions which must remain unanswered or only answered in an ambiguous manner. Surprisingly, perhaps, the author takes the time to express—though metaphor, admittedly—a rather straightforward and concrete definition of what the title means:
“…confusion is a kind of bewitchment—a moment when what we supposed we understood loses its form and runs together and becomes one with other things that though they might have had different outward forms, share the same inward nature.”
Well, okay, maybe it is going a little far to say it is not utterly without ambiguity.
Philosophically Metaphorical
The novel is not going to be confused with a Harry Potter novel or a Stephen King tale of terror. Not that this makes it better or worse than that kind of writing, but one should be prepared to dive into deep philosophical waters that may strain the ability of certain readers to, well, enjoy the story. Philosophy and metaphorical imagery battle throughout for dominance with the more down-to-earth stuff about pirates, kings and abductions:
“Perception and thought are properties of souls. It is no worse to posit that the fundamental building-block of the Universe is souls than to say it is wee bits of hard stuff, moving about in an empty space that is pervaded by mystickal Fields.”
Shakespearean Insults
Then again, just when one has penetrated through the abstruse philosophical metaphors, one is surprised to be smacked across the face with a very down-to-earth—earthy, in fact—insult couched as simile such as one might hear in a deft Shakespearean conversation:
“Fresh out? What, no coins in the bank? Does your purse hang as flaccid as a gelding’s scrotum?”
Necromancers and Mountebanks
Sorcerers and charlatans, con men and magicians; all are as one and each undeserving of the respect given a dentist. That sentence actually makes sense within the context of a ripping good paragraph-long example of dense metaphor and simile:
“There are people at Court who suffer from aches of heart and spirit that are every bit as intolerable as a toothache. Those who prey on them, are no different from tooth-pullers. The emblems of the devil are no different from the pliers brandished by tooth-pullers: visual proof that these people are equipped to ply their trade, and satisfy their customers.”
