The Talisman

The two poles of Jack’s quest are the Alhambra Inn, on the east coast, and the Black Hotel on the coast of California. The Alhambra is a symbol of Lily’s former happiness. She and Phil celebrated there after her Academy Award nomination for Blaze. When the novel begins, the hotel is a symbol of her decrepitude, and of Jack’s lack of stability. He does not have a home, because a hotel is almost always temporary. For Jack, the Alhambra is more of an infirmary than a resort destination. The Black Hotel serves as an inversion of the Alhambra. While it houses the good of the Talisman, it is a place of evil, filled with cruel spirits and creatures who mock and torment those who enter. The Black Hotel is not a place that welcomes temporary guests. It is a prison and a trap. It is not a place for guests, but a place to die.

Before he arrives at Oatley, Jack passes through the Oatley Tunnel. In the dark, he hears footfalls, whispers, and believes that he sees a ghostly, horrible face before he gets out. Oatley is the first truly awful place that Jack experiences on his journey, and Smokey is the first person to hold him captive. The tunnel serves as a literal transition point between Jack’s life before Oatley, and his descent into what he calls the Pitcher Plant. It is the moment that demonstrates his commitment to the quest. Rather than turn back, he faces whatever lies in the dark and proceeds. Later, he compares the barrel of a gun as being “as big as the Oatley tunnel” (434). When he arrives at Point Venuti, he thinks, “Now Point Venuti was the Oatley tunnel, and he would have to walk through all of it” (625).

Most people have a Twinner in the reality of the Territories. For instance, Speedy Parker the musician is Parkus the Captain in the Territories. Morgan Sloat is Orris. Sunlight Gardener is the Twinner of Osmond. The concept of the Twinners symbolizes the duality that exists within each person, and who each person could be if one part of their personality took inordinate control over their other traits. Jack does not have a Twinner, which means that he is wholly himself in every reality. He does not have to share his headspace with another consciousness.

When Speedy tells Jack about the Territories, he gives him a bottle of sickly sweet, fermented juice that helps him flip between the worlds. The juice gives Jack a physical tool to enter the Territories. He doesn’t have to believe in other realities, he only must swallow the liquid in the bottle. The juice is tangible proof that Speedy is telling the truth. Later, Jack learns to flip between worlds on his own, raising the question of whether the juice served as Jack’s traveling mechanism, or if Speedy used it as a prop to show Jack that the Territories were real. The authors describe the juice as like bad wine, which gives it another layer of interpretation. Wine is an addictive substance. In significant quantities, it can also be a transportive substance. Jack does not get addicted to the juice, or to the sensation of flipping, but characters like Sloat do behave as though they have an addiction as they visit the Territories repeatedly.