Margin Notes

A few people have mentioned this in discussions so we thought it would be a good idea to try and make sense of the timeline surrounding the margin notes and different pen colours.

There are a couple of versions one from melvillean2 and one from ObFuSc8



melvillean2

1. Pencil: this is Eric writing notes to himself as he's reading the book for the first time, and a lot of what Jen seems to be responding to in her first set of notes (in blue ink)

2. Blue and black ink: this is Jen and Eric writing back and forth to one another

3. Green and orange ink: this is Jen and Eric writing after the first set of notes (and this is also where the postcards from Brazil come into play, I believe)

4. Purple and red: this is Jen and Eric writing after the second set of notes

5. Black and black: the final set of notes we see both Eric and Jen writing in black ink (which you can isolate from (2.) above by the inclusion of Jen's cursive in black. I *think* I also noted that there were a few instances of Eric writing notes on his own that seemed to be from this last set, and those were outlined in black boxes (and/or had black vertical lines on either side? I forget)

ObFuSc8

From oldest >> most recent:

- Eric: Pencil >> Black felt tip >> Green >> Red felt tip

- Jen: Blue ballpoint >> blue ball point >> Red ballpoint >> Purple || Black felt tip**

**Jen starts using black felt tip (just like Eric's - possibly the same pen) but chronology isn't completely clear.


For example, Jen mentions Serin pretty early on (p. xii) but Eric doesn't really comment about the check from the Serin Institute until p15. So that trip to NYC for the photo auction is later along the Jen/Eric timeline