Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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girl named Liz, who passes away and she moves on
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to the afterlife, which is a place called elsewhere, where
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everyone ages in reverse until they become a little baby
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and then they float down the river and they're reborn
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on Earth.
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So, as I dove into this novel, I noticed a
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lot of references um in life cycles, and there were
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a lot of similarities between her beliefs are her ideas
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in the book and ancient Egyptian ideas about the afterlife.
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So, my question for my research project was how does
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Gabrielle seven Reference Egyptian after life beliefs in her novel
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elsewhere. So, first to understand the symbolism and the references
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in the book, you need to know a little bit
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more about ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs.
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So, the first big thing to know is that in
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ancient Egypt, they did not believe that life ended with
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death. Death was the start of a journey to eternal
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life. And they believed that the soul had many parts
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and seven kind of references three parts In her book,
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the body which is your soul or your personality that
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you're born with.
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And the body is often represented by some kind of
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a mix between a bird and a human.
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You can see here in this picture, it's a bird
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with a human head.
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It's kind of hovering over a mummy here in the
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tomb. The car is the person's life force that is
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the double or the duplicate version of them.
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It usually looks like them and it travels on the
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journey through the afterlife.
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And then thirdly, the ac which is the person's spirit
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that rests in the eternal paradise.
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It's the union of the body and the car and
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it's noted that not everyone reaches cop.
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So the book elsewhere is written in three parts.
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Um It also has a prologue in an epilogue, but
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the three parts of the book somewhat parallel the three
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parts of the soul and the journey through death in
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the underworld into the eternal life.
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So the three parts of the book are the Nile,
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the Book of the Dead and the antique lands.
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We can talk a little bit more about like how
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each of those ties in with ancient Egyptian beliefs.
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So when a person dies, their body is prepared for
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the afterlife.
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Many people are familiar with this practice.
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It's mummification.
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In an ancient Egypt, the wealthiest people would be mummified
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and put into tombs.
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The poorer would usually afford some type of mummification, but
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if not, they would be buried in cemeteries along the
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Nile River.
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Rich people prepare their tombs with food and treasures and
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the bird bah.
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The person's soul would be able to leave the body
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in slumber and return to it.
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And in death it would be able to leave and
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come back to the tomb to receive the offerings that
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people left there.
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And sometimes bob would also follow rah the Sun Dad.
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So it would follow the rise and the fall of
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the sun or following another cycle.
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So there's a few ways that the book symbolizes ancient
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Egyptian culture in this first section called the Nile.
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Obviously the Nile river is a huge river that runs
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through Egypt in itself is referenced many times in ancient
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culture as symbolizing death and rebirth.
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The now Riverwood flood, there'd be the flooding season and
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it would fertilize the land and plants would grow and
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then as the river went down, things would die.
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So it mirrors, you know, the death and rebirth cycle
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itself. Also, the first part of the book, Liz wakes
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up from what she thinks is a dream and she's
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on this like giant cruise ship and the cruise ships
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name is actually the S.
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S. Nile.
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And when she makes up on the boat she meets
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a lot of people, but she's also hungry.
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So she goes and has like a buffet which kind
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of, to me symbolizes like bach coming to the tomb
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and eating in its preparation for this journey that it's
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going to take into the afterlife.
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She also finds out that she's dead in this part
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of the book.
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She um at first thing she's dreaming, but then she
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realizes that she's passed away and she actually gets to
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go and view her funeral, which is just like kind
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of another parallel of like the bob being prepared for
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the afterlife.
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There are some references to mummification in this part, Liz
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on the boat is wearing like white and all white
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pajamas outfit, which kind of reminds me of mummies.
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And also she is wrapped in Lenin's later in the
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book, kind of symbolizing mummification.
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And then there's also one more reference in this section
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of the book to Ancient Egypt in this poem um
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by Percy Shelley called Ozymandias.
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And Liz is reminded of this poem when she notices
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that the boat is named the Ss.
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Now it reminds her of school and she says that
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she recalls a line from this poem and it is
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I met a traveller from an antique land and Egypt
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is often known as the antique lands.
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The poem itself is about Ramses the second there's a
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was an engineer, an Egyptian pharaoh.
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There was a statue of him that had been eroded
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by the sand.
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And the theme of the poem is kind of that
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like time will tear you down like the sand had
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eroded the statue.
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So it's more symbolism to like time and life cycles
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there. So after the body is prepared for burial next
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the car, which is your double.
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We'll make the journey through the afterlife.
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So this journey is into like a mysterious world and
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unknown. It's dangerous and people would purchase what is known
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as the Book of the Dead and they would put
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it in their tombs and it was full of spells
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and prayers for whatever, like trials and tribulations they might
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meet on their journey through the after all.
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So this really reminded me of the goonies, you know,
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where they're like trying to like have a treasure map
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and go through like all these booby traps and things.
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Um, but in ancient Egyptian culture, you have a guide
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um that you meet in the afterlife and his name
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is Anubis and it is a person with the head
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of a dog and the car is tested throughout the
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journey and then it ends in the hall of judgement
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where the car will have to deny their sins by
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making negative confessions.
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So basically you have to say like all the things
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that you didn't do while you're on earth, like I
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was not a liar, I didn't cheat and serious will
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weigh your heart, which Egyptians believed is where the soul
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provided. And the cool thing that I learned when reading
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about this is that's where the terms lighthearted or heavy
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hearted came from.
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So in the second part of the book which is
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called the Book of the Dead.
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This is the like part of the book where a
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lot of the plot happens.
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Um This is like Liz journey into elsewhere.
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Like she gets to elsewhere.
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She um learns about like everything of how it works
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and it symbolizes a lot of cause journey through the
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afterlife. It's she's having a really hard time dealing with
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everything. This is where she begins to form relationships and
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where she kind of has to deal with her death.
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Um One of the biggest symbols I saw in this
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section of the book is dogs.
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So Egyptians associate dogs with death.
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We just talked about Anubis, he has the head of
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a dog and Liz gets a dog when she gets
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to the afterlife.
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It's like one of her first like friendships that she
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creates. So I kind of think of that dog, Sadie
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as being like her Anubis or her guide through the
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after world.
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Egyptians also believed that animals had a car and there
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are animals in elsewhere in the afterlife that she can
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talk to, so she actually can speak two dogs in
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the afterlife here.
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And um ancient Egyptians also would have been found to
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bury dogs in tombs, so maybe they would be like
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buried with their owners or for workshop reasons or whatever.
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So like dogs are similar is a lot in ancient
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Egyptian culture.
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Also her dog lucy that she had in her real
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life hangs out in her room where kind of like
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reminds me of like the dogs hanging out in the
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cemeteries in ancient Egypt and the heart is also referenced
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a lot in this section, the Egypt's Egyptians believed the
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heart was like the essence of the soul and the
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whole middle part of the book is about her like
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forming relationships and trying to find love.
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So that's kind of like a tie there.
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And then there's also an interesting reference to trees, an
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ancient Egyptian afterlife symbolism.
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Um a lot of times people are depicted as rusting
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in the afterlife, in Egyptian lore like under a tree.
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So like the tree is providing like the shade of
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the afterlife in paradise.
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And there's an interesting part in this book where less
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is trying to figure out like how earth is connected
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to the afterlife.
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So on page 109 somebody is explaining it to her
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like this, she says I think of it like a
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tree because every tree is really two trees.
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There is a tree with branches that everyone sees and
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then there's an upside down tree growing the opposite way.
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So Earth is the branches growing up to the sky
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and elsewhere is the roots growing down in the opposite
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but in perfect symmetry.
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So that's really interesting idea where like the body, the
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bird is like up in the tree, the top part
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and then on earth and then the soul is like
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down in the elsewhere in the underworld.
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I'm doing its own thing down there.
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There's also um a lot of symbolism with rebirth in
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trees and like a cycle of life.
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You know, trees have like their green leaves and they
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die and fall off.
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So it kind of represents for generation as well, which
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is just like a huge theme of like life cycles
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throughout this book.
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So um the third part of the afterlife is when
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the soul reaches the eternal life that's called the field
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of reeds and if car passes a serious test, the
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baa and the car will be reunited to form the
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ac, which is your spirit that can finally rest in
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the afterlife.
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So um in this like eternal afterlife place, there are
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many different ways people like to interpret it, but sometimes
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Egyptians would say like you're living amongst the gods and
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sometimes they might say um you're reunited with their after
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in the afterlife with their loved ones.
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So it's kind of just think about the person and
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like what they believe, what happened in the afterlife for
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them. The third part of elsewhere is called Ancient Lands
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and it's a short section is just about like the
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end of Liz journey through the afterlife.
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There are some symbolism ideas there as well.
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Um Betty is Liz his grandmother, that's who she lives
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with when she gets to elsewhere.
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So that's like a parallel as well.
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Like she kind of is meeting up with her loved
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ones in the ancient lands.
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Um Betty has a garden, so that kind of references
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the field of reeds they garden together there, Curtis jest
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is a rock star that lives idolizes on earth and
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I thought that was like a cool little like nod
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to living amongst the gods, you know like he's her
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God on earth and then she gets to live with
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him in the afterlife.
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And then one other idea that parallels here is Liz
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has to get an advocation when she isn't elsewhere and
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it's like having a job but it's more of like
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a hobby or um something that they enjoy doing, so
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it's not like a job on earth where you like
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work and receive money, you have to find an advocation
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of something that you enjoy doing.
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So like um it references a bunch of like rock
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stars and famous people who are doing things that they
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didn't do on earth, Like I think it says john
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Lennon is like a garden er um Curtis just is
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actually a fisherman's, they're doing something that they just like
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enjoy doing.
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So Liz has to find a job for herself And
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it kind of represents tending the fields of the afterlife
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and that's the ancient Egyptians like had to tend the
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fields in there eternal paradise.
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So the whole book has just a ton of themes
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about cycles of life and making this journey through the
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afterlife and it's really directly related to Egyptian beliefs and
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tons of symbolism.
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So like to wrap it all up.
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Um there was a really cool quote in one of
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the movies I watched that learn help me learn a
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lot about this.
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Um they still don't know a lot about like what
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the mysteries of the Egyptian afterlife where so these mysteries
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of life and death remain here after remain eternal and
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they can only be understood by faith, hope and works
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of the imagination and the heart.
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So I do believe it's caught in your own imagination.
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And Devin does a really good job capturing that mystery
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of death and relating it to what we know about
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ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs in her book