Arcangel's End of the World

Arcangel spent time predicting the end of the world and oncoming doom, though was unable to pinpoint a specific date, because “perhaps there were a series of small dooms in consecutive fifty-two-year cycles.” (48-9) I found this scene to be poignant, partly because of recent events and also because of how disconnected it seems from the rest of the Monday section.  All of the previous scenes depicts snapshots of everyday life, but Arcangel is different because he has a mystical and seemingly timeless presence, he has performed for countless historical and literary figures, and adapts various personas.  Yet, despite the ordinariness of the scenes we see with Rafaela and Bobby and Gabriel, the talk about the world ending gives them more importance.  Also, it kind of reminds me of the discussions on the loss of the West that we’ve had on other novels.  In those cases, it is losing an imaginary space and way of life, but that connects in my mind to the idea of the world ending, because ordinary life continues even when things are lost.  Things that are happening are immediate for the people involved, but because it is a constant threat of cycling dooms, Arcangel’s predications just seem to echo the loss of space that we’ve seen, especially because they all relate back to “discoveries” in the Americas.