Week Five: Sections X – XII: Pages 489 – 576

How does the science fiction story constructed by the unnamed lovers mirror the story of the lovers themselves and the circumstances surrounding their affair? In what ways does it parallel events in Iris's life, both as a child and as an adult?

Iris was sacrificed to Richard to save the company. The girl in the story meets someone who gives her life meaning, but it is all in secret. The blind assassin saves the mute girl from the King. They run off together. But then the story comes out and both the blind assassin and the mute girl are left out of the story. The lover has left. The lover and the girl are not together.
--BJ

Also, I think the physical impairments of both the assassin and the girl mirror Iris. The girl cannot speak - just as Iris must live in a marriage where her opinion in not valued, where her role as a wife is taken over by Winnifred. She is also blind, as she never really is able to understand Laura, or to see Laura's relationship with Richard. While we never find out what happens to the sci-fi couple, I think that the ending of the book finishes their story for us. All of the narratives work together to bring us to the same point - we discover what really happened with Iris, Alex, Laura, and Richard, and so we know the outcome of both the sci-fi couple, and the lovers meeting in secret.