Lady Oracle Chapter Summary & Analysis - Chapter 21 Summary

Chapter 21 Summary

Joan believes her married life is happy, and becomes a confidant for Arthur's friends whose wives are more demanding than Joan. Joan realizes there are two kinds of love, stability and passion, and that one man cannot do both. She is proud that she is able to separate Arthur, her stability, from her passion, the novels. Arthur drops into another depression, and Joan, on learning costume gothics are using the occult to spice up the stories, attempts the automatic writing ritual again for inspiration. She trances herself into the mirror, and walks down a long corridor, only to feel someone in the room with her. When she emerges, she has written the word 'bow'. Over the next several months, Joan continues the ritual, often ending with numerous words or phrases she combines to form a type of literary poem. One evening, she enters the mirror, the candle blows out, and...
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