6th Planet from the Sun

              I personally found People of Paper to be the most interesting read, from the beginning, out of all the books we have read. I particularly like the individual stories all in one, and that the previous one introduces the character in the next. We are getting multiple viewpoints of the same occurrences, which interests me as a reader, delving into the minds of multiple characters.

              I found the reoccurrence of Saturn, to be very interesting. The chapter one, the first section is titled “Saturn,” giving an overview o the characters and the storyline. Is Saturn the narrator? That was my perception, even though the characters were also narrators throughout the story. So who is Saturn?

             My first thought when I read Saturn was the planetary system, so I did some research on the planet. Saturn is the furthest planet that can be seen by the unaided eye, a point that I thought was important, because it puts Earth and Saturn at opposite spectrums, almost as if destined to be enemies because of their polarity. The core of Saturn is also extremely hot, giving the planet a orange-yellowish glow, which reminded me of the use of fire to alleviate pain and suffering among Federico and his gang.

            After doing a little research on the planet, I came to the realization that Saturn was also a mythological God. He was the god of agriculture which relates to the novel because the EMF gang and many of the other workers in Los Angeles worked picking flowers and on plantations. Another interesting fact that I stumbled upon was that Saturn was in a war with his son Jupiter that almost destroyed the universe; Jupiter’s forces were those of the fifty-headed monsters. While the war with Saturn was of those on Earth and in the EMF, I thought of the connection of a war against Saturn, by those of some disfigurement (the EMF from their fire/pain alleviation).