Iodine

I am reading Iodine, by Haven Kimmel, and I am absolutely gripped. I love Kimmel. This one is dark, and I am pulled right in by the archetype info--the main character is taking classes in archetypes in literature and psychology, and also a "wounded women in literature" class--while trying to figure out her own story.

She's also reading about UFOs and abduction stories. Seeing some of the actual literature on this, when I worked at the used bookstore, published from 1947 on, always made me a little sick to my stomach. I was troubled in so many ways: something really happened, something happened and the government covered it up, UFO stories were a cover for something else icky that happened, or UFO story writers were playing on the vulnerabilities of the people who yearned for the stories to be true, for various reasons.

Iodine is a blue-black solid in nature, or a metallic gray, and violet as a gas. The main character's eyes are violet. The title and author's name on the book cover are the deep purple of iodine as a gas. I've been calling my blooming mums maroon, but they have an aspect of iodine.

Here is iodine as a gas in the laboratory, by Matias Molnar. Iodine is important in nutrition, and that's why our salt is iodized. A lack of iodine can lead to thyroid problems or mental retardation. Iodine is used in the X-ray process sometimes, also seen on the book cover. Tincture of iodine is a disinfectant. So far in the book, iodine has been used on the cuts of the main character as a child.

I await illumination.