Still Life with Woodpecker

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of miscarriage.

An unnamed character gets a new typewriter, the Remington SL3, and is preparing to write a novel. His previous typewriter was an Olivetti, and he is a little intimidated by the new one but remains convinced it can do anything. His plan is to begin that night, after having a drink.

It is the “last quarter of the twentieth century” (3), and something important is going to happen—everyone seems to feel it. Theories about this happening range from the Second Coming of Jesus to the discovery of Atlantis. Princess Leigh-Cheri doesn’t know what is going to happen, but she knows that it is a difficult period for lovers, exemplified by the fact that no one understands the moon anymore.

In August, Leigh-Cheri looks out her attic window at the full moon. She wonders aloud, to her pet frog, Prince Charming, if the moon has a purpose. When the author asks his typewriter, the Remington SL3, if her question is a silly one, it quotes both Albert Camus and author Tom Robbins.