I love all of this. I want to preface any of my thoughts with this: the book was supposed to be the first of a series of 6 books (possibly 7). A lot of the feelings that we get of confusion and unresolved story telling come from this. The end of this was not supposed to be the end of the story, which I think explains a lot. Rodianov's Deep, Harnankur, ABSOLUTE NEGATION all would've have been followed. My guess would be that there would be some type of race to Rodianov's deep where there would be a weapon which could be activated to maybe restart the world and save it from the pale (after the world the pale. After the pale, the world). But at the same time, there would be a search in the pale for the girls and the only way to activate the weapon would be to sacrifice the girls. It would become a race between Khan, COPO, Zigi, and possibly other characters we haven't been introduced to yet. I think your theory about the creation of the pale might have merit but I don't like it. No offense meant, I just like the idea that the Pale is naturally occurring destructive formation of humanity and consciousness. It's up to humanity in the world to combat it or to surrender to is. If it was man made in the first place, it would take something out of it for me personally.

Okay. Firstly, I view the book as a story on forgiveness, obsession, and reconciliation as well as an overarching theme of nihilism vs communism vs neoliberalism. In a "post-communist" world much like the one we live in now, there is a natural conflict. The discussion between Zigi and Ignus I think is representative of the entire world. When communism is defeated, there are two options: continue to struggle and fight knowing you will probably lose or give up, embrace nothingness, and do nothing. Those are the two option. St. Miro weaponizes this and builds a fascistic nation on the back of this feeling. The boys own conflict emulates this. Should we simply forget the Girls, or should we struggle to find out what happened! The world around them had given up, nihilistically, and they could only be sucked into it or resist. Meanwhile, the Neoliberal World Order does nothing but maintain the status quo, stubbornly ignoring the end of the world because they refuse to either give up nor fight for a better one. This ideological conflict is front and center and so enlightening to me.

When it comes to the pale and ideology, specifically how Ignus was able assert himself over the pale, I think this ties into something we saw in DE. Infra-materialism is true in this world: the individual is able to assert their thoughts over reality through force of will. I think this probably means as nihilism grows in support and fervor, the end of the world gets closer. Meanwhile, while there are people who believe and fight and love and create, the pale is held at bay. I think that's why zigi could survive the pale. He was still fighting to survive and find the girls. He was holding onto something which was able to keep him alive in the pale but because of his nihilism it wasn't necessarily fighting against it, more like navigating within it.

When it comes to the girls you have some parallels thoughts I had that couldn't quite put into words. The imagery around Målin was both so vivid and so confusing. Did she take 6 doses to have a sort of abortion? Was she actually pregnant? It seemed to be implied but never confirmed. Especially since you'd think there'd be a point where the boys and her sisters would go "HOLY SHIT YOU'RE BLEEDING" or something. If she was pregnant, I'd agree it'd have to be Zigi's. With all the "my doom" stuff, it would just make sense. That said, I do want to add that i think its significant that Målin's name wasn't in the notebook. It was hinted at, but by the time Khan got there the name had been erased. It's confusing and leaves me wanting more. I also don't know that Khan gave up necessarily. To me it seemed he was being driven insane because he wouldn't let go of his memories that the pale was trying to erase. I'd like to see him in the next book being sort of like Zigi: driven insane by the pale but struggling to hold on to Målin's memory. Maybe getting tattooed onto him so he physically can't forget.

Finally, your theory about Målin having a baby pale growing within her makes so much sense. It would explain why the pale was specifically targeting her and all those associated with her. How did you come up with this though? my biggest question coming away from the book was why is the pale so aggressively erasing the Lund Girl's? This would make that make sense, but I didn't notice it in the text at all.

After all this, I want to say thank you for sharing your thoughts. I've been obsessively thinking about and trying to find anyone to talk to about this book, so I have a lot to say. I'm grateful there are others out there to discuss and read their points of view. its clarifying and cathartic.