The lotus flower appears as a symbol of the consistency of time. How do you feel this connects with the three main narrators’ desire to manipulate time? In what ways do you think May admires—even envies—the lotus flower for its inherent characteristics related to time, according to the descriptions on page 295?
A previous post of mine discussed the concept of “lotus” time. I reread page 295 (thanks, Kim). May’s questions were about nature. How and why does the lotus do what it does? Wouldn’t we all like the ability to manipulate time? May swallowed the ancient seed. Did it in turn impact Lily and Nick? Perhaps the author included this thread for us to question if there’s science or fantasy behind the phenomena all three shared.
The concept of time stopping or slowing down for the characters seemed out of place to me until we learned of May’s wish when swallowing the lotus seed. It was an interesting tidbit that May, Lily, and Nick all felt the time slow downs. It connected the genetic theme of the story to the Chinese beliefs. I really like small details like this that run through a book.