The Wasp Factory

Frank recalls how he used to play horrible games with birds — shooting them, blowing them up, or tying two together and forcing them to fight to the death.

Tuesday morning Frank bikes into town to meet with Jamie. Jamie doesn’t understand, if Eric is so crazy, why no one has caught him yet. Frank hypothesizes that, although his behavior with dogs and maggots “looks pretty crazy,” maybe Eric isn’t “really crazy after all. Perhaps he just got fed up acting normal and decided to act crazy instead.” Frank also theorizes that maybe his whole family is crazy.  

Jamie and Frank play the arcade game Space Invaders and continue to talk. Frank remarks that there are people crazier than him or Angus is, who he sees as eccentrics. Jamie agrees, and suggests many of them are political or religious leaders. Frank counters maybe the powerfully are the only truly sane people, as they’ve figured out how to game the system.

Frank bikes back to the island. He spends the afternoon tidying up the loft that holds the Wasp Factory. He decides to consult it tomorrow, making sure to get more information before Eric arrives.

Frank catches a wasp to use in the Factory. Then he builds a dam in a nearby river. It is huge and complicated, with the potential to devastate two tiny villages. He blows it up with a tiny homemade electrical bomb. As the little cities flood Frank experiences “a gorgeous feeling of excitement” in his stomach and throat. Frank waits for the stream to settle down, and then collects the husk of the bomb.

Frank explains, “all our lives are symbols. Everything we do is part of a pattern we have at least some say in.” The strong are able to make their own patterns, while the weak act according to other’s patterns. Frank relates this to the Wasp Factor. The Factory, as part of life, and part of death, is part of the pattern. Because, he believes, “every question is a start looking for an end” the Factory, which is about death, can answer them. 

Frank is certain the Wasp Factory will give him a sense of the future. Then he will contact Eric using Old Saul’s skull. Frank believes that “at some deep level” he and Eric “understand each other, even though he is mad and I am sane.”

Frank has a theory that “both sexes can do one thing specially well; women can give birth, and men can kill.” Frank considers himself “an honorary man,” and feels death in his “uncastrated genes.” He believes this connection with Eric will be enough to telepathically reach out to him.