part of the point of jonah’s character is that he’s the watcher so it makes sense for him to remain narratively unknowable till the very end. it’s telling that the most we have on him comes from incoming letters addressed to him, so it’s always people feeding him their fear, never the other way around. even the 160 statement is written to scare jon, he’s not really talking about himself, it’s all about jon. to use the panopticon analogy again, he’s the observer in the tower and, “in the tower one sees everything without ever being seen” (the only one capable of seeing the observer in the tower is the one who goes there to assume his role, so, jon). anyway. all that hasn’t stopped me from pondering. so considering all previous jonjonahisms there’s some merit in jonah also having his first supernatural encounter during an impressionable age and like jon it should happen in the form of a leitner (anachronistic to label it a leitner obvs, but gives an interesting flavour to his present day murder of leitner), a guest for mr spider was formative for jon because it was a traumatic encounter that happened to him and he’s only saved by a stroke of luck when someone else interferes. his need for answers is both a desire to understand and a sense of obligation he feels for the people around him to prevent a repeat of what happened to his bully (it will happen again). so the point of difference i would go for, is that it doesn’t happen to jonah. at not point is he actually in danger, doesn’t even get to hold the book in his hand, he simply watches someone else getting ‘eaten’ by it. he’s a witness not a victim. this impresses in jonah that something is. afoot. not enough to throw his world out of balance, not yet, that only happens when smirke gathers their group (“Even then, I knew how the world worked. There were supernatural things in the world, but they were rare – isolated and exaggerated”, jon in 81) but disturbing enough to be a formative memory. like jon he has also been offered a mystery and will eventually go looking for answers, but the voyeuristic nature of the encounter should forever serve as a reminder to remove himself from the site of danger. he must never allow himself to be the one to whom the horror happens, but he has to be the one keeping watch.