(urth) PEACE: One Devil

[Dave Tallman]

I'm new to this list and I'm just beginning to read some Gene Wolfe books I bought years ago. Most recently I read "Free Live Free" and "Peace". I read the New Sun series a long time ago and plan to reread it also.

I read many speculations here about who Alden Weer might have murdered, if anyone. Here is a clue I haven't seen discussed here: the idea that a murderer and his victim will become "one devil" if both were evil. I'll assume that Wolfe meant this to be true in this book.

This made me look for memories that might not belong to Weer. There's nothing that might belong to a divorced librarian from New Jersey, so that suggests Weer didn't kill Lois. The only thing out-of-place is the harem room; Weer says he never ordered it. Where could it have come from? Weer's father was in Istanbul at the time of Aunt Olivia's wedding.

Weer was estranged from his father and probably hated him. He went on hunting trips with him, so there would have been opportunities to arrange an "accident." Weer is obsessed with a large ax and reads its handle at least twice a day. There's also a smaller cruiser ax with the same brand (father and son axes?).

I think Lois left town, just as Weer said. He kept her gun under his pillow because he was afraid of her. He thought she might return to silence him about her intended crime; she meant to kill him and take everything for herself if they had actually found the treasure.

The coldroom victim? If it's someone we know, and Weer did it, I'll have to say it was one of Abel Green's sons. Only children of nearly the same age would be invited to a five-year-old's party (and a Green child was, since the mother was there). It could also have been an older brother of Tom Singer's, but Abel is named for the first murder victim in the Bible. There's no "one devil" problem here if the victim was innocent (as Abel was). Abel Green himself might be identified with the old farmer who complains about the potatoes in the last chapter, but I don't have great evidence for this.

My take on the whole story is that Weer isn't in Hell (yet), but the process of becoming "one devil" with his father has started. His spirit was roused by the falling elm, and at the end he goes back to "sleep." Final judgment will come later. "Many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

One more speculation on the "one devil" theme. When Aunt Olivia speaks to Weer at the end, she uses exactly the same words as before. If this was "one devil," one might expect her to call him "Alden" instead of "Den", since that's what Professor Peacock always called him. But maybe that would have made the other murder mystery too easy.

By the way, did the name "Professor Peacock" and the other color names make anyone think of the game of "Clue?"

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