(urth) AEG clones

[Dave Tallman]

Roy C. Lackey wrote:
> Why put himself in a position to be caught in a lie that served no purpose?
> Why did Wolfe put that bit of conversation in the story?
>   
If Bill was actually in the "empty" seat the whole time, then perhaps 
"You were wearing green the first time I saw you," is a lie and yet not 
a lie. During the play Cassie was projecting Mildred, the soon-to-be 
murder victim. When he saw her in green she was herself.

I also think her love glamour worked through proximity. Bill started 
changing his mind about destroying her when she came up to the 
microphone, and completely dumped the idea when she sat beside him in 
the car. The distance from the stage to his seat was too far for him to 
get the full effect.

So, suppose he sat through the whole play, invisible. There are a couple 
of good reasons for changing his story. The first is that Cassie or 
Chase might have checked with the ushers and found out his reserved seat 
was empty. Reis had to say he lied about being there or admit he walked 
invisible. More importantly, he didn't want to be associated with the 
death of her friend Jimmy. If he admitted being there, he would be 
admitting he could be the man in the alley who bribed Jimmy and possibly 
murdered him. That wouldn't be a good start to his intended relationship.

> Maybe someone felt it necessary to invent
> the cousin story to offer a plausable reason for an uncanny resemblance
> between company presidents. Or to explain why the current president had not
> aged as much as he should have after "years and years".
>   
Possibly. I still think we are invited to check the history of the 
Rusterman name in the Nero Wolfe books and see if it was merely an 
invented name to avoid annoying xenophobic Americans with a strange name 
like "Vukcic's."  (I don't have the books handy now). If so, this cousin 
stuff is just an in-joke.

> Anyway, if there are no clones in the story, why did Wolfe bring up the
> subject in the last chapter? If he hadn't, I wouldn't have brought this
> topic up. I hate clone theories. <g
Clones in other Wolfe works are a sign of a failing, narcissistic 
society ("Cherry Jubilee", and especially "In Looking-Glass Castle"). We 
know that natural children are barely valued (the bus accident report 
and the Supreme Court ruling about infanticide on p. 86).  That may be 
enough of a reason to include them, without having an actual clone in 
the plot.