(urth) Random thoughts on AEG

[Nigel Price]

Just tossing some random half-thoughts, ideas and speculations around
here...

1	If Bill Reis is a Christ figure, is the US president's desire to gain his
secret of manufacturing gold analogous to the people's reaction to the
feeding of the 5,000. They search for Jesus, but only because they want more
bread, not because they understand the significance of the miracle (John
6.26)?

2	I'm still not sure about the signigifance of gold in AEG, especially as
the quotation from Simonides at the start of the book refers to gold as "an
evil guest". It seems much more natural to interpret the squid god as THE
evil guest in the story. On the other hand, it's Reis' willingness to give
his gold away, or at least use it as a lure for the US Navy, that leads to
the attack on the squid's sunken city. The gold proves to be an unwelcome
guest for Squiddie.

3	We can find all sorts of meanings and associations for the name "Gideon",
but the association that springs to mind for most people ("Rocky Raccoon",
anyone?) is "Gideon's bible", referring to a bible placed in a hotel room or
hospital by the Gideons International organisation. So, could the name
"Gideon Chase" be meant to refer to the bible in some way? The character's
surname, "Chase", surely refers to the fact that he acts as a detective.
He's "chasing" Bill Reis. So, are we to suppose that in some allegorical
fashion, it's the bible that starts Cassie's search for Christ? If that were
the case, her and Chase's initial interpretation of Reis' nature is clearly
wrong... Or is it just that Reis himself changes, and becomes more
Christ-like?

4	Does Gideon Chase remind anyone else around here of Bruce Wayne/Batman?
Maybe it's his black super-car/hopper that brought that association to mind.
Many of the Batman films have emphasised 1940s design values. I wonder
whether they influenced the design values in AEG (see 6 below!)?

5	Is Cassie, who has been married twice before and loves both Chase and
Reis, another of Wolfe's Gomer/whorish-wife figures? (See Hosea 1.1ff and
compare Silk's love for Hyacinth in "Long Sun".) The unworthy and unfaithful
but deeply loved woman who represents Israel/the church...

6	Is there a King Kong subtext buried somewhere in this novel? As others
have pointed out, Wolfe has written the novel as though it were an 1930s/40s
film. The characterisations and even the dialogue are right out of a black
and white film of that era. Some people have reacted negatively to these
aspects and see scenes like the encounter with the mountie as just bad,
whereas I think that what Wolfe is doing is a thorough pastiche of films
from this period, including the quips and smart-alec dialogue that can often
sound laboured to our ears now. But did Wolfe have a specific film in mind?
Maybe it's just the South Sea Island theme that emerges late in AEG that
reminds me of "King Kong", but that film too is about sacrifice. At one
point, the tribe on Skull Island offer the film's heroine as a sacrifice to
their god Kong, but he falls in love with her and carries her off rather
than devouring her. He defends her from other monsters (dinosaurs) on Skull
Island and later, in New York, protects her (in a manner or speaking) from
the aircraft that shoot at him while he's climbing the Empire State
Building. There was a recent film remake of "King Kong"... Is Reis, the
financial giant, a metaphorical Kong substitute, tamed by Cassie's
loveliness? "It was beauty killed the beast!"

7	Is there a Chestertonian "Man who was Thursday" thing going on AEG? The
hero in Chesterton's novel is a detective recruited to go after the seven
members of the Central Council of Anarchists, each of whom, when he corners
them, turns out to be another under-cover detective on the same mission. The
seventh and last member of the council, Sunday, turns out to be a
Christ-like figure rather than a super villain. Is this the basic template
for AEG? Cassie is recruited to go after a super villain who turns out not
to be a villain but a Christ-figure?

Just thinking aloud here! Comments, anyone?

Nigel