(urth) Laundress and Star (AEG spoilers)

[Mr Thalassocrat]

On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 3:29 AM, Henry Eissler <
henryeissleriii at mindspring.com> wrote:
>
>
>   For what it's worth--  Margaret Briggs describes herself in her
> introduction as "...an expert seamstress and laundress, ...".  Then, at the
> cast party, whenVincent Palma is speaking of banshees Norma asks, "doesn't
> Cassie have a grey neighbour right now?"  Margaret says, "She's talking
> about me."
>   And I thought she was so nice.


Margaret is such an enigma! Just some random points, without being able to
make much sense of anything ...

- She's Margaret Briggs, and this is a story where initials seem to be
important in fixing identities. Cassie places Mariah Brownley in "Dating the
Volcano God". Mariah is the daughter of a missionary; Margaret is church-y.

- Cassie kind of turns into a Margaret - "a bent and barefoot old woman
dressed in rags" when she is recused from the island, destitute at least
until she gets back to her home town & her strong box.

- I hope that the reference to the "anti-cloning laws" in the old
ambassador's strange conversation with Cassie is a red herring. But if not -
Cassie as a clone of Margaret??

- In that strange conversation, the old ambassador comes out with
"Cassiopeia weeps for her children". He seems to have jumped to the
conclusion that Cassie was a clone of "Fiona", and I suppose he wants to
disarm her and see what hre reaction is. But what an odd thing to say. I
suppose it's a play on the Jewish "Rachel weeps for her children". As far as
I know, Cassiopeia's only child was Andromeda, chained to a rock as an
offering to the sea monster sent against Cassiopeia's country by Poseidon as
a punishment for her vanity. Cassie seems to be both mother and daughter in
this - she is vain, she is punished for it, in a sense, and she does sort of
get offered up to sea monster. Ummm ... dunno.

- Do we ever really get an explanation for why Margaret was
abducted/arrested? As far as I can work out, it must have been the FBI which
did it (and I think this is when Gid "comes in from the cold", induced to
re-establish contact with the FBI to secure her release). (And keeping on a
tangent: why on earth does Ebony choose to stay in protective custody??)

- But more particularly, Cassie never tries to get in touch with Margaret
after her release. Sure, she's whisked off to the Pacific almost at the same
time as it happens. But she calls Zelda, Sharon, India, Gid from the
Pacific, but not Margaret, and we never hear of her asking after her or
thinking of her. Until she runs into her on the street on returning from
Cairns - Margaret just happens to be walking by ....

- Does Cassie have Doubts about Margaret - does she think that maybe M was
in cahoots with thieves after her nice new bracelet or something?

- I have to be suspicious that maybe Margaret is working for the Squid God.
Who else knows about the paralegal upstairs; does he become a target for
Squiddie's malevolence because he loves Cassie's singing? Who knows better
than Margaret about Cassie's obsession with her weight (despite  wighing 100
pounds or less)? - recalling that the assassin taunts her with "pudginess".
The picture Scott has of Cassie dancing with Gil/Gid - Margaret has a
camera.

I keep trying to find a way to make sense of this very, very strange book -
and it ain't working :)

Another question: who shot Gid, and why? Presumably not Bill, presumably not
the FBI. It looks like the work of Squiddie, or the ATF - and I think they
are certainly an arm of Squiddie. Why would Squiddie or the ATF be out for
Gid at that point? Maybe this: Squiddie wants to use Cassie to ensnare Bill,
as she does, in effect, in the end (because Bill would surely not have stuck
around to be killed if Cassie hadn't been held captive). When Bill shows up
at teh cast party, Cassie immediately tries to get Margaret to contact Gid.
Margaret tells Squiddie that Reis has fallen for Cassie, but that Cassie is
trying to get help from Gid to avoid his clutches. So Gid has to go.

Or something ....
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