(urth) Gideon

[Dave Tallman]

Roy C. Lackey wrote:
> I'm not sold on the "reality warping" bit. Anyway, bringing on Cassie's
> glamour had been but a night's work. Yet she told Klauser that she hoped to
> be on Woldercan for a long time. (299) Why hope? What was her hope
> contingent upon? I think she wanted Gid to restore her mojo, but the length
> of her stay would depended on whether or not Gid wanted her, with or without
> the mojo.
>   
I'd rather not call Cassie's change a glamour. It was a magnification of 
her natural star-power. (If it were a glamour like the one Gid used to 
be Gib it wouldn't show up in pictures). It's true that it only required 
a single night on Earth, but that was with the help of a magical living 
mountain. Gideon compared it to operating in a hospital (41). For all 
Cassie knows it might take much longer on Woldercan, if it's even 
possible. There's another reason for spending time on Woldercan which I 
will expand on below.

> Would Reis have wanted her without the mojo? I doubt it, given his track
> record with women. But Gid would, as he acknowledged to himself when no one
> was around to hear. (81) ...
Cassie is probably counting on Gid continuing to love her, but it seems 
that on her side her heart belongs to Wally alone. She will use Gid as a 
means to an end.

> As for the book's ending, and clone issues aside, it almost seems as if Bill
> and Wally are two different people in Cassie's mind. The former is the
> sinister, greedy billionaire, the latter the patron and philanthropist she
> came to love. Perhaps the photo of a young Reis suggests to her that, by the
> time Gid's ambassadorship is over, young Rian will have grown up to look
> much like the young Bill in the photo. He will be rich, and her restored
> mojo will work on him. And Klauser's question about nepotism and the Chase
> ambassadors is a pointer to Rian's future. But this is speculation.
>   
I find the idea that Cassie would try to get Rian as a substitute for 
the man she loves quite repulsive. I hope that isn't the answer. I find 
a better solution with time-travel clones. They are hinted at, 
particularly in Klauser's analogy of a bird fighting its reflection 
(298). Wally and Reis may be temporal clones, if Reis returned from 
Woldercan in a time overlap with his stay there. That would give him 
time to set up his financial and royal empires under aliases, including 
the name Wally Rosenquist.

If Cassie spends some time on Woldercan and learns how to make the 
proper hops back, she also should be able to return back before she 
left, and she may hope to change the past and save Bill's life. Suppose 
she isn't able to recover her appearance, and returns still older and 
grayer. Her attempts to warn Bill could make her a Cassandra, whose 
prophecies were true but not believed. It would make her like a banshee 
warning of death, a Gray Neighbor (64). Margaret? Is that you?