(urth) Gideon

[Roy C. Lackey]

Dave Tallman wrote:
> The burnout problem gives us reason to think that the mojo trick will
> only work once.

Okay, assume that to be true and see where it leads. To trouble. I *hate*
time travel stories. <g>

An older, wiser, grayer Cassie, unable to get her mojo back, comes back from
Woldercan some years before she left. Presumably she is bitter, heartbroken
and determined to try to change the future for the better. What does she
want? Her mojo, love, and possibly wealth. The Margaret we know had none of
that.

She learns to sew and all the other things needed to get a job on the fringe
of theater, as an assistant to a series of actresses, leading up to Cassie,
her younger self. She knows about Gideon and Reis and poison gold and Wally
and a big musical and diamonds and Takanga. If any of these things do not
happen pretty much as they played out the first time, she will not exist. If
Reis does not die, Gid will not become ambassador to Woldercan. Gid will not
be able to send the ethermail that prompted her to buy the hopper. She will
not have the diamonds to sell to buy the hopper. If she does not buy the
hopper and go to Woldercan, she cannot go back in time. Etc.

So what *can* she do to change things that will allow her younger self to
retain what she lost the first time?

Nothing, that I can see. If she kills Gid (post mojo), as you have proposed,
Gid will not become ambassador, not send the ethermail, etc. What did she
expect would happen to herself if she succeeded? That she would pop out of
existence? If Cassie loved Wally, she would still end up in the islands and
the ongoing battle with the Storm King would still probably result in the
fatal uprising against Wally. I could go on with this sort of stuff, but
there's no point. All time travel stories involve unavoidable paradoxes.

When gray Cassie passed Margaret on the street near the bank, she should
have known right there that any attempt she made to change her own past was
doomed to failure. If Cassie had never seen or heard of Margaret after
getting back to the States, there might have been some hope of changing
things for the better. But she did. I suspect that is why Wolfe had them
pass on the street.

This in no way refutes your theory that Margaret is Cassie, which looks
good. Which means the time travel angle must be true, also.

[snip]
> The cycle may not be stabilized. On the next iteration, Cassie/Margaret
> can avoid repeating actions that didn't work the last time (like the
> picture, leading to the death of Scott). She may even succeed in the
> long run. I hope she does.

I don't think she *can* escape her fate, and that is the way Wolfe intended
it to be.

-Roy