(urth) Wolfe at Dragon*Con (AEG)

[James Wynn]

> You responded with your comment about me
> "freely conclusion jumping".
[snip]
>> "This is a ridiculous assertion."
>
> There you go again.

Both of these are examples of me addressing your assertions. They don't 
involve me psychoanalyzing your motives for offering them. That's an 
important difference that I guess I'm surprised I need to delineate. I admit 
I *have* done the other in this thread out of a bit of tit-for-tat when 
you've done it to me.

> In your first post in this AEG-tagged thread, you wrote: "So when Wolfe 
> said
> this in the panel on Fictional Characters, a series of tumblers fell into
> place in my head. It was Bill Reise disguised as Gideon Chase who left for
> Woldercon at the end of AEG."

Okay. I call it "posing a hypothesis", but if you want to characterize it as 
"jumping to a conclusion" I won't fight over it. But, in the same post, I 
admitted I had no evidence to back this up. So maybe "conclusion" is not the 
right word. You, however, grasping fairly trivial (as I see it) assumptions 
asserted that it *couldn't* have been Gideon that was killed in the cave. 
Since you admit you are not all that clear on a *lot* of what *is* going on 
in this story, I doubt you are prepared state emphatically about what is 
*not* going on. It's your instant certainty (as well as the evidence you 
presented) that made me think that not a lot of "turning over" had gone into 
your conclusion (and it *was* a "conclusion").

> Since you quoted from the second page of the book earlier today, I assume
> you read it. Right on that fraking page, the president showed Gideon a
> talking picture, one that, from the words spoken, was evidently just such 
> a
> media picture as I have postulated.  The occasion was Ambassador Reis' 
> return
> to Earth from Woldercan.

You are too careful a reader to make a mistake like this. 1) The occasion is 
NOT declared. 2) The speech sounds to me like it was made on Woldercon, not 
upon a return to Earth. 3) The new ambassador is NOT in the picture. 4) If I 
were to hazard a guess (which would be jumping to conclusions) I'd say it 
was an official recording made by the State Department at the going-away 
party.  There's no reason to assume that the new ambassador could not have 
arranged to get around having such a picture made if he was motivated to.

> Another reason for the media to be covering the story of a new ambassador 
> is
> the fact that the person who was ambassador at the start of the story 
> would
> heve to be recalled and replaced by Gideon. The replacement of a sitting
> ambassador is unusual and would be sufficient occasion for media coverage.

This sort of thing is not covered by the media unless there is a 
precipitating scandal. In any event, this is hardly a significant obstacle 
for any writer. In is entirely a non-impediment that would not even require 
justifying text.

> I really don't care why Reis might have assumed Gideon's identity: I'm
> saying that it didn't happen,

I know. But you should bother to come up with glaring evidence that it 
didn't happen or be able explain what *is* going on in the story that makes 
it happening unnecessary. You can't. Reis-imposters are running around 
throughout this story, but you're soooo positive that this isn't happening 
here. I don't see why. You immediately staked out such a van guard position 
that it will be very difficult for you to back away from it, no matter what 
evidences are presented later. And given the flimsy obstacles you have 
presented so far, I imagine that you always will be able to find ample proof 
to back up your doubts.

> Reis had ample wealth to get to Woldercan without resorting to bad gold, 
> as
> evidenced by the diamonds he gave Cassie, the sale of which gave her the
> money for the big hopper.

What???? You don't KNOW this. Reis's bad gold is repeatedly presented as the 
foundation of his fortune. I could just as well assume that he was so 
leveraged that his empire could not survive a month without it.

> Besides, he was presumed dead,
> which he was, and his body missing, as was the case for many of the
> thousands who died in the storm.

So what? You don't think the government checks out the background of people 
who go to Woldercon?
However, let me say this flatly: IF Wolfe had Reis go to Woldercon as Chase 
(and if Reis is on Woldercon that *is* a very likely explanation since he's 
the only other character presented as going there), THEN Wolfe did it for 
one reason -- Good story construction. It was simply more interesting at 
that point in the story than having Reis create a brand new identity that 
the reader was not familiar with.

J.