(urth) Sorcerer's House--First Read--Some Thoughts/Questions

[Gwern Branwen]

On Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 3:43 PM, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:
>>The note with the pistols was not meant for Bax but for
>>Trelawney.Trelawney's questions were _not_ intended to prove that Bax
>>was not some other Baxter Dunn but to verify that he was not George
>>(impersonating Bax) who would become the werewolf (or was already).
>
> After considering this a bit, I think George must have known about
> their father before he left for Medicine Man. He comes into the
> reading of the will accusing Bax of attempting to cheat him. He think
> the House is to be left to *him*. (Why?)

Debts. Either because Bax stole the legacy from George by the trick
(and if we're going to make Jacob & Esau comparisons, though they
weren't twins, Bax would be the scheming Jacob), or for the frauds
perpetuated on him and his friends. Bax says that as far as he is
concerned, George chose to be repaid by prison time. This strongly
implies to me that there is still a debt outstanding. ('He says I
still owe him X millions, but as far as *I'm* concerned, it's been
paid in full.')

A large mansion with high property taxes (implying high assessment &
value) would serve nicely as a down payment.

(Remember also how Bax couches the first requests for money.)

> If George is already a
> werewolf, then ihe s probably well aware of Faeri. Since he already
> knows about their father, naturally he assumes that the House is to be
> left to him as well. And because Trelawney knew George was a werewolf,
> he held him off with the dueling pistol. George might well have known
> that that type of gun was the type most credibl to have silver
> bullets.

Eh? So antique gun = silver bullets? If anything, I'd think it'd be
easier to use silver bullets with modern guns - one hears about
poisoned bullets where the tip is drilled into, or coated. One doesn't
hear so much about silver shot which has to be turned on a jeweler's
lath at great cost, I think Doris describes it as.

> Is there reason to believe that Bax was the *younger* twin? If George
> is a werewolf, there is certainly a Jacob/(hairy) Esau thing going on
> here. As you know, Jacob not only cheated Esau out of his elder-son
> blessing, but he earlier sold Esau a pot of beans for his birthright
> -- an act in which Esau was hardly innocent, just as Bax implies was
> the case with George. Yet, I can't think of a scenario in which Bax
> changed the will and the instructions, or impersonates George.

We could look at the legacy; which one got their undergraduate first?
I don't have my copy here, but I *think* Bax graduated first.

-- 
gwern