(urth) more questions on Sorcerer's House (spoilers)

[Eugene Zaretskiy]

On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 1:24 PM, Stephen Case <scase at olivet.edu> wrote:
> I’ve been following the discussion on The Sorcerer’s House here with
> interest.  This is the first Wolfe book I’ve read through and then
> immediately re-read.  A few things I’m still wondering about after the
> second time through:
>
> -I think it’s pretty clear that Ted is Ambrosius and that the ring Doris
> gives Bax is Ambrosius’ item of sorcery.  What’s not clear though is
> Doris’s intentions in giving Bax the ring.  I don’t buy the reasons she
> gives.  Plus, in the conversation in letter 5 in which she gives him the
> ring and explains why she wants him to wear it, she knows his first
> name.  Then almost immediately she acts like she doesn’t yet know it and
> refers to him again as Mr. Dunn.
>
> -If Ted is Ambrosius, can we figure out from the text who Goldwurm is?
> For some reason I found myself suspecting Jim Hardaway.  There’s a lot
> that doesn’t make sense if that’s the case (for example, Emlyn says that
> their father doesn’t want Goldwurm to know he’s not around, but Hardaway
> knew the Black House was unoccupied).  A couple things that make me
> suspicious of him though: in letter 41 Martha tells Bax to watch out for
> Hardaway.  Why?  Also, the first time Bax wanders out of his house into
> Faerie (letter 20), he gets a call from Hardaway, who says he must be
> far from the tower.  We can assume he meant cell phone tower, but for
> some reason this made me think of Goldwurm’s tower.
>
> -Who is Mary King?  She’s mentioned twice (letters 21 and 25).
>
> -In letter 26, when Bax meets Kate Finn’s mom, they make a big deal
> about calling each other Bax and Biddy instead of Mr. Dunn and Mrs.
> Finn.  So much so that it seems to be hinting at something, though I
> don’t know what.
>
> -What’s the deal with the dwarf’s name in letter 31?  He calls himself
> Quorn but Baxter says he knew him as Quilp.  A quick search on Wikipedia
> reveals that Daniel Quilp was a dwarf in Dickin’s The Old Curiosity
> Shop.  I skimmed the plot synopsis, but no immediate parallels jumped
> out.  I’m also curious at the name’s similarity to Dick Quist, the
> jeweler who’s so interested in Bax’s ring.

Bax being well-read, I took it as Bax wanting to point out how
horrible the dwarf was by comparing him to Quilp the horrible dwarf
from _The Old Curiosity Shop_ via metaphor. To back up the theory of
Quilp-as-metaphor, if we assume the final letter is really forged by
Bax, he mentions _The Old Curiosity Shop_ with familiarity there. In
fact, it almost makes me want to re-read it to see if there's anything
else of substance to that connection...

As for the connection to Quist, Quilp was a moneylender in Dickens'
story. A jeweler is pretty close to that, in my mind -- especially one
who buys jewelery (as, typically, this service is used as an
alternative to borrowing money). In fact, with so many twins in this
book, why not Faerie and Medicine Man? I'm sure it's been mentioned.
So, who is Doris' twin? I nominate Lupine. Was the ring a gift, like a
limb?

>
> -Finally, something still bothers me about the chronology regarding
> George’s activities once he’s in Medicine Man.  According to Baxter, he
> arrives, ends up in prison, makes bail, comes to Bax’s house and
> releases Nicholas, and then gets lost in the house.  Then he’s suddenly
> “picked up” on the street.  Then he’s back in the house again
> and—along with his father, Doris, and Madame Orizia—gets Nicholas
> back in the trunk.  This just seems weird.  What would make George come
> back to the house and solve the problem of Nicholas being loose?
>
> -Maybe we shouldn't make too much out of this, but are we sure that Bax
> replacing George means that George is definitely dead?  We had Mrs.
> Naber saying that if one twin died, the other usually died soon after.
> Sure this isn't necessarily always the case, but it seems like it would
> be more likely for "magic" twins.  Maybe Bax duped me as well, but I
> figured George had been taken into Faerie at the end of the book to
> spend some time with his parents and maybe get straightened out.
> Something like this is hinted with the partial reconcilation between
> Emlyn and Ieuan at the end of the battle by the river, maybe.
>
> I’m sure there’s much I’ve missed, but that’s what sticks out to me now.
>  Any thoughts?
> -Steve
>
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-- 
Eugene Z
http://blog.eugenez.net