(urth) The Sorcerer's House Questions (*Major Spoilers*)

[Craig Brewer]

>>>On my second read, I think Bax always intended to replace George from the start.

I tend to agree. And on my second read, Bax really started to seem like an ass to me, at least at the beginning. Toward the end, I get the sense that he's changing quite a bit. But his whole tone often sounds to me like the kind of feigned innocence specifically designed to piss someone off, at least when he's addressing George. That whole "I know you'll think I'm being crazy, but I swear I'm being sincere in my intentions" and "I can imagine you've thrown this away, but I do so hope you're still reading, my beloved brother" seems like the kind of thing designed just to push someone's buttons, especially someone who already hates you. And since he told Shell early on that he at least planned to get a few hundred out of George, he's at least planning something from the beginning, even if it's not murder.

After George shows up and is thrown in jail, though, the tone of the letters seems to change.

And as for the fairy stuff being too crazy for a con, *IF* Bax was making it all up, I assumed it was for Millie's benefit and specifically to outrage George, both because the "poetic" creations would irritate the otherwise "practical" George and because George would probably guess that he was doing it to seduce Millie (or at the very least to seduce her imagination and sympathy for Bax).

Have we entertained the possibility that some of the supernatural is real and some is made up? If anything was made up, I suspect that Emlyn and Ieuan aren't real but are instead a kind of creation Bax makes to tell a little story about how he and George don't get along. (But then that leaves open a lot of questions about Lupine's "gifts" for Emlyn and her reality, etc.)




----- Original Message ----
From: James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
Sent: Tue, April 20, 2010 10:27:15 AM
Subject: Re: (urth) The Sorcerer's House Questions (*Major Spoilers*)

On my second read, I think Bax always intended to replace George from
the start. Right from letter #2, he gives George precise directions to
the house. I think that at that time, he intended for George to show
up there so he could murder him. He definitely implies in the letter
that he is capable of murder.

Incidentally, I'm more convinced the supernatural stuff is real. Bax
inheriting a house is too coincidental otherwise. And you don't
attempt to pull a con with "My house is full of faeries (unless you
are dealing with someone inclined to believe it).

J.

On Sat, Apr 17, 2010 at 7:03 PM,  <brunians at brunians.org> wrote:
>
> As I say, I get the impression that Bax lies a lot, but not about the
> supernatural stuff.
>
> .
>
>
>
>>>So maybe the question with Bax is whether or not his ability to tell a
>>> wonderful,
>>>compelling, puzzling story (which is, of course, also Wolfe's talent) is
>>> innocent or
>>>dangerous? From that angle, it seems like one of the "big issues" with
>>> TSH is the
>>>relationship between fantasy and dishonesty. That seems like a perfectly
>>> appropriate
>>>theme for a writer who has always maintained that fantasy is one of the
>>> best ways to
>>>deal with the "really real" -- why shouldn't he write a story that
>>> explicitly explores the
>>>other side of that coin?
>>
>> I just think the story is lame if the whole thing is a fabrication of
>> Bax's, because --after all-- it already IS a fabrication by Wolfe. It
>> would be like saying everything in the Latro novels was a product of
>> Latro's deranged state due to his wound. It makes trying to understand
>> the "contrived" story to be moot, because any inconsistencies can be
>> marked up to shoddy story-telling. We're already facing the problems
>> of possible plot-holes anyway. If we treat the story as a work by Bax
>> instead of Wolfe, what is the value of that? Shall we investigate the
>> quality of Bax's novel instead? I certainly hope this is not true. I'm
>> not re-reading it as though this is the case, because I don't think
>> I'm up to analyzing two novels at once.
>>
>> J.
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