(urth) An Evil Guest: tone, and clones
James Wynn
crushtv at gmail.com
Mon Jan 4 01:16:32 PST 2010
> That there are so many explanations, each equally bad and
> consistent, bothers me a lot. But enough about clones!
Or time travel or both.
At Dragon*Con, Wolfe said,
"Cassie loved Bill Reis and at the end of the novel she goes to Woldercon to
look for him."
After a re-read, I'm convinced that Pavlatos is Casey years later. Sharon
Bench described the boy Chase healed and his mother as "a little piece of a
man she loved and lost." It is entirely reasonable to conclude, based on
that, that Rian is the result of Casey's trip to Woldercon, and the meaning
of Wolfe's summation. I'm skeptical, however, about that last part. Rian
could be Chase's son and the Bench's reference could to the "man" could
refer to him. But this is a Wolfe novel, so they are probably the same guy
somehow, right? But that's impossible. It is impossible, right? Anyway, all
this suggests that Bench knows all about Pavlatos and that is why she
doesn't want Casey to approach her with the information given her.
And then there's glamours, shape-changing, and inscrutable, contrary
agendas...but enough about Gideon Chase.
But, yeah, the death of Reis is frustrating. As is Gideon's occultation
after Cassie goes to the island. As is, to a lesser extent, Margaret's exit
from the story. The whole execution scene stinks. I refute the possibility
that it as it appears, but I can't really explain what is going on instead.
This is common with Wolfe, no? But I don't think even 'The Book of the Short
Sun' has a world that seems so inviting and interesting, yet presented so
incomprehensibly. I'd read it again to try to connect more dots if I
believed it would be fruitful, but I don't. Not without more stories based
in this world.
J.
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