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

Gwern Branwen gwern0 at gmail.com
Tue Mar 23 06:01:56 PDT 2010


On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 12:38 AM, Mr Thalassocrat
<thalassocrat08 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 8:12 AM, Matthew Keeley <matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Just finished reading the new book; it seems a lot clearer than AEG, but,
>> being Wolfe, there are quite a few unasked questions raised by my first
>> reading. But first I should insert spoiler space, as I will be discussing
>> the ending, etc.
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>> (spoilers commence)
>> <snippety>
>
>
>>
>> 3. I think we can all agree that George didn't really write the last
>> letter and that Bax is going to take his place. Winker follows "George", for
>> one thing. And "George" seems to know a lot about Victorian fiction, the
>> subject of one of Bax's degrees. So why is the real George absent? Did Bax
>> kill him? Or did George run off to faerie to try and take command, as he
>> said he would do in an earlier letter?
>
>
>
> Maybe Bax's intention from the first was to lure George to Medicine Hat,
> kill him & take over his non-ex-felon life (and money). Bax is a "revenge
> served cold" sort of guy. He screwed George out of his share of the aunt's
> inheritance because George hit him, back in the day. Later, George had him
> imprisoned. Now Bax is aiming for bigger payback.
>
> In his first letter to his con-buddy he presents George as a possible source
> of funds - that's what he sees in George; money. Bax is very interested in
> money. He cultivates George's bubble-headed wife to ensure a smooth
> transition. For 7 years he enjoys George's assets and wife (while still
> having access to the face-fox's charms).
>
> After 7 years, "Bax" is legally dead & he can reclaim the house and bank
> accounts via "Bax's" will. Perhaps George's wife's charms are fading. Time
> to disappear, go back to the house and start a life in Faery ...

Re-reading it, the last letter becomes ever more obvious: the style is
like Bax, the few hours in faerie he mentions is like Bax, the signoff
is like Bax, the sudden turn-around in affections is like Bax, the
proposed trip to just Greece is like Bax (and in the vein of his
second PhD, like the readings at the library are in the vein of the
first). Wolfe has really made this replacement easy to identify.

However, I don't think Bax planned the duel from the start. He
originally just wants money from George, with no mention of George
coming over and doing something bizarre like signing his will over to
Bax. George is not yet angry enough, until the butler and trial, to
want to kill Bax - suffering as a poor ex-con is enough for him.
Without Faerie, Bax has no plausible explanation for Millie of where
George went. And so on. The replacement only works after a great deal
has happened.

(Open questions: what happened to Zwart's twin? Is he Ted? How did
Zwart know that Bax would be fighting werewolves years in advance?)

-- 
gwern



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