(urth) Change of Pace / Peace

[Antonin Scriabin]

I don't know if many of you watched the short-lived but well-executed HBO
miniseries, *Carnivale*.  Basically, it was a pseudo-end times supernatural
mystery / thriller set during the Great Depression (dust-bowl Midwest),
alternating between the stories of a young "Avatar" of good (a man
traveling with a circus / carnival) and an "Avatar" of evil, a preacher in
(I think) California who gains a large following.  Anyways, I noticed some
parallels between it and *Peace*, during the portion in which a character
in the book (I can't remember if it is the narrator himself or a
story-within-a-story) apprentices with the man turning to stone.  The young
man goes, for some reason, to visit a neighboring carnival, where he finds
a mother-daughter "burlesque dancer" team (just like in the TV show) and a
character named Scudder (the last name of the Avatar of good's father in
the TV show).  "Scudder" is far from a common name; I can't think the
similarity is coincidental!  The carnival scenes in *Peace* also take place
in a Depression area Midwest town.  I seem to remember a few other
interesting similarities between *Peace* (which was written 28 years
earlier) and *Carnivale* that I will try and remember.  Anyone notice this
/ know if the HBO writers were fans of or influenced by Wolfe's work?
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