(urth) Re Pirate Freedom revisited

[Dave Tallman]

Thalassocrat12 wrote:

> That's a fair criticism, of course. I wish I were more comfortable than I
> am with the counter-argument that the genetic odds are surely far greater
> than the probability of Chris' time-travel - so if one, why not the other?
>
> You can avoid the problem by making one of the other sailors the biological
> father, but there's just about nothing in the text to hang that on. Some
> lack of absolute confidence on Chris' part concerning Novia's total
> fidelity to him; the big fight they have while battling through the straits
> of Magellan ... Weak.
>
>
The theory that Chris is his own father makes his existence a time paradox,
and Wolfe never does this.  He allows people's history and knowledge to be
changed by accumulated loops, as with Severian and the characters in "Free
Live Free," but never a complete "By His Bootstraps" paradox.

My theory is that the best candidate for Chris' father is Bram Burt. He
almost has to be a time traveler, because almost every word out of his
mouth is an anachronism or a historical blunder. "Midshipman on half pay,"
indeed! Midshipmen got no pay at all when their ship wasn't active. Another
possible candidate is Lesage, the "wise guy," who used the highly
anachronistic word "rital" -- which he picked up from Burt.

I put the whole theory toward the end of "Goodbye, Old Buddy" on the
wolfewiki.
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