(urth) HOME FIRES finished thoughts (spoilers)

Marc Aramini marcaramini at yahoo.com
Tue Aug 20 18:21:48 PDT 2013


Originally I wanted to make a case that the guns in the voodoo ceremony represented certain characters.  I am certain now the officers gun Chelle chooses indicates that Jane sims is the dominant compassionate one left in her body.  Chelle acts to save not Skip but Sim's old flame.  The secret was a weapon of some kind the various spy circles want, something of some immediate application in a world where trains travel at like thirty miles an hour. 

She had to execute a spy who was the best noncom she knew.  Skip is also an unknowing spy run by coleman baum-Charles blue- Chet burton. Skip kills his investigator zygment with his spy cell. This is why Chelle dwells on the gifts skip would bring - what would be behind them?  No one knows themselves.  The theme is that everyone is lost. 

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On Aug 20, 2013, at 5:53 PM, "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <danldo at gmail.com> wrote:

> Or maybe the fragility of tenacity?
> 
> 
> On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 5:09 PM, Brian Doherty <brianmdoherty at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Couple of other HOME FIRES questions: I gather from end that Chelle fragged a commander, but I don't see how this relates to what happens to her---you merely get discharged for that? Or was she killed for it before the Sims meld? Is this even the "original" Chelle's body? I mean, reaction of her old school friend and Skip indicate it is....
>> 
>> Also, are we supposed to guess/does it matter what secret Sims had that the spies wanted from Chelle? Pure Macguffin or significant?
>> 
>> What would people say the theme/point of the novel is? The tenacity of love? The fragility of identity? Or the tenacity of identity?
>> 
>> Brian Doherty
>> 
>> 
>> On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 2:51 PM, Brian Doherty <brianmdoherty at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> In the end, I'm more convinced that this was (deliberately or not) his take on a late-Heinlein feel novel. Skip and Chelle just seem like late Heinlein types, Chelle perhaps more vulgar-tough than the vulgar-sweet RAH would go far. The dialog style, the heroism, the lawyerly machinations, all felt Heinlein. Skip, the aging noble man successful and choosing an ultimate sacrifice for both personal love and humanity....(presuming which I'm not sure I should that there IS something good for humanity about fighting the Os.)
>>> 
>>> Also in the end, I found myself liking it more than I expected i would from first 2/3. Not that the conclusion was anything bang up or that it raveled anything together in any WOW way, but just....I was really feeling the emotions of everything from the final diner scene when Skip showed up on.
>>> 
>>> Still, what a PECULIAR book. So much felt, like, what? why? Particularly the cinnamon toast scene at end. Loved it, but didn't...get the point. And as always with WOlfe, you feel dumb because you don't. Maybe it was simply to show how tough Chelle was but seemed late in narrative to take time for mere character-building.
>>> 
>>> Some points I picked up I think mostly from this list:
>>> 1) I believe it is either known or believed by some that Charles Blue is an Os. i missed even a hint at this. What's the clue/giveaway?
>>> 2) Wolfean Q---given that we know SOME characters are brain scans in bodies other than ones born with, this makes me assume that some/many OTHERS are too. Do others agree, and who are top candidates?
>>> 3) "so that he can keep running into "Charles Blue" and keep forgetting about it, and to show how nobody knows anything about anybody else - identification has been lost in that world."---I did not pick up on this at all when relating to Blue, but saw a reminder of it in the "lost women"/Chelle diner scene. Is that because, again, MOST people in this world end up in diff bodies they were born with/are way older because of relativistic space effect?
>>> 
>>> This seems to me to be a Wolfe novel that's received the least detailed discussion of mysteries/meaning. If someone can guide me to source for same, would appreciate it. 
>>> 
>>> Brian Doherty
>> 
>> 
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> Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
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