<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div id="yiv246248420"><div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; "><div id="yiv246248420"><div><div style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:10pt;" class="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131898020783050"><div id="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292748" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; "><span class="yiv246248420Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">David Stockhoff <dstockhoff@verizon.net> wrote:</span><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; " id="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292754" class="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292752 yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131898020783056"><div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york',
times, serif; " class="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292757 yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131898020783058" id="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292781">> > > At the formal dinner, his family reunites. All
three have trouble recognizing one another (except when they don't). Two are known to be not entirely who they think they are. Surely the third is also not entirely who he is.<br>> > <br>> > I do wonder how
any of the Blue family can recognize each other to any degree because they're all replacements/overlays. Still, somehow Chelle recognized her replacement mother at the airport while failing to recognize Skip. Clearly an important clue.<br>> </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; " class="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292757 yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131898020783060" id="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292781">> Some notes about the beginning. First, it seems to begin with a dream, but the dream (Skip's memory of contracting with Chelle, looking in a mirror, recoiling) is followed by a reality that appears to be identical (he worries about Chelle, he looks in the mirror, recoils).<br>> Second, Skip gets his own "yellow copy." He wonders if it's work-related, then tells himself he knows what it is, then tells himself it's something else. It turns out to be a message
concerning Chelle. Pretty
much all the narration here is immediately negated
or contradicted. What was the other thing it could have been?<br><br>I agree about the dream-like start--a re-read of Chapter One feels like Skip is recovering from a recent mind-plant. Note also the details toward chapter's end, from the window conversion paragraph thru the tea garden paragraph--the open window and budding roses suggest an expansion of consciousness. </div><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt;" class="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292757 yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131898020783060 yui_3_2_0_16_131905173899764" id="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292781"><br></div><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt;" class="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292757 yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131898020783060 yui_3_2_0_16_131905173899764" id="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292781">Wolfe doesn't openly discuss the effects of superposing one mind onto another
without first performing a wipe, but that seems to be what we're both considering. I think Skip has an overlay of some sort, possibly an agent's persona designated to watch over Chelle.<br><br>> Odds/ends:<br><br>> (1) Skip's hands are described as "wrinkled and old" in his dream. Is this merely his exaggerated worry that Chelle will find him too old? He's only in his late forties.<br>> (2) the sentence "Five hundred." (This after something "seizes" Skip at the mirror and before he "shudders.") Years? Hours? Surely not noras.</div><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt;" class="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292757 yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131898020783060 yui_3_2_0_16_131905173899764" id="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292781"><br>Here's a thought...a year may not be a solar year. </div><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt;"
class="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292757 yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131898020783060 yui_3_2_0_16_131905173899764" id="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292781"><br></div><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt;" class="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292757 yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131898020783060 yui_3_2_0_16_131905173899764" id="yiv246248420yui_3_2_0_16_131896004292781">What if a year is actually ten hundred-days? Is there anything in Home Fires that might contradict this metrification? Twenty-two years of hundred-time equals about sixty of ours, which would help explain Chelle's failure to id Skip right off the ship, as well as Skip's early self-perception as "wrinkled and old." Also, it helps explain the confusion of Martha Ott, the disoriented elderly woman at the end of the book who sips tea with Chelle at Carrera's Cafe. On the down side, it's not a world-building premise I'd expect an author to
obscure. </div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>