<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132110989535740"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Taking a moment to piggy-back a few thoughts atop Marc Aramini's several posts about _Home Fires_.</span></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132110989535740"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></span></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132110989535740"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In the first chapter of _Home Fires_, Skip Grison mentions the last two cases he personally handled. One case involved a jewelry wholesaler, the other involved a cyborg murder. We learn later that John J Weyer is the client in the cyborg murder. The Weyer name reminds us of Alden Weir in _</span><span id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_16_1327168945058370" style="font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">Peace_</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">, but</span><span style="font-size:
10pt;"> also suggests </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Johan Weyer, </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">the student of Dutch alchemist Cornelius Agrippa. An interaction with Weyer may have provided an opportunity for any memory manipulation on Grison, whether it was a removal or an addition.</span></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132110989535740"><br></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132110989535740"><span class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_16_1322762156136138">In the final chapter, Wolfe introduces a character named Martha Watson who married Vic Ott. At the coffee shop, Chelle "reminds" Martha of someone she went to school with, mentioning a few details that shows the two were quite close. Chelle recognizes her former schoolmate but doesn't identify herself. It's a seemingly unplanned meeting. When Skip arrives, he seems a lot younger than the same-aged Martha. </span><span
style="font-size: 10pt;">From various info found as early as Ch 1 Greetings, we can estimate Chelle’s subjective age would have gone up by two years and a hundred-day or so. “Twenty-five” is her present age, "forty-nine" for Skip. Hardly seems plausible that Martha had a spark of recognition that failed to ignite in the presence of such a familiar trigger. Moreover, </span><span class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10pt;">Skip is robust, but Martha carries herself as a lost, lonely, helpless widow of someone 20 years older. Curiously, Skip and Martha don't recognize each other--and it's not clear that they should. Even so, r</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">ecognition memory is the most robust, so we have to suspend our disbelief that both Chelle and Skip have changed so significantly that their combined presence would not have transported Martha into a Eureka moment. </span></div><div
id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132110989535740"><br></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132110989535740"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">On a slightly different tack, when I re-read _Home Fires_ a few months ago, I jotted down what I thought were the key sentences of each Reflection. These are direct quotes cut and pasted from the e-book.</span><br></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132110989535740"><span class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_16_132276215613697"><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_16_131939401615248"><br></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_16_1319394016152148"><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_132087415824652 yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613658" style="font-size: 10pt;">Reflection 1</div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_132087415824654 yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613660" style="font-size:
10pt;">We sleep, and we believe we wake in the minds we carried into bed with us....We wake, and compose ourselves with a new mind (if some other does not compose it for us)....we construct a new mind and call it our own. And yet the personhood, the soul remains.</div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_132087415824656 yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613662" style="font-size: 10pt;"><br id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246531"></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_132087415824658 yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613664" style="font-size: 10pt;">Reflection 2</div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_132087415824660 yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613666" style="font-size: 10pt;">Love is blind...Like God, the lover sees but forgives.</div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040"
class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_132087415824662 yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613668" style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_132087415824664 yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613670" style="font-size: 10pt;">Reflection 3</div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_132087415824666
yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613672" style="font-size: 10pt;">Vanessa had (or they had thought she had) some small item...a thing that might have been hidden almost anywhere... If it did not exist, what was it they thought she had?</div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_132087415824668 yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613674" style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_132087415824670 yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613676" style="font-size: 10pt;">Reflection 4</div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_132087415824672 yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613678" style="font-size: 10pt;">What of the woman whose body Vanessa wears?...Why did this one want to hide?</div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_132087415824674
yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613680" style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_132087415824676 yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613682" style="font-size: 10pt;">Reflection 5</div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613684" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940132">Seven of us were present, Tante Élise said. Chelle, Vanessa, Achille, Tante Élise herself, the dead man, and me....And I want to look at the stars.</font><br id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940125"></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613686" style="font-size: 10pt;"><span class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246150
yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136184"><br></span></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613688" style="font-size: 10pt;"><span class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246152 yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136186" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940162">Reflection 6</span><br></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613690" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940169">Even a murderer deserves to have someone to speak for him, someone who will explain to the jury why he did what he did and show him where his best interests lie.</font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613692" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font
class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica,
sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940174"><br></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613694" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940179">Reflection 7</font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613696" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940209">The captain and I, alone and frightened here on this ship, are humanity in the same way that the word represents the thing. Or if not humanity, then Western civilization. Here, I am the law and the ideal of justice, the ideal our masters have forgotten—the ideal they would spit upon if they recalled it. I am justice, law,
and civilization; and I am going to fight like a rat in a corner.<br id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940204"></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_132276215613698" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940212"><br></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136100" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940217">Reflection 8</font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136102" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"
id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940243">It was me they wanted. Me, specifically. The leader’s complaint must have been meant to disguise that; he had gotten the man he wanted, and did not want that man to know it. Why?<br id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940238"></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136104" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940246"><br></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136106" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940251">Reflection 9</font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136108"
style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica,
sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940271">It wasn’t until Rick Johnson had left his seat that I saw Susan behind him. I’ve never been more stunned.<br id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940266"></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136110" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940274"><br></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136112" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940279">Reflection 10</font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136114" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font
class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940297">There has always been something tragic about Susan, and I believe I’ve come to understand what it is. It’s the tragedy of the second-rate, the helper, the sidekick, the supporting actor, the horse nearest the door. <br id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940292"></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136116" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940300"><br></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136118" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"
id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940305">Reflection 11</font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136120" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940323">Find the name of the employee they’re looking for—surely they’re looking for her by now—and trace her associates. <br id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940318"></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136122" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940326"><br></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136124" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font
class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940331">Reflection 12</font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136126" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica,
sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940344">Defending criminals doesn’t bother me in the slightest, and I ought to have told the captain that. Criminality depends upon circumstances much more often than not. “I know you to be a man of the most scrupulous honor, one who cannot be tempted to a shameful or dishonest act, save by money.” I read that somewhere. It’s not me. If defending criminals is somehow dishonest, why, I can be tempted by nothing at all. I often take pro bono cases. <br id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940349"></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136128" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940354"><br></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040"
class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136130" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940359">Reflection 13</font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136132" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940366">God only knows what she did on Johanna....Why is it my dreams are never the dreams I would like?</font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136134" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940391"><br></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040"
class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136136" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial,
helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940396">Reflection 14</font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136138" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940405">Does anyone, any wise man or woman, any supercomputer concealed beneath a mountain, really understand the Os? We do not even understand ourselves. The proper study of mankind is man, they say: nosce te ipsum. But what do the Os say?...Silent leges enim inter arma. [In time of arms, law is silent.]<br id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940408"></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136140" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"
id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940421"><br></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136142" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940438">Reflection 15</font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136144" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940443">Summum Jus Summa Injuria </font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136146" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Extreme adherence to the law is extreme injustice.<br
id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940448"></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136148" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940455"><br></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136150" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_1320845381940460">Reflection 16</font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136152" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246219">Edith Eckhart. </font><font
class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246354" style="font-size: 10pt;">[the answer to Reflection 11] Associates are </font><span class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246395" style="font-size: 10pt;">Susan Clerkin and </span><span class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246398" style="font-size: 10pt;">Rick Johnson.</span></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136156" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246230"><br></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040" class="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_17_1322762156136158" style="font-size: 10pt;"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" face="arial,
helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246235">Reflection 17</font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246261">Coal is black and Mr. Blue was Mr. White. Chelle Sea Blue—Shell Sea Blue. He likes to play games with colors. He’s playing a deep game now, and I may be better off not knowing what it is. <br id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246256"></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246264"><br></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246269">Reflection 18</font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span"
size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246280">...it seems to me that there is only one explanation and that it is a fairly obvious one. Charles Blue is a double agent.<br id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246285"></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246290"><br></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246295">Reflection 19</font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246308">The courtroom had given me so much practice, putting on a brave face for clients I knew would perish, pressing each argument with every fact I could lay hand to—and every sophistry. With conviction, above all. Conviction
is the seed of passion, and before nine juries in ten passion will carry the day. How often have I won cases I knew were lost? <br id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246313"></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246318"><br></font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246323">Reflection 20 [Chelle's reflection]</font></div><div id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_18_132084538194040"><font class="yiv1780239523Apple-style-span" size="2" id="yiv1780239523yui_3_2_0_14_1320874158246334">He came back to our stinking studio and he’s signed on with Chet Burton. God knows I didn’t know much, but I knew who Chet Burton was, the guy the celebrities went to when it was win or die and blood on the knife in their
car.</font></div></div></span></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <hr size="1"> <font size="2" face="Arial"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Marc Aramini <marcaramini@yahoo.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> The Urth Mailing List <urth@lists.urth.net> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Friday, June 7, 2013 11:34 AM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: (urth) This Week in Google Alerts: _Home Fires_, 1982 roundtable<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container"><br>
<div id="yiv651105023"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><div><br>Here is the quote I was talking about - Chelle says: </div>
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<div>"Tante Elise said there were seven people there. Remember, Mother ? I think she thought any gun-". Skip had his finger to his lips. "Well, you know."</div>
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<div>Was she saying any gun should be able to kill everyone there? </div>
<div><br>--- On <b>Fri, 6/7/13, Marc Aramini <i><marcaramini@yahoo.com></i></b> wrote:<br></div>
<blockquote style="PADDING-LEFT:5px;MARGIN-LEFT:5px;BORDER-LEFT:rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid;"><br>From: Marc Aramini <marcaramini@yahoo.com><br>Subject: Re: (urth) This Week in Google Alerts: _Home Fires_, 1982 roundtable<br>To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth@lists.urth.net><br>Date: Friday, June 7, 2013, 9:10 AM<br><br>
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<div>Well, we do get to see four of the guns (the one Vanessa chooses). So we see four guns and two are never displayed. Tante Elise does not need one. I think the six guns stand for the characters, excluding Tante Elise. Two are never seen, Tante Elise doesn't need a representation.</div>
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<div>Skip - pearl and dark handle</div>
<div>Achile- worn six shooter</div>
<div>then the guns Vanessa and Chelle select, leaving two unseen ones. Chelle does say something about the number and the guns afterwards, but is cut off by Skip.</div>
<div><br><br>--- On <b>Fri, 6/7/13, Marc Aramini <i><marcaramini@yahoo.com></i></b> wrote:<br></div>
<blockquote style="PADDING-LEFT:5px;MARGIN-LEFT:5px;BORDER-LEFT:rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid;"><br>From: Marc Aramini <marcaramini@yahoo.com><br>Subject: Re: (urth) This Week in Google Alerts: _Home Fires_, 1982 roundtable<br>To: "Stephen Hoy" <stephenhoy@yahoo.com>, "The Urth Mailing List" <urth@lists.urth.net><br>Date: Friday, June 7, 2013, 9:06 AM<br><br>
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<div>thanks Stephen. Right now I am simply not sure if the body Vanessa possesses should be counted as a person (Edith Eckhart?) in that scene. since she Vanessa is dead already, " Tante Elise" calls Vanessa and requires no money to speak to her, getting her to walk through the gate.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>1. Tante Elise</div>
<div>2. Chelle</div>
<div>3. Jane Sims</div>
<div>4. Achille</div>
<div>5. Vanessa</div>
<div>6. Skip</div>
<div>7. (Edith Eckhardt? the dead man who will soon show up? something in Skip?)</div>
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<div>I think the guns Tante Elise offers (of which there would have been six) are also related to the people there. One has a pearl and a dark wood handle on opposite sides that would cost too much to repair- Chelle rejects it (Skip, with his light and dark sides?) the other is a worn six shooter, then an officer's fancy new gun, the one Chelle chooses (is this Chelle?). </div>
<div>We don't get to see the second three options.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I no longer think Skip has another "person" inside him - he is just not entirely who he believes himself to be. That dead shadowy figure halting Achille is interesting in light of two mysterious disappearances by Achille - once when Skip goes down to negotiate, and again when Skip confronts Rick, Susan, and Blue in "Jerry's Room" when Chelle is a hostage.</div>
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<div>Twice Achille simply vanishes during the action and then reappears when needed later.</div>
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<div>I don't have a problem with the Sharia law or the cell phone issue somebody else brought up - it's pretty clear the future is poor and it states in the text the government wasn't going to do anything about the situation anyway. Skip does get out a mobile call, but is shut down by the those who control the coast guard for assistance. Even the NAU doesn't really care in light of all the other problems it faces. Who can you call when no one cares?<br><br>--- On <b>Fri, 6/7/13, Stephen Hoy <i><stephenhoy@yahoo.com></i></b> wrote:<br></div>
<blockquote style="PADDING-LEFT:5px;MARGIN-LEFT:5px;BORDER-LEFT:rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid;"><br>From: Stephen Hoy <stephenhoy@yahoo.com><br>Subject: Re: (urth) This Week in Google Alerts: _Home Fires_, 1982 roundtable<br>To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth@lists.urth.net><br>Date: Friday, June 7, 2013, 8:27 AM<br><br>
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<div><span>Marc: Thanks for sharing your ideas that relate the six/seven </span><span style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;">Caribbean island</span><span style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;"> characters to other characters in the book. I imagined the interlude was a bit like Wolfe's dream sequences in other works, but hadn't looked much beyond Vodoo's obvious parallel to mind overlays. The sequence can be read as an instance of Wolfe blending myth/legend with speculative science, providing credibility to each. Relating shadowed characters to revealed characters adds a layer of storytelling that I missed until you pointed it out.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; background-color: transparent;"><span style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;"><br></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 13px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; background-color: transparent;"><span style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;">A few months ago, someone on list wondered why Wolfe had to bring Sharia law into _Home Fires_, Sharia law provides a plausible basis for a handless character like Achille. Without this backdrop, a reader might be inclined to come up with a different reason for his handlessness. Then we might not have the great scene which recalls Aesop's fable of the mouse and lion.</span></div></div></div></div></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table></div></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table></div></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table></div><br><br></div> </div> </div> </div></body></html>