Subject: (urth) Sanderson's Abandonment

From: Robert Borski <rborski at coredcs.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 23:26:00 +0000

Earlier, in regards to my Continuing Westward post, Sean Whalen (aka prion)
wrote:

"This seems to fit, but how does it fit in that he originally thought
that she stabbed Sanderson?  He didn't just decide to leave him, he
thought that he was dead."

This may relate to some aspect of a Kipling short story (The Phantom
Rickshaw?), but I'm not sure--it's been 30+ years since I read SOLDIERS
THREE and the other collections. Or it may be simple irony. Paris, the
Great Seducer, undone by his own lust (whereas the Paris of legend stakes a
claim to the most beautiful woman in the world and precipitates a war).

Of course, all of the Homeric correspondences are rather loosely clumped
together--hence the notion of Greek Odysseus and Trojan Paris as
shipmates--so the search for parallels my be intriniscally flawed to begin
with, at least if we expect 100% fidelity with the Illiad/Odyssey.

Also, what I forgot to mention in my Cherry Jubilee piece is that KGB agent
Vera Oussenko, who, as you mention, is arrested, represents truth, which
she is seeking, even though she gets it wrong (Vera = veritas), only in the
inverted value system of CJ she's "punished"--not being allowed to
disembark, she's spared the hell of Mars.

Robert Borski

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