Subject: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v028.n142

From: Robert Borski <rborski at coredcs.com>
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2000 15:52:19 +0000

More kibble for Nutria to munch away on:

<Wow, Borski. You make an interesting case. I guess it just does not make
sense to me, without something a lot more explicit. From what I can tell,
your interpretation assumes the "maximum delusion" view that Mantis set out
for me/us.>

Actually, I don't buy into the maximum delusion view at all. I believe that
Brook is killed by the women from the ziggurat, and that the women are
time-shifted clones of Aileen, whose genetic material, paradoxically, may
have been harvested by older versions of herself. (Why has Aileen been
undressed in the ziggurat?) Time is anachronic around Haunted Lake, after
all, and Wolfe is rather well known for these temporal sleights of hand. I
also believe it's possible that the ziggurat itself is the actual alien
manifestation (yclept Croatoan?), perhaps timeknapping people for some
remote future; that or its real inhabitants are never glimpsed. At any rate
the women killed by Emery are not Jan and the other twin, but the
aileens/aliens.

Perhaps marrying or having sex with your step-daughter is not technically
incest, but in my book it's close enough (sorry, Woody) and it does
parallel the non-blood carnal aspect of the other Tamar's relationship with
Judah. Also note that Phil Gluckman, who, as Emery's lawyer, almost
certainly would be inclined to take his client's side, apparently believes
Emery has molested Aileen. ("Your precious Phil Gluckman has questioned
them, in my presence and my attorney's. Call him up right now. Ask him what
he thinks.") Note too the almost total lack of colloquy between Emery and
Aileen, whereas he and Alayna have several exchanges. And lastly Emery
Bainbridge appears to fit the classic psychological profile of the in-house
child molester--someone with low self-esteem (two divorces, business
misadventures), who needs to reassert control however he can, and possibly
avenge himself on his soon-to-be ex-wife.

Not that I expect any of this to sway you from your viewpoint, Nutria. At
least on this one story we remain  Borski over here, Jordan over there.

Robert Borski  

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/