{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2637", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 2637, "subject": "Two bugs and a snake", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "2001-05-10T21:13:43+00:00", "last": "2001-05-10T21:13:43+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Roy C. Lackey", "address": "rclackey at stic.net" }, "date": "2001-05-10T21:13:43+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Two bugs and a snake", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Dan'l having written:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Well, he's been through some kind of inauguration, but I can't find\nany statement of his being elected. OTOH, there's no direct hint that\nhe wasn't.\n\nHe's worried about some future re-election, though.\n\nOne explanation that _seems_ to me to fit all the facts: he was the\nvice-president and was elected when his predecessor's term ran out.\n(Weird variant: his predecessor was re-elected for a second term but\ndied between the election and the inauguration.)" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "And mantis replying:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Now I've read \"Copperhead\" a second time and it seems clear that this\nis a very good case, perhaps the best case: NP was previously the vice\npresident. The elected president died and this has perhaps thrown the\ncountry into something of a crisis or trauma reaction. It would help\ngreatly if he was the victim of the murder that seems related to Jane\nDoe, but since NP brought Jane into this world, it cannot be that.\n\n\nBut maybe the NP was not vp. My sense of NP being something of a\nfaker, like the guy in the Wolfe story who has a second life as a James\nBond-type, is due to the constellation: \"new,\" notes on how people can\nhear a smile, other veneer maintaining details. Except for the first,\nthe newness, the others can be attributed to the pressure of the\ncurrent and immediate crisis: NP is under a lot of pressure and has\nbeen under a strain for the past year or so.\n\n\nThe suicide is clearly related to Jane Doe. The murder, which already\nhas Washington in uproar, must also be related somehow to the\nPresidency." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "There is too much evidence in the story of an election-as-usual to support\nthe theory that the NP came to the office through the back door, so to\nspeak. He spent a year or so campaigning, the \"TV showed him with Boone,\nwith Boone and Marsha, with Boone at the convention.\", and he refers to \"my\ninauguration\". IIRC, when LBJ succeeded JFK he was sworn in as president on\nthe plane back to Washington. There was no inauguration, nor, I believe, has\nthere ever been for a VP who came to the presidency upon the death of his\npredecessor. For that matter, I don't remember Ford having any sort of\ninauguration ceremony after Nixon resigned. Inauguration Day, since 1934,\nhas been fixed as January 20 of the year following the presidential\nelection.\n\nEven if, somehow, NP had been elected only as VP, and the president-elect\ndied sometime between the election and Inauguration Day, leaving the VP as\nthe NP, complete with ceremonies, that is a needless complication which\nwould have no bearing on the story anyway. Whomever was president before the\nlast election is also irrelevant.\n\nThe story takes place during about a six-hour time period during the second\nspring of the NP's term of office. GWB has been in office now for less than\nfour months, it is his first spring in office, but he is no longer referred\nto as the \"new\" president. NP has been in office for close to a year longer\nthan GWB has now, yet is still described as the new president. That oddity\nis all I was pointing out. The trouble in Spokane was a year before. The\ncrash was 7-9 months ago. Lilith appeared 5-7 months ago. The murder must\nhave occurred fairly recently, since her arrival, and the suicide just\nhappened.\n\nIt seems safe to assume that the murder and suicide are related (those\nboys), that Lilith was complicitous one way or another to both, and that the\nNP also became sexually involved with her. That she was related to the\nmurder is likely what is behind NP's exchange with Rance:\n\n***********\n\"You're watching her, or you're damned well supposed to be.\"\n\n\"We are.\" Rance said.\n\n\"A hell of a lot of good it did. Bring her here. Now!\"\n***********\n\nObviously, something happened on Rance's watch that shouldn't have--the\nmurder. I doubt that the identity of the victim is important to the story;\nwhat matters is that sexual jealousy fostered by her mere presence led to\nit. Whether Boone was the murderer or not isn't really important either;\neither way, he too fell victim to her wiles. As did the NP, which is why he\ndoesn't want Marsha to see the suicide note. Even if he is not mentioned\ndirectly in it, the pattern will be obvious to anyone as close to the\npresident as Marsha. He doesn't want her feelings hurt any more than they\nalready are and, besides, if Marsha has any smarts at all, word might get\nback to his wife. Whatever his personal feelings for his wife, a sexual\nscandal, coming on top of all the other problems Lilith has brought, would\nbe damaging to his chances for re-election, which is clearly on his mind.\n\nThat old snake is bad news!--which is why he was determined to be rid of\nher.\n\n-Roy" } ] } ] }