{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2821", "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": 2821, "subject": "Thoughts on the ending of Peace", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "2001-09-07T10:43:29+00:00", "last": "2001-09-10T09:30:53+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "StoneOx17", "address": "stoneox17 at aol.com" }, "date": "2001-09-07T10:43:29+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Thoughts on the ending of Peace", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Hi,\n\nI've been lurking for a while, and I think it's time I contributed something.\nI have a theory about the ending of Peace that I'll be describing later in \nthis post, but before I get to it, I want to make a few related observations \nwhich should be less controversial.\n\nFirst, Olivia is convinced that the egg is one of a pair, where hers shows \nthe \nResurrection, and the missing one shows the Ascension (page 76, Orb edition). \n \nThis can be taken metaphorically, reflecting Weer's situation in the book: he \nhas achieved some sort of resurrection as a ghost, but has failed to attain \nascension. \n\nSecond (page 201) when Weer goes with Lois Arbuthnot to pick up Kate \nBoyne's diary, he notices a memoir of a local missionary named Murchinson \n(possibly the same one who brought back the egg) describing his mission to \nTartary. It's ironic that the library chooses to buy the fake diary, while \nignoring the genuine memoirs. As one might expect from Wolfe, the true \nartifact is spiritual, while the false one, containing clues to buried \ntreasure, is worldly.\n\nNow, we get to the first piece of key supporting evidence for my theory. On \npages 29 and 30, Weer writes \"It is too late for it now, but it sometimes \nseems \nto me that we ought to have kept records, by the new generations, of our \nremoteness from events of high significance. When the last man to have seen \nsome occurrence or personality of importance died; and then when the last \nperson who know him died; and so on. But first we would have the first man \ndescribe this event, this thing that he had seen, and when each of them was \ngone we would read the description publicly to see if it still meant anything \nto us - and if it did not, the series, the chain of linked lives, would be at \nan end.\"\n\nI think this describes the rules governing ghosts - I think Sherry Gold was \nthe last person remaining alive who knew Weer; and when she dies, Weer has \nhis (IMO, posthumous) stroke. Later in the book, Weer gets progressively \nsicker and sicker, as he becomes more and more generations removed from \nthe living. Finally, we reach Dan French's story of the geese, which \nparallels \nWeer's own situation, as illustrated below.\n\nOne of the sidhe turns his children into a flock of geese, so that they might \nlive forever; though the individual geese might die, the flock would remain. \nHowever, he's not completely successful:\n\n\"In this way, in time, the flock ... dwindled until at last only a single \ngoose \nremained.\"\n\n Only one person alive remembers Weer.\n\n\"And thinking these thoughts, she [the goose] flew over Ireland from \nInishtrahull to Ballinskelligs Bay, and from Galway Bay to Dun Laoghaire, \nseeking for one having the second sight who might explain the thing to \nher, but all such were long since gone from Ireland.\"\n\n Weer tries to keep his appointment with Dr. Van Ness, but the yellow \nreminder is nailed to his desk.\n\n\"At last she came to the cottage of a hermit, and as he was the best she \ncould find, she alighted there and put her question to him.\"\n\n Weer can find only Dan French, who tells him the story of the geese. \nBut both the hermit and Dan give the best advice possible:\n\n\"'Little there is I can do for you,' the hermit said. 'Why did you suppose \nyour father, who could not save himself, could save you? The time of the \nsidhe is long past, and the time of geese is passing. And in time, men, \ntoo, will pass, as every man who lives long learns in his own body. But \nJesus Christ saves all.'\"\n\n And this should be Weer's lesson ... that Jesus Christ saves all. \nBut does he learn it? Besides the hope of salvation through Jesus, \nthere's another, secular, thread, that runs through the book: the false \nhope of the Chinese pillow. Weer speculates that he has passed out as \na child beside his chemistry set. He asks whether, if he went up and \nslept again in his old childhood room, the old days would come back, \nand whether, if Hannah had slept at Sugar Creek Farm, \"Would Sugar Creek \nhave flowed again? Olivia tells the story of the Chinese philosopher's \nheadrest. Again, Weer has a decision between a worldly choice, the false\nhope of reliving his past, and a spiritual choice, of ascension through \nJesus Christ (although it's not clear he realizes that there is a \ndecision). And again, it appears that he makes the wrong choice:\n\n\"It is time, I think, that I see the enchanted headrest of the Chinese \nphilospher looming behind me, and I wait its coming. My aunt's voice \non the intercom says, 'Den, darling, are you awake in there?'\"\n\nAnd these words are, from Den's childhood, the signal for him to put out \nthe light and go to sleep, this time, it seems, forever.\n\nJohn 5:25 \"I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when \nthe dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen \nwill live.\"\n\nPeter Shor" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Straight", "address": "straight at email.unc.edu" }, "date": "2001-09-10T09:30:53+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Thoughts on the ending of Peace", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Fri, 7 Sep 2001 StoneOx17 at aol.com wrote:\nheadrest. Again, Weer has a decision between a worldly choice, the false\nhope of reliving his past, and a spiritual choice, of ascension through \nJesus Christ (although it's not clear he realizes that there is a \ndecision). And again, it appears that he makes the wrong choice:" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I don't have anything to add. I just thought this was an interesting\ninterpretation. It's jarring to think of the Chinese Pillow as a bad\nthing since the second chance it offers is presented as a good thing in\nthe original story. But the way you put it makes a lot of sense.\n\nOne hopes that, even if Weer is seduced by the opportunity to re-live all\nhis memories yet again (who knows how many times he's done it already\nbefore the book opens?), he might eventually be able to break out of the\ncycle.\n\n-Rostrum" } ] } ] }