# Peace, and colors, and murder, and games *The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 28 Aug 2008* > 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. --- ### Adam Thornton *28 Aug 2008, 02:29* So I'm re-reading Robert Borski on _Peace_, and it's quite clever. But something else occurs to me. The characters have, indeed, obvious color associations. And, well, there are clearly some murders in _Peace_. And that got me thinking about Mrs. Peacock, and Mr. Green, and Mrs. White, and Professor Plum, and a nefarious House littered about with implements of murder. I wonder if, just as there's a reading of _Through The Looking Glass and what Alice Found There_ as a chess game, there's a reading of _Peace_ as a game of _Clue_ (_Cluedo_ to you Brits). Has anyone already traversed this particular path? Adam --- ### Dave Tallman *28 Aug 2008, 04:59 · in reply to Adam Thornton* I posted on this a few months ago, in April: > By the way, did the name "Professor Peacock" and the other color names make anyone think of the game of "Clue?" And later Helen Algmin wrote, and I replied: >> / PS — Yes, the color names make me think of Clue. And for good reason. In Clue, >> /> >/ the names are supposed to be pseudonyms to keep the players anonymous. I think >> /> >/ Weer also uses pseudonyms. / > I think that idea was only introduced in the Clue movie, but you have a good idea > about pseudonyms. For example, the name "Julius Smart" seems too descriptive of the man > to be real. My last comment on the "Clue" connection: > To press on the analogy, Clue players must visit specific rooms in a mansion > in order to invoke memories to confirm or contradict their theories. They cannot access > the central room where the truth is hidden. > > Likewise, Weer says he lives on the periphery of his house and that he never goes into > his den (Den, himself) p. 10. A similar point is made by the waiting-room music, > "A Life for the Czar" by Glinka (p. 3). In this opera, a Russian peasant is forced > by an invading army to lead them to the secret hiding place of the Czar. Pretending to > comply, he leads them on a wild-goose-chase through swamps and thickets until they > are completely demoralized. It fits my experience trying to follow Weer in this > novel. We do know one murder in full Clue-style: Professor Peacock killed Mrs. Smart in the village with a car. ---