Subject: (urth) AEG voices

From: Roy C. Lackey <rclackey at stic.net>
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:03:50 +0000

Who--or what--are the voices in Gid's hopper that Computer Lady didn't hear?
Should I have recognized them from another source, as is the case for the
Squid god? Why do they egg her on?

-Roy

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From: James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:17:53 +0000

> Squid god? Why do they egg her on?

I thought they were "Gray Neighbors" mentioned at the Wrap Party at the 
beginning of the book. The fact that they are there means that Chase is a 
wizard, not merely a scientist or high-tech fixer, which we knew when he had 
Cassie possessed by an Aphrodite-daemon.

If Wolfe had made a few very slight modifications to the book, he would have 
had a nice juvenalia series here.

J

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From: Matthew Keeley <matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:34:44 +0000

> had a nice juvenalia series here.

As has been stated elsewhere, Gideon is (or pretends to be) the sort
of pulp hero that kids of all ages love - he's dashing, he's
mysterious, he has a cool car. He's like Batman or the Shadow. It's
odd how nostalgic a book ostensibly set in the future is.

Are there any interviews where Wolfe talks much about his childhood
reading? You can infer a lot from his books (Oz, the pulps, etc.), but
I'd love to see some sort of list.

-Matt

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From: hammstu at sbcglobal.net <hammstu at sbcglobal.net>
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:37:22 +0000

Anyone else read "The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril"???
Talk about homages to pulps....fun easy story with real pulp authers as characters
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Subject: Re: (urth) AEG voices

-Matt
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From: Dave Tallman <davetallman at msn.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:16:25 +0000

> Squid god? Why do they egg her on?
The voices make me think of spirits bound in service to a wizard. If there's
a specific literary reference, it may be to *The Tempest*:
1) The voice like the wind is like Ariel, the airy spirit.
2) The deep voice that tries to tempt Cassie to drink whiskey is like
Caliban, who gets drunk along with Stephano and Trinculo.
3) The tinny voice that mocks the car's windows is like the Shapes that act
with "mocks and mows."

Bound spirits often try to carry out their own agendas when their master is
not closely controlling them. Chase thought it would be dangerous for Cassie
to be in the car by herself. She tricked him so he had no opportunity to
give orders to the spirits, so they tried to tempt her into trouble.

There was another time when Cassie was alone in the car and didn't hear
voices -- the night she first met Chase. Either the spirits were not there
then, or they were under orders not to speak. (They may have been under
orders to cause Cassie to fall asleep. It seems odd that Chase was counting
on her staying asleep so he could hop the car to Canada. It's doubtful she
would have fallen asleep on her own after being called out in the middle of
the night to wait in a car in a bad neighborhood).
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From: Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:51:54 +0000

On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 11:34 AM, Matthew Keeley  wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 9:17 AM, James Wynn  wrote:
>
>>

In some of the interviews in _Shadows_, he talks about how as a kid he
would go to the pharmacy, grab one of the pulp sci-fi, mystery etc.
magazines, and hiding, would read as much as he could. I doubt he kept
any real list.

- --
gwern