Subject: (urth) AEG - borrowings

From: Stephen Hoy <stephenhoy at yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 2009 19:02:55 +0000

Fernando Gouvea recently noted a curious coincidence between Wolfe's 'Peace'
(1975) and Bartis's 'Tranquility' (2001), each work sharing a central
character named Weer. Gouvea also noted certain stylistic similarities,
enough to make us wonder about the extent of the parallels. Let's take a
look at a couple of similar items in AEG, and see if we can detect the
existence of an invisible line between literary theft and literary allusion.

While reading An Evil Guest, I noticed that the character Gideon Chase
shares a name with a central character in Timothy Mo's historical novel, 'An
Insular Possession' (1987). This might be a curious coincidence. It also
might be intentional. It's impossible to know with any certainty without
asking the author (and perhaps not even then).

Suppose that it's not a coincidence. Suppose Wolfe read 'An Insular
Possession' some years ago, and suppose that when he invented the character
of the wizard, he chose the name Gideon Chase as a reflection of some aspect
of this character, intentionally reinforcing the idea of Chase as a figure
bridging the gap between the two cultures colliding in AEG. Is there
anything wrong with that?
Let's take another case: the trembling mountain and the laundress. As Marc
Aramini pointed out in October, Wolfe reviewed a work with a similar motif,
Cory Doctorow's 'Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town' (2005). After
reading both works, it's hard to believe that Wolfe was not self-consciously
referring to Doctorow's mountain & washing machine, and, further, that Wolfe
fully realized Doctorow or any reader of 'Someone Comes to Town, Someone
Leaves Town' would recognize the motif in AEG. Is there anything wrong with
that?

To each of the above, I'd venture a guess that there's nothing wrong with
either act, but I have very different reasons for each guess.

In the case of the name Gideon Chase, it's not clear that Wolfe borrowed
from Mo. Assuming there is a conscious borrowing, there are very few
similarities between the two characters. Personally, I doubt that readers
familiar with both works would suspect Wolfe chose the name as a conscious
reflection of Mo's character, but the possibility exists.

In the case of the mountain and laundress, it's possible Doctorow and Wolfe
each borrowed from a common source, perhaps some work transcribing Algonquin
legends. It's also possible Wolfe asked Doctorow's permission to use the
idea--although one might expect to see a word or two about it in AEG or
perhaps even in an interview about AEG.

But assume Wolfe borrowed these two things without explicit advance
permission, somehow slipping them past the legal team at his publisher. But
is this any different from Wolfe's explicit use of a Baskin-Robbins in an
early chapter? Does anyone imagine that either Mo or Doctorow would object
to Wolfe's particular use as they appear in AEG?

---

From: Allan Anderson <rubel at goosemoon.org>
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:00:15 +0000

I was going to postpone commenting on this for a couple of days while  
I finish the book, but I can't help myself.

So far, I'm thinking that any and all "borrowings" fit nicely into An  
Evil Guest's nature as a sort of tribute piece, a stylistic pastiche.  
Maybe no one thinks anyone would care about a implicit literary  
reference. I'm delighted to hear about these connections you've  
discovered! When I read "Gideon Chase", I thought of the character  
"Gideon Stargrave" (aka King Mob) from the comic book series The  
Invisibles. He's another horror/sf writer who becomes more than that  
profession might seem. But it's very possible that Grant Morrison  
referred to Mo's novel in his own choice of names: what makes The  
Invisibles relevant, I think, is the books' conscious blending of  
genre, reality, and fiction. It's an unique story, but also very much  
a borrowed patchwork shirt. And pulpy stories of the type AEG seems to  
want a family relationship with, well, they have always dipped a range  
of  sources. So it's completely appropriate, to my mind.

But here's my question: at the cast party, someone tells Cassie she  
looks like she's seen a banshee. Aren't Banshees often seen washing  
bloody clothing, as a death omen? Is that the mountain's laundress?

Okay, I'll shut up and get back to reading.

On Apr 12, 2009, at 12:02 PM, Stephen Hoy wrote:

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From: Jordon Flato <jordonflato at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:14:06 +0000

The Invisibles is great.

On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 12:00 AM, Allan Anderson <rubel at goosemoon.org>wrote:

> I was going to postpone commenting on this for a couple of days while I
> finish the book, but I can't help myself.
>
> So far, I'm thinking that any and all "borrowings" fit nicely into An Evil
> Guest's nature as a sort of tribute piece, a stylistic pastiche. Maybe no
> one thinks anyone would care about a implicit literary reference. I'm
> delighted to hear about these connections you've discovered! When I read
> "Gideon Chase", I thought of the character "Gideon Stargrave" (aka King Mob)
> from the comic book series The Invisibles. He's another horror/sf writer who
> becomes more than that profession might seem. But it's very possible that
> Grant Morrison referred to Mo's novel in his own choice of names: what makes
> The Invisibles relevant, I think, is the books' conscious blending of genre,
> reality, and fiction. It's an unique story, but also very much a borrowed
> patchwork shirt. And pulpy stories of the type AEG seems to want a family
> relationship with, well, they have always dipped a range of  sources. So
> it's completely appropriate, to my mind.
>
> But here's my question: at the cast party, someone tells Cassie she looks
> like she's seen a banshee. Aren't Banshees often seen washing bloody
> clothing, as a death omen? Is that the mountain's laundress?
>
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From: Stephen Hoy <stephenhoy at yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:15:45 +0000

Not long ago, Allan Anderson asked:
<<< But here's my question: at the cast party, someone tells Cassie she
looks like she's seen a banshee. Aren't Banshees often seen washing
bloody clothing, as a death omen? Is that the mountain's laundress? >>

Allan's question prompted me to review some discussions we've had on urth-l
about AEG's banshee. For example, Henry Eissler's reply to Dave Tallman (16
Oct) and Tallman's reply to Eissler (18 Dec).

The word 'banshee' derives from a Gaelic term for 'faerie woman'
(alternately 'faerie washer-woman', if we start with the Scots' version).
One aspect of the banshee legend is the familiar figure of the
washer-at-the-ford.

Let's take a closer look at the text and see what else may turn up. Here's
the banshee / Grey Neighbor exchange at the cast party:
----------------------
   Palma smiled, and brushed an invisible yellow feather from his lips with
a manicured and be-ringed paw. "She has heard the banshee."
   "Seen it," Cassie said, "and I think I'm going to be going out with it in
a day or two."
   "Why Cassie!" Norma was grinning. "You always seemed to so hetro."
   "English speakers," Palma lectured her smoothly, "are invariably deceived
by the second syllable. It merely conveys that banshees are to be numbered
amongst the Grey Neighbors."
   "I'll be damned if I've got the foggiest idea what that's supposed to
mean," Norma said, "but doesn't Cassie have a gray neighbor right now?"
   "She's talking about me," Margaret whispered.
- AEG p64
----------------------

Strictly speaking, Cassie and Palma are incorrect. A banshee is a female
figure (the first syllable describes a 'woman'). However, Palma's wordplay
on the second syllable is on point. Despite being homonymous with the
pronoun 'she', the term 'sidh' indicates a member of the race of faeries or
fallen angels. 'Grey Neighbors' is a common conversational euphemism for the
'sidh'. I imagine Wolfe's larger point in this exchange is to alert the
reader to the idea that at least some of the fantastic characters in AEG are
'sidh'.

It's not a great leap to infer that Margaret is a Grey Neighbor. Her surname
Briggs (bridge) is just a step away from Ford / Ferry, recalling the
washer-at-the-ford. She later styles herself "an expert seamstress and
laundress, and a discreet companion." (p54) 'Discreet companion' fits a
bain-sidh, who follow a family's progress through generations without
detection, except when a family leader dies. Also from this description on
p54, we might reasonably infer that Margaret Briggs is the un-important
laundress-spouse of the sentient mountain mentioned almost in passing by
Chase during the hike to the mountain's altar (p41).

Margaret-as-Banshee does not preclude a Margaret-as-werewolf theory, because
another idea in Gaelic myth is that each 'sidh' has a particular animal form
in addition to its human form. This in turn leads to other speculations
bandied about that Margaret and Cassie are the same entity, either displaced
in time, or a clone one of the other, or infused with the same spirit, etc.