{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6524", "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": 6524, "subject": "Free Live Free", "messages": 6, "voices": 4, "first": "2014-04-10T00:10:15+00:00", "last": "2014-05-21T19:08:04+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Antonin Scriabin", "address": "kierkegaurdian at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-04-10T00:10:15+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Free Live Free", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "First, I just finished and loved this book. The characters were wonderful,\nand it was quite funny. I also loved Castleview, so I am looking forward to\nthe other member of that \"era\" in Wolfe's oeuvre, There Are Doors.\n\nI have a first printing of the 1985 hardback from Gollancz, which doesn't\nhave the timeline. Is this floating around online anywhere? Is it something\nWolfe himself put together? Does it shine light on anything important?\n\nFinally, did it cross anyone else's mind that the characters never left (or\nwere always in) Belmont? It's a pretty cheap trick, and probably not the\ncase, but I kept getting the feeling that they were all running in place\nsomehow. I also just watched The Machinist, so maybe that has me paranoid." } ] }, { "message_id": "<5345E397.2040800@verizon.net>", "from": { "name": "David Stockhoff", "address": "dstockhoff at verizon.net" }, "date": "2014-04-10T00:19:35+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Free Live Free", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "That's one of my all-time favorites." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On 4/9/2014 8:10 PM, Antonin Scriabin wrote:\n\nFirst, I just finished and loved this book. The characters were \nwonderful, and it was quite funny. I also loved Castleview, so I am \nlooking forward to the other member of that \"era\" in Wolfe's oeuvre, \nThere Are Doors.\n\nI have a first printing of the 1985 hardback from Gollancz, which \ndoesn't have the timeline. Is this floating around online anywhere? Is \nit something Wolfe himself put together? Does it shine light on \nanything important?\n\nFinally, did it cross anyone else's mind that the characters never \nleft (or were always in) Belmont? It's a pretty cheap trick, and \nprobably not the case, but I kept getting the feeling that they were \nall running in place somehow. I also just watched The Machinist, so \nmaybe that has me paranoid.\n\n\n\n_______________________________________________" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes", "address": "danldo at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-04-10T00:30:37+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Free Live Free", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Antonin - also from that period of Wolfe's work is \"'Pandora' by Holly\nHollander\"" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 5:10 PM, Antonin Scriabin\nwrote:\nFirst, I just finished and loved this book. The characters were wonderful,\nand it was quite funny. I also loved Castleview, so I am looking forward to\nthe other member of that \"era\" in Wolfe's oeuvre, There Are Doors.\n\nI have a first printing of the 1985 hardback from Gollancz, which doesn't\nhave the timeline. Is this floating around online anywhere? Is it something\nWolfe himself put together? Does it shine light on anything important?\n\nFinally, did it cross anyone else's mind that the characters never left\n(or were always in) Belmont? It's a pretty cheap trick, and probably not\nthe case, but I kept getting the feeling that they were all running in\nplace somehow. I also just watched The Machinist, so maybe that has me\nparanoid.\n\n_______________________________________________" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Antonin Scriabin", "address": "kierkegaurdian at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-04-10T00:32:55+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Free Live Free", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I liked Pandora too, but not quite as much. I think I was waiting for\nsomething truly bizarre to happen the whole time. Thanks for the note. For\nsome reason I thought it was from much later." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Apr 9, 2014 8:30 PM, \"Dan'l Danehy-Oakes\" wrote:\nAntonin - also from that period of Wolfe's work is \"'Pandora' by Holly\nHollander\"\n\n\nOn Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 5:10 PM, Antonin Scriabin ", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-05-21T17:47:10+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Free Live Free", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "*Uncle Sam'l “Free” Whitten as America and Its Dream and the Mad\nElectro-Magnetic Darkness of the Modern World: Free Live Free*\n\nMarc Aramini\n\nIn between Gene Wolfe’s labyrinthine New Sun series and the equally\ncomplicated Latro novels, settings so far removed from the present that any\ncritique or endorsement of modern society was at best second hand or\nindirect, *Free Live Free* represents a marked departure, at first\ndepicting a world contemporaneous with its composition. *Free Live Free,\nThere Are Doors, Castleview, *and *Pandora by Holly Hollander* are fairly\nunique in their approach to realistic modern settings in Wolfe. The earlier\n*Peace* avoided the seedy day to day qualities of the opening of *Free Live\nFree* by granting its narrator the ultimate power of the memoir — he was\nfree to jump from time to time and suppress any memory or fact with which\nhe did not want to face. The characters in *Free Live Free* are afforded no\nsuch luxury during the obstacles they face, with the omnipresent third\nperson narrator peering into all their weaknesses and failures. Yet\neven in *Free\nLive Free*, an unrelenting look at adult powerlessness in a hostile, cold\ncity, it is revealed that Ben Free, too, has jumped from time to time and\nsuppressed and eradicated past, imperfect versions of himself. Urban\nfantasy isn’t even a great attempt to define exactly what *Free Live Free *is\n— a naturalistic exploration of ordinary, low mimesis characters in the\nfirst two thirds of the work almost echo the story “Forlesen” in a much\nless fantastic set up. Urban allegory is perhaps a better description.\n\nWhile it is a contemporary novel, with most of its action occurring over\nfour days at the end of January in 1983, the mission Free sets in motion\nfor his boarders reveals that the entire social system in the novel is a\nnatural outgrowth of several pivotal moments and shifts in United States\nhistory when mankind, and America in particular, finally achieved the power\nto destroy on a sufficiently grand scale to threaten its own existence,\nforever and ironically rendering the majority of humanity powerless,\ntrapped, and completely insignificant. Only in Whitten’s ability to\ntransform himself from “Uncle Sam” into Ben Free and eradicate past\nversions of himself do we see the thrust of the novel: the American dream,\nand individual desires in particular, may fail, but the mutable, ever\nchanging nature of that dream can, or should, embrace, empower, and\nliberate that which has been cast out and scorned.\n\nWhile critics and reviewers have mentioned that both Severian and Latro\nappear to be at times nothing but pawns working in a vast system they\ncannot understand, their powers in combat, in cheating death, and in\naltering the destiny of armies and nations place them somewhere near mythic\nrepresentations, and I have always felt naming them as powerless was a\nbasic misprision of their mythic status. The four protagonists in *Free\nLive Free* do not enjoy these powers at first: beset by debt, poverty,\ndesperation, and disappointment, they can expect to have no impact on their\nsociety or even make a mark on the vast city in which they dwell. For the\nmajority of the novel this remains true. An obese prostitute, a short\nunlicensed private detective, an arrogant and mystical gypsy, and a poor\nsalesman have all reached the bottom of society, but they are given an\nopportunity to live their life long dreams over the course of the text.\nWith the exception of Madame Serpentina, our main cast is about as ordinary\nand every day as one could expect in a work of realistic fiction, with very\nreal flaws.\n\nThe very ordinary struggles they undergo all culminate in equally\nappropriate scenes of “temptation” in which their dreams come true: Stubb\nis actually wanted by an employer, and with his wits easily solves this\ncase, but a small distraction causes his failure; the concupiscent Barnes\ngets his date with a lovely tall woman, stands on stage for a comic\nintroduction of a musical group, and has his clothes torn off by lustful\nstrippers before being apprehended in his nudity; Candy gets her sweet\njohn, who stuffs her with all the candies and attention she could desire\neven though she is drugged; and Madame Serpentina is lead by the Egyptian\ngods to a mystical unveiling that turns into a mockery.\n\nBefore these disappointments, each tries to save the house with their\ningenuity and the means they have, whether that involves calling up\nsalesman or politicians, using sneezing powder, greasing up a corpulent\nbody and refusing to move, proving that even these outcasts can still be\nformidable, though they are doomed to failure. Perhaps the most bizarre and\nthematically confusing portion of the text involves the Belmont Asylum and\nthe widespread darkness that results in city riots on a frigid night — the\nrealism of the text frays at this point when just about every minor\ncharacter introduced in the text also converges there, picked up for\ninsanity. Before we delve into the symbolic nature of this mad darkness\nthrough which the characters emerge (without ever speaking to Sergeant\nProudy again — the ostensible reason that they go to Belmont in the first\nplace), we should look at the other dominant symbol working in the text —\nthat of Uncle Sam and Ben Free.\n\n*Uncle Sam B. Whitten, Lewis & Clark, and the Manhattan Project*\n\nAs an allegory, Free Live Free is much more understandable. While the\ncharacter Whitten grows up rich and serves his country patriotically in\nWorld War II before defecting to an earlier ideal, his symbolic\nidentification as Uncle by his daughter Kip and his dialog clearly indicate\nthat he is the symbol of America itself, Uncle Sam. Furthermore, his\nability to jump backwards in time, eradicating the present version of\nhimself and becoming stronger, shows how the idea of what America is\ncompletely changes over time. In a rather neat trick, the older version of\nWhitten will hold the ideals of the older frontier version of America, and\nthe younger version treasure the newer, repressive ideals, so that old Ben\nFree represents old America and younger Whitten represents the new status\nquo of the nuclear age, both ultimate hero and ultimate villain in the\nstory, just as the American Dream has both raised up many and crushed many\nunder its cogs. Beyond this, Whitten's name resonates with some of the\nwords Serpentina lectures about early in the novel: ?*Wit* meant knowledge\nonce. To *wicken* was to enchant, only a thousand years ago. To\n*wikken*was to prophecy.\n*Wih* meant holy. ? *Wikken *sounded much like *wicken*, *wit* like *wih*.\n(Wolfe Tor 30) These resonate with Whitten's name as well (Of course,\nrather ironically his name means “a person from White's town” - his\nmaturation as a character leads him to expand his idea about what an\nAmerican should be). The dialog between the four roomers and the man in the\nduffel coat (Whitten at his most status quo) reveal this:\n\n“Our country was founded on the destruction of the wild by the civilized —\nThose Indians represented civilization. The beavers felled trees and built\nlodges, but the Indians killed beavers and skinned them.”\n\nBarnes said, “Then the whites came and skinned the Indians.”\n\n“Precisely. But the frontiersmen who destroyed the Indians and their\nculture were destroyed themselves, with their culture, by the settlers who\nfollowed. Those settlers lost their farms to the bank, and the banks sold\nthem to companies who have brought the advantages of corporate existence —\nimmortality and amorality — to agriculture.” (Wolfe Tor 353-4)\n\nHe goes on to posit that the chain stores represent the chains of slavery,\nand they discuss what it means to be an American:\n\nThe Indians used to be Americans - that's what an America was. Then the\ntrappers were Americans, the Americans of their day. Then the farmers, with\ntheir buggies and low horses and white clapboard houses Even today when you\nlook at a picture of Uncle Sam, you're seeing what those farmers were like\ndressed up to go to the county fair. Only farmers aren't real Americans\nanymore. Neither are Indians. — The trappers are gone, and pretty soon\nyou'll be gone, too. — You aren't Americans, either. (355)\n\nOf course, Free will change his mind and realize that these four are\nactually very much every day America. Indeed, knowing that his attempt to\nsave the building that he calls his house, they will become his symbolic\nhouse: “hlp sv hs” - the name Stubb implies a room, Garth a garden, Barnes\na barn, etc. While at first some of the statements Madame Serpentina makes\nseems to imply that symbolically Free is the house (when the tile falls,\nfor example), in a sense they have become Free's house, which expands\nbeyond the limit of a building or a freeway.\n\nFree has planted inside his house the means of escape from the ordinary.\nThe well documented morning glories outside the back door of his kitchen in\nchapter 6, while snow surrounds the front door, reveals exactly where Free\nhas concealed the gizmo, the singularity induction coil, that has allowed\nhim to transcend time — clearly the backyard is in a different time. At one\npoint it seems that the house is actually Free, since he exerts some\ncontrol over the environment by making the tile fall from under\nSerpentina's feet. Serpentina believes him to exert power over that\nenvironment, and when Stubbs asks “You see the body?” Serpentina replies “I\nwalk into it now.” (74). Yet her understanding of Free's actual symbolic\nresonance is incomplete. He is much more than the house. Barnes will\ndiscover the “ticket” to freedom beneath the sign painted Free Live Free.\nFree reveals to Stubb, “If we can keep the walls standing, that's all the\nhelp I need.” (23). Since Whitten knows that Barnes will choose to go back\nthrough the normal door instead of the gizmo at the end of the novel to\nsave his son Little Ozzie, the frontier version of Free is replaced mid\nconversation in Chapter 7: “In a Wall” to give Barnes more advice.\n\nThere is a reason that Whitten is so impelled to explore with Lewis and\nClark — the first exploration to traverse to the West coast in the United\nStates, called the Corps of Discovery Exploration — this is the\nestablishment and exploration of America's physical borders through the\nuntamed wilderness and foreign territories. The Manhattan Project is an\nequally pivotal moment in American history — harnessing the power of the\natom forever changed the global landscape and to some degree fully\ncatapulted humanity into the modern age. In this age, poor decisions made\nby one nation or another could for the first time in history result in\nabsolute annihilation. For all its necessity or justification, it is\nAmerica that first uses this power. This ultimate power proves mankind's\npowerlessness at the hands of governmental decisions and whims. This then,\nis the young, angry Whitten: a post nuclear repressed soldier who champions\na very strict idea of what “Americans” should be. Our four roomers have\nfallen between the cracks of their rigidly socio-economic society and, to\nthat version of Whitten, are not even worth being considered Americans\nbecause they don't fit in — the problem of the modern world.\n\nYet the novel shows that the American Dream is not dead even if it must\nchange. All of the characters get to reach towards their desires: “The\nmessage I left for the general I used to be — said you should get you\ngreatest desires. I did it because I've learned we all have to get them\nbefore we can have better ones” (398).\n\nSerpentina herself states the dramatic theme of the problem with America\n\nWealth and power we have already too much of--we suffocate. Longer life? We\noutstay the lion and elephant. Hardly a day passes that we do not meet some\nman or woman who should be dead, who has outlasted his own time by\ndecades...As for healing, it is not we who require it but the world, which\nrequires to be cured of us. Serenity would indeed be a benefit, but we do\nnot seek it; if we did we might find it required us to abandon wealth and\npower, and we love them too much. No, what we require from whatever Powers\nmay be entitled to give it is some indication of how far we may go...we do\nnot know what is permitted to us, and that ignorance paralyzes those who\nmight otherwise refrain, while the worst of us kill every living thing and\nruin all they reach (Wolfe Tor 317).\n\nThis final sentence reinforces how powerful mankind has become — but that\npower forever renders the vast majority of humanity helpless, stuck in mind\nnumbing and dispiriting situations from which there seems no escape.\n\n*The Mad Darkness*\n\nAt the center of each character's arc, a strange scene occurs in the\nBelmont. Almost every character in the text, from Phil Reeder, Nimo,\nProudy, the gypsies, Dr. Makee, to even the cops, converge at the asylum.\nIt strains credulity that Proudy, Reeder, and Nimo would all be detained\nsimultaneously, and for this reason the scene must be looked at for its\nallegorical power. EVERYONE in the novel is living in an insane\nenvironment, detained, and without true freedom. They might as well be\ninstitutionalized. The Belmont shows that lack of freedom — living in the\nmodern world creates a paranoid suppression that cannot be escaped. Some\ntry to create alternative identities, like Richard Chester, calling himself\nthe clown Nimo (perhaps related to Nemo — no one) and suppressing his name\nand identity. Stubb notes the similar numbers between Proudy's room at the\nBelmont and at the Consort: 717 and 771. While 7's proliferate throughout\nthe text, (and they resonate with rather large aircraft such as the 747's\nwhich are noted as being able to land easily on a wing of the High Country)\nthis does create a direct relationship between the rooms of the hotel and\nthe rooms of the institutionalized.\n\nI do not like to think of the novel as one large crazy hallucination — it\nis too realistic in its efforts. Yet that scene where the lights go out\nover the entire city shows a symbolic descent into madness — stripped of\nthe external perceptions and orders imposed by society, what is left? A\nsquawking madhouse. Riots ensue outside the city, and the insanity\ncontained and bottled up escapes rather easily. Sandy Duck is reaching for\nan elevator when the power goes out, and her hand does not encounter what\nit expects to find.\n\nThe most surreal scene of the novel involves everyone sitting in the dark,\nthe mad and sane alike, where even identity cannot be established. Multiple\npeople claim to be Candy Garth (though thanks to the rules of the time\nfolding, where the newcomer absorbs the current person, we know that they\ncannot all be her). In this scene, someone keeps calling out that they are\nthe Page of Wands. In Tarot, this character represents change and new\nbeginnings as well as desire. His creativity is nascent, and thus it is\nappropriate that in this darkness the characters can begin to actually\nselect what they want to be, when modern civilization and its expectations\nare stripped clean and no one can see them. It is in this way that Free\nLive Free is intrinsically different than other naturalistic texts: those\ncrushed by society can actually chose to define themselves in Wolfe, and\nbecome something larger, once their visible position in society is finally\nrobbed of its power to hold them in place. In the culminating scene of the\nnovel, they are even given the choice to achieve a kind of personal\napotheosis through the gizmo or return to life as it was. Barnes is the\nonly one who selects to return, because his duty to his son has not been\nfulfilled.\n\nInterestingly enough, given talk of the magnetic properties surrounding the\nHigh Country, it is perhaps a similar magnetic property that causes the\nlarge city wide blackout. This EMP like effect could resonate with not only\nthe “turning off” of civilization but that great nuclear power that lurks\nin the background, ready to send mankind back to the dark ages.\n\n*Mysticism and the Text*\n\nSerpentina strays to the mystical explanation for everything, and\nidentifies Free as an acarya, a guide or instructor in religious matters\n(or a highly learned man). During her little chant in Chapter 8, which is\nher attempt to defend the house, her little green screen proceeds from\nnonsense letters to “AMRTET ALGAR ALGASTNA”, “ADAM ALCAR DAGERAM,” matching\nher pastel inscriptions of ADAM TE DAERAM and AMRTET, ALGAR ALGASTNA —\nthese are actually from a Rembrandt painting at first called “The\nPracticing Alchemist” and then “Faust in his Study”. What is missing from\nSerpentina's invocation is the center inscription: the cross and INRI. In\nmany ways all of these characters will re-enact Faust's story: getting what\nthey want at the cost of being betrayed by those they trust and their own\ndesires. The arrangement depicted in the picture was said to be used on\namulets for protection in battles. (McHenry)\n\nHer chants beginning “Bagabi laca bachabe” is supposedly from a\n13thcentury story of the sorceror Salatin conjuring the devil and\n“Palas aron\nozimonas” from a miracle play in which a character named Tervagans yields\nhis soul to the devil. Interestingly enough, even though these are from\ndifferent sources, they both appear on page 109 of de Givry's *Witchcraft,\nMagic, & Alchemy*, as does the mention of Rembrandt's painting. In other\nwords, I believe that de Givry's book was Wolfe's original source for this\nscene. These chants are still extent in witchcraft and devilish\nincantations but they are not truly translatable.\n\nHowever, later, when Serpentina curses her captors and escapes a straight\njacket like a serpent, her words “Marear enkranken tober malade ammalarsi”\n(254) can be translated from various languages: to fall sick or sicken. In\nthe original Ziesing addition, Free mishears the word whores and answers,\n“No Horace here.” — I normally don’t like sound connotations, but Horus\nhappens to be the god of vengeance, sky, protection, and war, and happens\nto resonate with the renamed first chapter: Four Roomers of War, and the\nlater floating High Country. Horus' designation with the falcon and as “The\none who is above, over” is interesting. During her divination with the\nmirror, “an airplane droned far overhead” (106) presaging the High Country,\nso her magic does seem tied to the flying fortress above. This divination\nresults in her prophecy, which will be discussed in further detail below.\n\nFinally, the poser Illingworth, who is over 70 in 1983 but claims to have\nbeen with Aleister Crowley in both Smyrna and the Himalayas (making him\nvery, very young at that time) does mention a few figures whose mystical\nphilosophies resonate with the text. In addition to Crowley, he mentions\nDion Fortune, born Violet Mary Firth, and both Crowley and Fortune believed\nin the Secret Chiefs — those with transcendent cosmic authorities.\nSerpentina has prophesied of these secret masters herself. Crowley's\nmystical history involves an aeon of Isis, Osiris, and Horus which might\nalso be mapped onto many of Wolfe's texts. Isis involves primitive worship\nof the mother goddess, Osiris the idea of a sacrificial and paternal dying\ngod, and Horus a time of the child's spiritual growth and development.\nCertainly the transition from the aeon of Osiris to Horus can be traced in\nthe spiritual journey of the characters in *Free Live Free* as Free\nsacrifices himself for their spiritual development.\n\n*NAMES:*\n\nSerpentina, in discussing her prophecy, says that something would be lost\nin translation such that someone named John Smith might be referred to as\nthe beloved disciple, son of the iron smiter, and for this reason it is at\nleast worthwhile to examine the patterns in the main characters' names.\nThis is the part of Wolfe analysis I usually find the least worthwhile, but\nI feel at times it is necessary because there are very real patterns in the\nmeanings of this casts names involving fields, houses, and properties.\n\nJames (he who supplants/beloved disciple) Stubb — tree trunk, nickname for\na short stout, man, though Barnes indicates that he feels Stubbe with an e\nmeans room.\n\nCatherine (Innocent) Margaret (Pearl) Garth -Keeper of the garden?\n\nMarie/Serpentina — her real name implies beloved, star of the sea. The\nserpent is obvious, as is her later identification as the good witch,\nGlinda.\n\nCassius Illingworth — Madame Serpentina’s breakdown of the name is\ndifferent than the official one, saying at one point that she defrauded one\nwho was named after someone with influence below (Cassius is in Satan’s\nmouth after betraying Julius Caesar in Dante's *Divine Comedy*), and his\nlast name bodes the ill that he is worth despite his boasts. However,\nIllingworth would actually refer to a fenced area or “worth” fortified\nagainst a battle.\n\nJohn B. Sweet need scarcely be mentioned for its obvious connotations as\nfar as the prostitute Candy goes.\n\nPhil (loves horses) Reeder — someone who thatches cottages. I suppose he is\nacross from Barnes because — horses are kept in a barn? And it is at this\npoint that we must move on, for we have already mentioned the relationship\nbetween Nimo and Nemo.\n\n*REVISIONS*\n\nFree Live Free also gives us a look at revision in Wolfe, with the Zeising\nversion representing a penultimate draft. While the differences are not\nextreme, there are a few noticeable ones beyond word choice which have\ninterpretive connotations that we will explore here. The cumulative effect\nis to show Free folding backwards and becoming more portentious and to\nchange both the character of Stubb so that he is less lecherous. The very\nfirst chapter is retitled from “Selling Weather” to “Four Roomers of War”.\nThis markedly different chapter title shifts the theme from Barnes'\noptimistic view of the sales situation even though he is destitute to one\nshowing a conflict in which these four are clearly to some degree victims.\nThere are two other significant changes in this chapter: the policeman who\ncomes to shake down Candy for money asks specifically for Candy here and\nthen strikes her, dissatisfied with the amount she gives him. This is\nclearly a pay off so she is not arrested. This policeman, Norris, is\ncompletely eradicated in the Tor version and is replaced with Proudy, the\nSergeant who will later suffer a head wound and be institutionalized at the\nBelmont Psych Ward. Thus Proudy is a bit more sympathetic in the Zeising\nversion. In the Tor version, he comes specifically looking for “Bernard”\nFree and shaking down Candy for money is incidental when he recognizes her\nvoice upstairs. The scene where Norris goes upstairs has different dialog:\n?'You let whores stay here, sir?' 'No Horace here,' the old man said.\n(Wolfe Ziesing 6) After some other slightly altered statements about\nforgetting to collect rent or even giving the boarders the money, Norris\ngoes upstairs. The television is designated as merely having sounds. In the\nTor version this is replaced with a discussion about time:\n\n“You got to be out tomorrow, understand that's all the time you got.”\n\n“Used to have a lot more. — All of it. I'm not going. Going to die here.”\nThe sounds of the television are described as “rotary-engined fighters\nwarmed up on the deck of a black and white aircraft carrier.” (Wolfe Tor 7)\n\nThis presages the High Country Plane much more effectively, where\nReagan's *Hellcats\nof the Navy*, on the TV here, will be referenced again. The other movie\nmentioned during this introductory chapter is of course *The Wizard of Oz.*\n\nThe interaction between Stubb and Free in Chapter 4 is also significantly\naltered, especially after Free mentions that he never sees rabbits, bears,\nor dear. The scene ends like this:\n\n“People don't know how poor they are.” He straightened up, squaring\nshoulders that were still wide, and went out.\n\nHalf a minute later, Stubb heard the door of the master bedroom close and\nthe click of the bolt. He took off his glasses and produced an almost clean\nhandkerchief from his hip pocket. When he had wiped the lenses thoroughly,\nhe took a notebook and an automatic pencil from his shirt pocket and,\ntwisting his face in a laborious grimace, wrote a note in his minute hand.\n(Wolfe Ziesing 31)\n\nAfter speaking of the animals in the Tor edition, Free declares:\n\n“You people don't know how poor you are.” He straightened up, squaring\nshoulders that were still wide.\n\n?The creatures are all gone now, Mr. Stubb, as I soon shall be. Murdered.'\nStubb leaped up By the time he reached the door, the parlor beyond it was\nempty. So was Free's bedroom.\n\nReturning to the kitchen, he removed his glasses and produced an almost\nclean handkerchief. When he had wiped the lenses thoroughly, he took a\nnotebook and an automatic pencil from his shirt pocket and, twisting his\nface in a laborious grimace, wrote something in an almost microscopic hand.\n(Wolfe Tor 25)\n\nFree declares precognition of his murder and vanishes in the Tor scene\nhere, making him much more mysterious. As Stubb walks to the cafe later, an\ninterplay with another cop of the seventeenth precinct is taken out of the\ntor version, in which the cop asks Jim where he is going and jokingly says\nthat his Sergeant tells how Jim and the Sergeant play bridge together, and\nthen declines to give Stubb a ride: “This ain't a cab.”\n\nChapter 7 represents the most important revision because a different Free\nshows up to warn Barnes in the Tor version:\n\nThe candle went out. “You're wrong, Barnes.” The voice was Free's and yet\nnot Free's, as though a new and different Free had come suddenly with the\ndark. ?\n\n“Your trying to ask me where I put my gizmo, and what it is. A way to make\nme tell you what I hardly know myself about something you don't understand.\nWell, I put it where I told you. In a wall. I could have put it someplace\nelse, but it was a wall I chose.” (Wolfe Tor 45)\n\nIn the Ziesing edition, there is no talk of a different Free coming here,\nand the dialog does not change from the informal frontier style:\n\n“You're tryin' to figure out how you can ask me where I put that thing I\nhad. What I call my treasure, and what it is. Some way that'll get me to\ntell you what I hardly know myself about somethin' you're not even close to\nunderstandin'” (Wolfe Ziesing 56-7).\n\nThis revision indicates that a different Free has come back, possibly\nimmediately after the scene at the end of the novel, to give Barnes the\nextra bit of information he needs to find the gizmo under the Free Live\nFree sign in the epilogue. The Free dialog before this point maintained the\nsame informality of the original Ziesing text throughout, indicating this\nnarrative space as a conscious folding point Wolfe added in the final\ndraft, changing Free's voice as a clue to this replacement. The candle\npresages the darkness of the asylum as well and the loss of power\nthroughout the city.\n\nSeveral scenes involving Candy are changed in the Tor version, eliminating\nher mention of the cop who took her money once they arrive at the Consort\nhotel and also getting rid of a bird like description to describe her\ntaking a drink. The scene in which the bell hops bicker over the money due\nthem by Joe Majewski, who has been cheated by Madame Serpentina with her\nprestidigitation, is slightly extended. In the elevator with Candy, the\nbellhop Fuentes offers to do whatever Serpentina needs more cheaply than\nJoe, and warns Candy that Joe cannot be trusted until he returns the\nseventy dollars he owes Serpentina. This is excised from the Tor version.\n\nIn the Ziesing edition, when Serpentina visits her gypsy family, Rose says\nthat she is her mother though she is not really her mother (ie -\nstepmother), and the King ends the chapter by saying “Is this how a\ndaughter speaks to her father?” This relationship is brought up again by\nRose when she infiltrates the Belmont looking for Proudy. The Tor edition\nmerely hints that Serpentina is a princess of the gypsies and is less overt\nin this implication. During the interrogation at the Belmont, Barnes gives\nhis age as 41 in the Ziesing edition and 34 in the Tor edition, but in both\nversions his age is given at 35 in the opening scenes when he responds to a\nlonely hearts ad. Either way he lies about his age, slightly or extremely.\n\nChapter 29 also has a significantly different introduction. Rather than\npassively look at the building and note an unidentified man's tracks in the\nsnow as in the Ziesing edition, Stubb mutters “In a wall” and begins to\nactively demolish the walls with a hammer, noting that the foot prints\nbelonged to Barnes and Serpentina.\n\nAfter Barnes gives his comedic introduction to Binko's band, the Tor\nedition has an entirely new section in which Sandy Duck picks up Osgood\nBarne's son (Wolfe Tor 325-6). The Ziesing edition completely omits this\nsection, ending with the words, “KILROY WAS HERE.”\n\nIn addition, Chapter 43 of the Ziesing edition is completely excised,\nentitled “Monkey Bars.” In this chapter Candy complains that police would\ndo little to defend a sandwich shop but that looters dare not attack a bar,\nand that there are two types of businesses she designates as regular and\n“monkey” businesses. Movies, TV, bars — these are all monkey businesses\nmeant to keep the majority of the people entertained, drunk, and docile,\nfed on illusions. She tells of a fellow prostitute who met a college film\nmajor since she always went to romantic movies after her tricks. The film\nstudent and the prostitue developed a relationship, but rather than elevate\nher to respectability, when he found out he started pimping her out as\nwell, but would only let her see good movies. This chapter changes Stubb's\ncharacter quite a bit because in it he keeps thinking as he is helping the\ninebriated Candy around that he should have taken advantage of her when she\nwas drunk in the opening scenes, helping her up the door. Cutting out this\nchapter makes Stubb seem slightly more chivalrous in the Tor version and\navoids the condemnation of the entertainment and bar industry for keeping\nthe people as satisfied sheep.\n\nDuring the chapter in which Serpentina meets Illingworth, he expresses\ncuriosity about her powers.\n\n“I'm also a fairly good medium, particularly with unhuman spirits —\nelementals, that sort of thing.”\n\n“Demons?”\n\nThe witch hesitated, then nodded slowly. “occasionally, yes.” (Wolfe\nZeising 362)\n\nIn the Tor version, she replies:\n\n“I am also a fairly good medium, particularly with the nonhuman spirits —\nelementals and so forth.”\n\n“Demons, Mademoiselle?”\n\nThe witch hesitated, then nodded guardedly. “They have other, and better\nnames; but occasionally, yes” (Wolfe Tor 288).\n\nThis somewhat alters the supernatural state of the novel.\n\nFinally, the chapters Murder Mystery (Chapter 50 in both versions) and\nServing the Country (49 in Tor Version and 51 in the Ziesing version) are\nswitched so that Stubb's dramatic “desire” chapter is last — this shows us\nFree's death at the hands of his daughter Kip, so the effect of having\nCandy drugged after this does not seem to have the same rising urgency. The\nTor placement is superior for dramatic tension.\n\nOutside of word choice and connotation in a few other places, these\nrepresent the major differences between the two versions. The Tor version\nrepresents a final draft insofar as the folding back of Free and the\nfrequent mention of airplanes creates a slightly more complete subtext, and\nthe excised portions seem either unimportant, or, in Stubb's case, a slight\nchange to his character.\n\n*Proudy,* *Oz, God, and the Hotel Call *\n\n\tIn many ways, Proudy's madness hints that he has some understanding\nof what the future will hold for these four characters. Whether this\nis the result of “folding” backwards through the gizmo or simple\ninsanity is elided from the text, but judging from Madame Serpentina's\nmirror divination and Proudy's statements. According to Serpentina:\n\t?The greatest event of the coming decade will be the quadrumvirate.\nFour leaders, unknown today, shall unite to take politial, financial,\nartistic, and judicial power. They shall create a revolution of\nthought. Many who are now rulers shall be imprisoned or exiled. Many\nwho are now powerless shall rise to places of great authority. The\nrich shall be made poo, and the poor rich. Old crimes, long concealed\nshall be made public, and their perpetrators given to the people as to\na pride of lions. The four shall be hated and idolized, but their\nrule will not end within the period specified by my prediction.\n(Wolfe Tor 111).\nProudy believes that the people he watches from his hotel room are those four:\n\n“I know about you. — You don't think I do, but I do. You don't think\nanyone knows, do you. Well, I do. — I know more about you than you do\nabout yourselves. ? What could I say” Quit? Your boss wouldn't allow\nyou to quit. ? Confess and bargain with the Prosecutor's Office for\npolice protection? They wouldn't believe you any more than they would\nme. Kill yourself? That wouldn't work either now would it? ? We'll\nfight it out, you people and me. I got a hand tied behind me: I got\nto work inside the law, or pretty much. You can do as you damn\nplease. There's four of you with God knows how many millions or\nbillions behind you, and only one of me. — That's okay, too. (139).\nWhile not extremely problematic given the ability of the gizmo to fold\nback time for Proudy to be somewhat aware of what will happen, it\nstill seems to me that this scene follows the allegorical pattern\nestablished by Wolfe with Uncle Sam/Ben Free. Proudy's name, so close\nto pride, seems to be what the four must struggle with in order to\novercome their limitations. Seeking for proud Proudy in the asylum,\nthere is the sense that he is very important but their actual\ninteraction with him is curtailed and limited. This is the strangest\naspect of the narrative — Proudy's failure to return in the final\nscenes given his exaggerated importance early. It is quite clear,\nhowever, that he does NOT see clearly, mistaking a lighter for a gun\nand assuming that the bellhop who entered the room must have been\nkilled by the four when he merely went a different way. The vision\nproblems of Stubb and Barnes (one with a fake eye that pops out and\nthe other with the glasses that dominate his face) might resonate with\nthis prideful inability to see truly important things and distort\ntheir dreams to the lowest level.\n\tPutting aside pride for an instant, previous commentary on *Free Live\nFree* has made much of the Oz associations. These scenes usually\ninvolve Candy or her observations in one form or another, make me feel\nthat it is Candy who is most obsessed with that dreamlike escape.\nHowever, there is one more disturbing elision that hangs over the\ncharacter of Candy involving the phone call she receives at the start\nof Chapter 20 — a phone call whose entire dialog from her side is\nrepeated again in the novel: “Hello — Yes, it's me — I'm staying with\nher — Okay. It was real nice hearing from you, you know” We thought\nsomething might have happened to you. (129) When questioned about\nit, she responds to “You didn't tell somebody from the hotel you were\nstaying with Madam S.” with “Huh uh. It wasn't from the hotel — It\nwas for me, all right” I answered it. I got the message. It was my\nbusiness. Later, Serpentina asks about it, and slightly misremembers\nthe conversation as “It was real nice hearing from you again, you\nknow” (147). Candy indicates that it is Joe Majewski who called her\nat this point, but this does not jive with her previous claim that it\nwas no one from the hotel — and she has never actually met Joe in\nperson, merely heard about him from the other bellhops. Both Stubb\nand Serpentina think that it might be Free calling, but why would\nCandy be reluctant to admit this? Stubb also believes that she was\nincarcerated by the police before returning to the Free House — is\nCandy working with Proudy or one of the other policemen? The male\nsuspects for making the call are limited to Free, Dr. Makee, Proudy,\nanother policeman, or Joe, but it is very difficult to discern who\nwould actually have an interest in calling her at this point in the\nstory with the knowledge of where she is. Is Candy lying here at her\nentrance into the pact?\tThis is perhaps the least clear part of the\ntext, so let us move back to our examination of Candy's infatuation\nwith Oz. Of course in the very opening scene Candy indicates that she\nloves when the *Wizard of Oz* is on, and after escaping the Belmont,\nshe thinks that the clown will begin singing the infamous movie song,\nwhich little Ozzie actually breaks into. In the opening chapters when\nStubb makes a deduction, Barnes jokes that he has been taking lessons\nfrom the Wicked Witch of the West. By the epilogue, Serpentina is\nidentified with Glinda the good, her opposite. Osgood's name is\nshortened to Ozzie, and in the scene on the High Country, when the\nlighting makes Serpentina flash different colors, Candy declares,\n“It's like that *Wizard of Oz* movie — whores of a different color,\nremember?” (Wolfe Tor 384) In the Ziesing edition this is at least the\nsecond pun on whores. Since it is mentioned at the beginning and at\nthe end,many have tried to map the characters exactly with the\nScarecrow, the Lion, the Tinman, Dorothy, and Toto,and I will here\nquote an old post on the Urth List by James Jordan:\n\n\n The four main characters each have a besetting sin. These seem to link\nwith four of the Seven Deadly Sins (Pride, Greed, Envy, Anger, Lust,\nGluttony, Sloth). Fat Candy - gluttony. That's a no-brainer. (Her name\nlinks to this also, of course.) Ozzie (Osgood = Oz-Good) Barnes (the\nsalesman) - lust. I think his marriage broke up because of unfaithfulness,\nthough this is not stated. Stubb (the detective) - pride. He thinks he can\nhandle everything, and has a \"little man complex\" or \"Napoleon complex.\" As\na short man consumed by being short, he's a \"stub.\" Madame Serpentina -\nwitchcraft, perhaps greed as lust for power (the sin of the Serpent,\nSatan). Also, as a gypsy pickpocket she's \"greedy.\" (Note that her name\noriginally was Marie, Mary, but that she has fallen from this \"Christian\"\nname into serving Satan as Madame Serpentina.) Each is trapped by his/her\nsin just before being offered a new life. — (for his complete and\ncomprehensive post, please examine\nhttp://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0030/0313.shtml)\n\nThis corroborates information from Wolfe's interview with Jordan himself:\n\nGW: ... One of the things that I was trying to say was that America is not\nfree and is becoming less so. And that we have to realize it and we have to\nresolve within ourselves to be free and to oppose the forces that are\nenslaving us. — I tried to give the four borders, I tried to give each sort\nof a besetting sin. Madame Serpentina, it's pride. Candy, it is gluttony.\nStub, I forget now. Osgood Barnes, sexuality of course ....Envy, envy I\nthink is Stubbs. And I wasn't trying to write allegory. I wasn't saying he\nwas a personification of envy. I wanted to show men and women who were\nactually beset by these sins. Trying to, given an opportunity to become\nsomething bigger and better than they had been by defeating the sin to some\ndegree. Candy of course gets what she wants. She stuffs herself to the\npoint that she can't stuff herself no more. And finds that this is not\nreally paradise, it is not heaven, even though she has achieved it. Osgood\nBarnes comes to see sex as something more than the physical act. He comes\nto see the possibilities of love and sacrifice and so on. That is what I\ntried to do at least. (Jordan)\n\nOf course, despite these words, while they are realistic characters through\nthe majority of the novel, they veer into strange and idealized archetypal\npatterns by the end of their character arcs: Serpentina becomes Glinda,\nBarnes becomes Popeye, Stubbs transforms away from the furtive and shifty\nElijah Cook Jr identification, and Uncle Sam transforms into “Free” - these\nall have very obvious allegorical connotations. Which leads me to identify\nFree Live Free as a strange blend of low mimesis realism and mythic\nromanticism — a naturalistic urban allegory.\n\nThis realism transformed into allegory is further exacerbated by the\nstrange little patterns that develop around certain characters. Also on the\nUrth List (accessible at http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0030/0321.shtml),\nWilliam Ansley noted several passages that seem to indicate the relatively\nminor Dr. Makee is God-like:\n\n\t\"Do I look like God?\" the old doctor said. \"I don't know.\" As a\nmatter of fact he did look \tlike God. He was a small, elderly man who\nsported a little white beard and an even \twhiter\tmustache; the collar\nof a tattersail shirt--an almost infallible sign of the presence \tof\ndeity--peeped above the collar of his overcoat. (Wolfe Tor 69)\nThis is echoed again later:\t\tBarnes shook his head.\n \t\"She said, 'God, you gotta take care of Baby Phil because he won't\nnever\ttake care of himself.' I wasn't there, but Bubba was, and he\ntold me. God\thas to get me out, and you're his chosen instrument.\"\n \t\"Instrument, hell. I never even met Him!\"\n \tDr. Makee chuckled and nudged Barnes with an elbow. \"Don't be too\nsure.\" (Wolfe Tor \t241-2)\n Ansley concludes that Free becomes a symbolic son of this God like figure:\nThe old doctor began to pump the blood pressure cuff. \"He was my son,\nyou know.\" Barnes stared at him, and he chuckled again. \"Not my actual\nson--Tommy died a long while ago, and I think Ben was really a few\nyears older than I am. But we used to pretend that way and we had a\nlot of fun. (Wolfe Tor 206)\nI think that this interplay here at least riffs on the idea that\nAmerica , at least as far as the English colonization, was established\non principles of religious freedom. The freedom to choose the highest\npossible dream in *Free Live Free* leads to a literal apotheosis,\nforever separating the novel from any naturalistic roots and creating\nthat strange dichotomy between the day to day failures depicted\nthrough the novel and the ticket to transcendent freedom offered these\nfour characters on the High Country.\n\n*Works Consulted*\n\nde Givry, Grillot. *Witchcraft, Magic, & Alchemy*. Courier Dover\nPublications, 1931.\n\nJordan, James B. “Gene Wolfe Interview.” Paul Duggan. 1992. Web. 21 May\n2014. http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2tmhh/wolfejbj.html\n\nMcHenry, Deni. “Rembrand'ts 'Faust in His Study' Reconsidered: A Record of\nJewish Patronage and Mysticism in Mid-Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam.” *Yale\nUniversity Art Gallery Bulletin* (Spring, 1989). 9-19.\n\nWolfe, Gene. *Free Live Free*. New York: Tor Books, 1985.\n\nWolfe, Gene. *Free Live Free*. Willimantic: Mark V. Ziesing, 1984." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-05-21T19:08:04+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Free Live Free", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I think I accidentally mixed up the names John and James in my write up -\nof course John implies the Beloved Disciple, not James. Sorry about that.\nAnother reason I really don't like the onomastics Borski adores ever so\nmuch." } ] } ] }