_Peace_ by Gene Wolfe (SPOILERS)

adam louis stephanides · 16 Nov 1996, 18:51 · from sf-lovers.1996.mbox

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From: astephan at students.uiuc.edu (adam louis stephanides)
Subject: Re: _Peace_ by Gene Wolfe (SPOILERS)
Date: 16 Nov 1996 18:51:08 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v21-483-8 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V21 #483
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-21b

kmaroney at crossover.com (Kevin J. Maroney) writes:
>First, Wolfe has confirmed that Weer is a ghost, wandering through a
>ghost's life; further, most of the events of the novel only make sense in
>that context.

I accept this; but I think it would be a Good Thing if somebody (not me; I
don't know the book well enough) were to spell out the case for this in
detail.

In my original post, I listed the evidence I saw for Weer being dead, which
was

1) the elm tree bit;

2) the unlikelihood of somebody as rich and as sick as Weer ostensibly is
being left completely alone (no servants or medical supervision), as he
supposedly is;

3) the ghost stories embedded in the book.

Damien Broderick, in the New York Review of Science Fiction, has pointed
out the quote from Gold's Necronomicon about "the soul of the dead man,
seeking now in all the chambers under the vault of the skull its old
resting places." (Which does support the view that Weer's house is
imaginary.)  All this convinces me, but I'm not sure it would convince a
skeptic.

Regarding Wolfe's testimony, without getting into an argument about the
"intentional fallacy," I think it would be a flaw in the book if it were
not possible to determine from the text alone that Weer is dead (assuming,
as I do, that he is intended to be dead).

Adam

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