Shades of beige

Adam Thornton · 07 Oct 2008, 04:06 · from 2008-October.txt.gz

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From: adam at io.com (Adam Thornton)
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2008 23:06:56 -0500
Subject: (urth) Shades of beige
In-Reply-To: <b12d82080810062047g57dc3798q519206c66cadbc1e at mail.gmail.com>
References: <410C7F2E-C485-429C-9EAE-4A9E9DC7B032 at io.com>
	<b12d82080810062047g57dc3798q519206c66cadbc1e at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6089163B-484C-41BF-A296-9AAC264A18AB at io.com>

On Oct 6, 2008, at 10:47 PM, Mr Thalassocrat wrote:
> We get an explanation from Gid for at least one character's  
> preferred colour styling: werewolves wear shades of grey.

Sure.  Which is why all the color focus has to mean something.

>  I don't think Cassie is a beast woman, is she? She's gone up from  
> human, not up from beast.

Has she?

>  Unless I've missed something, which is more than likely - this is a  
> *damn* strange book.

Why yes.  Yes, it is.

> Eg: Almost all of the story is tightly focused on Cassie - we see  
> what she sees, and so on. But there are three scenes where the focus  
> is on Gid sans Cassie: at the start, when he's shot, and when he's  
> spirited away from Cassie's apartment after being shot. After that:  
> no more Gid-focus. I really don't understand that. If you're going  
> to shift focus to another character at some points, why not at  
> others, and why not to others?

And the first scene *makes no sense* as a framing device.  Right?  I  
mean, *The President Of The United States*?  *Really?*

> A bunch other things. Overall, either there's a lot of hidden stuff  
> going on here  (and Wolfe has taken some scary risks that people  
> will just toss the book without caring enough to puzzle it out); or  
> else he's jumped the Shark-God (except for the beautiful writing in  
> the last third).
>
I enjoyed this one a lot more than _Pirate Freedom_.

I think there's something to be gained from looking at it as a  
Lovecraftian story.

But I can't make it make sense that way either.

Sure, I'll buy Gideon as Nyarlathotep.  His appearance is right, his  
charming ironic disavowal of gods and good and evil....

And the Squid God as Cthulhu?  Obviously.

But then....what's Bill Reis?

And the bat-things....well, they can't be nightgaunts, because they  
have faces.  So they're byhakee, I guess.  Does that make Bill  
Hastur?  The King In Yellow?  Does he wear yellow at some point?

Augh.  This will drive me mad.  Mad, I tell you.  But I put it to you,  
doctor: how can the man who developed the trans-cranial rectometer be  
mad?!?

Adam
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