AEG clones

Roy C. Lackey · 19 Dec 2008, 23:33 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:33:08 -0600
Subject: (urth) AEG clones
References: <011201c961a7$9d3811e0$4dcf4a0c@rclackey>
	<494B94D4.4060605 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <004e01c96232$2a0dbcc0$5fd24a0c@rclackey>

Stupid me. Wolfe hid the answer in plain sight.

I wrote:
> Also at Rusterman's, Reis said:
> "You were wearing green the first time I saw you."
> "In the play? I wasn't. That was brown."
> "So it was. I was thinking of the party. I took you home, remember?"
> Cassie nodded. "Thank you. You saw _The Red Spot_, though. The final
> performance."
> "I didn't. I know I said I did, but that was . . ."
> "Diplomacy?"
> "Yes, exactly. India had given me tickets, and I didn't want to admit I
> hadn't used them."(119)
>
> Diplomacy? Cassie had seen him in the audience (53), and at the cast party
> he said he had been there. (66) So was he lying then or now? Sure, his
first
> sight of her could have been on vid; he demonstrated the capability to her
> three months later in his car. But Gid had put the glamour on her less
than
> twenty-four hours before that final performance. So who did she see in the
> audience?

In fairness to myself, my OED failed me. But when I complained to my wife
about it after school today, she knew right off the definition I was looking
for, and Google confirmed it.

Reis did lie to Cassie, but his lie was in the attempt to cover up the truth
about what she was wearing the first time he saw her. I knew there had to be
a text-based solution, so I went looking for every mention of Cassie's
clothes before the play. I found the green dress; I just didn't know the
meaning of the word. "The warmer dress she had put on for the short walk to
Baskin-Robbins hung neatly beside it. Its loden wool held a sweet and smoky
aroma, with a bitter undercurrent." (43) Loden is a shade of green, as any
woman could tell you. That is the dress Cassie was wearing when Reis first
saw her.

She had that dress on only from the time she dressed for the ice cream
store, shortly before midnight, until Gideon (or someone) undressed her
after taking her home. Sometime that night, presumably after Gid cast the
glamour on her, Reis saw her and wanted her. That's why he went to India at
noon before the play to become her "angel" in a big, new musical.

But this brings up two more questions: Exactly when and where did Reis see
her that night? And was Gid complicit in the viewing? What kind of gentleman
hypnotizes a woman he just met, plants suggestions and leaves a void in her
memory, then takes her home and takes her clothes off? OTOH, Gid did arrange
for video publicity from Sharon during the day, before the play that
evening.

-Roy

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