Gideon

Dave Tallman · 08 Jan 2009, 17:46 · from 2009-January.txt.gz

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From: davetallman at msn.com (Dave Tallman)
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 10:46:02 -0700
Subject: (urth) Gideon
Message-ID: <1bf4dd40901080946j510c582es1fdfb47388936151 at mail.gmail.com>

John Watkins wrote:

I am wondering, however, what place An Evil Guest has in Wolfe's body
of work.  I think it's fair to consider Pirate Freedom and The Wizard
Knight as paired novels in a sense--boys' adventure stories featuring
protagonists from what is basically our world heading into a world of
genre, both of whom are heavily shaped by the moral choices they make
(in contrasting manners.)  Both stories also has sort of parallel
pieces in Wolfe's short fiction--Golden City Far and A Cabin on the
Coast.

An Evil Guest is different.  I probably need to read Memorare stat to
understand exactly what relationship it has with Wolfe's other works

 I found the interview I mentioned here:
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=40135
It sheds some light on how Wolfe sees the freedom connections in the
following two quotes.

"March's hopper [spacecraft] is a 21st-century version of Chris' pirate ship
in *Pirate Freedom."

*"Cassie Casey becomes a queen and discovers that she can no longer buy
anything," he said. "Each dress, each pair of shoes she wants, is given to
her. William Reis can make gold and become invisible; one of his employees
is a werewolf who will gladly kill (and eat) anyone Reis wants killed (and
eaten). Gideon Chase is, well, Gideon Chase. A wizard, almost human, and so
slick he can slide up a flagpole. Laws and societal restraints mean little
to him. He loses a leg, but in a way he is freest of all."
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