Gideon

Dave Tallman · 14 Jan 2009, 23:03 · from 2009-January.txt.gz

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From: davetallman at msn.com (Dave Tallman)
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:03:23 -0700
Subject: (urth) Gideon
Message-ID: <1bf4dd40901141503lb7480c1q1f2d08dc706de7a3 at mail.gmail.com>

Roy C. Lackey wrote:

> Okay, assume that to be true and see where it leads. To trouble. I *hate*
> time travel stories. <g>
>
>
I'm sorry you feel that way, because so many Wolfe novels have some. In a
way that's good, because it gives us some background on how Wolfe handles
the paradoxes. He usually provides a way to change the past without
destroying the character involved.

1) The "Free Live Free" model is mostly out, because Cassie would merge into
Margaret for as long as she was there. However, its model of accumulating
knowledge from the future to the past is an interesting one, especially the
way Whitten's original mission becomes unnecessary. We are left with a
Whitten who remembers going to the future in a world where that didn't
happen, a world changed as a result of a trip he will no longer take. He
doesn't pop out of existence even though he has invalidated his past.
(However, the merge gave him a stable anchor-point Margaret doesn't have).

2) The Talos play, based on its own description by Severian as the
Conciliator in "Urth of the New Sun" looks like a fixed-universe loop, but
there might be ways to build it up with overridden Whitten-like trips. There
had better be, because rewriting Sev's life has happened at least once.

3) "Pirate Freedom" could be a fixed-universe loop, but Ignacio plays only a
little part in Chris' experience of the past. Chris could still go sailing,
leaving his wife and child alone or with someone less trustworthy, and
decide to go back and join them when that became possible. (The hidden time
loop with Bram Burt as Chris' father is much more problematic).

4) Cassie's idea is that if she fails to send her message it will be
"accounted for in some other way," sort of a self-repairing time stream that
supplies new causes. It would turn out that either some enemy sent a message
in her name, or Chase decided to lure her to Woldercan by pretending to
reply to a message, etc. Most of the options would be less desirable for her
than simply sending the message.

I don't know how Margaret and all her memories could be accounted for in
some other way, so I'll assume the Whitten way first. Let's say she manages
to kill Chase. Like Whitten, she remains around with memories of events that
never happened. The universe could live with one crazy person. Or she does
disappear, but one or more people get brainstorms and fill in her roles in
life, up to and including killing Chase.

Meeting Margaret at the end could actually be of benefit to Cassie in an
accumulating knowledge scenario. Margaret could pass on tips on what she
did, what didn't work, and so on from multiple cycles. That doesn't seem to
have happened in this novel, though Cassie could be lying to Klauser.

It might not save Cassie. As you said, Reis will still take her to the
island, and the conflict with the Storm King must still come to a climax in
some way. I don't know if there could eventually be a happy ending, but it's
a little bit more possible with no Chase working against them.
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