Gideon

Dave Tallman · 15 Jan 2009, 08:12 · from 2009-January.txt.gz

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From: davetallman at msn.com (Dave Tallman)
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:12:48 -0700
Subject: (urth) Gideon
In-Reply-To: <012301c9768b$3fe56620$c7cd4a0c@rclackey>
References: <012301c9768b$3fe56620$c7cd4a0c@rclackey>
Message-ID: <496EF000.1070404 at gmail.com>

Roy C. Lackey wrote:
> I don't think she *can* escape her fate, and that is the way Wolfe intended
> it to be.
>   
In spite of all the time-changing ideas I put in my previous post, I 
think you're absolutely right. In a Lovecraftian world there are no 
do-overs.

The repeat will be stable... but Margaret isn't sure of that at first. 
She could tell herself, "I have free will -- the last time the shot 
missed a vital spot, but I have a chance to kill Gideon Chase."

Remember that scene in the living room, where Cassie and Margaret are 
watching the news together (pp. 86-89). Margaret controls the MUTE 
button. In "MUTE" two children struggle to escape the grounds of the 
house where their father died, and there is a moment of horror when we 
realize there is no way out -- that all their work has brought them back 
to the exact same place. The two copies of Cassie wait for the news, 
each hoping for a different outcome. Margaret hears the exact same thing 
has happened as before, and she has lost.

A robin fighting its reflection is a picture of futility. When Cassie 
asks "Have you ever wanted to help out somebody you loved, and known 
that the only thing you could do for him was some tiny stupid thing that 
was a lot of trouble? And done it anyway? Any of you?" (p. 112), we can 
now see a world of pain in the two-word sentence: "Margaret nodded."

There's one more scene that takes on new meaning. On the hopper flight 
with Gib, Margaret pretends she has never hopped before and fakes a 
great fear of flying (pp. 154-156). It's an excuse to keep her eyes 
closed for the whole trip. She doesn't want Gib to see in her eyes how 
much she hates him, and to see the triumph in his look back at her.

With this reading, many of the objections to the book fall apart. Is it 
disjointed, with no connection from the madcap beginning to the dark 
horror ending? No, it's all horror, tied together by Cassie and 
Margaret. Does it end abruptly, giving no idea what will happen to 
Cassie? No, as Paul Harvey says: "Now we know... the rest of the story."

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