AEG trembling mountains

Stephen Hoy · 24 Mar 2009, 17:39 · from 2009-March.txt.gz

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From: stephenhoy at yahoo.com (Stephen Hoy)
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:39:12 -0600
Subject: (urth) AEG trembling mountains
Message-ID: <NGECKNKNFCCKJFJGAFLHKEEADMAA.stephenhoy at yahoo.com>

A couple of news items this week made me think of places in An
Evil Guest.

The first was a report of a large quake (7.1 magnitude)
associated with the eruption of an undersea volcano--about 130mi
southeast of the main isle of the Tonga group. I seem to recall
earlier discussions on-list mentioning the Friendly Isles as an
analog of Wolfe's Takanga; I don't have much to add to what's
already been noticed.

The second news item was about the fatal accident of actress
Natasha Richardson at a ski resort in the Laurentians. This
directed my attention to Mont Tremblant. In an early chapter of
AEG, Gid and Cassie drive to a mountain where Gid magnifies
Cassie's natural star quality. We get a clue to the location of
the mountain when the black car passes a sign pointing to
"Toronto" and Gid says "we have to reach Canada and travel
another hundred miles." Mont Tremblant is about 150 miles from
the Vermont border so the distance isn't unreasonably far off.
Does Vermont fit the book's geography? Kingsport is a stand-in
for Marblehead in Lovecraft's universe, so the natural route to
Mont Tremblant would be by way of I--89 through Vermont. This is
not inconsistent with a road sign pointing to Toronto--along the
way, you'll see at least one sign pointing to Toronto.

What cinches it for me is that Mont Tremblant is the home of the
Order of the Magnificat of the Mother of God, a religious order
that split from the Catholic Church about 100 years ago. It's not
much of a stretch to connect this symbolically to the
magnification of Cassie's animal magnetism on the trembling
mountain.

- Stephen Hoy

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