Cassie as the Ambassador's wife

Roy C. Lackey · 19 Sep 2009, 19:23 · from 2009-September.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2009 14:23:54 -0500
Subject: (urth) Cassie as the Ambassador's wife
References: <004f01ca388e$c0e19080$b8cf4a0c@rclackey>
	<4AB434DA.3090306 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <003001ca395e$bdc69e60$3fd14a0c@rclackey>

Dave Tallman quoted and wrote:
> > I'm sure I've said this before, but Gid repeatedly referred to the
shooter
> > with masculine pronouns.
> I'm not sure how good a look Gid got. Also, isn't Wolfe of the old
> school on pronouns? He doesn't go in for the "him or her" stuff much.

I went to the same school of pronouns <g>, but that's not the case here. "I
saw the man who shot me. He didn't resemble John. It wasn't his face or his
body type. As for it being a friend of his, I doubt it very much. His
friends are good shots, and this man wasn't" (203)

> If the shooter is anyone we know or see later (and it should be, to be a
> fair mystery), then they should either have an injured face or be of a
> type of creature known to regenerate rapidly. Werewolves in legend can
> heal rapidly from any wounds not made with silver weapons. We never see
> anyone with an injured face. So the shooter is someone we never see
> again (unfair) or Margaret.

I don't know what the answer is, but Gid said the shooter was a man. He
could be lying, but why? Transformation "up" or "down" is mentioned, but not
sideways. That is, there is nothing to indicate that a human could transform
himself (see, old-school pronoun) to look like another human, even of the
same gender.

Margaret might be a werewolf but, shooter or not, if she is, where does it
show up in the story? The only demonstrable werewolf I know of is Al, the
fake FBI agent.

-Roy

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