The Sorcerer's House Questions (Major Spoilers)

Thomas Bitterman · 31 Mar 2010, 01:55 · from 2010-March.txt.gz

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From: tom at bitterman.net (Thomas Bitterman)
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:55:01 -0400
Subject: (urth) The Sorcerer's House Questions (*Major Spoilers*)
In-Reply-To: <C7D7D123.B7B3%ishmael at drizzle.com>
References: <j2ie11bddb61003301544xa78806c6x51b223eff85b602a at mail.gmail.com>
	<C7D7D123.B7B3%ishmael at drizzle.com>
Message-ID: <s2je11bddb61003301855n3dd09c4fw9c5835c23894a963 at mail.gmail.com>

On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 7:02 PM, James Crossley <ishmael at drizzle.com> wrote:

>  On 3/30/10 3:44 PM, "Thomas Bitterman" <tom at bitterman.net> wrote:
>
> Windows into Faerie, werewolves, vampires, visions of the future, astral
> projection, triannuluses (triannuli?), houses that grow and rearrange -
> these are all harder to swallow than lucking into money.  Not everything he
> says is false, just the stuff about Faerie.
>
>
> Just so I have this straight?you?re arguing that all the supernatural
> elements in the book are the product of Bax?s imagination, part of a scheme
> to eliminate his brother, capture Millie?s affections and explain his
> new-found wealth?
>

Exactly.  The only exceptions being:
- the Hound stories, which Bax picked up from local legends
- Doris seeing Ted, when she was not terribly emotionally stable

This theory is similar to the one where Severian was just a stooge for some
aliens, and was mistaken/lied to/lied about the Increate all along.

If so, why all the coy hints the reader puts together along the way (fox =
> Winker, Zwart = Black, etc.)? Why couldn?t the fantastic part of the story
> be told more explicitly? It would be an equally (un)convincing tale whether
> laid out straightforwardly or in Wolfean fashion.  And who?s the reading
> audience who has to be convinced, just Millie?
>

Bax is clever, smart, and well-read.  He likes his little jokes.  But there
are limits.  The story he weaves is already full of loose threads and
problems.  Making the story more explicit makes it more complex and harder
to keep straight.

Bax has two audiences: Millie and the general public.  Millie is the most
important - he needs to woo her (and anger George) and uses her fondness for
fantastic stories to do it.  The general public will be dissuaded from
looking too closely at the dodgy transactions involved due to the fantastic
stories surrounding them.  And last, Bax wants to brag.
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