The Riverman

Roy C. Lackey · 02 May 2010, 19:50 · from 2010-May.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 14:50:03 -0500
Subject: (urth) The Riverman
References: <s2mb12d82081004291556xb8be4071v43aa7e58fb5e8eb9 at mail.gmail.com><004901cae831$eb007e00$c3d24a0c@rclackey><h2wb12d82081004300019p577f47d8h18ff79fa4848f3a2 at mail.gmail.com><005301cae88f$359c8d20$a2d04a0c@rclackey><627588.65036.qm at web37602.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
	<623522.59747.qm at web37605.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <006401caea30$ab42ec20$66cd4a0c@rclackey>

Craig Brewer wrote:
> Another small point that may not be significant at all, but after the
final showdown, Martha tells Bax: "You have seen the Riverman. ... Not many
can say that." But he saw *three* hairy giants, and they emerged from the
forest, not the river. And since we have so many other things called River-
in this book (the motel, the suburban development that the Skotos Strip
becomes), is this whole Riverman thing bigger than just another example of
general "faerie" weirdness that Bax encounters?<

I tend to think that the Riverman (or Rivermen) is just another example of
Wolfe's catch-all notion of faerie. He did this before, in CASTLEVIEW, where
there was a Big Foot-like creature (or creatures) who really had little to
do with the Arthurian story. Also werewolves and phantom hitchhikers.

-Roy

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