Change of Pace / Peace

David Duffy · 16 Dec 2011, 22:27 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: David.Duffy at qimr.edu.au (David Duffy)
Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2011 08:27:35 +1000 (EST)
Subject: (urth) Change of Pace / Peace
In-Reply-To: <CAM0v-i5_=eFvR9jvh+B_MBYGKeoJvqKQii=6oFxFJ2AuA-6eww at mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAM0v-i5_=eFvR9jvh+B_MBYGKeoJvqKQii=6oFxFJ2AuA-6eww at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.1112170742200.1766 at orpheus.qimr.edu.au>

On Fri, 16 Dec 2011, Antonin Scriabin wrote:

> I don't know if many of you watched the short-lived but well-executed HBO
> miniseries, *Carnivale*.

> Anyways, I noticed some parallels between it and *Peace*, during the 
> portion in which a character in the book (I can't remember if it is the 
> narrator himself or a story-within-a-story) apprentices with the man 
> turning to stone.  The young man goes, for some reason, to visit a 
> neighboring carnival, where he finds a mother-daughter "burlesque 
> dancer" team (just like in the TV show) and a character named Scudder 
> (the last name of the Avatar of good's father in the TV show). 
> "Scudder" is far from a common name; I can't think the similarity is 
> coincidental!

I didn't watch it (it looked like too much work ;)), but the Wikipedia 
article is fairly extensive. It suggests, for example, that the cootch 
family came into the story following research.  I would have thought 
Bradbury's _Something Wicked This Way Comes_, _Dr Lao_, even _The Dreaming 
Jewels_ might be other literary precedents.  And Nehemiah Scudder appears 
in Heinlein's _If This Goes On_

"The First Prophet was Nehemiah Scudder, a backwoods preacher turned 
President (elected in 2012)"

..that was my immediate thought when you mentioned the name Scudder.

Cheers, David Duffy.

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