short story digression: Novel 1: Operation ARES

jbarach at aol.com · 26 Jun 2012, 20:24 · from 2012-June.txt.gz

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From: jbarach at aol.com (jbarach at aol.com)
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:24:53 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: (urth) short story digression: Novel 1: Operation ARES
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Marc --

Thanks for the survey of Operation ARES. You write: 

> There is some banter that the Captain does not
> understand the role of the bishop or clergy in the
> game, while the Captain jokes that Castle does not
> understand the role of the knight or warrior.

It seems to me that Wolfe is inviting us to view the novel in terms of chess.  Castle is, I suppose, a rook. The Captain would be a knight.  That much I get, but how it relates to the rest of the book I don't know.  And I don't know either what the reference to the bishop might be.  The bishop is, as you say, the clergy.  I take Castle to be saying that the clergy is ultimately going to be on the side of freedom and the Captain will fail because he doesn't pay attention to the church.  What does the church matter to the Captain?  They don't have obvious power.  But then ... there's nothing more about the clergy anywhere else in the book.  Nor can I trace the chess stuff any further.  

Thoughts?

John

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