PEACE: Psychopompous Circumstances

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 30 Oct 2000, 09:22 · from urth-v0030.mbox · original

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From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Subject: (urth) PEACE: Psychopompous Circumstances
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 09:22:32
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ADG wrote:

> ... perhaps there's something less solipsistic about this than we
> think. =20

Well, yeah, I was trying to make that point but did it far less
clearly than this. As nearly as I can read it, Sherry Gold really
_is_ in the "next room" of Dr V's office, etc.

> I think WEER sees them to some extent as simply memories, ghosts,
> or shadows, but what if that is a reflection of his isolation
> rather than the actual state of things? =20

Beautiful! That's another aspect I hadn't picked up but fits
marvellously with this whole reading -- W has to come to "peace"
not only with himself but with his neighbors; and as long as he
continues to regard them as figments, he can't.

Which makes Part V, and especially the last few pages, a real
breakthrough. What I at first thought of as W's consciousness
undergoing final disintegration makes as much sense, or more, if
we look at it as W ceasing to deny the reality of the people=20
he's interacting with in his "LAD."

(Alex's sigquote [Jn 8:32] fits this idea nicely, too.)

> This fits nicely with the lich's implication that Den and Gold
> are the spirits; perhaps to Miss Birkhead, Den is simply a
> character in her TAT-guided "purgatory." =20

I agree with double demurral:

1) We see only W's "purgatory" or search for "peace;" there's
no particular reason to suppose that Miss Birkhead would regard
the psychopomps as doctors or their guidance as psych tests.

2) We see only W's point of view; perhaps Miss Birkhead does not
share his trouble in perceiving her fellow "inmates" as real.

> This sharing of stories makes more sense thematically than to
> have the characters simply be dredged up by Den's dead soul --
> even Den states openly that this is not his story. =20

But Den is kind of clueless about what's going on here 8*) -- the
story we read is Den's story. And while=20

> He calls Julian Smart, of all people, the central character.

Specifically, if I recall correctly, "the central character of=20
my book," though I'm too lazy to go hunt it up at the moment.=20
But remember also the extremely suspect status of books in PEACE.

--Dan'l

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