Sherry Gold's death

StoneOx17 · 29 May 2002, 10:56 · from urth-v0205.mbox · original

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From: StoneOx17 at aol.com
Subject: (urth) Sherry Gold's death
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 06:56:17 EDT
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In response to my post about Mr. Tilly's death, mantis comments

> About Sherry Gold, Stone Ox wrote:
> >I would counter that the most mysterious thing about Doris's death is why
> >she is in the book in the first place, and that Sherry's death occured
> >long after Weer's.
> No, my understanding is that Sherry died and then=20
> Weer had a stroke the dayafter.  This stroke may or may=20
> not have been fatal.

I'm not convinced.  I see Sherry's death as being one instance of the=20
"everybody is dead" theme, and Weer's stroke as being the first of
his ailments in the afterlife (although it may be a reflection of a real
stroke that killed him) as in "... I am very ill.  Sicker, I think, than I
have ever been before--sicker, even, than I was this winter, before
Eleanor Bold's tree fell."  In fact, I think Weer had his posthumous
stroke _because_ Sherry Gold died, and that she was the last=20
person alive who remembered him well.

The key is the following passage (p. 29 of the Orb edition)
"Now ... I feel that she [Weer's mother] lived on and on through whole ages=20
of the world, as though she might have lived on forever. (As perhaps=20
elsewhere she has.)  It is too late for it now, but it seems to me that we=20
ought to have kept records, by the new generations, of our remoteness from=20
events of high significance.  When the last man to have seen some occurrenc=
e=20
or personality of importance died; and then when the last person who knew h=
im=20
died, and so on. But first, we would have the first man describe this event=
,=20
this thing he had seen, and when each of them was gone, we would read the=20
description publicly to see if it still meant anything to us--and if it did=20
not, the series, the chain of linked lives, would be at an end."

This view ties in very well with my interpretation of the story of the gees=
e=20
of Lough Conn (is Lough Conn really the Kanakessee?) and the ending of Peac=
e,=20
where, when the last person to have heard of Weer dies, Weer's ghost reache=
s=20
the end of his time and, not realizing that all he has to do to reach Heave=
n=20
is repent of his sins and ask Jesus for admission, goes back in time to=20
relive his afterlife.  The geese of Lough Conn are the memories of Weer hel=
d=20
by the living, and the hermit who baptizes the goose is Dan French, who Wee=
r=20
finds instead of the doctors he is looking,\ for, but who nevertheless give=
s=20
him the best advice possible. =20

I set forth this interpretation in more detail in my post of September 7,=20
2001, which, either because of its timing or its content, seems to have bee=
n=20
largely ignored.  And thanks to Michael Straight for his suggestion, obviou=
s=20
once its been made, that the Chinese philosopher's headrest at the end mean=
s=20
that Weer will be reliving his afterlife (and not necessarily for the first=20
time).

Stone Ox

--=20

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