PEACE: egg and intrigue

StoneOx17 · 21 Sep 2002, 01:54 · from urth-v0209.mbox · original

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From: StoneOx17 at aol.com
Subject: Re: (urth) PEACE: egg and intrigue
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 21:54:21 EDT
Message-ID: <urth-v0209-1756 at digest.urth.net>
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Adam Stephanides writes, in response to my posting on the egg hunt:

> StoneOx17 at aol.com wrote:

> > When they go to look at the egg, Aunt Olivia leaves her checkbook at ho=
me
> > and brings cash; this way she ensures that Mr. Macafee (who, she knows,=20
> > will bring his checkbook) will be able to outbid her.
>
> Do we know that Olivia has a checkbook?  I don't know whether a woman liv=
ing
> alone in a small town in 1929 would have automatically had a checking
> account.

Even though a substantial part of her income comes from her brother, Olivia=
's=20
a fairly well-off woman with expensive tastes (Pekinese, scientific=20
journals, etc.), so she's much more likely to have a checkbook than a typic=
al=20
woman from that era.  However, the best argument for her having a checkbook=20
is the irony that her act of leaving the checkbook at home so as to have a=20
good excuse to stop bidding is the very act that lets Em Lorn find a way to=20
give the egg to the lower bidder.

> > She knows the price of the egg
> > already -- the cost of a good sewing machine -- and she brings enough=20
> > to bid the price substantially above that.
>=20
> It's a minor point, but the sewing machine is just one of the things Em L=
orn
> plans to buy with the money from the egg (p. 78, Harper & Row hc).

I thought I'd reread the relevant parts just before my posting, but clearly=20
not carefully enough.  I think the sewing machine still manages to set
a ballpark price for the egg, without Eleanor Bold ever having to talk
about anything so distasteful as money.

> > Two questions come to mind: Did Mr. Macafee realize this at the time, b=
ut
> > fail to mention it because he wanted Olivia to give him the egg for his
> > birthday?
> > Does Olivia believe he realized it at the time?  If she does, this is a
> > somewhat better reason for refusing to marry him, and further, this=20
> > reason corresponds  well to that given in the embedded tale of the=20
> > princess: that "the heavy purse hanging from his belt bruised her each=20
> > time they embraced."
>=20
> But she'd been trying to outmaneuver him.  If she refused to marry him ju=
st
> because he'd outsmarted her, it still seems pretty petty.

It's still petty, but now it's a reason I can believe in, as opposed to the=20
previous pettiness.

> Now my own thoughts upon rereading the egg and Macafee passages:
 > 1) ...

Here I've deleted some very good points Adam makes.=20

> 2) Is there any indication that Olivia ever intended to marry Macafee in =
the
> first place, any more than she did the other two suitors?  I get the
> impression that she's happy to keep her suitors on a string indefinitely.

I somehow got the impression that Olivia was leaning toward Macafee from
the adult Weer's conversation from Stewart Blaine, but upon rereading this
passage, I think I may have been reading too much into it. =20

> Perhaps she won't marry Macafee because she feels that married to such a
> substantial, almost patriarchal, citizen, she would be too dependent.  Th=
is
> would accord even better with the princess's reason for not marrying the
> merchant in the embedded tale.

I was interpreting the princess's reason as saying Olivia thought Macafee=20
cared too much about money and material goods, like the egg, and too
little about Olivia.  This is indeed quite hypocritical on Olivia's part, b=
ut=20
I=20
think not out of character.

Finally, I'd like to comment that even if Olivia did realize at the time th=
at=20
Macafee could have made his check out to cash, and avoided Em Lorn's
restrictions, I don't see how she could have mentioned this to Macafee.
She's been trapped by her own machinations.

-- Stone Ox

--=20

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