AEG: Cassie in love

Hi all, This has been playing on my mind for some time now, and I haven't seen anyone else post about it yet, so: Does Cassie genuinely love Reis / Rosenquist? We assume she's in a love triangle with him and Chase, but it seems to me at least equally possible that she's true to Chase all along and is only ever feigning being in love with Reis. Cassie says that she loves him, and demonstrates it sufficiently well to convince him and others. But we know that she is both a talented actress and also a habitual and fluent liar. Her last words on the hopper, when no-one is listening, might be testimony to a genuine love. But as she utters them while on her way to join Chase, that would seem to undercut any real sincerity implied. Thoughts? best wishes, Mo # ~ # ~ # WolfeWiki now at: http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/

As you say, she has no audience here. I have to believe the love is real. Even if she does ultimately end up with Chase, it doesn't undercut the sincerity of her feelings. Bill is dead, after all. But I wonder if she isn't going to Chase for some other reason. There are three things he might do for her: 1) Help get her glamour back. She says that's one of the reasons she is going. 2) Help her travel in time, or get a message back in time, to save Bill's life. 3) Die, if she suspects Chase of having some hand in Bill's death.

It's interesting that her motivation for travelling is left so very open. (By necessity, since we couldn't tust what she might say about it, but even so.) In the Woldercan-as-Fairyland model, I guess the journey is her reward for coming through the trials of the story, and she can expect unchanging bliss rather than any kind of further sharp resolution such as killing Chase -- that sort of thing doesn't happen within Fairyland. best wishes, Mo # ~ # ~ # WolfeWiki now at: http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/

This is not the Fairyland of "happily ever after," but a land of dangerous adventures. Cassie is advised to go armed and not to talk to the fish. Wolfe's Fair Folk are never all that nice, whether in Castleview, the Wizard Knight, "No Planets Strike," "The Magic Animal," or AEG.

Indeed. Fairyland is the land of death, more or less.

But not a land where one can conduct personal vendettas -- that's the point I was trying (rather unclearly) to make. When she arrives there Cassie will have to accept things as they are, not hope to try and influence them. best, Mo # ~ # ~ # WolfeWiki now at: http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/

Mortals can kill other mortals in Fairyland; Hwan Lee shot Jose Balanco in "Castleview." Mortals can also kill monsters there; Able killed Grengarm in "The Knight." On the other hand, I don't really believe the vendetta theory. My assessment is that Gideon Chase isn't on the side of Chtulhu. The winged Death's Visitors seem to be his allies (one appears to assist in Cassie's transformation on p. 43: "Behind him: great, dark wings.") The creatures warn Cassie about the Squid God and save her life. They tell her "Trust those who love you... Only them" (p. 235). That seems to mean to trust only them, along with Bill Reis and Gideon Chase. Reis seems to have brought his troubles on himself. Chase didn't make him set the Navy on the Storm King. His only responsibility is that Reis wouldn't have loved Cassie (and wanted to attack those who endangered her) without Chase's help. Cassie surely cannot want revenge for that.