From: Michael Straight <straight@email.unc.edu>
Subject: (urth) FREE LIVE FREE
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 11:39:03 


[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]


Spoilers ho!
 
I asked this question a few weeks ago, but perhaps I was so brief that no
one knew what I was talking about.
 
Mr. Free tells the salesman that he hid the device "under a sign."  On the
last page, after the salesman has retrieved his son and rejoined the
others (who seem to have already been "improved" by the time machine), the
salesman sees the sign, and it seems that Wolfe intends readers to say
"Ah-ha! That's what Mr. Free meant."
 
I did not say "Ah-ha!" and would like to very much.  What is the sign?
Any help would be received with gratitude.
 
I really enjoyed this book and found it to be Wolfe's most humorous novel
(right up there with his robot detective stories, in my book).
 
-Rostrum