From: "William H. Ansley" <wansley@warwick.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) More on Peace
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 01:11:53 

>What is all this business about his stroke?
>

It is as certain as anything can be in a Wolfe book that Weer is dead, a
YADP (Yet Another Dead Protanganist - another useful term I offer to Wolfe
scholars), both from internal evidence and because Wolfe has said so. It
also seems pretty certain to me that he doesn't know he is dead or at least
is almost completely unaware of his state; although he may be close to this
realization at the very end of the book.

>
>One thing I find positively creepy is the absence of Weer's parents. They are
>only mentioned in the section relating his childhood, and then they are not
>actually present. It has occurred to me that they died and Olivia, because
>Weer was very young, just told them they were on vacation. This hypothesis
>fits in with the changing on the vacation from a planned one year to more than
>two years. However, I'm not sure if this is write.

It is creepy but I am sure that are not dead since Weer refers more than
once to his parents' return in the past tense. Because of the confusion of
time in the book, this doesn't *prove* anything, of course. But I find the
passage where Weer says words to the effect that his parents had finally
returned but would forever remain strangers very convincing. Actually, I
*can't* find it; I just skimmed the book for it but missed it. Maybe I'll
reread _Peace_ again to search it out. It is my favorite book by Wolfe and
one of my favorite books, period.

William Ansley



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