From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) PEACE: ben Yahya and the Marid
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 22:38:49 

Once again, a fascinating post.  Too much to digest at once, but a few
quick questions and comments:

Michael Andre-Driussi wrote:

> The
> marid beat him for losing the sherbet, but promised to give him the maiden
> and his freedom if he served silently for thirty years.

Silently?  I don't see where in the story the marid makes this
condition.

> Okay, so if we sense that Den was the coldhouse prankster (some will refuse
> this initial condition), then it becomes a clear case: Den, working for
> uncle Julius, causes a terrible accident; after this, he works silently
> (Julius hasn't spoken to him in 25 years) for 30 years.

But Den says that Julius hasn't spoken to him since the Olivia's funeral
(169 in the first edition), which you (below) date two years after the
accident.  Of course, maybe Den was already in Coventry, and Julius had
to speak to him for form's sake.  Or maybe Julius just didn't have any
occasion to speak to Den, and hadn't been taken with him enough to seek
him out.
 
> Den assumed that he would marry Margaret, but suddenly in high school the
> relationship broke off.

What is the reference for their breaking up suddenly in high school?  I
must have missed that.

> a worker died in the
> coldhouse (when Den was 18 or 23)

Surely not 18; we're told that the accident happened when Den was "a
young engineer--two years out of school" (250), and surely even in those
days high school dropouts were'nt hired as engineers, even if they were
the boss's step-nephew.

--Adam

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