Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 14:53:43 -0800
From: Michael Andre-Driussi 
Subject: Re: (urth) PEACE: Gold hunt's end at the box in the hole

Roy wrote:
>In the further cause of pedantry, I should point out that there doesn't seem
>to have been a coffin, any more than there had been a strongbox. The text
>reads: "My shovel had struck a stone, causing the blade to ring, and in a
>spot of moonlight I had seen the glint of metal in Lois's hand."

Fair enough.

>The gold never existed; Lou Gold made the whole story up, including the
>geographical reference points they were using to locate it.

Well now you're wrong: the gold historically exists and has never been
found! (I know, you mean it was never where they were digging.)

I will go further and say that even though the gold wasn't there, still the
meeting between Kate and Quantrill really did happen: when Weer sees Kate
and Q it is as valid as when he sees Kate and Hannah.  Ghosts are valid;
Kate has already been established as one of the more coherent ghosts of the
novel; any ghostly memory channeled via Kate is valid.

Furthermore, this means that Lou Gold, even while "forging" the diary, was
in some sense channeling Kate.  Seems outrageous, I know, but then the fact
that his forged Necronomicon somehow "works" is a pointer; as well as the
fact that, as I've written above, Ghost Kate is already established in the
text.

Roy quoted Stone Ox:
>>I had assumed that they found a flat stone shaped
>>roughly like the top of a treasure box, which Weer
>>then used as a tombstone when he buried Lois in
>>the hole they dug.
>
>Why would a murderer mark the grave of his victim?

While I argue against Weer murdering Lois, still, the text is clear that
ghosts can be pinned down and this is why Weer would use the stone: not to
mark the grave (though it would do that as well) but to pin the ghost down
so she wouldn't come after him.  Like a stake through the heart of a
vampire (iirc the old tradition of pinning them down rather than turning
them to dust).

Roy quoted me and wrote:
>>Weer confronts Lou Gold, then Sherry makes her visit.  Sherry speaks of her
>>"magic ring," and aside from the link to the title of this message (the
>>spooky link between tomb and womb), what she describes can also be termed a
>>ring of gold.
>
>Speaking of magic rings: did Lois ever employ hers in her quest for gold?
>Weer was certainly hoping so, and planned to "bring a flask, and make
>certain we had a blanket to spread upon the ground". They were two days
>digging that trench, and they were there by moonlight.

More follow-up: while Sherry's "magic ring" can be riddled as "ring of
gold," she pointedly puts down conventional marriage where the wife stays
home and does chores -- she wants a life of adventure (rather like Olivia
and Lois).

On to Roy's wondering about Lois doling out sexual favors.  Maybe.  Seems
likely (shades of Olivia and Peacock in the cave).  How ugly was their
parting?  Seems pretty ugly.  He seems to be keeping the gun against her
possible return.

=mantis=



--