Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 09:08:32 -0600
Subject: Re: (urth) Free Live Free (2002 round table here/now) SPOILERS
From: Adam Stephanides 

on 11/25/02 12:02 AM, Michael Andre-Driussi at mantis@siriusfiction.com
wrote:

> Adam Stephanides, several years ago, posted a few questions and it doesn't
> seem as if they were ever answered around here.  I don't even recall what
> they all were, but one had to do with appearance of Free/disappearance of
> Whitten, and I'll address that shortly.

Here are my questions, from vol. 4 of the archives:

1) Why are there two Whittens (in addition to "Ben Free")
in 1983?  The younger Whitten (the man in the duffle coat)
is there on his second trip with the gizmo for the government.
What is the older Whitten doing there?

2) When "Ben Free" reappears on January 14, 1983, where did
he come from?  He didn't come from the frontier, because he
left the frontier for the last time before he hid the gizmo
in the wall, and that was presumably before January 14, 1983.

3) A minor point, but in Chapter 52 the witch tells the others
that "Today I defrauded a certain one, the namesake of one who
possesses much authority, below."  Is there a demon named
McAlister?  Or is there some joke regarding McAlister's first
name (which I don't remember ever being stated) which I missed?
Or did she defraud somebody else that day?

Nobody responded to them, but whether that was because nobody knew the
answers or because nobody cared I don't know.

It's been several years since I last read the book, and I have almost no
recollection of Whitten/Free's peregrinations, which were never that clear
to me in the first place.  (I don't even remember there being two Whittens.)
So I have no idea to what extent your timeline answers my first two
questions.  You seem to be saying that Free did come from the frontier when
he reappeared on Jan. 14, 1983; again, I don't recall now why I thought he
didn't.

--Adam


--