Posted by Gabriele Guenther on June 25, 1999 at 17:28:24:
Nick Edwards more or less resurrected an old topic, that of
Kirth Gersen. I noted long ago that the limited consensus was
that Gersen had nothing much to do after knocking off 5 blokes
(and assorted others who got in the way). I didn't feel like
getting involved then, but I will now.
1) To say Gersen is unidimensional seems unfair & incorrect --
Gersen displays a balance throughout his saga that does not
indicate unhealthy obsession or monomania.
Note too that he NEVER glories in killing, and that he
occasionally gets downright quesy about the necessity.
2) Gersen is more than willing to enjoy life along the way --
his main purpose is the removal of certain people/aliens,
but he chases various women at length (in a polite kind of
way), he delights in quoting poetry to a woman (at the end
of The Palace of Love), he has to remind himself at various
times that he should be knocking off others, rather than
simply enjoying himself.
3) All in all, nothing seems to be against him leading a normal,
healthy (if super-rich) life at the end of The Book of
Dreams.
4) The main confusion here is, I think, a mistake on the part of
the readers, Vance mainly writes 'rites-of-passage' stuff,
and mostly about young blokes. His protaganists are never
- excepting Joe Blain maybe - over 30. They are all
concerned with chasing the rainbow and proving themselves,
not yet with raising a family or dealing with aging.
I think readers tend therefore to think that Gersen is
stuffed because he has nothing left to prove or chase ---
I think this is a wrong view; he still has Alice Wroke to
chase (and he does), and he has now overcome all personal
obstacles to simply getting on with human life. Plus,
of course, being super-rich helps.
Rememeber: rites-of-passage are just that, they only mark the
passage to adulthood, they are not the be-all and end-all.