"There is nothing further to discuss—this fellow is to be granted asylum and, if he wishes, provisional membership in our Unit. There certainly remains to him no future down here."
* * * * * * * * * *
Randolph St. Cosmo comes to Chick's rescue because Randolph St. Cosmo is the name of an angel. Which suggests, especially since there's now no future for Chick "down here," that the Chums of Chance have more in common with Moore's Dead Dead Gang than I first thought. Is it possible the Chums of Chance are not supposed to interfere because they're ghosts and/or angels? I know us modern idiots have all been convinced by popular entertainment that all angels and ghosts do is intervene in our mortal affairs! But in 1893, I'm pretty sure all angels and ghosts were concerned with was making sure nobody sees anything sexually enticing.
In other words, Chick has just been lynched by the KKK so now he must carry on in the sky with the other poor wandering souls. But he doesn't know it yet! That's why he's a provisional member. He won't actually be a real Chum of Chance until he faces and accepts his terrestrial death.
Later we'll see that the Chums of Chance do age but I think that's just something ghosts and angels can do. They can appear to be any age they choose and the Chums of Chance probably choose to age albeit slower than living humans. That's probably why their adventures can span such a great space of time and they're still seen as lads. Randolph probably stopped aging at 18 and the others are slowly aging toward that, the aging process growing ever slower so that they never actually reach and then pass the age of the captain.
This sentence says none of that. But—and this is major Coast to Coast AM logic—if it caused me to think it, maybe it actually is there? At least I didn't write another sonnet!
Although what would a project like that look like? If I were to write one sonnet for every line in this book?! Man, don't tempt me, me!
No comments:
Post a Comment