From: jen@athena.mit.edu (Jennifer Hawthorne)
Subject: Re: Jack the Bodiless -- Spoilers
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 21:54:30 GMT

It seems like every couple of months someone new reads JtB and starts
up a thread about the true identity(ties) of Fury...maybe this belongs
somewhere in the FAQ??

Spoilers Ahoy!










So I went back and skimmed through the book last night looking for
clues yet again.

In article <disaacs.711826245@cunews> disaacs@lata.carleton.ca (Dave Isaacs) writes:
>
>>There are a couple of nagging problems.  First, since Denis passed
>>the mechanical scan (or did he -- it's not obvious whether he was
>>considered part of the 'dynasty') it would seem that at some level
>>he is not aware of being Fury.  Second, it's hard to believe that
>>Marc's twin, Matthieu, has no significance here.
>There are really two questions.  1) WHO is Fury, and 2) WHERE does he

Yes, Denis passed the mechanical scan. And it's baldly stated that
Fury doesn't even know what it really is (during Fury's conversation
with the Family Ghost), so it stands to reason that Fury's host(s) is
unaware of it.

I agree that the mystery of Matthieu must play some part in this,
somewhere, though I suppose it oculd be just a masterfully crafted red
herring. 


>I am fairly convinced that Fury is some sort of incarnation
>of Victor since, in the conversation between young Marc and Unifex, Unifex
>say "I am not Victor Remillard or one of his creatures, but it is wise not
>to forget about them" (or something like that).  Assuming Unifex is always
>right, then Fury definitely has some of Victor in him.
>

Unifex's comment, spoken to young Marc, was more like "Victor and his
creatures present a serious threat to the Unity; they're almost as
dangerous as _you_." Notice that he speaks of Victor in the present
tense. 

The first time Fury is seen, during the prayer vigil, Rogi
sees "a thing of terrible monstrous evil" (paraphrasing) hanging
around outside the mental lattices; at the time he first sees it, he
is sure it is no one he knows. It speaks to him, then there is a
pause, and then it laughs, and at that point Rogi identifies the laugh
as _definitely_ Victor's.  

So it looks like something changed in there.  My guess would be that
Victor somehow summoned or contacted another being, one without
physical form, and the two of them merged into one more powerful
being, namely Fury.  My best guess for that first being would be
Matthieu, somehow surviving after his death at Marc's hands while they
were both _in utero_.  Perhaps he survived as part of _Marc_ and then
was released at Victor's death to merge with Victor, or perhaps he
simply survived, discorporate. (Remember that Marc was shrieking his
head off during the prayer vigil, though perhaps that was just because
three people dropped dead around him. Somehow I doubt it, though...)

This requires that May has postulated that a two-year-old mind (same
age as Marc) be capable of being "terribly monstrously evil", but
considering Jack's precocity and the fact that at one point Marc
states that Matthieu's armamentarium was supposed to have been greater
than his own, she could well have done so.  (Though one wonders
exactly why it was Matthieu would be so evil at that age; with the
rest of her villians, she carefully lays the groundwork for why they
came out so twisted -- they don't generally start that way.)

When I first read the bit about the "horrible monstrous evil" lurking
in the lattices, my first thought was that it was the Devil or some
equivalent, but in the discussion with Fury, Unifex says something
like "you're no devil." So that toasts that idea.

And I suppose it's possible that this lurking presence isn't someone
we've met before at all. Though that would be kind of a cop out, in a
way. 

> (ii) It seems that Fury was present at Jack's birth.  Who knew where 
>      Rogi and Teresa were hiding out.  Only Denis and Marc, I think.

Fury was present, but "limited"; and this comment comes a chapter or
two after May talks about how it was difficult for Denis to farsense
from Concilium Orb (where I think he was at the time.)  However,
everyone in the family knew where Rogi and Teresa were by that time;
Denis told them very soon after he found them (check out the chapter
where the family is all talking telepathcially.)

> (iii) At the Xmas celebration on the Orb (I think it was Xmas) Fury tells
>       the Hydra that he must be going away for a while.  What does that
>       mean?

Dunno, I think I'm going to have to go check that out again. (Maybe I
should go through the whole darn book with a hiliter and take
notes...) 

My "Unified Theory of Fury":  Fury is an amalgam of Matthieu and
Victor formed during the prayer vigil;  this amalgam then proceeded to
take root in Denis, somehow. (Either it split his personality, or it
eradicated and replaced him completely, or it did something
different.)

Jen H.


Organization: Graduate School of Industrial Administr., Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA