From: paulchem@tigger.cs.Colorado.EDU (Icarus)
Subject: Re: MOSQUITO COAST (minor spoilers)
Keywords: n
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 09:27:27 GMT

In article <1992Aug18.150852.27055@sco.COM> maureenw@sco.COM (Maureen Wilkes) writes:
>In article <1992Aug14.084727.9895@colorado.edu> paulchem@tigger.cs.Colorado.EDU (Icarus) writes:
>>
[...]
>>3] What I found to be much more interesting was the careful developement
>>   of the character of the antagonist. The author manages to assert through
>>   almost three fourths of the book that the eccentric genius always does the
>>   right thing. He is shown to be a real hero for the rest of the family.
>>   It is only in the last few pages that the extent of his madness is 
>>   revealed and the reader is made to feel no regret at his death.
>
>Well now, that isn't how I felt about Father at all.  From the very start
>I thought he was a pompous, maniacal, condescending jackass, who 
>used his family for experiments and forced them to worship him as a
>God by usurping all power from them.  What was so right about denying
>the children an education, denying them socialization, denying them the
>right to share in deciding their destination, treating them as little 
>more than slaves to his every whim?  His behaviour was abominable throughout
>the story, it only varied by degrees.  Father was the archetypical 
>Western dominator.

1] Father, as you call him, did the right thing in a very real sense
   by helping the family survive every crisis that they faced.
   The author manages to hide the fact that these crises are created
   by Father himself by diverting our attention with more crises.
   
   You see, as the reader starts the book at the first chapter,
   the reader has no idea whether apocalypse is really around the
   corner or not. The reader has no way of knowing the insanity 
   that is driving the man. If the world as we know it was ending
   in two weeks time, and we had positive proof for it, I would
   for one, have no hesitation in teaching my family basic survival
   skills instead of learning in a school or socializing.
   At that point in the novel, the reader can make no assumptions.

   I admit I might have been influenced by Gore Vidal's Kalki
   and its handling of apocalypse.

   In the context of impending doom, Fathers behaviour was the only
   possible path. That he is shown to be insane later is what makes
   his actions abominable.
   
   That is only an opinion of course.


[...]
>It was poetic justice.  He had condemned sea birds as scavengers, as the 
>lowest form of life, when in fact he and his family lived as scavengers,
>raping and, eventually, destroying the land.   
>Served him right to die by the subjects of his contempt.

2] Poetic justice is bad style in a book, however much it pleases us.
   Especially contrived poetic justice. :-)
   This is a matter of personal taste , I just dont like bad guys being
   punished and the good rewarded so blatantly.

3] Stay Cool.

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.    ~ ~                                                                     .
.    o o      signito ergo sum.              paul chemmanoor.                .
.     |    i sign therefore i am.            Computer Science department.    .
.     =                                      Univ. of Colorado, Boulder.     .
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