Rereading "The Best Introduction to the Mountains", it occurred to me that it does a lot to inform the themes in "Peace". Consider this passage as you read chapter 5: "Progress, then, does not consist of destroying good things in the mere hope that the things that will replace them will be better (they will not be) but in retaining good things while adding more. Here is a practical illustration. This paper is good and the forest is good as well. If the manufacture of this paper results in the destruction of the forest, the result will be a net loss. That is mere change; we have changed the forest into paper, a change that may benefit some clever men who own a paper mill but hurts the mass of Earth’s people."

Reading about the Romani, as they prefer to be called, in Wikipedia, I found this: "Romanies often adopt the dominant religion of their host country in case a ceremony associated with a formal religious institution is necessary, such as a baptism or funeral (their particular belief systems and indigenous religion and worship remain preserved regardless of such adoption processes)." I think this is what Sarah's referring to. She continues with "...we had the immeasurable advantage of having provided Europe with it's religion without sharing it...Think what could have been done with that." That last statement startles me. This is in the wake of the Holocaust, and Sarah is surely struggling with profound grief and shock. Naturally, she's thinking about how things could have been different and how Jewish people might avoid persecution in the future. At the same time, how much does she know about her husband's forgeries? Does she think he can help protect the Jews form future oppression? I wish we knew, but since Sherry knows, it makes sense that Sarah and Aaron would know as well. If they know about the forgeries, do they share his belief that "...the world shapes itself..." to what he writes? Weer's impression that the house is like an aviary is puzzling. I'm tempted to say that Louis is using his family like canaries in a coalmine, but justifying that is a pretty long walk. Instead, I'll say that I wish Wolfe had given us more about the relationships within the Gold family

Thinking about “Peace” I’m reminded of an interview in which Wolfe said that (I’m paraphrasing) “Catholicism teaches that all the old gods are real, but we shouldn’t worship them”. This may seem odd, but another aspect of Catholicism is the “Catholic Imagination” which says that our imaginations allow us to understand God’s existence; without it, the idea of “god”—any god really—would be beyond us. To a Catholic, Christianity and more generally monotheism are struggling for a place in the human imagination against the old gods, paganism, and polytheism. Wolfe explores this struggle in “The Devil in a Forest” and “Castleview”. The same ideas appear in “Peace” in a more personal way. Wolfe became a Catholic in preparation for marrying his wife and “Peace” is about what his life might have been if he had never met her. Though Wolfe encountered the influential power of the imagination through the church, Weer encounters it through his dealings with Louis Gold who through his writing is allied with paganism. His work attempts to establish necromancy as part of an actual historical record. “The Lusty Lawyer” and the Boyne diary are not in this category, but every other Gold book that Weer remembers is. I suppose you can believe that Gold is only in it for the money, but the pride he takes in his work belies that, I think. Weer, who’s not concerned with fact-checking, begins applying his imagination to his memories, but the result is a confusing muddle, full of contradictions and absurdities. Why? Because he’s only trying to avoid pain. He has no deeper values, no solid principle around which to organize the meaning of his life. He simply has no morals, no structure to support a meaningful life. By the end of chapter four, it should be pretty clear that Weer is a ghost. The tree that fell at the beginning of the book is the one planted by Bobby Black’s aunt, Eleanor. This sort of tree-planting was once similar to the gravestone that traps the Bell Witch; the tree was meant to prevent Weer from becoming a wandering spirit. Since the tree is so large, he’s obviously been kept in place for a very long time. Where has he been in all that time? For a Catholic, the standard answer is “Purgatory” where, like the Chinese soldier in Vi’s story, he’s been cycling through his life endlessly. “Peace” is just one run-through of a process he’s been doing for decades, the story changing a little each time. Will he ever get to the everlasting peace that is one of Christianity’s great promises? Wolfe leaves that decision to the reader.

I don't know if you guys are saving this for later but I'd like to point out that Eleanor Porter is Barbara Black's sister, and Bobby Black's aunt. There's a significance to her wanting to plant a tree on Weer's grave that's easy enough to discover and which you'll probably cover in the recap. At the beginning of one of the "Indian Princesses" sections there is a paragraph: 'Barbara's sister Eleanor says, "All right we can write on that...' Earlier, we find this: "Mrs. Black and Miss Bold, sisters..."

This seems the right time to point out that "Barbara and Bobby Black" have a certain Amanda Ros quality suggesting, to me at least, that there is more than a bit of confabulation in Weer's retelling of the events of his fifth birthday. The painting of Uncle Joe which is somehow the inciting event of "the accident" is layered with meanings that Wolfe carefully shows Weer to have arrived at after the fact. His memory of the painting's background as reminiscent of a fairy garden seems to have come from Weer's reading The Green Fairy book at least a year later. Just as with Weer's retelling of Smart's "Mr T" story, we're left with no certainty about which parts of the stories are "true" and which are Weer's confabulations. This is only going to get worse as we move into the main sections of chapter four.

I stumbled upon a book called "Memoirs from Beyond the Grave" this week and wondered if it might have helped inspire "Peace". Written by Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand, it was meant to be published fifty years after his death. Chateaubriand started by retelling the events of his life but gradually expanded the book to include extensive historical context. His life (1768-1848) overlapped with Napoleon's (1769-1821) and I wonder if he knew why Napoleon kept his hand in his waistcoat. Proust, among many others, was an admirer of the "Memoirs". Since Wolfe was such an admirer of Proust, it seems likely he also read Chateaubriand. The work is noted for it's poetic prose and general tone of melancholy. I think the same could be said of "Peace". I don't think this contributes to a better understanding of "Peace", but I did think some on this forum would find it interesting.

Really enjoyed part one of you chapter three discussion. The line about "And then a bunch of carnies showed up and kidnapped me" had me laughing out loud. At one point you talked a bit about whether or not Peace can be regarded as Weer's memoir or if the post-modern techniques make that untenable. (I hope I've got that right.) I'd like to suggest that it does work as a memoir, but not one that Weer is intending to publish. If that's so, then what is his intention? In chapter four the perspective does seem to shift for a few pages, but it's just Weer summarizing the contents of a diary he's found. This part of the chapter is particularly full of holes and his abrupt change of voice may suggest his discomfort with the material. You may be right that both Olivia's story and Smart's were written before "Peace" was conceived, but I think that what the Chinese officer learns is significant to the overall narrative. Contrast the moral of that story with the moral of Smart's (if you can find one) and you'll see some interesting things that Wolfe will pick up again in chapter five. Chapter four takes a very hard left turn and I can't wait to hear what you guys make of it. Thanks for helping me see "Peace" in new ways.

I was startled by your discussion of Blaine's comment that "all history is biography". I'd like to suggest that Blaine makes the comment in much the way you describe, but that Weer's remembering it reflects something else, and Wolfe's including it in the text something else again. To Wolfe, the idea is that history can only be told through the lens of a system of values. As a writer Wolfe understood this, because no writer can prevent the totality of events as they happened. Every story, and every history, is a filtered, value weighted, interpretation of a set of facts. So too is every personality. What Wolfe is really doing here is showing the gradual erosion of Weer's ego, like the house Weer lives in which he describes as "melting like a candle". Weer is struggling with the idea that his history, his ego, is little more than a collection of lies and sheer nonsense. If you strip all that away, what's left of Weer?

Your review of Smart's story gave me a lot to think about, and thank you! I've long suspected that Den has altered a story that seems a "tall tale" in the first place, and that Den's version depreciates Smart because Den didn't like him. Den's memories of Olivia are vivid, and take up much of the book. To me, it's always seemed like this was the part of his life he remembers most fondly. Den has more in common with her than with his parents, and she includes him, begrudgingly or not, in a number of adventures that he remembers for the rest of his life. I believe that Den's parents took Den back only because of Olivia's marriage, and that Den knew this, and blamed Smart for it. Freed by her engagement from her financial dependency on Den's father, Olivia sent John some early twentieth century version of "Dude, getting married over here. Your kid though, seriously". Lacking air travel, email etc. this exchange, and the Weer's eventual return, would have taken a long time, and Den would have stayed with Olivia in the interim. There are other comments. later in the book, that suggest Den and Julius were not close. Den's version of the Mr Tilly story has to be colored by his opinion of Smart. But what did he change?

I just finished listening to part 2 of your chapter 2 discussion and I enjoyed every word. I'm really glad to hear you diving into the interplay of memory and imagination that I think is central to the book. Thinking back to chapter 1, I'm reminded of the Indian Treaty that the grownups spend Den's fifth birthday party forging. I read this as the white settlers' willingness to paper over an ugly truth with a self-serving fiction. It's significant that Den remembers this so clearly and that he recounts it immediately before the Bobby Black incident. To me, what he's held onto is that it's okay to make up lies when it serves your purpose, even when that purpose is avoiding your pain, or your moral failings. I suspect that Den is unconsciously prefiguring the arc of his whole life.

I'm curious what you guys might think of the following. I've always taken the story of Saint Brandon as an explanation for the presence of spirits, good and evil, from the old world, in the new. No doubt there's a lot going on in that story that I don't understand, but the bow of the boat is said to be in Boston Bay and at the end of the tale, when the cat and the king of rats are fighting, we're told that one is wickedness, and the other a fairy. As they fight, pieces of them run off into the woods. I take this to mean that although Brandon brought Christianity to ancient America, he also brought...other things. Juxtaposed with this is Doherty's reference to his grandmother "the old Kate" which is another name for an evil spirit, mentioned later, called the Bell Witch. The banshee story that Den shares in chapter one is told by "the old Kate", or rather, by Hannah who knew her. Wolfe is showing us an oral tradition of stories from the old world being carried on in America. Is Doherty descended from the Bell Witch? Maybe. The "Bell Witch" has a Wikipedia entry, and I'll hazard that Wolfe did not create her. You can visit Bell Witch Cave in Tennessee and, while it's not an exact match, I'm pretty sure that the cave Olivia, Den and Professor Peacock visit is meant to evoke it. Part of the legend is that disturbing the native bones buried there would awaken an evil spirit. Since I'm pretty sure Peacock carried away a skull, it's sad that he disappears from the story immediately after. More of this comes up later on.

I really enjoyed your latest post - I got a little chill when you pointed out the parallel between Bobby Black's accident and the talk of murder during the cave trip. But you skipped over one event that I think is important. As they are preparing to hike back, Peacock leaves Den on the hilltop so he can go back down to the cave and talk to Olivia alone. Why? What do they talk about? And why does Olivia later lie to Den about her dish of olives?

I just wanted to point out that Olivia was Wolfe's mother's middle name. I seem to recall that he mentioned in an interview that she played a large part in his love of reading as a child. Your suggestion that avocations are important to finding one's real humanity really resonated with me, and I wonder if Wolfe is sort of thanking his mother for her help. I can't help wondering if she ever read it, and what she might have thought. If memory serves, Wolfe also said that Peace was the "most autobiographical" of his books.