Smoke and Mirrors - The White Road

Chris OConnor · Sun Aug 30, 2009 10:28 pm

The White Road

tbarron · Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:15 pm

I like the ambiguity of this one. [spoiler]Was it really a human hand that the woman confronted Mr. Fox with? Or a fox paw as he seemed to indicate just before they overwhelmed him?

If it was a fox paw (and therefore the narrator really is not a murderer, at least not of humans), what was his fiancee's motivation in framing him? Was she bewitched by the pale woman with the fox tail under her skirt perhaps?[/spoiler]

Krysondra · Sat Oct 24, 2009 10:21 pm

This is one of my favorite stories in the whole book. I like the ambiguity, but I also like the way that everything sort of ties together.

I think that the fox's paw that the Intended throws out ties back to the one mentioned in the story that the fox-woman told at the beginning where it was a girl's hand. In some way, it pulls the whole night of stories together.

[spoiler]The note on the story also mentions the use of the Fox in Asian cultures. In their mythology, the fox would take over a woman's soul and possess her, making her act inappropriately for her station and place in life. Thus, the fox lady could well have wrought her magic on the Intended and tricked her into doing her betrothed harm.

Do you think that he sympathizes with the lady fox there at the end?[/spoiler]

tbarron · Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:04 am


	Krysondra wrote: [spoiler]Do you think that he sympathizes with the lady fox there at the end?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]The lines "What if the hunters come? What if they come?" could certainly be read that way. I guess it seems like another bit of ambiguity to me. It could be,

"What if the hunters come? What if they come? (Ah, then the poor fox woman will fall in her turn, although she's bested me. She's a worthy adversary.)"

or, it could be

"What if the hunters come? What if they come? (It'll serve her right and good riddance. They'll avenge me for what she's done to me.)"[/spoiler]

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