I’m working through Past Master to create an annotated outline, and a few nagging questions remain. If anyone has theories, I’d love to hear them.
The Time Travelers and the Stranger at the Scaffold
Early on, Thomas More is contacted by time travelers, and he plays it off. Even stranger, Paul does the same, and it’s never revisited. Were these meetings a providential preparation for More? Do they connect to the mysterious “stranger” at his execution? Writers often give special attention to beginnings and endings—could these bookend appearances be something deeper?
Hidden Appearances of the Nine Programmed Persons
Are the Nine present in more places than we realize? On my last reread, I noticed Holygee, Gandy, and Pottscamp manipulating the extrapolation sensors Cosmos Kingmaker consults in Chapter 1. Does Lafferty play with their presence elsewhere in the novel?
The Stranger on the Scaffold
Who is the stranger that speaks to More in his final moments? If not Christ, my first thought was the Archangel Michael, then I considered Raphael because of the Book of Tobit. But could it be a time traveler—or something else entirely? How should we understand this moment?
The "False Ansel" in Paul’s Mind
Who is the "false ansel" that infiltrates Paul's mind? My assumption is one of the Nine, likely Skybol, but the phrase itself seems weighted. Could it have another significance?
Allegory in the Feral Lands and the Devil Brains
When More sees the allegory playing out before him (“Why, this is allegory acted out before my very eyes,” Thomas exclaimed, and he was shaking from the passion around him.), what does it mean? The "snakes" that slither from his severed head are his "devil brains," but how does this relate to eating the devil-hydra’s brains, said to be crucial to his final moment?
The Role of Bait in the Novel
More is Fabian Foreman’s bait, and Foreman’s ship is a grasshopper-class vehicle, and the grasshoppers brings More into the future. Later, Father Oddopter says, “Thomas, Thomas . . . it’s but the grasshopper that one catches in his palm to use on the hook. This isn’t the fish. It’s the bait.” What do we make of this?
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