MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - New Leaf October 2018 Discussion • The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier

gmw · 10-19-2018, 08:07 AM

You mean other than being a convenient way to close off the story?

It sort of argues for the whole thing to be a hallucination: Dick knew his trips were coming to an end so he hallucinated an ending. At first I thought that if it was made up then he'd have made up a happy ending for Isolda, but maybe he didn't want her to have a happy ending without him.

But if we accept the effect of the drug as real - which, within the story, I did - then it seemed possible that maybe whatever it was in formula A and B that tied us to Roger (and jumped us to a certain age rather than growing up with him), that maybe formula C did this with Robbie. (Thinking of a polyjuice-like potion with a dash of hair to tie us to a particular person - but something not so flippant as that sounds.)

Bookpossum's first post on this thread includes a quote suggesting that du Maurier liked irresolution, and perhaps that's what we're seeing here: a twist calculated to open such questions in the reader's mind.

10-19-2018, 08:07 AM	#45
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,818 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	You mean other than being a convenient way to close off the story? It sort of argues for the whole thing to be a hallucination: Dick knew his trips were coming to an end so he hallucinated an ending. At first I thought that if it was made up then he'd have made up a happy ending for Isolda, but maybe he didn't want her to have a happy ending without him. But if we accept the effect of the drug as real - which, within the story, I did - then it seemed possible that maybe whatever it was in formula A and B that tied us to Roger (and jumped us to a certain age rather than growing up with him), that maybe formula C did this with Robbie. (Thinking of a polyjuice-like potion with a dash of hair to tie us to a particular person - but something not so flippant as that sounds.) Bookpossum's first post on this thread includes a quote suggesting that du Maurier liked irresolution, and perhaps that's what we're seeing here: a twist calculated to open such questions in the reader's mind.