Latest Book Theory....

POSTED BY: DeckRoid
UPDATED: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 03:00
VIEWED: 4411
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KARENKAY

Tuesday, March 9, 2004 11:52 PM

i love all the guesses about book here. i could be convinced of most.
and i love the character book. but he worries me. don't know enough about him yet.
i always wonder who could have left that gun sitting out for river to find in OiS and the only person i can't completely rule out is book.
does he worry anyone else?

"Huh."

SHEPHERDSCOTT

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 3:00 AM

I've been lurking here for quite a while, and I figured that this topic is a very good excuse to register and reveal my presence.

Although I've not seen the other Book discussion thread with the Book theories referenced here, I did enjoy reading the theories presented in this thread. I applaud all of the careful attention you regulars have given to the Book Question, making note of the very useful details presented about him in the series. However, I would like to provide counterpoint to some of the suggestions. I, too, indulged in the thought that he could be an Alliance general, but making him the commander at Serenity Valley seems a little *too* over-the-top for Joss, who seems to have taken a more subtle approach to FIREFLY. Likewise, having Book be Zoe's father seems a little too melodramatic and Dickensian, and I don't see any strong detail in the series linking the characters besides skin tone. Book as an ex-judge is an extremely appealing theory. It fits well with the few established facts about him (the authoritative ident card, the "don't give a hump" psychic quote). Furthermore, it could fit in well with Joss' thematic inspiration for the series: frontier justice in the West after the Civil War was often shaped by "hanging judges" who eagerly issued warrants to dubious deputy marshals, who didn't shy away from bringing 'em back more often dead than alive.

I would like to offer a refinement to the ex-judge theory (if this already has been covered by others, please forgive my presumption). The quote that River gleans from Book's mind could be something a "hanging judge" might say...but it strikes me more as an inquisition than a juridical pronouncement. It strikes me as the cold intimidation of an inquisitor trying to break his victim. Could Book have been an inquisitor--a torturer--in the Alliance version of the Gestapo? As an inquisitor/torturer, Book would know all about crime, about violence, about wounds the body can sustain; he would also possess a high-ranking ident card, especially if he were a chief inquisitor. After the war, Book may have sickened of his previous role. Like the Emperor Charles V, who retired to a monastery, Book may have cloistered himself to seek absolution. Now, coming out of the abbey, he wants to tour the unified society his brutality helped forge. And it would also explain why Book would be familiar with the writings of Shan-Yu...and so disparaging of them.

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