An Evil Guest -- Cross References

This is a page for cross references to other works of art and literature in An Evil Guest.

• Income taxes are very high in the novel's America. Chase expects to pay 75% taxes on 50 million dollars (p. 20). This is similar to the high taxes and the extreme means the government uses to collect them in Viewpoint.
• Cassie's lipstick is "ultra natural ash rose" (p. 30). Ash Rose is a song by Helen Trevillion, who writes Celtic music. It contains the line "Rose to ash and ash to dust," a foreshadowing of the loss of Cassie's beauty. "Ultra natural" could be a way of saying "super-natural." Later, her hotel in Kololahi has a chair with an "ashes of rose plush seat" (p. 237).
• Ash rose is also a gray granite from Canada, possibly a reference to the mountain where Cassie was empowered -- "Scott" warned her that it would put her to sleep (p. 30).
• "Rose O'Neal" (p. 39) is a reference to Rose O'Neal Greenhow, a spy for the Confederacy in the Civil War.
• "A mountain whose wife washed clothes?" (pp. 41-42, 83) is a reference to Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow. The protagonist Alan's father was a mountain and his mother was a washing machine. Credit for discovering this belongs to Marc Aramini. It's a perfect match:

1. The mountain quakes when it's angry.
2. There are gnomes and golems in its caves.
3. The setting is near Toronto, Canada. (The protagonist goes to Willowdale, a suburb of Toronto, at one point).
4. The nearest large mountain to Toronto is Blue Mountain. There is a trek to the summit which takes about 2.5 hours on foot.

• The Cassie/Gideon relationship, especially bringing out her talents by hypnosis, is like the relationship between Trilby O'Ferrall and Svengali in the novel Trilby by George du Maurier.
• Rusterman's restaurant (p. 59), is a reference to the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout. Rusterman's was a favorite restaurant of the obese gourmet detective Nero Wolfe. It was owned by Marco Vukcic (Vukčić), his childhood friend when he was growing up in Montenegro. The anchovy fritters Cassie orders (p. 60) are a specialty of Rusterman's, and they can be found in the Nero Wolfe Cookbook.
• "An ogre of unusual size" (p. 61) is a reference to The Princess Bride by William Goldman, which has Rodents of Unusual Size. The parallel love triangle in this case is Princess Buttercup, Westley, and Prince Humperdinck.
• Cassie says she will be going out with a banshee (p. 64). She fills the theater with "wailing ghosts" (p. 53) in warning about a dangerous honeymoon in the play. This predicts the disaster of her romance with Bill Reis -- Cassie is like a banshee, and like Cassandra in predicting evil which is not believed (p. 64).
• Vince Palma's explanation of why a banshee need not be female (p. 64) seems like a mistaken etymology. Typically, banshee is supposed to be derived from the Gaelic "bean sidhe," a woman of the fairy mounds (it's the first syllable, not the second, which carries the female connotation). It's difficult to find any reference to "Grey Neighbors." There is a protagonist named Gray Neighbor in the comic Narcopolis by Jaime Delano. Grey elves can be found in Tolkien.
• Dumb Dora (p. 67) is 1920's slang for a foolish woman. It was also the name of a newspaper cartoon strip.
• "One hundred years ago, men dreamed of it [space travel]. They thought there'd be a world government long before it came, that ignorance and poverty would've been eliminated" (p. 70). This may be a reference to Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. If so, the time of the book is about 2066.
• Gideon Chase's watch, engraved "RC from HPL" (p. 75) is a reference to H. P. Lovecraft, author of stories that began the Cthulhu mythos. Chase's father is Robert Chase, who seems to have known Lovecraft. If Lovecraft used him as the basis for his stories of Randolph Carter, we know that he is an "old dreamer" who is well-aquainted with the mysterious beings of Earth. (A character in Game in the Pope's Head is given the name "Randolph Carter" and that story contains many references to The Dream Quest of the Unknown Kadath).
• "One may buy gold at a price too deare," (p. 78) is a quote from Spenser (Chase mistakenly says "Spencer"). It is from line 108 of the August eclogue in Spenser's The Shepheardes Calender. Credit for finding this reference goes to Nigel Price.
• "The beautiful woman that George Bernard Shaw had called Galatea" (p. 81) is a reference to the play Pygmalion, which was used as the basis for the musical and movie My Fair Lady. In this story, the roles of Eliza Doolittle, Professor Henry Higgins, and Freddy Eynsford-Hill closely match those of Cassie Casey, Gideon Chase, and Bill Reis respectively.
• "Post-parturition terminations" (p. 86) mean infanticide, and it's predicted to be the next slippery slope after abortion. The only debate in this future world is how late to allow them, including up to five years for "defectives." The lives of children don't seem to be valued much. A train struck a school bus and the news announcer blithely says "Regardless of the presence or absence of children, traffic on Moore is backed up for miles."
• Ian Mersey (p. 96) may be a reference to Ian Collard, who has written several books about shipping on the Mersey river. The name also suggests "Mercy," and he acts like a strong, angelic helper to Chase. Liverpool is a major port on the Mersey river. Right after being helped by Mersey, Chase sings of a "Liverpool ship and a Liverpool crew" (101).
• "Blow the Man Down" (p. 101) is an old sea shanty. The phrase refers to knocking a man down in a fight.
• The name Woldercan comes from The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney. It is the name of an ancient city that used human sacrifice to turn away the wrath of an angry god. Dr. Chase names Chuck Finney as the astro-explorer that discovered an intelligent race on Woldercan (p. 158).
• Cassie's gun had silver-tipped bullets (p. 180). I suspect she got them after Chase told her werewolves really exist (p. 99).
• The winged "Death's Visitors" (pp. 182, 234-236, 284) are probably harpies, winged Greek death-spirits also associated with storms. Banshees are also a form of harpies.
• The man named Cranston who could turn invisible is a reference to the radio version of The Shadow (p.198). if we add "one hundred and fifty-odd years" to the Shadow's radio debut date of 1930, we get 2080 as the date of AEG.
• "Panthera leo atox" (p. 200) is an extinct American Lion. Bones of about one hundred of these animals have been found in the La Brea Tar Pits.
• Dragon's eggs being poisonous (p. 205) may refer to fireworks made with lead tetraoxide. Dragon's blood is poisonous in many legends.
• The Silent Woman is a common pub sign in England and the United States. It features a decapitated woman (p. 209).
• The voices in Chase's car (pp. 213-214) make me think of spirits bound in service to a wizard. If there's a specific literary reference, it may be to The Tempest.

• Marco, Florida (p. 217) is Marco Island. It has been nicknamed "Murder Island."
• Cassie's lipstick goes from "ultra natural ash rose" to "New Rose Number 10" (p. 225) which seems like a hint of rebirth, especially since she repeats the "Lily Delight" baptism (p. 54). However, "New Rose" may also be a reference to New Rose Hotel, a dark cyberpunk story by William Gibson in which a woman is used as bait in a corporate extraction.
• The storm god (p. 226) is implicitly Cthulhu.
• Hanga the Shark God (pp. 228-233,239-241) is from Wolfe's The Tree is My Hat.
• "You're not in Kansas anymore, Cassie," is a reference to the movie version of The Wizard of Oz. Likewise when Cassie says she doesn't get to holler "Auntie Em."
• The Storm King's underwater city is called R'lyeh (p. 274) which is from Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu.
• "The devil's son is born tonight!" (p. 281) could refer to the wizard Merlin, in some legends the child of a woman and an incubus. This may be Gideon Chase, born on Woldercan probably a Wolder-human mixture. The "tonight" could be because it's impossible to say what is simultaneous on worlds so far away (p. 298).
• Gideon Chase was the chair of the Department of Modern Gramarye (magic) at Miskatonic University (p. 293), a fictional university created by H. P. Lovecraft in Arkham, Massachusetts. It appears in many of his stories, including The Dunwich Horror.
• "If you go fishing don't talk to any fish you catch. That's very dangerous. Release them immediately or kill them immediately." (p. 301). This could be a reference to the Grimm's fairy tale The Fisherman and his Wife. A fish promises a poor fisherman who lives in a vinegar jug a wish in exchange for release, but the fisherman's wife demands higher and higher riches and honors until at last she wants to be God. At that point, the fish tells the fisherman "Go. She is back in the vinegar jug." There is a parallel in Cassie's rise from struggling actress to star to queen and then back to obscurity.

Biblical references

• One of the lipsticks listed by Sharon is "Bathsheeba Pink" (p. 24). King David was tempted by Bathsheba and murdered her husband to get her. This love triangle involving a king is like the Cassie/Gideon/Bill triangle, though in this case it's the king who dies.
• AEG is packed with Christian symbolism. There's a lot of the Book of Romans in here. Notice the two bracelets Cassie receives from Reis. The gold one is heavy, barbaric, and deadly because it is made from radioactive gold that cannot be purified enough (p. 96). It's like something a Volcano God would give (p. 74). To me this looks like the Old Covenant of the Law, given at the top of a burning mountain. The diamond one is pure and beautiful, clear and flawless. This represents the New Covenant of grace.
• Reis says "You want love. You'll get it - shaken down, pressed down, and overflowing. I would die for you, Cassie. I really would " (p. 275). Compare with Luke 6:38.
• Chase is shot in the leg; Reis is smashed on the head. This seems like Genesis 3:15 "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." In this analogy, Reis takes the part of the serpent.
• Reis seems to be the God/Christ figure (or perhaps a false Christ). Reis initially wanted to win over Chase, and he was willing to destroy Cassie to show his power in order to do this. "It was to be an exhibition of my power, something to frighten Chase -- to frighten him into my camp if possible." (p. 125). This looks like salvation "to the Jews first and also to the Greek" (Romans 1:16).
• Cassie's computer paper is called "Miracle Magnawhite" (p. 24). This name is similar to Mary Magdalene, a female disciple of Jesus. Luke 8:2-3 says that Jesus cast seven demons out of her. In some traditions she is identified with the prostitute who annointed Jesus' feet with her tears.
• Gideon is an Old-Testament name. He acts as a Svengali to Cassie's Trilby, and Svengali was a Jew. He has written books of moral philosophy (p. 27) and insists that people not use the words "good" and "evil" loosely (pp. 14-15). He takes Cassie to a quaking mountain to awaken her to her potential. Once he takes Cassie to Reis he vanishes from the story -- now she represents both Jews and gentiles.
• Margaret seems to represent living according to the Law. She keeps the letter of honesty but breaks the spirit of it with her trash-can trick (pp. 82-83). She is a werewolf and their nature is to "want the wild and a liberation from human morality." (p. 207). "When the commandment came, sin revived and I died" (Romans 7:9).
• Cassie's address changes may reflect her changing spiritual state.

1. The East vs. West address -- "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:12).
2. Apartment 3A is half of a whole, representing Cassie's incompleteness without the love of God. She once let a magician saw her in half (p. 197).
3. Apartment 301 reflects "Add nothing to God and you get good" (p. 179). The three and one represent the Trinity, and the zero is adding nothing, so goodness comes by the grace of God.
4. Being on the fifth floor instead of the third suggests Cassie is being raised to a higher level.

• She is helped in the wilderness by the fire of the Volcano God (Holy Spirit). (pp. 285-286)
• In the end, Cassie is on a long journey, looking for the return of Christ (p. 301).

Meaning of names

• Cassie's first name is actually Cassiopeia, the queen in Greek legend who boasted of her beauty and offended a sea god, so that her daughter Andromeda was chained to a rock as a sacrifice to the sea monster Cefus. (Cassiopeia and Andromeda are also constellations, related to "stars.")
• Perseus saved Andromeda, and married her. Perseus was the son of Danae by Zeus, who seduced her in the form of a shower of gold. Simonedes of Ceos (source of the "evil guest" quote) wrote a poem about Danea and Perseus being cast into the sea.
• Cassie's character in "Dating the Volcano God" is named Mariah Brownlea. In the context of a musical, Mariah recalls "They Call the Wind Mariah" from Paint Your Wagon. Wind connects to her stormy fate. Brownlea suggests a "brown lea," a grassy green field (like the green goddess) that has become withered and brown.
• Cassie's middle name is Fiona, which is derived from a Gaelic word meaning white, or fair.
• Bill Reis' son Rian is also a Gaelic name meaning "little king." Norma (probably his mother) is also a Gaelic name.

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