From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 1995 17:14:00 -600

In response to the general discussion on trustworthiness, as a reader I found it very hard initially to trust the Carlisles simply because I saw their self-interests as their first and foremost motivation for interacting with Laura - they were hoping Laura would be able to help Sorry and that seemed to me their greatest interest in her, not in helping her for Jacko's sake. At the same time, I trusted them implicitly in terms of wanting to do what was best for Sorry (working toward making amends for past mistakes). Therefore, I had to learn to trust the Carlisles on Laura's behalf, especially as Laura was motivated by concern for Jacko which made her willing to take risks. Curiously, Miryam and Winter, like Sorry, never seemed all that concerned about Jacko on an emotional level - at least their concern was not expressed in that context. Rather for them, it seemed more of an intellectual and spiritual challenge having to do with evil.

 This made for an interesting dichotomy because in Laura's perspective (concern for Jacko that is based on her love for him) and in the Carlisle's perspective (concern - or maybe "interest" is a better word, since I never really felt I could describe their behavior as true "concern" in an emotional sense) over what Jacko's situation represents - I see the intellectual and emotional - the two sides of every issue or problem. And they need each other to succeed and come out whole. Laura needs the Carlisle's "disinterested" perspective (by that I mean free from emotional entanglement) to guide her clearly through the Changeover, and the Carlisle's need the emotional grounding that Laura can provide to help save Sorry.

Megan Schliesman CCBC
Received on Wed 23 Aug 1995 06:14:00 PM CDT