Player of Games: Gurgeh as Bilbo Baggins...

[Rick]

I reread PoG a few days ago and one thing struck me. Gurgeh is much like Bilbo in The Hobbit. Remember the discussion around whether Bilbo really wanted to go on an adventure and that Gandalf kind of manipulated him into it? Well, read the first part of Player (Culture Plate) and you'll see that Gurgeh, for all his professed boredom, is actually pretty comfortable in his life. He's not motivated to leave and at one point notes that he's not been off the orbital much at all. He's a homebody, much like Bilbo but he, like Bilbo, has a restless streak that's coming to the fore. In Bilbo's case, it takes an outsider with more knowledge of the situation to arrange things so that Bilbo leaves home and ventures into the unknown. In Gurgeh's case, this is Contact.

In fact, Player of Games is very much a quest story. Gurgeh is lured on an adventure. There's a challenge to overcome (Can he play Azad well?). He confronts dangers (the Azadians aren't precisely friendly), but he overcomes them for the most part and returns home (There And Back Again!) but is profoundly changed by his adventure.

Player is most certainly not The Hobbit and Gurgeh's not precisely Bilbo... but the similarities amused me. Thoughts?

[Christopher]

Maybe not the responce you were hoping to get, but your Post may have just convinced me to go read it.

[Rick]

Ahhhhahahahah. Good. It's a very good book and if my post gets one more person to read it and you enjoy it, that's awesome.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I think this is an interesting idea, although Gurgeh did seem to send a message to the higher ups that seemed to have the premise of "I'm BORED. What should I DO!?"

So they answered it!

I am still intrigued by the firestorm planet.

[Sandi]

I just finished and I see exactly what you're saying. It is an interesting way to look at the story.

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

Rick, I agree with you completely, which is interesting, because at the beginning of the book I really didn't see the connection between the characters. Bilbo, as a child, had dreamed of adventures, but gradually become settled into his life, until he no longer felt that desire, at least not in any way he was aware of, whereas Gurgeh had never been interested in travelling, and had cut short the opportunities in his younger days, but was gradually growing bored and wanted something possibly something dangerous, but chase the boredom away. But now that I've finished the book and can look back at it as a whole, the journey the two took throughout the two books do run parallel to one another, so much so that I half wonder whether this wasn't intentional.

One thing I did think when I spied this thread back when I was just starting this book was "well, if Gurgeh is Bilbo, that would make Mawhrin-Skel Gandalf."

(view spoiler)[Seeing the way his presence was felt far longer than Gurgeh realised, and that he did, in fact, step in at the end to save the day, I think I still hold to this. His manipulative manner of prodding Gurgeh to leave does remind me of Gandalf's 'for his own good' attitude, and...well, I love the little drone! (hide spoiler)]