From the Dust Returned Internal Continuity (SPOILERS)

Surprisingly, especially for a book that was worked on over 55 years, this book has issues within itself, which must be dealt with before figuring out how exactly it fits with the others.

Fortunately, there are only a few things, so it won't be a long post.

The first couple have to do with  the character of Cecy, who can move her mind out and enter other beings or even inanimate objects to see what it's like to be them.

First of all, in the chapter entitled "Homecoming", at one point Cecy dreamily tells her brother Timothy that she's in the mind of a lonely woman in California. Moments later, the woman walks into the mud pots near her house, allowing herself to be engulfed by the mud and the sulfurous fumes. When this happens, Cecy quickly moves into the mind of a bird and flies off. Just seconds later, there is a smack as a bird hits the attic window and Cecy announces that her mind has fully returned to the House.


How could that bird possibly fly that quickly from California to Illinois? The only plausible explanation is that she must have, at some point, switched to another, or even several other, bodies in quick succession, lightning fast. Otherwise, we would have to suppose the involvement of teleporation or a wormhole, of which there is no evidence in the text. Although, that would be a very interesting idea...

So what if I'm trying to turn everything into science fiction!? I am a being of science fiction!

Anyway, the second problem builds onto the first: in "West of October" Mother explicitly states that Cecy's mind can only travel a few miles. It is for this reason that Great Grandpère has to go on the train to Sojourn, Missouri. (After the Homecoming, four cousins stayed behind. They convinced Cecy to move their minds so they could explore those of mental patients, and while their minds were away, the barn in which they slept burned down, destroying their bodies. Grandmère volunteers Grandpère to be the carrier of the cousins, so they are stuck in his head awhile, until they find new bodies for them.)

The problem is, California is farther away than just a few miles, yet she had no problem being there. In addition to this, Cecy's mind remains with Grandpère and the cousins for the whole train ride! Doesn't that defeat the purpose of Grandpère being on the train!?

The only solution I can see is that, perhaps, Cecy can only move others' minds a few miles from where their minds are at that time. Or we're looking at several different alternate-universe versions of the Family throughout the book...

Okay, okay! I'll stop!

I don't really have to turn it into science fiction when it's already in a science fiction universe, anyway...

In the story "Uncle Einar" the titular winged man married a woman who is said to have 3 boys and 1 girl. But later, at the end, the children say they are going to fly a kite and it describes them as 2 boys and a girl. What happened to the other boy? Perhaps he was sick that day, or is a teenager and didn't feel like playing with his younger siblings. Or, the timeline was changed and he ceased to exist, like Chuck in Happy Days.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Finally, when Grandmère volunteers Grandpère, she says that he is older than she is. But then, in "The October People" Grandmère claims that she is the oldest and that "there is no other." Moreover, after "West of October" Grandpère isn't mentioned once. Something must have happened to him, but what? And what about the cousins in his head?

Remember how Mr. Cooger in Something Wicked This Way Comes was spun on the carousel until he was impossibly old, and the electric chair kept him alive? Remember how, as the freaks were taking him cautiously back to the carousel to reverse the process before he died, Jim startled them and they dropped Cooger, and he exploded into a puff of dust? Remember how Mr. Cooger, in this older state, was described with the word "mummy"?

Grandpère is a mummy. And with those wily cousins in his head, he occasionally sidled over near Grandmère. Perhaps one day, he tripped...and the cousins ceased to exist.

The Family doesn't like to talk about it.

Although, that does bring up some questions about the attic dust Cecy is always lying in...

Well, there you have it. My speculation about how the discrepencies in From the Dust Returned could be explained.

Next Time: Continuity with Other Books