Liner Notes for Who Is Andromeda Puce?

 

Liner Notes for Who Is Andromeda Puce?

Who is Andromeda Puce? I invented her for my novel The Convoluted Adventure Of The Vengeful Yankee Financier, the difficult second album of the Schneeman trilogy. She appears from nowhere, a mistress of disguise, and in the present of the novel she’s always one step behind, trying to get hold of the (possibly illusory) treasure of the previous section of the novel. In the end Schneemann involves her in the finale, a complicated multi-faction train heist. Like I said, a difficult second album.

Everybody, and by everybody I mean the half dozen people who commented on the book either in public or to me personally, wanted more Andromeda Puce. This is a problem. She’s a one trick gag character whose trick is having been in the scene all along and you didn’t know because I didn’t tell you (as she’s in disguise). If I tell you more about her the gag isn’t funny and the trick loses it’s appeal. I would need to make up for that with some compelling character or world-building or story work, and who has time for that?

Anyway, that story would be about the build up, the preparation. Andromeda starting with a low level, generic persona to observe the targets, slowly learning enough to create a new disguise to gain their trust. The mechanics of wigs, make up, of clothing, of posture and action, of accent and class and profession and gender. Then the reveal, the forgotten element, the scramble to improvise. A nice classic heist, with the disguise and impersonation elements highlighted.

I went for something more high concept here. I designed a scene – a static scene. A bank, busy, and a variety of characters in it. Then a brief yet telling description. Not quite the things that Sherlock Holmes might see when deducing their profession – those are obvious to us. Rather the individual details that show off their specificity. And thus may be flaws that indicate they are not who they say they are.

Interspersed are the few facts of Andromeda Puce’s life, or from the point of view of this commentary, the notes for her character written into coherent sentences. I regret to say that none of these get us any closer to the titular question. Who is Andromeda Puce?

To quote James Bond as James St John-Smythe, a successful cover becomes almost second nature. Yet Andromeda Puce is not satisfied with a merely successful cover. No almost about it, and why stop at second nature. To leave behind the old self and enter entirely into the current one. She becomes the character, blurring the truths and lies, the emotions, the habits, the relationships. That time as the daring thief in Belle Epoque Paris, that was a figment, a dream, a fantasy. You have always been the person reading this, the person who thinks about heists and cons, but doesn't commit them. You love learning about these daring crimes, risky escapades, the razor’s edge between fortune and failure. But that isn’t you. It has never been you.

I assure you, there remains no evidence that you have ever been Andromeda Puce.