For Robert Kroetsch the play of language and consummation, word and world, is an intricate one, a Derridean replication of substitutions that always ensnares man in alibis. There is a perpetual deferring of what a character wants by its alibi; everything is exposed as a sign of something else. This is symbolised principally by the recurring motif of panties, which provide, at best, a false succor for unrealized desire. The problem in the larger sense is that of identity as well as of identifying. A similar theme is present in Kroetsch's Gone Indian. Characters wish to unlock the secrets of language but are stymied by transposed signifiers.
