{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1022",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1022,
    "subject": "The Doctor of Death Island",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-07-20T21:16:06+00:00",
    "last": "1998-07-20T21:16:06+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0017-0056@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Robert Borski",
        "address": "rborski at coredcs.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-07-20T21:16:06+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Doctor of Death Island",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Some bits and pieces on \"The Doctor of Death Island,\" because it's easier\nto discuss that way.\n\nUnlike its two predecessors in the Archipelago series, which draw mainly on\nGreek myth, much of TDoDI is based on the legend of Faust, incorporating\nnames and incidents from both Marlowe and Goethe versions. Alan Alvard, the\nviewpoint character, is clearly Mephistopheles, while humanity in general\nrepresents Faust (although at times Alvard also represents Faust). Other\nfigures named after Faustian characters include: Dr. Margotte and Megan\nCarstensen (both derive from Margaret, as does Goethe's Margarete), while\nEllen and Little Nell recall Helen of Troy, and President Sanderson is\nAlexander the Great. It may also be possible to locate the Seven Deadly\nSins (Megan with her three paramours is Lechery, Barry Seigle may be\nCovetousness, etc. etc.). As for parallel incidents Alvard waiting to be\nrejuvenated by cell therapy recalls a similar scene where Faust has his\nyouth restored in the Witch's Kitchen, and the stairs scene at the\nnovella's end recalls the finale in Goethe. There are also several\nseduction scenes. Perhaps Peter Stephenson, who's graced us with his Goethe\ntranslations, could come up with more correspondences?\n\nAs for the Faustian bargain struck by humanity, this time we sell our souls\nfor immortality. And as we've come to expect in works by Gene Wolfe, this\nusurping of God's authority leads directly to damnation. Mankind may indeed\nneed never die, but at what cost? Wolfe speculates the \"gift\" of\nimmortality could well lead to the death of love, art, science, literature\nand religion--in short, much of what makes us human. Thus we'd be little\nmore than George Romero figures: anonymous living dead. In addition, as he\ndoes in \"Silhouette,\" Wolfe associates mankind's inability to read--a\nchange brought about by Alvard, with his invention of talking books--with\nGodlessness, which no doubt plays off of the Gospel of Saint John, with its\nWord = God equivalency. \n\nThe novella takes place in Greyhame Prison. \"Ham\" can mean home or town, so\nGreyhame--which is described as having long grey walls--seems an\nappropriate name for the physical structure. In addition, \"hame\" can mean,\naccording to the OED, \"a covering, esp. a natural covering, integument,\nskin, membrane, slough (of a serpent).\"  Given the association of the devil\nwith serpents, this too seems appropriate, given the novella's theme. But\nI'd like to suggest \"Greyhame\" also invokes the notion of Grey Friars,\nwhich is what Franciscan monks were once called--in Doctor Faustus, when\nMephistophilis first appears, Faustus commands him to take the form of a\nFranciscan. \n\nThe 7th floor of Greyhame Prison is where Alan Alvard is confined, both\nbefore cryogenic suspension and after. This strikes a parallel with Dante's\nInferno, where murderers are confined to the 7th circle. (Alvard has killed\nhis business partner.)\n\nDr. Margotte is the titular doctor of Death Island. Since he's often\npresent when patients \"pass over\" (the 7th floor is reserved for pre-CT\nterminal cases), he most likely represents Charon, the mythological\nferryman for the dead. But with his white hair and \"blasted hands,\" he may\nalso represent Rotwang and Dr. Strangelove, two other figures associated\nwith technology run amok. His entering cryonic suspension shortly after\nAlvard does signifies that mankind, now on the road to immortality, no\nlonger has need of his services. On the other hand, his return at the\nnovella's end may offer a thin ray of hope--especially if\nAlvard/Mephistopheles is going to help humanity return to a former state of\ngrace. But as with much of Wolfe, the ending's ambiguous in this regard.\n(It seems as if the quoted OLIVER TWIST should be a clue. But is Alvard the\npeddler, who will cleanse humanity's \"stain,\" or is he Bill Sikes, who'll\nkill both his girlfriend and himself trying to escape? Fwiw, the last word\nof the story is \"blood-stain\" and Alvard has been earlier associated with\nCain.)   \n\nThe name \"Alan Alvard,\" in addition to having the same sort of Dickensian\nalliterative qualities as Nicholas Nickleby and Philip Pirrip, probably\nderives from alvary, meaning \"womb\" (OED), since his Dickens Genre Jinn\nvirus is very similar to a sexually-transmitted disease (books must be\ncover to cover for the infection to transfer). But it may also derive from\nvlad + alucard, since Alvard is compared to Count Dracula at one point by\nJessie--another Prince of Darkness and representative of the living dead.\n\nGenre Jinn also reminds me of a phrase often associated with technological\nmayhem, especially as practiced by someone for the first time--i.e., the\ngenie's out of the bottle\n\nWhereas the first two stories in the Archipelago series draw upon the works\nof C.S. Lewis, H.G. Wells, and Henry de Vere Stacpoole for their islands,\nTDoDI draws upon two different works. The first is a painting, Isle of the\nDead, by Arnold Boecklin. This is the goldfish bowl island, which Alvard\ncompares to the 7th level of Greyhame Prison. The other island comes from\nJonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, and it is Laputa. This is both the\nfloating Presidential Center and the derelict floating ghost island Alvard\nsees from his window (if the latter isn't a hallucination). The immortals\nof TDoDI may also represent Swift's Struldbruggs, and it's possible that\nthe short story \"Civis Laputus Sum\" is set in the same universe as TDoDI,\nbeing at least a thematic prequel.\n\nHaving Dickens be the viral agent infecting all of the world's talking\nbooks and documents not only allows Gene Wolfe to pay tribute to one of his\nfavorite writers, but also to wreak some punning cleverness, since\n\"dickens\" (as in the exclamation, \"The dickens you say!\") is also a\neuphemism for devil. Notice as well the first book we see evidence of\ninfection in--YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN by Thomas Wolfe. \n\nMegan Carstensen, whom Alvard eventually becomes cell mates with and a\npotential lover of, is described as \"fresh and cool and virginal as an\nasphodel in an ash can.\" Asphodels were at one time thought immortal and\nthey supposedly cover the Elysium Fields. But as is appropriate for someone\nwho poisoned a young man who was much prettier than she is, Megan's\nasphodel sits in an ash can--metaphorical hell. The name Carstensen also\nprobably derives from German painter Asmus Jakob Carstens, whose most\nfamous work is entitled The Fall of the Angels. \n\nThe narrative structure of TDoDI is somewhat unusual in that each new\nsection begins in the italicized present, but then elides into the past\ntense. I believe this is meant to echo \"The Island of Dr. Death & Other\nStories,\" where Tacky, in employing a second-person present point of view,\nis not so much talking to himself, but communing with us, his readers,\nhoping for a more intimate connection. I.e., the story is talking to us in\nthe same way the Genre Jinn books do their readers.\n\nLastly, according to Urth-Man Extraordinary, at one time Gene Wolfe was\nworking on a novel entitled IN GREYHAME PRISON. TDoDI is obviously a big\nchunk of it (as possibly might be \"Civis Laputus Sum\"), but I wonder why\nWolfe never finished the entire work. Possibly because an editor\nerroneously suggested it required too much knowledge of Dickens to\nunderstand?\n\nRobert Borski"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}