{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/114",
    "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": 114,
    "subject": "Changeling and Death Island",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-07-22T23:46:55+00:00",
    "last": "1997-07-22T23:46:55+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0003-0179@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Jim Jordan",
        "address": "jbjordan at gnt.net"
      },
      "date": "1997-07-22T23:46:55+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Re: Changeling and Death Island",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Mantis et al.,\n\n\tLet's go with Mantis's implied suggestion, and use \"Pete\" for Peter\nPalmer, and \"Peter\" for Peter Palmieri. The observations that follow are\ngrist for the mill, and largely supersede my first post on this complex story.\n\n\t1. I agree that there are Peter Pan allusions, but I have not found the\nencrypted proof at the end of the story. So, puh-leeze, spell it out for us.\n\n\t\t1a. Pan note: \"Peter Palmieri always wanted to play Vikings or something\nlike that.\" In other words, Pirates. Later on, \"We meant to play Pirates,\nor something.\"\n\n\t2. The title is \"The Changeling,\" and as we know, titles mean a whole lot\nin Wolfe. The story is about changeable Pete, not unchanging Peter. That's\ngotta be important.\n\n\t\t2a. Ernie Cotha says, \"Nobody leaves Cassonsville.\" Well, Pete and his\nfamily did. It does seem, however, as if Cassonsville is pretty unchanging.\nPeople do grow, but things change slowly. Cotha's teeth have been fixed,\nbut otherwise.... The convent school and the photo have aged somewhat.\n\n\t\t2b. The island is completely unchanging: \"Maybe it was because every tree\nand rock and bush and berry tangle was familiar and unaltered.\" Bushes and\nberry tangles unaltered? A truly timeless place. More later.\n\n\t3. What changes does Pete undergo?\n\n\t\ta. Left Cassonsville the month before starting 5th grade, maybe.\n\t\tb. Changes name from Pete Palmer to something else.\n\t\tc. When his father died, \"things changed for me then.\"\n\t\td. Becomes a communist.\n\t\te. Returns to America.\n\t\tf. Returns to Cassonsville.\n\t\tg. Moves to island.\n\n\t4. The unchanging island is the grave. That's why there are crosses there.\nThat's why Peter says that nobody can throw a rock to the farther shore,\nthe living world. That's why the island is closer to the shore in the eyes\nof the older Pete, who is nearer to death than he was when a child. The\nhermit's cave at the end equals a tomb.\n\n\t5. If Peter doesn't change at all, Sister Leona \"hadn't changed much; nuns\ndon't.\" \n\n\t6. May I make a bold move, for the sake of discussion? Peter is Pan, but\nalso Christ. Unchanging. He is linked into the Italian Family (Church),\nwith Papa (Pope), Mama (Church), Maria (Mary), and Paul. Only Papa (Pope)\nand Pete notice Peter as such, Papa because he is the vicar of Christ, and\nPete because... he's supposed to replace Papa as new Pope? Nuns don't\nchange much because they also represent the Unchanging Christ. Cassonsville\nchanges a bit more rapidly, but yet much more slowly than Pete has, as a\nresult of leaving Cassonsville.\n\n\t7. \"Nobody leaves Cassonsville.\" Well, Pete left, and disappeared. He's\nnot in the school picture, and not in the written records (the Bible? the\nBook of Life of the Lamb?). If someone leaves Cassonsville, he become\n\"nobody,\" non-existent in terms of Cassonsville.\n\n\t8. \"Peter still has the same last name as always and I guess now he always\nwill.\" Why? Because Pete was supposed to grow up, marry Maria, and Peter\nwould move into his house? Mama wanted Pete to stay in Maria's room, but he\nwouldn't.\n\n\t9. Now I'm building quite a bit, but let me make another bold move. Papa\nis the Pope. Paul, the younger, cocky child is Protestantism. Paul insists\nhe can throw a rock from the eternal to the temporal (the Rock is Christ?),\nbut he can't, because he's not the Pope. Sure, he's a member of the family,\nbut not completely playing by the rules.\n\tPete is supposed to be the new Pope, but he has apostatized. He is, in\nthat sense, a changeling. He chucks his true name and becomes a commie\n(shades of liberation theology!), but even when he returns, he won't take\nup with Maria and make a home for Peter (Christ).\n\tMy guess is that this story is, in part, Wolfe's conservative catholic\ntake on the present state of the Roman Catholic Church, at least at the\ntime it was written (1968). At that time, Wolfe was probably more\nright-wing than he is now (and in terms of mainstream American thinking,\nhe's pretty right-wing now).\n\tNote that Peter Palmer is just American for Peter Palmieri. So, the old\nItalian (earlier) Catholic church was holding on, keeping Peter (Jesus)\naround in a home, but the American Catholics don't make a home for Peter.\nThey change their name and become commies (liberation theology). So, Peter\nhas to stay in an Italian family, increasingly marginalized at the edge of\ntown.\n\tPeter's last name is still Palmieri at the end, the Italian (Catholic)\nname, but the boys who are with him (Him) don't call him by it much.\nProtestant Paul has more influence with them. Too bad Pete refused his\ncalling. (Too bad from Wolfe's point of view; as a Calvinist I have my\nown....)\n\n\t3 again: What changes does Pete undergo?\n\n\t\ta. Left Cassonsville the month before starting 5th grade, maybe. His\nfolks moved away, and took him with them.\n\t\tb. Changes name from Pete Palmer to something else. This is a rejection\nof his true calling and nature.\n\t\tc. When his father died, \"things changed for me then.\" This is true in\nevery man's life. So, does he take God as Father, or run away? The latter.\n\t\td. Becomes a communist. This will be the opposite pole from where he began.\n\t\te. Returns to America. A step back, not not enough.\n\t\tf. Returns to Cassonsville. Here he is given the opportunity to return to\nhis calling, but he refuses.\n\t\tg. Moves to island. Death, but not a death-in-community (heaven) but a\ndeath-alone (hell). Compare the picture of hell in Lewis's *The Great\nDivorce.* Also, I cannot help but think of the contemptable situation of a\nable-bodied man living off the gifts of others, who treat him as a guru.\nPete has moved into the mentality of Hinduism. Others wish they could be\nlike him: freeloading and living the life of ease.\n\n\tWell, every time I re-read this I add to it, and I'd better quit. It's\nyour turns.\n\nNutria (who sure ain't got the last word on this one!)"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}