Subject: (urth) Several things...

From: Alex David Groce <adgroce at eos.ncsu.edu>
Date: Fri, 01 Jan 1999 16:15:17 +0000

list just explodes with stuff...

	Anyway, thoughts from holiday reading:

	Has anyone ever noticed that THERE ARE DOORS is very close to 1st
person?  If you replace the word "he" with "I" you have something almost
indistinguishable from 1st person.  Green is always (as far as I can tell)
referred to as "he".  I don't think the other males in the book are ever
referred to by pronouns.  It's very strange--and led me occasionally to
mentally replace the "he" and transform it into a Weer/Severian confessional...
Any ideas on what this means?  It's clearly intentional, because I would think
that it simply couldn't be done without conscious effort--not like leaving out
the letter "e" or anything, but still--restricting the male pronoun to the
protagonist only, and NEVER referring to him by name...

	Also, read Chesterton's ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI, and wondered if anyone
else found it plausible that Silk's (brief and unsuccesssful) career as burglar
was inspired in part by St. Francis' attempt to repair a ruined chapel with
money stolen from his father--Chesterton concentrates quite a bit on the event
and its meanings, and I'm certain Wolfe's read the book...  The relevant
material is in Chapter IV of the book, especially p. 54 of the Image edition...
If it is a source, then Silk really is a very Chesterton-influenced figure
(given the obvious Father Brown heritage).

	By the way, I found this list's Patrick O'Leary's THE GIFT under the
Christmas tree at my house a few days ago (oddly appropriate...) and am eagerly
awaiting a chance to delve into it.
-- 
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." - John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (adgroce at eos.ncsu.edu)
Senior (Computer Science/Multidisciplinary Studies in Technology & Fiction)
'98-99 NCSU AITP Student Chapter President
608 Charleston Road, Apt. 1E (919)-233-7366
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~adgroce

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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From: Kevin J. Maroney <kmaroney at crossover.com>
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1999 11:42:43 +0000

At 04:15 PM 1/1/99 -0500, Alex wrote:
>referred to as "he".  
...
>Any ideas on what this means?  

I have the feeling--based on only one reading of the novel; Wolfe's
contemporary fantasy novels don't inspire me to re-read them---that "Mr.
Green" is not his name. If I recall correctly, the only source for that
name was a mental hospital, and as you point out, the narrator strenously
avoids calling him anything other than "he". 

Alternately, it may be the case that Green is the first-person narrator of
the novel but, due to mental disorders, is disassociated from his own
identity to the point where he views events happening to himself as
happening to a third party.

Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at crossover.com
Kitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction
http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/olp/nyrsf/nyrsf.html

---

From: Alex David Groce <adgroce at eos.ncsu.edu>
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1999 14:56:15 +0000

> >	Has anyone ever noticed that THERE ARE DOORS is very close to 1st
A> >person?  If you replace the word "he" with "I" you have something almost
> ....

	Hmmm...  Despite having heard a good deal before reading it of the
ambiguity of TAD, I think it's (for Wolfe especially) very heavily weighted in
favor of the alternatte worlds/fantasy explanation, and against the "the guy is
nuts" explanation.  The name identification (a nice piece of Wolfe dialogoue,
where the receptionist thinks "Green" is giving her his name when he's
answering a question about what the word "viridian" means) does come from the
receptionist at the mental health institute, but later, after being called Mr.
Green several times, the protagonist wonders how she knew his name--so either
it really is his name, or both he and the hospital are confused...
	No, contemporary fantasy isn't Wolfe's forte, although I found THERE
ARE DOORS much more enjoyable the CASTLEVIEW.