14 quoted lines · 1–2 deep
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Jordan [SMTP:jbjordan at gnt.net]
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2000 12:15 PM
To: urth at lists.best.com
Subject: (urth) Haunted Boardinghouse
Now, is there anyone who would be so kind as to translate all the Latin bits in "The Haunted Boardinghouse"? [I know that some of it is explained in context, but I can't come up with a good guess for some of the phrases towards the end].
William Ansley
Now there is a story that left me confused! It reminded me of an
episode
of the Simpsons, starting at one place, moving a lot of other places, and winding up a different story altogether. I've got to reread it and see if I can pick up thematic continuity. Anybody want to share an analysis with us?
Any connection with the boardinghouse in Free Life Free? Both are "America." Are there Wizard of Oz allusions in "Haunted B."?
Nutria
Agreed! This was the most perplexing, for moi, of the lot. I need to
read this once again, but I'll wait a bit to see if anyone comes back with some translations. Other than a shade of "Free Live Free" {I guess I missed the Oz allusion(s)}, I was also in mind of John Crowley's "Little Big", another architecturally haunting story I've been meaning to read again for many years.
Quick opinion: the substance given to Jo An in the 1 - 2 - 3 story
seems to be heroin from the description of its color to the immediate effects upon and subsequent death, of the girl. I certainly wouldn't deem her death a suicide as much as I would an accidental poisoning - she was simply ignorant of what she'd gotten her hands on and how far she could go with it. Did the previous civilization use the phone and the "heroin" for suicide? Or is this just evidence of their decadence; how low they'd fallen morally/spiritually? I have a hard time with the mass suicide interpretation. This seems like a civilization too selfish for the fanaticism necessary for such dramatics.
Tom