# Digest urth.v028.n178 *The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 08 Apr 2000* > 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. --- ### Nigel Price *08 Apr 2000, 19:44* >> Tony Ellis wrote: >> I've got as far as 1-2-3 For Me. I'd just like to say that I agree 101% >> with William H. Ansley's view that this is a ghost story, pure and >> simple. In particular it's an M.R. Jamesian ghost story, and I was a >> little surprised to see no one else suggest this connection. For me >> there's a definite sly wink in the direction of James's classic "Oh >> Whistle, and I'll Come To You, My Lad!" Especially when you compare the >> two titles: Wolfe's reads like a deliberately cheeky, modernistic >> response to the Master. Why whistle, when you can tone-dial? Um...is it OK if I point out that back on the 14th of March, I wrote to this list to say: Has anyone else suggested yet that "One-Two-Three for Me" is in some rather tenuous respects a science-fictional retelling of M R James' classic ghost story, "Oh, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad"? Instead of the antique whistle in James' story, the vindictive "ghost" is summoned by a call on an ancient cell phone, and instead of a thing of wind and cloth, the "ghost" is a drug dealer. Both stories feature minor excavation and archaeology, and if the titles aren't really that similar, they do at least share the common feature of being the sinisterly seductive promises of the mysterious evil figures summoned in each story. So, yes, Tony, I'm with you all the way on this one! Nigel (who is horribly hairy, though sadly not as skeletal as once was, and seen only fleetingly on the list these days...) --- ### Tony Ellis *10 Apr 2000, 09:20 · follows Nigel Price* Oops, sorry Nigel! I've only read as far as 1-2-3 so I had to pick my way through all the Strange Travelers posts with my eyes squidged half shut. I must have missed yours. Oh well, if we can both arrive at the same conclusion independently, we must be on to something. :-) Tony (who is horribly skeletal, though sadly not as hairy as he once was...) ---