Subject: (urth) Re: Island of Doctor Death

From: Christy <cglst7+ at pitt.edu>
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 17:17:02 +0000

>But what does Dr. Death mean when he says, "But if you start the book
>again we'll all be back...You're too young to realize it yet, but it's
>the same with you"?

He's talking about memories. To think about the past, about your
childhood, is a way of re-living it. 

						-C-

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

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From: Tony Ellis <tony.ellis at futurenet.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 15:49:23 +0000

> childhood, is a way of re-living it.

No no no no no. He's talking about books. Tackman doesn't realise it,
but he's a character in a book. And when we start the book again, there
he is, writing his name in the sand.

This is why I would tend to disagree with Nutria's (still fascinating)
Catholic reading. For me this is a story about reading stories. Hence
the title.

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From: Alex David Groce <alex_groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 12:07:11 +0000

Perhaps the character in a book reading and the Catholic parable
reading aren't incompatible:  Chesterton, after all, quite a few
times talks about Christianity as being highly in tune with the
spirit of Boys' Adventure Stories (and, more generally, the idea
of the novel).  This is an idea Wolfe is certainly familliar with
(and his essays in CASTLE OF DAYS have some of the same spirit).
You could also tie in Muriel Spark's take on this in THE COMFORTERS,
which certainly links being a Creature of God and being a Character
in a Book.

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

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From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 09:54:08 +0000

> he is, writing his name in the sand.

But then Dr. Death's statement makes no sense.  No matter how many times
we read the story, Tackman will never be a minute older than he was at the
end of Death's sentence (heh, accidental double entendre there).

I guess he could be refering to Tackman's story getting older as we read
it over and over.

-Rostrum