Subject: (urth) Is Mary really the name for all abo women? Or was that Scribner's error?

From: Talarican <exultnttalarican at mindspring.com>
Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 23:31:59 +0000

We had some discussion previously about some of the text shifts and editing
missteps in 5HC from the original Scribner's 1972 edition and the Ace
paperback. There was the infamous Ace "All the worlds will be born"
contraction. According to Charles Scribner's sons, Phaedria's
father "owned", most of the time,  large sums which the lenders could not
hope to collect unless they were willing to allow him more to recoup. The
difficulty, I thought, was that he _didn't_ "own" these sums, but speculated
with others' money; Ace clarified that he "owed" these sums. Also, the
Scribner clan would have us believe the carcass of the 'water-carabou' the
real Dr. Marsch, great white hunter, was so proud of shooting from a range
of 300 yards,  would weigh "a good fifteen pounds" (oof!).

Well, the Scribnerites also tell us that, in "A Story", Seven Girls
Waiting's infant was named Mary Pink Butterflies. It has become something of
dogma among us Urthlings that "Mary" was the name of all abo women, just as
"John" was stated in the text to be the name of all abo men, even though no
such statement was made regarding "Mary", and the baby was the only example
of a "Mary" in "A Story".

The subsequent Ace paperback threw an interesting twist in the
scheme by naming Seven Girls Waiting's child "_Many_ Pink Butterflies". The
Ace version being the first (and for long only) I had read, I had accepted
"Many Pink Butterflies" as the girl's name and imagined rapid movement of
the infant's hands created the impression, in Seven Girls Waiting's doting
eyes at any rate, of "many" butterflies.

But then again, "A Story", including the "John" rule,  may have been a
fabrication on Victor Trenchard's part, drawing on "abo" folklore passed on
to him by his parents.

***

BTW, for those concerned about my patronage of "Breastless"; I actually
purchased these used volumes from independent book dealers by means of the
Internet shopping/marketing mechanism "Breastless" makes available to them
for a price. I am quite cognizant and sympathetic to the plight of the
independent bookdealer, there being few such on Urth;
and furthermore my alter ego's own father having been one of a related and
more specialized tribe, the independent college textbook dealer, which
business is now in its turn getting "wal-mart-ized" by big players in that
particular arena.

Talarican

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