{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3037",
    "note": "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.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 3037,
    "subject": "The Death of Dr. Island (SPOILERS)",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2002-03-14T15:24:42+00:00",
    "last": "2002-03-14T15:24:42+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0203-351@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Michael Straight",
        "address": "straight at email.unc.edu"
      },
      "date": "2002-03-14T15:24:42+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Death of Dr. Island (SPOILERS)",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "One of my favorite pleasures in reading science fiction short stories\nis being dropped /in medias res/, not knowing where or when the story\ntakes place, not knowing if the protagonist is human, alien, robot,\na ghost, and getting to slowly figure it out from clues in the story\nas it progresses.  The weirder the situation, the better.\n\nBut there's no cliche more disappointing than finding out that the \nreal explanation for it all is that the protagonist is insane and \nin a mental institution.  Leave it to Wolfe to turn yet another \nscience fiction cliche completely on its head.\n\nThe first four pages of \"The Death of Dr. Island\" are a full force\nmind-blowing example of that pleasure described above.  In the first\nfew paragraphs you start to form a hypothesis about the setting and\nthe protagonist, but you have to revise it every few paragraphs as \nnew details drastically change what you think is going on.  Admittedly, in\norder to do this, Wolfe has come up with a very odd protagonist,\nsituation, and environment.  In fact, it's the old \"insane in a mental\ninstitution\" plot.  The twist is that, while that is the explanation for\nall the weirdness, the weird stuff is all real, not an insane delusion or\na subjective mindscape. \n\n(Incidentally, it can't be a coincidence that this story comes right after\n\"Three Fingers\" in the collection _The Island of Doctor Death and Other\nStories and Other Stories_.  Any chance that's a clue that the ending of\n\"Three Fingers isn't quite what it appears to be?)\n\nThe rest of the story is not quite as amazing as the first few pages, but\nit is quite good.  The ending is nicely unexpected.  Unfortunately, Wolfe\ncouldn't resist pointing out to the reader how unexpected it was.\nThe sentence where Dr. Island explains the title of the story falls\nflat; it would have been much better to let the reader figure out why the\ntitle still fits (we might have had a nice little discussion about\nit).  And you certainly don't need one of the characters saying, \"This\nisn't ending the way I thought.\"  Yes, Gene, the death of Dr. Island is\nnot what I thought it would be.  I geddit.\n\nOn the other hand, the place where Nicholas gently nudges the fourth wall,\nwith his \"Don't you know how a machine is supposed to talk?\" is quite\nfunny and well done.\n\nSurely we're meant to be horrified by Ignacio's \"cure\"?  Are there any\nreal-world insane people who, after killing (raping?) someone, get better\nbecause they find out it wasn't as much fun as they thought it would\nbe?  I'm guessing that the big expensive Dr. Island is really for the\nbenefit of rich, important people like Ignacio; if Nicholas or Diane get\nbetter, that's fine, but they're really only there because they might be\nuseful for curing Ignacio.\n\nBy the way, it seems to me that the collection _The Island of Doctor Death\nand Other Stories and Other Stories_ might be the right choice for a book\nto recommend for someone who has never tried Wolfe before.  It has some\nvery excellent stories and doesn't require reading 4+ books to get an\nentire story.\n\n-Rostrum"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}