{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3218", "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": 3218, "subject": "Seven American Nights", "messages": 4, "voices": 3, "first": "2002-05-06T06:42:09+00:00", "last": "2002-05-24T02:16:41+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Robert Borski", "address": "rborski at charter.net" }, "date": "2002-05-06T06:42:09+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Seven American Nights", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Possibly Gene Wolfe's best work of short fiction is \"Seven American Nights.\"\nCertainly it's one of my favorites.\n\nBut how, given that Nadan's journal only chronicles six nights, are we to\nreconcile this with Wolfe's title? And equally mysterious, what has happened\nto the missing hallucinogenic egg--the one that Nadan would have us believe\nwas stolen from his room?\n\nJoan Gordon, in her Starmont Reader's Guide, speculates that while Nadan\nbelieves an egg to be missing, \"The sixth egg may have been the one\ncontaining the hallucinogen, and its effects may have caused him to lose a\nday.\"\n\nKathryn Locey, writing in her NYRSF essay, \"Three Dreams, Seven Nights, and\nGene Wolfe's Catholicism,\" has quite another explanation: \"My suggestion is\nthat the seventh night refers to the one which will follow the early morning\nin which Ardis is killed. It will be the holiest night of the year--the\nEaster Vigil, the time of resurrection, and of hope.\" She does not attempt\nto account for the missing egg, and the implication is that she believes\nNadan's entry about it.\n\nOf the two explanations I prefer Gordon's, since I don't think there's any\nway to reconfigure the ending of \"Seven American Nights\" and wrest from it a\nnote of resurrection or hope--quite the contrary. And yet even Gordon's\nsolution fails to satisfy fully, being no more substantial than one of\nNadan's visions; having a hallucinogen-caused lacuna also strikes me as\ncheating on the part of Wolfe.\n\nI'd therefore like to offer my own solution as a third alternative.\n\nMy own belief about both the missing egg and the missing night is simple:\nNadan's account of taking the egg, and what happens afterward, is among the\nmaterial he excises from his journal.\n\nLet us briefly reprise the circumstances involved with this.\n\nNadan, returning to his room on what seems to be Night 5, makes the\nfollowing entry: \"When I came back from Ardis's apartment tonight there were\nonly two candy eggs remaining. I am certain--absolutely certain--that three\nwere left when I went to meet Ardis. I am almost equally sure that after I\nhad finished making the entry in this book, I put it, as I always do, at the\nleft side of the drawer. It was on the right side.\" Nadan speculates that a\nmaid may be responsible for the notebook's moved position; but then\novercome by the notion that he is being spied upon by the government, he\nremoves everything from his journal about an as-of-yet unspecified mission\nthat might incriminate him (\"Now I have gone through the book and eliminated\nall the passages relating to my reason for visiting this leprous country.\")\nLocey seems a little vague about the mission, but Gordon nails it dead-on,\nciting Nadan's hope near the end when he states \"I might seek to claim the\nminiatures of our heritage after all.\" Nadan, in other words, is a would-be\nthief (an art patriot?), and moreover it appears he's already staked out the\nNational Gallery of Art, where the Persian miniatures are, because he knows\nit's guarded. (After he's discovered Ardis's deformity, he speculates that\nhe \"might even allow the guards to kill me.\") If the notebook is\nspiral-bound as many notebooks are, it would be a simple matter to tear out\nthe pages containing Nadan's account of his trip to the Gallery; if the\naccount was started on a clean page, and short, the same page (or its\nopposite side) might even include Nadan's detailing of the taking of that\nday's egg. More likely, however, Nadan would be effusive about his mission,\nperhaps even running away with the romantic notion about how he would be\nreceived in Iran once he returned with the retrieved miniatures. This might\nthen color all of that day's chronicle, including the taking of the egg, and\nthus require the elimination of several pages. Regardless, if Nadan wishes\nto continue his travel book, he must now account for the missing egg in case\nhis journal is ever found again. It seems likely someone has earlier\nreplaced his journal in the other drawer, triggering his paranoia; whether\nit's a maid or special operative probably doesn't matter, but given that\nNadan has spent Day 5 with Ardis visiting various federal enforcement\nagencies, he may very well have aroused suspicion about himself and prompted\nan investigation. Nadan thus pens the fictitious account about the missing\negg--because the true account, containing the incriminating evidence about\nhis visit to the National Gallery, as well as his taking of the egg, has\nbeen eliminated.\n\nBut given how Nadan's journal reads, with its daily and nightly record of\nevents (though he does tend to jump around a lot), there seems to be no huge\ngap between the chronicle of one day and the next--and many times each new\nday's events seems contiguous with or built upon the previous day's record.\nHow therefore do we interpolate the missing pages with their events in a\nnarrative that seems relatively unbroken?\n\nI believe the answer can be found in the entry we are meant to believe\ndetails Day 5--although it is actually a cobbling together of two days, with\nthe excised portions constituting Nadan's visit to the Gallery and\nsubsequent oöphagy.\n\nDay 5 begins with Nadan eating breakfast. (p. 400, IODD&OS&OS, Pocket).\nArdis arrives later, then together the pair set about in an attempt to free\nBobby O' Keene, the actor who's been arrested for trying to rob Nadan the\nprevious night. A frustrating afternoon follows as the two attempt to\nnavigate the police bureaucracy; Nadan on the previous night has told Ardis\nthat he will now tell the police that he was mistaken about Bobby--that he\nonly bumped against him on the steps and tried to catch his sketchbook as it\nfell. But the police apparently remain skeptical, \"obsessed by the idea that\nsomething more lay behind the simple incident we described over and over\nagain.\" Later, Ardis and Nadan attempt to find Bobby in a penal facility,\nforced to look for him \"among five hundred or so miserable prisoners, all of\nwhom stank and had lice.\" Having no luck, they're subsequently subjected to\nanother round of interviews at the F.E.D. building, but are then told to\nleave at five o' clock. Nadan walks Ardis home, then asks her what they will\ndo without Bobby to play his designated role at the theater that night. \"The\nbest we can, I suppose, if we must. At least Paul will have someone to stand\nin for him tonight.\" Nathan closes his journal entry with one final\nsentence--\"We shall see how well it goes\"--indicating his intention to go to\nthe theater. And then there is a break in the narrative.\n\nWhen the narrative recommences it's with the passage I quote at the\nbeginning of paragraph 9, wherein Nadan wants us to believe that someone has\nbroken into his room, relocated his journal, and eaten the missing egg.\nActually, however, I believe this is being written an entire day later, on\nthe night that concludes Day 6. Nadan makes it seem as if the break-in and\nthe events preceding it are still part of Day 5, but I believe Wolfe\nprovides us with several clues that it isn't when he has Nadan reprise the\nevening's activities. As we expect, Nadan goes to the theater; when he\narrives, however, much to his surprise, he discovers that Bobby O' Keene is\nalready there and preparing to go on-stage. \"You are free,\" Nadan says. But\ngiven Nadan's and Ardis's previous frustrations with the police (who,\nremember, seem to believe there's something more to the alleged robbery than\na simple mistaking of intentions), in addition to the sorry state of the\nprisoners, is it likely that O' Keene is going to be this well groomed and\ncomposed--especially since Nadan describes him as having been beaten to the\nground by the crowd that's witnessed the robbery--and ready to trod the\nboards?\n\nArdis, in turn, then asks Bobby, \"Was it very bad?\" To which the actor\nresponds, \"It was frightening, that's all. I thought I'd never get out.\" But\nif he was arrested late the night before, and released the following day,\nperhaps being confined, at the most, 16 hours, this hardly seems to warrant\na comment about never getting out. In addition, when Bobby says, \"I hear you\nmissed me last night,\" Ardis responds, \"God, yes.\" But if Bobby has actually\nbeen confined in jail for a day-and-a-half, Ardis may well be commenting on\nthe poor performance of his stand-in (the fact that Bobby has been missed by\nher is obviously communicated by someone else). A longer period of\nconfinement also allows more time for Bobby to rue his imprisonment and\nrecover from his beating, as well as for the police department to do the\nnecessary papershuffling involved with his release. But because Nadan's\njournal is now missing his account of the Gallery visit--the second day of\nBobby's confinement--he can never directly mention how long the actor has\nbeen incarcerated.\n\nHere then with page numbers and journal events is how I break everything\ndown.\n\nDay 5. p 396-399. Nadan eats breakfast, spends afternoon with Ardis trying\nto liberate Bobby O' Keene, fails, goes back to room, takes third egg.\n\nChronicles, but later excises, evening visit to theater, where Bobby O'\nKeene's stand-in performs poorly. Goes back to room, sleeps.\n\nDay 6. Records, but later excises, daytime visit to Gallery, plus taking of\nfourth egg. Goes to theater after dinner with Ardis, encounters freed Bobby\n(p. 401). Returns to room later, discovers journal has been moved to\ndifferent drawer, panics (p. 400-401), excises evening of Day 5 (since he\nnow needs Bobby out of jail a day early), Gallery visit, and consumption of\nfourth egg, then appends the evening of Day 6 to the truncated version of\nDay 5, fabricating the lie about the missing egg.\n\nThe altered Day 5 now looks like exactly as it reads in the story: Nadan\neats breakfast, spends afternoon with Ardis trying to liberate Bobby O'\nKeene, fails, goes back to room and takes third egg. Goes to theater after\ndinner with Ardis, encounters freed Bobby. Returns to room later, discovers\njournal has been moved to different drawer, panics, makes excisions.\n\nActual Day 7 now becomes Journal Day 6.\n\nResult: one missing American night.\n\nStill to come: Dahl's deformity.\n\nRobert Borski" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Matthew Davis", "address": "matthew at michaelscycles.freeserve.co.uk" }, "date": "2002-05-07T17:18:40+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Seven American Nights", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Possibly Gene Wolfe's best work of short fiction is \"Seven American\nNights.\"\nCertainly it's one of my favorites.\n\nBut how, given that Nadan's journal only chronicles six nights, are we to\nreconcile this with Wolfe's title?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "When I read the story I counted 7 Nights, so never had to try and account\nfor a missing DAY. Unless I misread, or Americans have some other way of\ncounting off days and nights, Nadan _does_ spend Seven Nights in America.\nThe first night takes place between the lines \"It's his country bleeding to\ndeath\" and \"Here it is evening again\". Nothing happens during his first\nnight in America, and it's easy to overlook since he wakes up in the hotel\nafter getting off the ship. But it is an American Night. Then you can count\noff the other six." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Matthew Davis", "address": "matthew at michaelscycles.freeserve.co.uk" }, "date": "2002-05-07T17:39:28+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Seven American Nights", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "Possibly Gene Wolfe's best work of short fiction is \"Seven American\nNights.\"\nCertainly it's one of my favorites.\n\nBut how, given that Nadan's journal only chronicles six nights, are we\nto\nreconcile this with Wolfe's title?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "When I read the story I counted 7 Nights, so never had to try and account\nfor a missing DAY. Unless I misread, or Americans have some other way of\ncounting off days and nights, Nadan _does_ spend Seven Nights in America.\nThe first night takes place between the lines \"It's his country bleeding\nto\ndeath\" and \"Here it is evening again\". Nothing happens during his first\nnight in America, and it's easy to overlook since he wakes up in the hotel\nafter getting off the ship. But it is an American Night. Then you can\ncount\noff the other six." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Ah, No I did misread. The dream of mouldy bread I thought indicated a break\nbetween days (grey mould on bread - a hint of ergotomine and\nhallucinogenics?). Rerereading I see it's an interjection during Nadan's\njouney into the north of Washington." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "StoneOx17", "address": "stoneox17 at aol.com" }, "date": "2002-05-24T02:16:41+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Seven American Nights", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I think that Robert Borski has brilliantly figured out the mysteries in Seven \nAmerican Nights. I want to add a corroborating piece of evidence I \ndiscovered, and try to answer one of the objections to his theory.\n\nThe corroborating evidence: If you count backwards from Good Friday, and \ninclude the missing night, you discover that the last performance of \"Visit \nto a Small Planet\" was on Sunday night, with \"Mary Rose\" starting on Monday. \nThis is the usual day that repertory theaters end a run. \n\nNow, to address one of the objections to Borski's theory. Robert Borski \nwrites:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "(\"I would therefore like to suggest something else to you. Is it possible \nthat \nwhat Nadan actually notices by the ignited arrack is the burn caused by \nhis own laser pistol and that Ardis Dahl is the werebeast he attempts, but\nfails, to kill on the night of the first egg?\")" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "David DiGiacomo objects:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "\"No, it's not possible, because...\"\n\"If he had seen the laser burn, it would have been obvious beyond any \nplausible dissociation that he had *not* killed the thing earlier in the\nweek." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Robert Borski replies:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "\"What, you expect lucidity at the height of a psychedelic experience? \nObviously, you've never dropped, because if you had, you would know \nthat under such conditions, it is not only possible to believe six \nimpossible \nthings before breakfast, but that the werewolf you have killed is even now \nundulating beneath you, attempting to cover the lethal burn mark between \nher lupine breasts. " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "But Nadan has just that instant eaten the egg, and the hallucinogen hasn't \ntaken effect yet. Let me give an alternate explanation.\n\nRobert Borski doesn't mention it explicitly, but when Nadan shoots the \nwerewolf, he seem to stop her in the middle of changing back to human,\nleaving a face with a blunt muzzle on a human torso. When Nadan writes \n\"I know now that the thing I killed before Ardis' father's house was real,\" \nhe is still hoping that what he just saw, Ardis's head on the torso of the \nbeast he shot Monday night, was a hallucination induced by the fifth egg. \nHe knows he didn't eat the treated egg Monday, since he couldn't have \nhallucinated Ardis's torso before he knew what it looked like, and so\nthe beast was real. But he's afraid to admit to himself that he might not \nhave killed it.\n\nFinally, let me remark that it appears that Ardis may be a con artist who \ntakes tourists into the interior and robs and kills them (or robs them after\nthe werewolf kills them). If Nadan does kill her--for he is hallucinating \nwhen\nhe writes \"My dead Ardis,\" it was well-deserved.\n\n = Peter (Stone Ox)" } ] } ] }