Subject: (urth) DOORS: some questions and thoughts

From: StoneOx17 <stoneox17 at aol.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2002 14:09:55 +0000

I'm rereading "There are Doors" again, and am around a third of the way
through.  Here are some questions and comments.

Did Lara really turn winter into summer? (p 26, Tor mass market edition;
around 4 pages into chapter 4.)   Or did they walk through a "door into
summer"?  How is this connected with her mythological aspect as the 
Goddess?  How does the flow of time run in the two worlds anyway?
As Goddess, is Lara bound by it?

The hero's last name is Green (although Wolfe always refer to him as
"he".  Do we ever learn his first name?

There are quite a few asides about Green's mother, some rather
intriguing ("Surely his mother had taught him a spell for salamanders.")
I pretty much ignored them in my prenious readings, but I suspect 
there's an important reason for them.  This time, I'll try to pay more 
attention.

There seem to be some references to "Peace."  Am I reading too 
much into things?  Here they are:

"... wondering if he was not in fact dead.  He remembered hearing 
about Purgatory as a child; even then he had not believed it, but 
perhaps he had been wrong ..." (p. 111)

"He felt that he himself was only a ghost, riding a ghostly elevator in
a phantom hotel, that this building had fallen to the wrecking ball long
ago ..." (p. 114)

Are there any references to other Wolfe books?

--Stone Ox

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From: Spectacled Bear <spectacled.bear at pobox.com>
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 2003 12:45:54 +0000

>"he".  Do we ever learn his first name?

It's a very long time since I read Doors, but I don't think his name
is really Green. He is asked his name, doesn't answer, then gives Green
as the answer to a different question.

There, now we can have two is-it-really-Green? threads going.
Watch out for the trees....

Spectacled Bear.

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From: Joe Cilluffo <cilluff1 at optonline.net>
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 2003 13:28:58 +0000

I'm only 70 pages in, but I'm under the impression that Green actually
is his last name (or at least he thinks it is).  When he first appears
at the Downtown Mental Health Center you are correct, he explains that
green is a bluish green (there, that should make the debate even more
apropos for the list, we're discussing Blue and Green!).  The nurse then
begins calling him Mr. Green, which is the mixup you refer to. However,
we then read as she continues to call him Mr. Green "He started to ask
how she knew his name (he had refused to give it to the temporary
receptionist) but he thought better of it." (Orb, pp. 5-6)

I took this to mean that the nurse interpreted his explanation of what
viridian is (...Green) as providing his last name to her prompt of
"Viridian, Mr. ...?" but that, though she mistook his explanation, she
still arrived at the correct name.

Follow up question -- is the protagonist of TAD really Urth's The Green
Man??? ; )

- Shell

-----Original Message-----
From: Spectacled Bear [mailto:spectacled.bear at pobox.com] 
Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 7:46 AM
To: urth at urth.net
Subject: Re: (urth) DOORS: some questions and thoughts

Spectacled Bear.

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From: Joe Cilluffo <cilluff1 at optonline.net>
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 2003 13:31:58 +0000

Incidentally, I meant to say he explains that "Viridian is a bluish
green," not "green is a bluish green."  Sorry for the mixup, I haven't
had my coffee yet!

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Cilluffo [mailto:cilluff1 at optonline.net] 
Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 8:29 AM
To: urth at urth.net
Subject: RE: (urth) DOORS: some questions and thoughts

- Shell

-----Original Message-----
From: Spectacled Bear [mailto:spectacled.bear at pobox.com] 
Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 7:46 AM
To: urth at urth.net
Subject: Re: (urth) DOORS: some questions and thoughts

Spectacled Bear.

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