Subject: (urth) the book seminar

From: Fernando Q. Gouvea <fqgouvea at colby.edu>
Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 13:40:40 +0000

Well, I thought I'd report a little bit about the book seminar I'm
running. In the first session, we discussed "The Island of Doctor Death and
Other Stories", "Alien Stones", and "La Befana". I found it was harder to
generate discussion than I expected! Most of the students seemed to have
settled for reading the stories at a rather superficial level, and were
surprised that I wanted to poke at them further. Still, a few seemed to
have captured some of the hints (for example, that Daw may not be what he
seems in "Alien Stones", or that he may have intentionally caused the death
of the empathist). But overall it seems to have gone reasonably well,
though I'm hoping that I'll do better at generating discussion with the
next batch of stories.

The next three are "The Hero as Werwolf", "Three Fingers", and "The Death
of Doctor Island". There are obvious non-literary issues to pursue: genetic
"improvements" for "Hero", the Disney corporation and their brethren for
"Fingers", and mental health and utilitarian calculations about who is
valuable to society for "Doctor Island".  Of course, in each case there are
interesting literary questions too. Suggestions for avenues to pursue are
welcome!

Some questions of my own:

- Does anyone know why Wolfe chose the spelling "Werwolf"?

- Is the drug mentioned at the end of "Three Fingers" a real drug? If so,
what does it do?

- How should we read the ending of "Doctor Island"? Has the boy been
helped, or has his personality been destroyed?

Fernando

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Fernando Q. Gouvea                      
Department of Mathematics          Editor, FOCUS and MAA Online
Colby College                      Mathematical Association of America
Waterville, ME 04901               http://www.maa.org
fqgouvea at colby.edu                      
==========================================================

The Byzantines hammered away at their hard and orthodox symbols, because
they could not be in a mood to believe that men could take a hint. The
moderns drag out into lengths and reels of extravagance their new orthodoxy
of being unorthodox, because they also cannot give a hint -- or take a hint.
Yet all perfect and well-poised art is really a hint.
  -- G. K. Chesterton

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From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at cox.net>
Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 14:36:16 +0000

>- Does anyone know why Wolfe chose the spelling "Werwolf"?

         Dunno. And I can't help your other questions either. But I do 
recall that the Hero has a foot wound, and this has messianic overtones in 
the Bible (and kingly overtones in Greco-Roman history). The last line of 
the story definitely alludes to the Gospels. The name "Paul" might be 
significant, given Paul as a distinctive follower of Jesus. But, I don't 
recall thinking the story was an allegory of any sort. With Wolfe, the 
allusions might be twisted, inverted, or some kind of dark spin on things. 
Interested to know what others might think.

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From: Gareth Jelley <gjelley at btopenworld.com>
Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 23:33:38 +0000

> - Does anyone know why Wolfe chose the spelling "Werwolf"?

Is it just closer to the German word?

No idea :o) But I'd guess it was something to do with an etymology of the
word we see more commonly used; or perhaps it is a cognate which is used
because it resonates more with the content \ style \ concerns of the story.

<re-lurks>

Best,

G.

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From: Gareth Jelley <gjelley at btopenworld.com>
Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 23:38:24 +0000

> Other Stories", "Alien Stones", and "La Befana".

Is there an archive on this? I'm currently reading the collection 'The
Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories', and have read
the title story, and most of 'Alien Stones'. Both have really intrigued me,
but the first one particularly, because Wolfe (as one would expect) leaves
so many questions unanswered, and leaves the reader asking so many
questions...

I always find it difficult /not/ to read into Wolfe, because he is one of
these writers who, in his style of story-telling, invites the reader to
rummage around between the lines. However, I don't know how much of 'The
Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories' I have deciphered, or, in fact, if
there is anything to 'decipher'; it may simply be that we are supposed to be
left wondering and remembering.

Best,

G.
gjelley at btopenworld.com
http://members.lycos.co.uk/cavor - updated 14\02\02
http://www.livejournal.com/users/scribeoflight - updated frequently

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From: Gareth Jelley <gjelley at btopenworld.com>
Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 23:45:46 +0000

> - Does anyone know why Wolfe chose the spelling "Werwolf"?

This article may be of interest:

'Hellhounds, Werewolves and the Germanic Underworld'
http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/hellhnds.htm

It is from a website called 'At The Edge' which describes itself as
exploring "new interpretations of past and place in archaeology, folklore
and mythology."

The article seems quite heavy on the word-formation and etymology front, and
brings back memories of my Old Norse and Old English studies... But it is
23:43 here, and my eyes water at the web page :o) I'll have a look at it a
bit later.

Basically, though, it seems to confirm my thought that the word has been
used for its closeness to the German form, and thus, probably, for its
proximity to the Old Norse \ Old English \ Germanic roots of the word...

However, what I don't know, is where the extra 'e' came from: why is the
English 'Werewolf' spelt the way it is...

Mmmm.

Best,

G.

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From: Richard Horton <rrhorton at prodigy.net>
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 22:38:41 +0000

>- Does anyone know why Wolfe chose the spelling "Werwolf"?

The etymology, as far as I can tell, is "wer" (man) + "wulf" (wolf),
hence manwolf.  As such, why add the "e", one might ask?

--=20
Rich Horton | Stable Email: mailto://richard.horton at sff.net
Home Page: http://www.sff.net/people/richard.horton
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