Subject: (urth) Re: "There Are Doors"

From: Dan <autarch at vippn.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 06:59:06 +0000

>On Jun 2, 2005, at 7:34 PM, Dan wrote:
>
> > Oddly enough, i just finished reading There Are Doors this morning.
> >
> > It was the best Philip K. Dick novel I ever read that was not written
> > by Philip K. Dick.
> >
> > What of Mr. Klamm's relationship to Mr. Green? Same guy at two
> > different times or just two different blokes in the same circumstances
> > (only one is beginiing his pursuit and the other nearing the end)?
>
>Hi,
>
>It's been a while since I've read it so I won't answer this here, but,
>if you haven't already, read _The Castle_ by Kafka.  It really deepens
>the experience, and a lot of things will fall into different
>perspectives..
>
>enjoy,
>Adrian

Thanks Adrian. Though Kafka's been highly recommended before, I just never 
got around to reading him. The new translation sounds interesting.

I seem to be accumulating a list of prerequisites needed to expand my 
appreciation of Wolfe and reveal the subtleties of his works. It currently 
includes learning Latin and getting a Master's in Classic Mythology!

From: "Chris" <rasputin_ at hotmail.com:

   Klamm could best be described as a priest (perhaps the high priest) of
>Cybele/Rhea. The same could be said to be true of Green, but Green is also
>supposedly Attis/Dionysus. Since the priests of Cybele actually emulate
>Attis, there's obviously going to be a close, apparent relationship there.
>But I think we are led to believe that Green is "the real deal", so to
>speak.

I was thinking of the way Klamm refers to Green as Herr K and his later 
apology and explanation as to why. It just seemed like one of those weird 
moments like in 2001 where Dave Bowman turns around and sees his older self 
lying in bed. If that was the case, interesting that Klamm didn't try to 
warn him off his pursuit, or that Green was so blinded by desire that he 
didn't have the insight to deduce Klamm's identity.

Dan

---

From: Adrian Robert <arobert at cogsci.ucsd.edu>
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 11:01:47 +0000

On Jun 16, 2005, at 9:58 AM, Dan wrote:
> Thanks Adrian. Though Kafka's been highly recommended before, I just 
> never got around to reading him. The new translation sounds 
> interesting.

New translation, hmm..  I just read part of it at Amazon:

Old (Willa and Edwin Muir)
----
It was late in the evening when K. arrived.  The village was deep in 
snow.  The Castle hill was hidden, veiled in mist and darkness, nor was 
there even a glimmer of light to show that a castle was there.  On the 
wooden bridge leading from the main road to the village, K. stood for a 
long time gazing into the illusory emptiness above him.

New (Mark Harman)
----
It was late evening when K. arrived.  The village lay under deep snow.  
There was no sign of the Castle hill, fog and darkness surrounded it, 
not even the faintest gleam of light suggested the large Castle.  K. 
stood for a long time on the wooden bridge that leads from the main 
road to the village, gazing upward into the seeming emptiness.

I can't say I much care for the new one myself, but, more pertinently, 
this sort of evident freedom of the translator to determine the whole 
tone of the text sometimes discourages one from reading translations at 
all!  But short of learning German, you should definitely read several 
pages of every translation you can find and pick the one that suits 
yourself, regardless of which is supposedly "better" according to 
current fashion or anyone's opinion.

(Especially when that opinion as in lauding the new translation speaks 
of preserving the "author's intentions", a ludicrous ideal, when the 
author was still editing (and writing!) the works when he died, and 
indeed deemed them so unfinished and unworthy as to request the 
manuscripts all be burned immediately.)

Anyway, your message talked me into scrounging up some Philip K. Dick 
(additional to DADOES), which at least won't have these problems..

Adrian