{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/492", "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": 492, "subject": "Peace of Cat", "messages": 4, "voices": 3, "first": "1998-04-15T15:31:24+00:00", "last": "1998-04-17T23:40:06+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Tony Ellis", "address": "tony.ellis at futurenet.co.uk" }, "date": "1998-04-15T15:31:24+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Peace of Cat", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": " \n15/04/98\n 16:28\n Peace of Cat" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Rostrum wrote:\nI love the story of the Sidhe and the flock of geese at the very end of\nthe book, but I don't think I quite get it. I mean, I enjoy the story all\nby itself, but I don't see what it has to do with Weer's story. Given the\nplacement of the story there must be some connection I'm missing.\n\nAnyone see something here I'm missing?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Well, the story is about something outliving its time, that's the point\nmade in the very last line. And that is what Weer has been doing. At\nthe time Dan is telling him that story he is an old man, who has outlived\nmost of his contemporaries. He is also a dead man, wandering through\nhis memories, so he's outlived his time in a more literal sense too.\n\nSince this story comes right before the very last paragraph of the novel,\nI think it serves to make Weer realise it's time to let go. Perhaps that's\nwhy he tells it to himself.\n\n\nWilliam Ansley wrote (re The Cat):" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "If anyone has any insights into this story, I'd really appreciate hearing \nthem." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "My copy of Endangered Species is a hundred miles away, so apologies\nif my memory lets me down...\n\nThis is the other side of the story we hear about in Conciliator, when Jonas\nand Severian have been put into the antechamber. As you say, the scandal\nwas engineered by the spiteful Chatelaine Leocadia. The significance of the\ndoll is that it is a kind of voodoo doll of Sancha - Leocadia obviously used \nit\nto manipulate Sancha into her disgrace. Her faithful phantom cat has brought\nit to light to reveal the crime.\n\nI don't -think- the cat becomes a phantom cat because of anything\nFather Inire does - it's just a consequence of being flung carelessly\ninto the mirrors. It's become a sort of witch's familiar.\n\nOdilo sends the pawprinted counterpane to Leocadia as a way of directing\nthe cat to her - he's not stupid. Presumably she sleeps with it on her bed,\nallowing the phantom cat to creep into the dreams of its mistress's enemy.\n\n\nThe significance of the last line is that Leocadia callously used Sancha's\nservant to bring about her disgrace. As we know from Conciliator, poor\nLomer was imprisoned for the rest of his life for his part in the affair. \nOdilo,\nanother servant, is affronted by this. So he sends Leocadia the\ncounterpane." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "William H. Ansley", "address": "wansley at warwick.net" }, "date": "1998-04-17T01:20:29+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Peace of Cat", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Tony Ellis said:\n\n---snip---\n\nThis is the other side of the story we hear about in Conciliator, when Jonas\nand Severian have been put into the antechamber. As you say, the scandal\nwas engineered by the spiteful Chatelaine Leocadia.\n\n---snip---\n\nThank you very much for your analysis. This has decided me; it is time to\nread TBotNS again.\n\nWolfe's seeming expectation that we have read and remembered perfectly\neverything else he has written, so that we will be able to recognize and\nunderstand the most oblique references to events in his other works tends\nto annoy me at times. But, I can't say I wasn't warned in this case. \"The\nCat\" starts out, (the beginning of the second paragraph) \"As all who know\nthe ways of our House Absolute (and I may say here that I neither hope nor\nwish for other readers) ...\"\n\nOne may excuse Wolfe (and I am well aware that he needs no excuse from me)\nby saying that his stories hold up by themselves and the references to\nother of his works are a reward for careful readers. This is certainly\ntrue, but Wolfe seems to have mastered writing a set of related pieces that\ncomplement each other so well that their whole is very much greater than\nthe sum of their parts better than any other writer I can think of. (In\nfact, does anyone else know of *any* other writer who does this?) It seems\na shame then that these stories or novellas are first published separately.\n_The Fifth Head of Cerberus_ is a perfect example of this at its best. The\nnovellas all work separately quite well but together they form a most\nremarkable work.\n\nWolfe has done this kind of thing less successfully, however. Sometimes the\nseparate pieces don't hold up as well apart. I am thinking here of the four\nshort stories in _Endangered Species_: \"The Dark of the June\", \"The Death\nof Hyle\", \"From the Notebook of Dr. Stein\" and \"Thag\". When I came across\n\"The Death of Hyle\" by itself (probably in _Continuum 2_) I felt it was\nmissing something. And so it was. After reading all four together, I found\nthat I enjoyed them, as a group, a great deal. (By the way, does anyone\nknow who or what Hyle is?)\n\nI think Wolfe has done at least one other set of linked short stories like\nthis. I remember reading a story called \"The Friendship Light\" in F&SF\nquite a while ago. My memory of it is rather vague by now but I do recall\nthat the narrator put up a gas lantern outside his house (he called it a\nfriendship light) and by making the flame flicker at a certain frequency\nattracted a large flying thing that killed someone. I am not sure, but I\nthink that God's fingers were mentioned, which would link this story to the\ntwo mentioned last November in this list (\"Try and Kill It\" and \"Counting\nCats in Zanzibar\") by Joshua A. Solomon, which he said definitely mentioned\nGod's fingers. I don't remember reading either of those, so I don't know if\nthey were linked in any other way. The main reason I think \"The Friendship\nLight\" is part of a set is that it also seemed to be missing something.\n\nWell, if I am right, I certainly hope that this set of stories will be in\nWolfe's next anthology. And I hope he will have one out soon. It's been\nnearly ten years since _Endangered Species_.\n\nWilliam Ansley" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Joshua A. Solomon", "address": "j.solomon at ucl.ac.uk" }, "date": "1998-04-17T09:52:46+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Peace of Cat", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "William H. Ansley wrote:\n\nI remember reading a story called \"The Friendship Light\" in F&SF\nquite a while ago. My memory of it is rather vague by now but I do recall\nthat the narrator put up a gas lantern outside his house (he called it a\nfriendship light) and by making the flame flicker at a certain frequency\nattracted a large flying thing that killed someone. I am not sure, but I\nthink that God's fingers were mentioned, which would link this story to the\ntwo mentioned last November in this list (\"Try and Kill It\" and \"Counting\nCats in Zanzibar\") by Joshua A. Solomon, which he said definitely mentioned\nGod's fingers. I don't remember reading either of those, so I don't know if\nthey were linked in any other way. The main reason I think \"The Friendship\nLight\" is part of a set is that it also seemed to be missing something." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "William\n\n\"Try and Kill It\" and \"Counting Cats in Zanzibar\" apparently have\nlittle in common besides divine digits. I haven't had any success in\nscoring that ish of F&SF. Would you be up for a trade?\nI'll photocopy TAKI and CCIZ for you if you photocopy TFL for me.\n\nbee" }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "Joshua A. Solomon\nThe Institute of Ophthalmology\n11 - 43 Bath Street\nLondon EC1V 9EL\nVoice: (44) 171 608 6924\nFax: (44) 171 608 6846\nj.solomon at ucl.ac.uk\nhttp://vision.arc.nasa.gov/personnel/jsolomon" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "William H. Ansley", "address": "wansley at warwick.net" }, "date": "1998-04-17T23:40:06+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Peace of Cat", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "\"Try and Kill It\" and \"Counting Cats in Zanzibar\" apparently have\nlittle in common besides divine digits. I haven't had any success in\nscoring that ish of F&SF. Would you be up for a trade?\nI'll photocopy TAKI and CCIZ for you if you photocopy TFL for me." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Sure, if I can find it. My old F&SFs have all been boxed and moved around\nas renovation on my house has progressed. I am planning to hunt for it this\nweekend, so I'll let you know.\n\nWilliam Ansley" } ] } ] }