Subject: (urth) Cues and Lolita?

From: Matthew Groves <matthewalangroves at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:57:08 +0000

Glad to see some activity on the urth list.  In the interest of possibly
stirring up a little more:

I Lolita for the first time a few months ago -- Amazing!!!  (But difficult;
I recommend an annotated copy or an accompanying class notes booklet.)
There's lots of wordplay throughout, and one that I seem to remember
reccurring frequently is play with "Q" (as in "Quilty"), "cue," and maybe
"clue."  Has anyone made any connection between Lolita and Wolfe's short
"Cues" from TIoDDaOSaOS?  I haven't even reread "Cues" in a year or so, but
I thought I'd throw this idea out there anyway.

If any of you doesn't have any of Wolfe's collections, then that one (The
Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories) is the one to
begin with, both because it's first and because it's best.
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From: Jonathan Goodwin <joncgoodwin at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:29:33 +0000

I'm actually teaching Island of Dr. Death, etc., in an introduction to
short fiction class in a few weeks.

The title of the story is actually "'Cues" (i.e., "Cues [unless it's a
misprint]). It's an opaque story, and I'm thinking about what I'll
have to say about it in class. I recall some discussion on this list
about scatological imagery. Wolfe's stories also allow for a ready
introduction to questions of interpretation and intention, as the
recent discussions about An Evil Guest show.

On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 5:57 PM, Matthew Groves
<matthewalangroves at gmail.com> wrote:
> I Lolita for the first time a few months ago -- Amazing!!!? (But difficult;
> "clue."? Has anyone made any connection between Lolita and Wolfe's short
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From: Matthew Groves <matthewalangroves at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2009 03:01:51 +0000

The initial open quote on " "Cues " is there because it's, well, the
opening of a line of dialog:

"Cues?" the young (not really so young any more) man said. "I'm
afraid I don't understand."

Are you attaching some additional significance to this punctuation?

I don't like the scatological interpretation.  I suppose I'll go ahead
and reread the story, now that I've got the book out...