{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/595",
    "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": 595,
    "subject": "Suzanne Delage: yet another theory",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-05-12T01:59:54+00:00",
    "last": "1998-05-12T01:59:54+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0010-0145@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "William H. Ansley",
        "address": "wansley at warwick.net"
      },
      "date": "1998-05-12T01:59:54+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) Suzanne Delage: yet another theory",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "You know, maybe we need a separate Suzanne Delage mailing list. <g>\n\nI came up with my own theory about this story, almost against my will,\nsince I was originally going to post a message saying \"enough with the\nSuzanne Delage already\". I doubt very much that my theory is what Wolfe had\nin mind (if he really had anything more in mind than a nod to Proust) but\nit does have the signal advantage of making the quilt-hunting significant.\n\nBut first a comment: it is very hard to tell when the \"present\" is for the\nnarrator. On page 363 of the _Endangered Species_ (paperback) he says,\n\"There are a number of pages missing from the class picture section of the\nearlier book and I seem to recall that these were torn out and cut up to\nobtain the individual photographs many decades ago.\"\n\nAssuming he is right about the time frame, this \"many decades\" poses\nproblems. I would think that at a minimum it would have to be three\ndecades, though many usually means more than this. Three is no problem. It\nwould mean that (if the pages were torn out of the sophomore yearbook right\naway) that the narrator could be 44 (14 + 30) and that Suzanne would have\nhad her daughter at the age of 28 (44 - 16). Of course, if the pages were\ntorn out of the sophomore yearbook \"n\" years after it was taken home, we\nhave to add n to the above ages.\n\nIf \"many\" is four, we have Suzanne giving birth at the age of 38; if five,\n48. And many could certainly be a higher number than these!\n\nAnd now, my theory. I say the narrator did know Suzanne as a child and as a\nteenager. They fell in love and, perhaps, planned to marry. But the\nnarrator's mother did find a \"American Revolution times\" quilt or\nembroidered blanket at some time before the narrator's senior year and\nprobably after his sophomore year, in high school. It was infected with\nsmallpox. It had been preserved because some colonists intended to use it\nto infect Indians. (I have read that colonists did this. I don't know if it\nis true but it seems plausible. Certainly many, many Indians died of\nsmallpox and they almost certainly caught it from European settlers.)\nPerhaps a smallpox epidemic breaks out. Even if all the inhabitants of the\ntown were vaccinated, it is likely that some would still be susceptible to\nthe virus to some degree. But certainly Suzanne get the disease and is\ndreadfully scarred. Other people who come down with it get milder cases and\nare not scarred noticeably. (This is consistent with what the _Encyclopedia\nBrittanica_ has to say about smallpox.) The source of the disease is\ndiscovered. The quilt/blanket is destroyed. Suzanne blames the narrator and\nhis family and hates him. The narrator, horrified by Suzanne's appearance,\nno longer loves her. Or, perhaps, she is not so badly scarred, but he finds\nthat he cannot love her now that she is no longer \"perfect\" and she hates\nhim for this.\n\nSuzanne can't be photographed because she is sick with smallpox or she\nrefuses to be because of her scars. The narrator destroys the pages of the\nsophomore yearbook because he can't look at her old \"pure as milk\"\ncomplexion without being guilt stricken. (The description of Suzanne's\ndaughter, under my theory, is to let us know what a beauty Suzanne was,\npre-smallpox.) Perhaps his picture is missing because of endearments\nwritten on it by Suzanne, that he could no longer bear to read. He forgets\nall about the smallpox outbreak and so does the town. Suzanne becomes a\nrecluse and so doesn't serve as a reminder. This also explains why he never\nsaw her after high school.\n\nIn this context, the fact that the narrator (falsely) remembers a Spanish\nInfluenza epidemic is significant because it was a pandemic disease\noutbreak that was totally forgotten in a relatively short time. See one of\nCraig Christensen's posting for details on this. This may be a hint that\nthe town could forget it own epidemic.\n\nThe sentence: \"On the other hand we are neither of us invalids, nor are we\nblind.\" also takes on new significance and perhaps some poignancy, since\nblindness is a common result of scarlet fever and invalidism could be\ncaused by rheumatic fever or polio. Some part of the narrator that\nremembers is saying \"It could have been worse, couldn't it?\"\n\nThis could also explain Suzanne having a child quite late in life (see my\ncomment way above). She finally finds someone to love and marry despite her\nreclusiveness and disfigurement.\n\nNow this is certainly not a supernatural explanation of the story, but I\ndon't think that is required. It is certainly against all probability and\nthe survival of variola (smallpox) virus for hundreds of years might be\nconsidered a dislocation of nature.\n\nI am aware there are a lot of problem with this idea; perhaps someone else\ncan refine or build on it. Perhaps the fact that I find it at all\nconvincing just demonstrates that I should get more sleep and do less email\nreading.\n\nBut for now I say, \"Enough with the smallpox theory already!\"\n\nWilliam Ansley"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}