{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6602", "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": 6602, "subject": "Short Story 84: From the Desk of Gilmer C. Merton", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "2014-08-06T18:28:55+00:00", "last": "2014-08-06T18:28:55+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-08-06T18:28:55+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 84: From the Desk of Gilmer C. Merton", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "“From the Desk of Gilmer C. Merton” was first published in 1983 in *The\nMagazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction* and is reprinted in *Storeys from\nthe Old Hotel*.\n\n\n SUMMARY:\n\nThe “story” is an epistolary one in which the tentative, timid, and\ninexperienced author Gilmer C. Merton queries an agent, is accepted with\nstandard industry terms and then treated a bit dismissively. He sells the\nbook and writes a sequel, but as his poverty encroaches after buying a\ntypewriter from a famous horror writer, his personality becomes more\nthreatening, and he begins signing his letters with the byline “Wolf Moon”.\nThis change becomes obvious when it is suggested by his agent and editor\nthat his publication name be changed, though he chooses the psuedonym\nGilray Gunn. His timidity seems to give way and he becomes murderous,\nclaiming “Gilmer C. Merton is dead. — in the future, please address me as\n'Mr. Moon,' or in moments of extreme comraderie, 'Wolf'.” A mysterious\nevent, probably a slaughter, is referenced by his agent as occuring near\nhis community, out of which she expects he could get a non-fiction book. He\nrequests that their renegotiated contract be signed in blood after\nexpressing condolences on the murder of his editor's family by disembodied\nclaws while demanding his check, and signs the final letter only Wolf.\n\n\n COMMENTARY:\n\n\n This is one of Wolfe's light-hearted parodies and there is little analysis\nto do. Wolfe says:\n\n\n “From the Desk of Gilmer C. Merton” is the story my agent (Virginia Kidd)\ndislikes the most; she thinks Georgia Morgan's modeled on her. Nah. I\nshould point out that Velo's a village near here. I don't think there's\nreally a North Velo City, but in a few years there might be — this is\nBarrington, and there's also North Barrington, South Barrington, Lake\nBarringtown Shores, and Barrington Hills. So you see.\n\n\n The name association between Virginia Kidd, with a state name and a pirate\nname, is pretty obvious and clearly Georgia Morgan follows the same\npattern. Saul Hearwell the editor from Cheap Drugstore Paperbacks is\nclearly based on Wolfe's editor David Hartwell (King Saul and David having\na pretty famous Old Testament relationship, of course, one of first\nfriendship and then rivalry for the kingship).\n\n\n The other puns are of course based in the science fiction and publishing\ncommunity, with Gilmer buying a possessed typewriter from Steven E. Presley\n(Stephen King, of course, as Elvis Presley was known). The title of the\nbook “Hijo”, or ?Son? is probably a pun on “Kujo” but also possibly a\nverbal play on Wolfe's Sun books. The names Barry Longear or Oar Scottson\nCurd are obvious in their references, and the response to late work by\nRobert A. Heinlein prompts the request, “please, not Robert A. anything.”\nThe suggestion of the name Gil Donadil almost seems like a Tolkienesque\nfantasy name, but in any event there is a possibly unintentional resonance\nwith the hormonal medicine Gonadil.\n\n\n The meaning of the name Gilmer Merton's does not quite match up well with\nthe Wolf Moon who begins to sign the letters, though Thomas Merton does\nhave an interesting quote about the moon which is by and large probably\nirrelevant: “What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to\ncross the abyss that separates us from ourselves” This is the most\nimportant of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not\nonly useless, but disastrous.\n\n\n Changing a novel's name from *Galaxy Shuttle* to *Come Dark Lust *shows a\npretty extreme shift from science fiction to fantasy/horror.\n\n\n\n Gilmer might mean renowned hostage, showing our author as a prisoner of a\nsystem before the mysterious power at work makes itself known, whether it\nbe his anger and hatred or the typewriter, eliminating that portion of his\npersonality. Merton could imply a settlement near the sea.\n\n\n The only thematic take away from this involves the frustration of the\npublishing world, and how the treatment by agents and editors can breed a\nkind of murderous insanity, though of course we have a supernatural excuse\nin the form of Stephen E. Presley's possessed typewriter. The moon and its\nrelationship to werewolves will be taken as a given.\n\n\n UNANSWERED QUESTIONS:\n\nIs Gilmer murdered by his machine, or is this merely the expression of his\nanger and wrath, liberated by the spiritual forces of the typewriter?\nThematically it really doesn't matter, as the timid Gilmer is dead and\ngone, replaced with malevolence and forged on the anvil of the publishing\nworld.\n\n\n What does the C in his name stand for?\n\n\n CONNECTION TO OTHER WORKS:\n\nWolfe's pun-based and light fantasies exist if you are inclined to look\nhard enough, and this story is probably most similar to “Planetarium in\nOrbit” and “Dumpster World”, though it could probably be construed as a\nsublimation of all the frustrations and asinine requests in the publishing\nworld." } ] } ] }