{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6610", "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": 6610, "subject": "Urth Digest, Vol 120, Issue 32", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "2014-08-11T10:35:53+00:00", "last": "2014-08-11T10:35:53+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Jonathan Laidlow", "address": "jon.laidlow at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-08-11T10:35:53+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Urth Digest, Vol 120, Issue 32", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "For those without access to \"Detective of Dreams\", it's available to read\nonline here:\n\nhttp://hell.pl/szymon/Baen/1635%20The%20Eastern%20Front/The%20Dragon%20Done%20It/1416555285__18.htm\n\nJonathan\nhttp://ultan.org.uk" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On 11 August 2014 09:29, wrote:\nSend Urth mailing list submissions to\n urth at lists.urth.net\n\nTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit\n http://lists.urth.net/listinfo.cgi/urth-urth.net\nor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to\n urth-request at lists.urth.net\n\nYou can reach the person managing the list at\n urth-owner at lists.urth.net\n\nWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific\nthan \"Re: Contents of Urth digest...\"\n\n\nToday's Topics:\n\n 1. Re: Short Story 87: The Detective of Dreams (Marc Aramini)\n 2. Death and Resurrection: Shadow of the Torturer Chapter I\n (marcobadie at katamail.com)\n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nMessage: 1\nDate: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 20:16:05 -0700\nFrom: Marc Aramini \nTo: The Urth Mailing List \nSubject: Re: (urth) Short Story 87: The Detective of Dreams\nMessage-ID:\n <\nCAF1072zz79a6tD2zFwWqrifLzXv-VgNsdGJf7Upk868WrzGcMw at mail.gmail.com>\nContent-Type: text/plain; charset=\"utf-8\"\n\nI have always been sensitive to religious allusions, especially ones that\nare similar to the almost voodoo Catholicism of my rather uneducated (but\nnot ignorant) grandmother, and the Detective of Dreams kind of summons that\nfearful candle lighting literal symbolism I think runs a bit further\nunderground in a lot of Wolfe's work. I remember being a young child and\nwondering why the conciliator wasn't the reconciliator, especially with\nthat temptation in the wilderness scene of Typhon lifted almost line by\nline from the bible.\n-------------- next part --------------\nAn HTML attachment was scrubbed...\nURL: <\nhttp://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/attachments/20140810/c02974cb/attachment-0001.htm" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "------------------------------\n\nMessage: 2\nDate: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 10:29:25 +0200\nFrom: \"marcobadie at katamail.com\" \nTo: urth at lists.urth.net\nSubject: (urth) Death and Resurrection: Shadow of the Torturer Chapter\n I\nMessage-ID: \nContent-Type: text/plain; charset=\"utf-8\"\n\n\n\nMy second post to the Urth list.\nAfter many years lurking I am trying to offer to this list something new...\n\n\nDeath and Resurrection (The Shadow of the Torturer - Chapter I)\nIn catholic theology, death and resurrection are the first steps of\nNovissima (Latin word: The Lastest Things).\n1. Death and Resurrection\n2. Judgement\n3. Hell?\nor\n4. Heaven\n\n\nEscathology (word from Greek) is the study of ?Novissima.\n\n\nLatin definitions for the verb: resurgo, resurgere, resurrexi, resurrectus\nlift oneself, be restored/rebuilt, revive, rise/appear again\n\n\nCatherine, Severian's mother, is the most obscure character of The Book of\nthe New Sun.\nPlease, note the simmetry (and the opposition):\nSeverian (some iteration of Severian) is lifted, risen up (resurrected)\nfrom water by Juturna, (the Undine (a water being).\nThe white gown's woman buried in the necropolis (some iteration of\nSeverian's mother, I think) is lifted, risen up (resurrected) from earth by\nHildegrin (the Badger, an earth being).\n\n\nJuturna is searching for Severian from the future.\nHildegrin is searching for Severian (or for a link to Severian) in the\npast.\n\n\nMarco Cecchini (from Italy)\n\n\n\nDa: \"Urth\" urth-bounces at lists.urth.net\nA: urth at lists.urth.net\nCc:\nData: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 20:05:40 -0700\nOggetto: Urth Digest, Vol 120, Issue 31" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "Send Urth mailing list submissions to\n urth at lists.urth.net\n\nTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit\n http://lists.urth.net/listinfo.cgi/urth-urth.net\nor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to\n urth-request at lists.urth.net\n\nYou can reach the person managing the list at\n urth-owner at lists.urth.net\n\nWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific\nthan \"Re: Contents of Urth digest...\"\n\n\nToday's Topics:\n\n 1. Re: Short Story 87: The Detective of Dreams (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)\n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nMessage: 1\nDate: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 20:05:38 -0700\nFrom: \"Dan'l Danehy-Oakes\"\nTo: The Urth Mailing List\nSubject: Re: (urth) Short Story 87: The Detective of Dreams\nMessage-ID:\n\nContent-Type: text/plain; charset=\"utf-8\"\n\nThis is probably my favorite Wolfe short story, and the first I read. It\nblew the top of my head off.\n\n\nOn Sun, Aug 10, 2014 at 7:59 PM, Marc Aramini wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "“The Detective of Dreams” first appeared in *Dark Forces* in 1980. It\nis\nrecollected in *Endangered Species*.\n\nSUMMARY: A man identifying himself as Herr D?enters the narrator’s\noffice\non the rue Madeleine, probably in Paris, and hires him to get to the\nbottom\nof a series of dreams, for which his offered reward reeks of hyperbole:\n“Find and destroy the Dream-Master — and you shall sit upon a chair of\ngold, if that is your wish, and eat from a table of gold as well.” The\nnarrator reveals that he knows the real identity of Herr D--, which is\nthat\nof Baron H?of the secret police of K--.\n\nThe narrator makes his preparations, pinches his female assistant\nAndree,\nand leaves by train across the Alps to arrive at the station of I--. He\nmakes his way to his first contact, a woman who sells lacey dresses in\na\nstripped and compartmentalized ex-church, now housing a series of small\nshops and booths. He encounters Fraulein A--, who tells him of her fine\ndresses and tries to suppress tears. The narrator expresses surprise\nat her\nsingle status, and Fraulein A-- reveals she has no interest in men or\nwomen. When pressed, she reveals her nightly repeating dream (also\nmentioning Freud)? she passes through a narrow gate and sees a\nsumptuous\nfeast, but she is dressed in only a plain dress such as she works in,\nand\nshe is cast out by a man she seems to recognize, who is tall, robed\nlike a\nking, and wears a strange crown (probably of thorns). She is cast out\ninto\nthe garden, where she smells a terrible beast, and wakes up. No matter\nwhat\nshe wears to sleep, the dream is the same.\n\nHe then goes to discuss the dreams with another victim, Herr R--, a\nbanker. He tells of his youth selling cabbage leaf rolls and how he\nhas not\nput his mother up in the finest house in Lindau, and reveals that in\nhis\ndream the Dream-Master has hurt his hand. In his dreams, he is an\nimportant\nman who is summoned by the owner of a large and opulent house, the\nsame as\nin Fraulein A--'s dream, to an accounting. He is told that he owes a\ncertain sum he cant remember, then begs and weeps for mercy. He says,\n“several times I have told him that I am a wealthy man in this world,\nand\nthat if only he would permit me to make payment in its currency, I\nwould do\nso immediately.” The master replies, “That is a dream — you must know\nit by\nnow. You cannot expect to pay a rel debt with the currency of sleep.”" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "After\nHerr R-- falls at his feet like a child, the master says, “You would\nnever\nbe able to pay all you owe, and you are a false and dishonest servant.\nBut\nyour debt is forgiven, forever.” Herr R-- goes to burn the ledger page\nthat\ncontains his debt, but is met with another servant, who owes him a\ntrifling\nsum, and he seizes him by the throat and demands payment. The owner\nsees\nhim in disapproval, and the dream ends with a door to the chamber being\nopened by a vile, reptilian hand that strikes Herr R-- with dread." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "The next day our narrator meets with Baron H-- again and demands to\nknow\nwho is really behind the inquiry, and it is revealed that the countess\nof\nthe province herself is having nightmares. Her husband fears\nassassination,\nand the narrator goes to see her and here of her dream, in which her\nhusband is going to hold an execution in the garden which mirrors\nChrist's\ncrucifixion, with modern weapons. She begs her husband not to, for she\nsees\nthat the reflection of the count in the Dream-Master's eyes is the real\ncount. At the end of the dream, the count gives the order to continue,\nand\n“the soldiers fire. The Dream-Master falls forward, though his bonds\nhold\nhim to the tree. And Karl flies to bloody rags beside me.”\n\nThe detective determines that they all cross the main street, the\nHauptstrasse, at approximately the same point, and he goes there to\nobserve. Eventually, he himself feels observed. Finally, he realizes\nthe\nidentity of the Dream-Master. “The stupidity, the wonderful stupidity\nof\nmyself, who had not recognized his old stories! ? For the Dream-Master\nhad\nset up His own picture, and full length and in the most gorgeous\ncolors, in\nhis window. He goes into the church and the priest gives him\ncommunion: ?I\nknelt, and there — I destroyed the Dream-Master as He has been\nsacrificed\nso often, devouring his white, wheaten flesh that we might all possess\nlife\nwithout end. Dear people, dream on.”\n\nCOMMENTARY:\n\nWolfe has listed “The Detective of Dreams” as one of his favorite short\nstories in a few interviews; here, the didactic message is easily\ndiscernible to those with any familiarity of the parables of Jesus of\nNazareth. The victims of the Dream-Master see His face frequently but\nare\nunable to recognize it in their dreams, instead seeking a physical\ncause\nfor their terrors. This lack of familiarity with the spiritual grants\ntheir\nvisions the quality of terror — and it is the endings of the dreams\nthat\nallow a more horrific message to creep into the story — the looming\nthreat\nof their fears realized, a nameless terror almost as eldritch as the\nfantasy of Lovecraft. This is especially clear in the dreams of the\nbanker\nHerr R--, who sees a little more of the creature’s arm each day as the\ndoor\nto damnation opens bit by bit, inexorably. He wants to stop it, but\ncannot\ncomprehend the spiritual change necessary to impede the opening door of\ndamnation because he is too much a part of this world, which, at least\nin\nthis story, is but a dream of the spiritual reality.\n\nUnderneath the story lies the certainty of the encroachment of the\nmodern\nworld on hallowed traditions: the church has become partitioned shops,\nthe\ngreat house of the nobility has become a bank, and, all too soon, the\nmonarchy and nobility of Germany will shatter, too, with Austria and\nPrussia and all these nations changed and perhaps even dissolved as\nWorld\nWar II comes to shake the earth.\n\nWhat are the failings of these individuals? Fraulein A lives without\nlove;\nher chastity is sterile, and she feels little affection for either\nwomen or\nmen. Her attempt to put on a dress worthy of the wedding does not hide\nthat\nshe herself has no appreciation for the symbolic love behind the\nwedding\nceremony. Herr R?has gotten by on understanding men to exploit their\npsychological whims, a banker who does not have a sense for numbers." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Even\nthough the parable lists the debts at ten thousand talents, he can\nnever\nremember what he owes, for it is kindness, forgiveness, and a\nsurrender of\nprofit that he truly owes, something he cannot put into words or wrap\nhis\nmind around." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "In his dream we see the concept of demons as servants of God: “I am\naware\nthat the owner possesses certain other servants, who have never been\nunder\nmy direction — they are hideous, vile, and cruel; I know too that he\nthinks\nme but little better than they, and that as he permits me to serve\nhim, so\nhe allows them to serve him also.”\n\nThe Countess' dream has its own form of punishment that is more certain\nthan the slowly opening door of Herr R--: since the Count will have no\nmercy, this quality prompts his own explosion.\n\nThe dualistic world view Wolfe presents is nowhere more clearly stated\nthan in the dream of the Countess von V--: “In my dream quite\nsuddenly, his\neyes seem far, far larger than mine, and far more beautiful, and in\nthem I\nsee reflected the figure of my husband — it is his reflection, and not\nthe\nman who stands near me, who is the real Karl. The man I have thought\nreal\nis only a reflection of that reflection.”\n\nIt is tempting to relegate “The Detective of Dreams” to nothing but an\nexegesis of superstitious faith, a celebration of that mystery, that,\nto\nthose steeped in the iconography and history of the Church, is\nobvious. The\nidentity of the Dream-Master with the Eucharist is taken quite\nliterally -\n“This is My Body, which will be given up for you.” It represents a\nsacrifice for salvation that is reenacted with every taking of\ncommunion,\none which is lost as these various individuals continue to exercise\ntheir\nwill and desires and see the warnings as secular threats rather than a\ncall\nto a different kind of reformation.\n\nLITERARY ALLUSIONS\n\nEspecially in 18th and 19th century fiction, the practice of replacing\ncharacter names with a letter, such as Squire B?in Richardson’s\n*Pamela*\n(recast as Squire Booby in Fielding’s *Shamela*), was quite common, and\nthe motivation for doing so has several explanations. One is to lend\nthe\nstory universality — devoid of place names and given names, the\ncharacters,\nand especially the settings, can become any place without the author\nhaving\nto make sure every intersection in the story is properly placed." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Dickens in\nparticular eschewed this practice, but here the model most obviously in\nplay is Poe’s “The Purloined Letter”, which never names its influential\ncast, from the prefect of police, G--, to the amoral minister, D--. The\nhero, Dupin, uses the methods of logic and deduction coupled with a\ncreative imagination to solve mysteries, and also lives in Paris." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "The other reason for the elided proper names is derivative of the early\nconceit of the realistic novel, that the actual events were something\nlike\na memoir or happenstance that, to protect those involved or avoid\nscandal,\nreplaced the names with letters. Why then does Wolfe use this\ntechnique,\nbut give the first name of Count Karl von V--? In addition, we have a\nGerman speaking community near the alps accessible via train in a time\nafter Freud's publications and the death of an Emperor, so the\nconcealment\nonly works to a certain degree of exactness.\n\nIt is interesting that only in his current case does the detective of\ndreams omit names, as he boasts of his previous credentials with full\nnames, which are touched on below.\n\nMore frustrating, however, is the difficulty of placing the story\ncompletely in a setting because of these almost random letters, and,\neven\nthough it might be a waste of time, we will examine this more below. It\nmight be that the letters are arbitrary, though we do know that Herr R\nputs\nhis mother up in Lindau, in Bavaria (which does have a part of the Alps\nwithin its borders). Near Lindau is a small city called Immenstadt\nwhich\nhas a train station, but none of the other letters seem to match up\nunless\nwe transport the action to Austria — it seems that the theme, that this\nworld is the dream, makes the setting less important than the “real”" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "waking\nworld — the spiritual one." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "Even though it is commonly regarded as a 19th century detective tale,\nit\nis actually set in the early parts of the 20th century before World War\nII forever changed the ideological landscape, and this transitional\npoint\nis one of the themes — the characters are approaching the modern world\nin\ntheir understanding and concerns, and they are faced with a spiritual\npuzzle they are ill equipped to deal with.\n\nPerhaps an additional reference is to the work of Chesterton,\nespecially\nThe Everlasting Man, which Wolfe mentions in his afterword to the\nstory in *The\nBest of Gene Wolfe. *There are a few interesting passages about dreams\nin\nChesterton's text:\n\nOut of some dark forest under some ancient dawn there must come towards\nus, with lumbering yet dancing motions, one of the very queerest of the\nprehistoric creatures. We must see for the first time the strangely\nsmall\nhead set on a neck not only longer but thicker than itself, as the\nface of\na gargoyle is thrust out — the feet, each like a solid club of horn,\nalone\namid the feet of so many cattle so that the true fear is to be found in\nshowing, not the cloven, but the uncloven hoof. Nor is it mere verbal\nfancy\nto see him thus as a unique monster — but the point is that when we\nsee him\nthus as the first man saw him, we begin once more to have some\nimaginative\nsense of what it meant when the first man rode him. In such a dream he\nmay\nseem ugly, but he does not seem unimpressive; and certainly that two\nlegged\ndwarf who could get on top of him will not seem unimpressive. — In\nother\nwords, I say it is better to see a horse as a monster than to see it\nonly\nas a slow substitute for a motor-car.\n\nI am convinced that if we could tell the supernatural story of Christ\nword\nfor word as of a Chinese hero, all him the Son of Heaven instead of\nthe Son\nof God, and trace his rayed nimbus in the gold tread of Chinese\nembroideries or the gold lacquer of Chinese potter, instead of in the\ngold\nleaf of our own old Catholic paintings, there would be a unanimous\ntestimony to the spiritual purity of the story. (from Chesterton's\nPreface\nto T*he Everlasting Man*)\n\nRemoved from his religious context and put in a nightmare, Christ\ninvokes\nthat strange terror that the image of a horse might in a dream when\nall its\nstrangeness is actually clarified.\n\nBIBLICAL ALLUSIONS\n\nWolfe seems attracted to the idea of Christ as a teller of\ninstructional\nstories, which are here recast as dreams with ominous implications. The\nstigmata in his hands from the crucifixion are obvious, and the\nmajority of\nthese scenes can be easily found as parables in the gospel of Matthew,\nthough there is a significant overlap in content in the synoptic\ngospels.\n\nFraulein A??s dream is from the parable of the wedding banquet, found\nin\nMatthew 22:1-14, quoted below from the New King James Version, but her\ndream starts with the garden and gate: “it’s not a large gate for\nwagons or\ncarriages, but a small one, so narrow I can hardly get through. Have\nyou\nread the writings of Dr. Freud of Vienna” — I am sure he would say that\nentering that gate meant sexual commerce. This talk of a gate\ninvolves the\nstart of Matthew 7:13-14 -\n\n\n\n 13Enter by the narrow gate; for wide *is* the gate and broad *is* the\nway that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "14Because\nnarrow *is* the gate and difficult *is* the way which leads to life,\nand\nthere are few who find it." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": " The narrator is quick to dismiss the possibility of sexual repression,\nfor the Fraulein's problem is quite the opposite — an asexuality born\nof\nindifference to humanity. Here is the parable of the wedding banquet:\n\n22And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "2?The\nkingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for\nhis\nson, 3and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the\nwedding; and they were not willing to come. 4Again, he sent out other\nservants, saying, “Tell those who are invited, ?See, I have prepared my\ndinner; my oxen and fatted cattle *are* killed, and all things *are*\nready. Come to the wedding.” 5But they made light of it and went their\nways, one to his own farm, another to his business. 6And the rest\nseized\nhis servants, treated *them* spitefully, and killed *them.* 7But when\nthe\nking heard *about it,* he was furious. And he sent out his armies,\ndestroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8Then he said to\nhis\nservants, “The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not\nworthy. 9Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find,\ninvite\nto the wedding.” 10So those servants went out into the highways and\ngathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the\nwedding\n*hall* was filled with guests." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "11?But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who\ndid not have on a wedding garment. 12So he said to him, “Friend, how\ndid\nyou come in here without a wedding garment?” And he was speechless." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "13Then\nthe king said to the servants, “Bind him hand and foot, take him away,\nand cast\n*him* into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of\nteeth.”" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "14?For many are called, but few *are* chosen.\n\n\n\n Fraulein A’s ending puts a far more sinister and implied threat into\nthe\nouter darkness, which has encroached upon the garden around the estate:\n“some terrible beast has entered the garden. I smell it — like the\nhyena\ncage at the Tiergarten — as the door opens. And then I wake up.”\n\n\n\n The banker Herr R??s dream is from the parable of the unforgiving\nservant, found in Matthew 18:21-35 -\n\n21Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother\nsin\nagainst me, and I forgive him” Up to seven times?\n\n22Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to\nseventy times seven. 23Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a\ncertain\nking who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24And when he had\nbegun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten\nthousand\ntalents. 25But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he\nbe\nsold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment\nbe\nmade. 26The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ?Master,\nhave\npatience with me, and I will pay you all.” 27Then the master of that\nservant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the\ndebt.\n\n28?But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who\nowed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took *him* by\nthe throat, saying, “Pay me what you owe!” 29So his fellow servant fell\ndown at his feet and begged him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I\nwill\npay you all.” 30And he would not, but went and threw him into prison\ntill\nhe should pay the debt. 31So when his fellow servants saw what had been\ndone, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that\nhad\nbeen done. 32Then his master, after he had called him, said to him,\n“You\nwicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "33Should\nyou not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had\npity\non you?” 34And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers\nuntil he should pay all that was due to him." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "35?So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his\nheart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.\n\n\n\n While the banker is incapable of remembering the sum of ten thousand\ntalents, it seems that there are also other things he owes the Dream\nMaster\n? mercy, forgiveness, and compassion for his fellow man. The\ndifference in\nboth of these parables is that, beyond a secular punishment, we see the\npromise of hell:\n\n\n\n The throne of gold that Baron H-- offered our narrator might also echo\nMatthew 19: 28-30, presaging the narrator's consumption of the body of\nChrist.\n\n28So Jesus said to them, ?Assuredly I say to you, that in the\nregeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you\nwho\nhave followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve\ntribes\nof Israel. 29And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or\nfather or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake,\nshall\nreceive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. 30But many *who are*\nfirst will be last, and the last first.\n\nChapter 7 of the Gospel of Matthew holds many of the themes which are\nfound in the dream of the Count (it is reprinted in its entirety in the\ndiscussion of “Many Mansions.)\n\nThe damnation we see threatened in the dreams certainly has biblical\nprecedent, as in Matthew 25:41-46-\n\n41?Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ?Depart from Me,\nyou\ncursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his\nangels:\n42for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave\nMe\nno drink; 43I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you\ndid not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.”\n\n44?Then they also will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did we see You\nhungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did\nnot\nminister to You?” 45Then He will answer them, saying, “Assuredly, I say\nto you, inasmuch as you did not do *it* to one of the least of these,\nyou\ndid not do *it* to Me.” 46And these will go away into everlasting\npunishment, but the righteous into eternal life.\n\n\n\n THE LETTERS AND THE SETTING\n\nIf the late emperor of which our narrator speaks of for popularizing\nthe\nbeard and mustache is Franz Joseph, then the text actually seems to be\nset\nin the early 20th century, as Franz died in 1916 (but he did rule from\n1848 to 1916 as Emperor). This could very well make our area a state in\nAustria if the letters are accurate at all, probably the state of\nKarnten/Carinthia, with Klagenfurt its capital. Klagenfurt had a large\ntrain stop on the Vienna-Trieste railway which was destroyed in World\nWar\nII. However, the problem with this is that they are not as close to the\nAlps or Lindau as Immenstadt, mentioned above, was, and perhaps\nKlagenfurt\nis too large (though it has some interesting local stories, since it's\nname\nmeans the ford of complaint — one legend says that an innocent\napprentice\nwas executed over a theft that wound up being a mistake, and that the\nlament of the people when they found out rang out, thus the name of the\ntown). However, the setting might be forever open to speculation.\n\nThe only name that is given amongst those involved is that of Karl, the\nhusband of the Countess. Karl means free man, and it is this freedom of\nchoice between good and evil that is implicit in Wolfe’s Christian\nfiction.\nHe could select mercy.\n\nD--: The Baron in disguise who hires the detective to hunt the dream\nmaster, he is also the head of the secret police. This is his mother’s\nname\nand the reason he selected the pseudonym.\n\nH--: The Baron’s true name\n\nK--: The city, state, or principality which the Baron represents." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Could be\nKlagenfurt (the city) or Karnten (the state) in Austria." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "I--: the city or station name which used to the be the capital of a\nprovince (I cannot determine this with any accuracy, unless it simply\nimplies the Inner Stadt district, unless it is perhaps Immenstadt in\nBavaria rather than Austria)\n\nJ--: now a province of K — (could be Jezersko, which was a part of\nKarnten)\n\nA--: A rather asexual Fraulein who makes dresses and receives the\ndream of\nthe wedding guests\n\nM--: an antique dealer who handles chairs and chests\n\nO--: an antique dealer who stocks pictures\n\nG--: A Frau who calls Fraulein A a manhater for not receiving her son\n\nR--: A banker who grew up on the streets and made his fortune by\nunderstanding men rather than numbers (Raffgier is one possible German\nword\nfor greed, but no other letters seem to echo the traits on display)\n\nV--: The Count and Countess, though it is the Countess von V?who dreams\nthat her husband Karl is executing the dream master.\n\nFraulein A indicates that the police working under Baron H?are not\n“our”\npolice — this could very well show the strange position Austria\noccupied at\nthis time, though the city is probably in Germany (or might even be in\nSwitzerland from the details that we have, though that is the least\nlikely\npossibility).\n\nTHE DETECTIVES PREVIOUS CASES:\n\nPaulette Renan — our narrator found the quince seed in her throat ?\nPaulette = little, Renan = (seal)? ? early mythical and historical\nreferences to apples may have actually referred to the quince, and the\nquince seed, if eaten in large quantities, actually can produce\nhydrogen\ncyanide and be toxic. (The quince might have been the actual forbidden\nfruit in the story of Adam and Eve, and thus has a special place in the\nconcept of original sin, which necessitated the presence of Christ in\nhistory, the “new” Adam).\n\nCaptain Brotte — which means bread, discusses his finds amid the\nAntarctic\nice, an unexplored region, and his name, bread certainly resonates\nwith the\nEucharist.\n\nHerr R-- says that he knows of the narrator because of a case\nconcerning a\nmummy, and what is a mummy but an attempt to preserve the body for the\nafterlife?\n\nJoan gift from god O?Neil — grandson of Niall (which could mean\ncloud/champion), she lived behind a painting of herself (this echoes\nthe\nreflection of the Count in Christ's eyes, in which the reflection was\nmore\n“real” than the physical form visible to the eye).\n\nAll these cases can in some way liken back to a Christian mystery or an\nattempt to pierce the veil of the unknown.\n\nUNANSWERED QUESTIONS:\n\nIs this a town in Austria, as I have assumed, or in Bavaria proper or\neven\nthe Swiss Alps? The Count von V — answers only to the Queen Regent\n(there\nwas a prince regent in Bavaria during this time period, and we\ndefinitely\nhave trains), a Queen Regent I cannot seem to locate in early 20th\ncentury history near Germany. Can we place the date and city with more\nexactitude, and is the identification of the “late” emperor who\npopularized\na certain kind of mustache and beard not Franz Joseph I, who died in\n1916?\nFrom the mention of Freud, who did not publish his *Interpretation of\nDreams* until 1899-1900 and did not have his group meetings until the\nearly parts of the 20th century, this story is actually a 20th century\ntale, but is definitely set before World War II. Could it be after\nWorld\nWar I? I feel as if the dissolution of German monarchs in 1918, with\nits\nkingdoms of Prussia, Bavaria, Austria, Saxony, and Wurrtenberg is\ndefinitely yet to come (what a mess those nations were, making\nplacement of\nthis city almost impossible — setting a fairly narrow window of time in\nwhich the action could occur.)\n\nWhen Fraulein A-- says “they are not our police”, does she refer to the\nfact that they do not work for the people, or that they are a foreign\noccupying force?\n\nWhy are the dreams striking this city in particular? Is there a larger\nreason for the substantiation of divine warning here? Could it be\nrelated\nto the events that are about to occur in German history and the\nwidespread\npersecution of the Jews? Or are we to see it as individual warnings?\n\nCONNECTION TO OTHER WORKS:\n\nThe overtly Christian works are rarely as unabashed as “The Detective\nof\nDreams”, and certainly this has much in common with his Sherlock Holmes\npastiches, though it is more serious. This story's metaphysical\nunderpinnings in which the spiritual world has more of reality than our\nphysical world can also be found in “Trip, Trap.”\n\n_______________________________________________" } ] } ] }