{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6620",
    "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.",
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  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 6620,
    "subject": "Short Story 91: Love, Among the Corridors",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2014-08-13T15:08:19+00:00",
    "last": "2014-08-13T15:15:49+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<CAF1072xjtmAzOF4h9DRbw4z1eFmUUgS=+gpOoyKf9V_D5mLySQ@mail.gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Marc Aramini",
        "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com"
      },
      "date": "2014-08-13T15:08:19+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth)  Short Story 91: Love, Among the Corridors",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
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          "text": "“Love Among the Corridor” first appeared in *Interzone* in 1984. It is\ncollected in *Storeys from the Old Hotel*.\nSUMMARY: A female embodiment of love walks through a palace of statuary,\n“Her own footfalls echoed after her, reverberating from stone floor to\nceiling of stone, so that she felt herself pursued, though she knew herself\nto be the pursuer. .. She could not bear to think of where she had begun to\nwalk (for that was nothingness) or where she went (for that was to the\ngrave).”\nShe brings to life the bronze statue of Harlequin with a touch: “At once it\nseemed the sun had broken through the ivy and the evening”.  He leaps from\nthe pedestal and they converse.  She says she is “Amor ?” and he responds,\n“I too. But who are you, and how came you to walk in this palace?” She\nreplies that no one can answer that. She says that Chivalry was her father\nand Poetry her mother, and that he is now dead.  Harlequin waxes into\nShakespearean speech: “What” Brave Chivalry late? But Chivalry cannot be\nlate, or else “tis not Chivalry.”\n\nPoetry “still lives — but she is old and crank and ill.” Harlequin\nconfesses that her touch thrilled him to life, and she talks of touching\nanother to see if he, too, will be quickened. They consider touching a\ndragon on a vase or a painted mask upon the wall before Harlequin implores\nher to touch the entire palace.  She says she cannot, but he insists only a\nsingle touch will work, as it did for him. ?She knelt upon the floor,\nembraced a column, and blew a kiss to the ceiling.\"\n\n“I knew it could not be,” she says, while Harlequin says that he knew it\ncould.\n\n“She took his hand again, and together they wandered down the many and\ndividing corridors that lead to the grave.”  The marble flushes rose and a\nflowers bloom, and Harlequin exclaims: “It’s true! Amor, you can, you do!\nYou did!  Oh Amor, don’t you see”  It only took longer because the palace\nis so huge.\n\n“And with trembling hand [Amor] touched her own heart.”\n\nCOMMENTARY:\n\nWolfe insists that these types of stories are actually not simple\nallegories, but literary myths — here, the exploration is one of love as a\nreal woman, with the power to quicken things to life.  Since she is “real”\nin the story, she can be subject to the same uncertainties and frailties of\nall humanity, including loneliness, dread, and self-doubt.  The base\nreading is that she overlooks all the wonderful statuary and is struck by a\ndifferent, patchwork character such as the Harlequin, (whose role evolved\nover time from a nimble and subversive servant chasing after his love or\nany other woman who is being given attention to a more romantic figure) and\nselects him.  Love’s touch brings him to life, and, fearing rivals and\nother things coming between them, he suggests she let love bring the entire\npalace to life (in this case certainly the palace is a metaphor for\ncivilization and the world, and there is one other Christian resonance\nwhich we must discuss fleetingly.)  The masks on the wall are typical of\nthe commedia dell?art, and Harlequin warns that they will prove false\nfriends.\n\nAt first, it seems that nothing happens, and they march toward the grave.\n\nThe meta-commentary worked into the text, that chivalry is dead and poetry\nailing, and that love can come from nothing but heads inexorably towards\ndeath and oblivion, pursuing even beautiful women whose hearts are yet\nincapable of love, is undercut by Amor’s touching of her own heart — she\nhas brought the entire dead palace to life, and love itself then becomes a\nreality.\n\nThe masks on the wall of false friends and the dragons of mythic and pagan\nart are threats to the Harlequin, and he warns against granting them\nvitality.\n\nSince the commedia dell?art originated in Rome, and, as Lydus (and the\nWolfe-wiki) acknowledge, the secret name of Rome is Amor, the presence of\nthese small details in the story hint at a very religious subtext as well\n(another possible secret name for Rome is Flora).  When she touches\nHarlequin, he says that his name, too, is Amor, and in his faith (but\ninsecurity) he asks her to touch the palace itself in which they walk,\nwhich eventually blooms with life.   Beyond the idea that the philosophy of\nloving each other and spreading it in the world creates a vital and truly\nliving paradise that takes time to work, we see the statuary and relics of\na secular authority like Rome transformed into the center of a church\nwhich, ideally at least, is based on the concept of loving your neighbor as\nyourself, bringing a promise of true eternal life.  When Amor touches her\nown heart, it is no longer certain that they are headed inexorably to the\ngrave, for love has become real and possibly even echoes salvation.\n\nLITERARY ALLUSIONS:\n\nThe obvious story is that of Pygmalion and Galatea, except instead of a\nbeloved statue coming to life at the hands of Venus, here, we have a female\nwhose heart is not fully awake bringing to life a rather mockingly romantic\nstatue of Harlequin.  Pygmalion even had a daughter, Paphus, which came to\nbe an eponym for the city of Paphos, and perhaps this echoes the Roma/Amor\npalindrome.\n\nThe second literary allusion is an equally important one, the commedia\ndell?art, from which the character Harelequin originated.  These Italian\nplays began in Rome in the 16th century, and eventually stock characters\nand masks were introduced, so that the players became tropes — thus the\nmention of masks on the wall.  In addition, Wolfe states that his story is\ninfluenced by Kipling:\n\n\"'Love, Among the Corridors' had a different genesis. When I listened to\nthe Just So Stories (and for many years after), I didn't know they had a\nprecursor, \"The Children of the Zodiac.\" It is a work in which Kipling did\nwhat Poe is justly celebrated for doing over and over: he invented a whole\nnew kind of story, the modern literary myth or anti-allegory... In allegory\nwe say 'What if a giant were despair?' Then we have the giant wrestle our\nhero, and so on. It has always seemed an obvious idea to me, and a rather\nstupid one, since a giant is much more interesting than despair... But what\nKipling (and the ancients) really said was much more interesting: 'What if\nlove were a woman?'\"\n\nKipling’s story described how the Children of the Zodiac came to appreciate\nthe pain and sorrow of human life and become enmeshed in the everyday\nstruggles of humanity, especially Leo and Virgo, called the Girl. They at\nfirst exist independently from the passions of man and then come to\nunderstand his love, toils, and fears.  The symbols of the Zodiac that\nlived in the world were the Bull, the Ram, the Twins, Leo, and the\nGirl.  Against\nthem were the Six Houses, the Scorpion, the Balance, the Crab, the Fishes,\nand the Archer, and the Waterman.  At first the Children are beyond any\ncomprehension of the fears of humanity, but then they eventually come to\nappreciate passion and love.  The Bull and the Ram help people fulfill\ntheir farming and labor tasks, and the Twins are adopted by a woman to give\nher joy in her age, while Leo and Virgo come to love each other and be\ntraveling minstrels.  Eventually, they die one by one after Leo asks why\nthey serve man so when they could be so much more, killed by their opposing\nhouse.  After the Girl is killed by the Crab, Leo’s songs give hope to man\nand inspires everyone in their work and love.  Eventually Leo, too, is\nkilled by the Crab, but his songs live on, telling humanity that “whatever\ncomes or does not come we men must not be afraid”.\n\nThe epithet to “Children of the Zodiac” from Emerson is appropriate for\n“Love, Among the Corridors” as well:\n\nThough thou love her as thyself.\n\nAs a self of purer clay.\n\nThough her parting dim the day.\n\nStealing grace from all alive.\n\n                Heartily know\n\n                When half Gods go\n\nThe Gods arrive.\n\nThough Amor has the semidivine status of “love”, she is still a woman, and\nthe power to inspire love that she wields is greater and more divine than\nherself.\n\nCONNECTION WITH OTHER WORKS:\n\nThe literary myth that Wolfe credits to Kipling definitely influenced many\nof the stories in the brown book in *The Book of the New Sun* and other\nworks he wrote in this time period, such as those included in “Four Wolves”\nand “Redwood Coast Roamer”. Even “The Boy Who Hooked the Sun”, “At the\nPoint of Capricorn”,  and “Empires of Foliage and Flower” all seem to have\nthis same pseudo-allegorical nature which Wolfe insists is actually the\nopposite of allegory."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<53EB8125.2020804@bindweed.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Gerry Quinn",
        "address": "gerry at bindweed.com"
      },
      "date": "2014-08-13T15:15:49+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Short Story 91: Love, Among the Corridors",
      "in_reply_to": "<CAF1072xjtmAzOF4h9DRbw4z1eFmUUgS=+gpOoyKf9V_D5mLySQ@mail.gmail.com>",
      "reply_link": "header",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "On 13/08/2014 16:08, Marc Aramini wrote:\n\nWolfe insists that these types of stories are actually not simple \nallegories, but literary myths -- here, the exploration is one of love \nas a real woman, with the power to quicken things to life.Since she is \n\"real\" in the story, she can be subject to the same uncertainties and \nfrailties of all humanity, including loneliness, dread, and self-doubt."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Reminds me of the Long Sun gods.\n\n- Gerry Quinn"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}