Subject: (urth) a note on allusions in In Looking Glass Castle and Cherry Jubilee

From: Marc Aramini <marcaramini at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 15:58:49 +0000

Going to finish up a write up on Cherry Jubilee in a few days, and of
course I find that the majority of commentary on the story is by Borski.
His technique for finding allusions always raises my blood pressure, but
after "In Looking glass Castle" I am actually sympathetic with him for
probably the first time in years.

"In Looking Glass Castle" is the first Wolfe story that I felt was pretty
unfair with it allusion to Maupassant - the man wrote 300 or so short
stories.  The chance that Wolfe was actually thinking of The Horla or
Mademoiselle Pearl is astronomically low. Wolfe even avoided mentioning the
last name of the author who wrote Cradle of the Sea and misquoted Kipling
on purpose.  Without a search engine or the most erudite reader on the
planet, I don't know if those allusions would have been "gettable" at the
time they were written.  However, Borski's transformation of Edith Berg to
Alban Berg and bringing in "The Wozzack" seems like the step into
nonsensical forced relationships that is the worst part of his
scholarship.  He says Edith and Alda both mean rich and then proceeds to
transform Alda into Alban.  It's magic.

He does a similar thing with Cherry Jubilee in this kind of reaching:

The next paragraph is Borski's.
"As for Captain Bogdanoff, I wonder if he's not based on film director Peter
Bogdanovich--another Peter with a Russian name. Bogdanovich, for what it's
worth, was romantically involved with 1980 Playmate of the Year Dorothy
Stratton (whom Cherry and Merry physically resemble). Stratton was
eventually killed by her estranged husband (which recapitulates the Jubilee
aspect of the story: i.e., the husband is taking back his "property").
Captain Bogdanoff has been sleeping with Merry in the story, and soon (if
he can get the Party to clear him of murder charges) may do so with Cherry,
since she's masquerading as Merry. Meanwhile, back here in the real world,
Peter Bogdanovich soon began dating the late Dorothy Stratton's younger
sister, who I'm sure bore at least a sororal resemblance (Bogdanovich may
have even married her--I'm not sure). So there are extended parallels."
The above paragraph was Borski's.

For the love of God, Montressor.

Back in the early days of the internet, information was scarce, but even by
the late 90s I had read Red Star by Bogdanov, which I posted on way back in
2001 on the Urth list, as the ship's name in Wolfe's story was Red Star.
Luckily that has made its way to the wolfe wiki rather than something like
the above, and I ascribe the blame for over-reaching to readers who aren't
rigorous in their approach to what the text actually implies ...

Yet I feel that probably for the first time in "In Looking Glass Castle",
the allusions were so expansive and vague that we pretty much have to
employ Borski tactics or admit that they don't mean anything.  In
pre-internet days I could still have found much of the extra material or
relied on my own reading and tried to order supplemental research or find
it on microfiche - this project would still be possible, but definitely
less convenient - it would have probably turned a two year project into a
four year one.

To do my due diligence in researching In Looking Glass Castle, I had to
read Sylvie and Bruno, look up which stories where in The Metamorphosis and
other stories and re-read or skim them, trust my memory of Maupassant and
read perhaps a dozen random stories before coming back to the impression
that indeed "The Horla" was being referenced, (I did not feel I had to read
Cradle of the Sea with a synopsis available, however - the scandal of its
fabrication seemed the point).

So often, after contemplating misprision after misprision, I blame the
reader, but every great once in a while I wonder if some of Borski's
excessive over-reaching might not indeed stem from allusions that are just
a bit too expansive and huge.
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From: Mo Holkar <mo at holkar.net>
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 16:53:06 +0000

At 16:58 21/08/2014, Marc wrote:
>To do my due diligence in researching In Looking 
>Glass Castle, I had to read Sylvie and Bruno, 
>look up which stories where in The Metamorphosis 
>and other stories and re-read or skim them, 
>trust my memory of Maupassant and read? perhaps 
>a dozen random stories before coming back to the 
>impression that indeed "The Horla" was being referenced,

This is a great spot, Marc, thanks! It sheds a lot of light.

It is perhaps notable that the best translation 
of the invented word 'Horla' is 'Outsider'. 
Maupassant's tale was surely an influence on 
Lovecraft's story of that name, which could be 
seen as an inversion of it -- and he cites it 
approvingly in his famous essay on supernatural 
horror in literature -- but it would be 
surprising if it didn't also resonate with Wolfe.

best,

Mo

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