Subject: (urth) 5HC: Fifteen years

From: adam louis stephanides <astephan at students.uiuc.edu>
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 17:18:30 +0000

On Thu, 4 Jun 1998 Robert Borski wrote:

> [The account of Mr.D on p. 147 dates the Running Blood incident back 15
> years, which would mean Victor was still only one year old. Hence my
> dating.]

What account?  Is there material in other editions absent from my Ace
edition?  In my edition, the only statement quoted by "Mr. D" which has
any bearing on the 15-year figure is "'I don't know.  Might be fifteen
years ago, or it might not.  Our years are longer here--did you know
that?'" (160)
 
> The 15 year figure is given on p. 147 by Mr. D. If you chose to contest
> this, what does the 15 years refer to? Especially since the only other
> seemingly close dates in the narrative concern Victor's age. It's not
> chaff; it's a clue.

I have no idea what the 15 years refers to, but I don't see any evidence
it's the Running Blood incident.  If anything, Mr. D's remarks immediately
following the 15 year quote strike me as evidence against it.  If he had
just been describing how the French slaughtered the Annese, it seems
unlikely that he would continue: "'Well, those Frenchmen used to have all
kinds of stories about them...What kinds of stories?  Oh, just nonsense.
They're an ignorant people, the French are.'" (If he intended that
these "stories" were the motivation for the massacre, surely he would have
spoken of them before speaking of the massacre.)

--Adam

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