{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/763", "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": 763, "subject": "5HC: Puss in Boots", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "1998-06-11T17:36:10+00:00", "last": "1998-06-12T11:06:55+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "adam louis stephanides", "address": "astephan at students.uiuc.edu" }, "date": "1998-06-11T17:36:10+00:00", "subject": "(urth) 5HC: Puss in Boots", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Here's my stab at the \"Puss in Boots\" passage. I can't explain it\ncompletely, but I have a few comments (which may strike everyone else as\nobvious).\n\nI'll quote the passage first, because it's short:\n\n _Later._ For a moment I thought I saw my cat flying like a shadow in\nthe dark, and I wondered if she were really dead, though I broke her neck.\nThe day before I found the burial cave for him, she brought me a little\nanimal and laid it at my feet. I told her that she was a good cat and\ncould eat it herself, but she only said, \"My master, the Marquis of\nCarabas, sends you greetings.\" And disappeared again. The little animal\nhad a pointed snout and round ears, but its teeth were the even, biting\nteeth of a human being, and it smiled in its agony.\n\n1) I take it this is a dream or hallucination, since even if the cat is an\nAnnese, there's no reason for her to be quoting \"Puss in Boots.\"\n\n2) Note the similarity between the plot of \"Puss in Boots\" and V.R.T.'s\nscheme. In one, the miller's son assumes the identity of the Marquis of\nCarabas and usurps an ogre's castle and lands after his servant Puss in\nBoots kills the ogre. In the other, V.R.T. assumes the identity of Marsch\nand usurps his position after killing him. Note, too, that the \"little\nanimal\" is mouse-like, but with a human characteristic: Puss killed the\nogre by tricking him into turning into a mouse. So while the\ncorrespondence is not exact, I submit that this dream or hallucination\nsymbolizes both Marsch's death and V.R.T.'s intended theft of his\nidentity.\n\n3) From the way V.R.T. speaks of, and to, the cat here, it definitely\nappears that he regards the cat as a cat, not as an Annese, whether his\ngirlfriend or not (and nowhere else does he speak of it differently). Of\ncourse, this could be a subtle bit of misdirection, but in that case it\nwould be much easier not to mention the cat at all. And elsewhere in the\njournal, he's a remarkably poor liar.\n\n--Adam" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "William H. Ansley", "address": "wansley at warwick.net" }, "date": "1998-06-12T11:06:55+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) 5HC: Puss in Boots", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Here's my stab at the \"Puss in Boots\" passage. I can't explain it\ncompletely, but I have a few comments (which may strike everyone else as\nobvious).\n\nI'll quote the passage first, because it's short:\n\n _Later._ For a moment I thought I saw my cat flying like a shadow in\nthe dark, and I wondered if she were really dead, though I broke her neck.\nThe day before I found the burial cave for him, she brought me a little\nanimal and laid it at my feet. I told her that she was a good cat and\ncould eat it herself, but she only said, \"My master, the Marquis of\nCarabas, sends you greetings.\" And disappeared again. The little animal\nhad a pointed snout and round ears, but its teeth were the even, biting\nteeth of a human being, and it smiled in its agony." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "To me, at least, the little animal is obviously Mickey Mouse (or possible\none of the other, similar cartoon mice with pointed snouts, round ears and\nsquare human teeth). Wolfe definitely has Mickey on his mind from time to\ntime; witness the story \"Three Fingers\" in _The Island of Doctor Death and\nOther Stories and Other Stories_.\n\nSo, I think this passage is, more or less completely, a joke. Wolfe has\nbeen known to joke. In fact, in some essay I can't find right now he says\nsomething to the effect that his sense of humor makes women faint and\nstrong men cry. And I think it's true--at least the last part.\n\nWilliam Ansley" } ] } ] }