{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/874", "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": 874, "subject": "St. Paul & the Werwolf", "messages": 5, "voices": 3, "first": "1998-06-29T23:25:51+00:00", "last": "1998-07-07T01:21:22+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Robert Borski", "address": "rborski at coredcs.com" }, "date": "1998-06-29T23:25:51+00:00", "subject": "(urth) St. Paul & the Werwolf", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Over the years I've recommended quite a few of Gene Wolfe's short stories\nto my stauncher Catholic acquaintances, citing New Testament readings as\ncollateral gloss. \"The Detective of Dreams,\" for example, draws much from\nthe Gospels of Mathew and Mark, while \"Silhouette\" obtains from the Gospel\nof John and the Pseudepigrapha. But the story I recommend most often is\n\"The Werwolf as Hero,\" not only because it's a fun read, but because I feel\nmuch of it is based on the writings of St. Paul, perhaps the Catholic\nChurch's most important personage after Christ.\n\nPaul, our titular hero, is symbolically innocent when we first meet him,\nalthough he will receive wisdom in the course of the narrative. This is\nsignaled by the very first sentence of the story, where an owl shrieks and\nPaul flinches. Notice as well how Paul derives from the Latin word for\n'small' and the way he is sitting, with his knees together (the virgin\nposition), while later, when he contemplates luring potential victims he\nconsiders crying like an infant (significantly, however, he rejects this\nnotion and plans on using a silver bell, a much more Christian image). The\nvictims in this case are the new stewards of Earth, the so-called Masters,\ngenetically re-engineered humans, whereas Paul and his kind have remained\ntrue human. Paul's last name is Gorou, which derives from the French word\nfor werewolf, loup-garou; minus the 'loup,' gorou/garou can be taken to\nmean 'man.' (Paul is also the Son of Man, i.e., Jesus Christ, especially in\nthe last scene. It's also extremely worth noting that the Greek word for\nwolf, lukos, is frequently confused with the Greek word for light, leukos.\nIn fact, I submit this difference in a single *e* is why Wolfe uses the\nvariant spelling of werwolf). These so-called Masters also revere science\nover religion, as witness the four-dimensional diorama built to Hugo de\nVries, the father of mutation, who undergoes, as Paul watches, death,\n\"rots\" and then is reborn in the manner of Christ (although \"rots\" conveys\nthe truer nature of de Vries' artificial resurrection). Paul's stalking of\nMasters might also be considered a parallel to St. Paul's persecution of\nChristians, whom he considered traitors to Judaism, at least until he\nhimself converted. \n\nBut just as Paul is about to attack his two victims--a fat man and a woman\nwearing a dress \"of flowering vines the color of love\" (the flowering vines\nmay represent orchids, research on which allowed de Vries to formulate his\ntheories on mutation; they also represent sexuality, as does the serpent of\ngold supporting the woman's breasts)--two other figures join the scene, a\ngrey-haired man named Emmit Pendleton and his young daughter Janey. The\ntrio of humans kill the two Masters, but a quarrel breaks out after the\nslayings as to how they will divvy up the goods. Paul is also immediately\nattracted to Janey (he senses her \"femaleness, the woman-rut\"), symbolizing\nhis growth from childhood to adolescence. But Paul and the Pendletons soon\npart, each with a dead Master, although already Paul is contemplating life\nwith Janey. (Note however how Paul mentions the dead male Master's meat\nwill be tainted by his testicles i.e., sexuality spoils corporeal worth).\n\nThen in one of the story's more surprising moments the dead woman Paul is\ncarrying speaks to him. This symbolizes a false resurrection (cf. the de\nVries diorama scene), and eventually the woman will be totally dead, but\nthe scene also conveys several important plotpoints. Asks the woman of\nPaul: \"How come you didn't change? When the rest changed their genes?\"\nPaul's reply: \"We didn't want to. We are the human beings.\" Thus some\nchoice has been involved with his remaining human (unlike the Pendletons\nwho have had changing withheld from them). The woman also tells Paul she\nand the other dead Master were not married. It's important as well to\nnotice how her eyes' growing opaqueness signifies the imminence of true\ndeath.\n\nLibidinously aroused by Janey, however, Paul delays eating the dead Master\nand instead goes looking for the Pendleton's lair, which he finds in an old\nbus. Notice how Paul's house has a turret, with its association of\nchurchliness (it's also respected by the Masters, who fear destroying it\n\"will bring back the old times\"), while Janey's father calls their home \"a\ndump.\" The bus also stinks of blood (an image of death). \n\nEmmit Pendleton subsequently begins to fill Paul in on his family's\nbackground and one of the things we learn right away is that the Pendletons\nhave been rejected as candidates for gene therapy/mutation because they\ncarry potentially deleterious genes (do bad genes equal original sin?);\nthus their humanity has nothing to do with choice, it's theirs by\ncircumstance; i.e., to bring in the Christian parallel, they are not\nbelievers by choice, but falsely so, by omission. Now consider the name\nEmmit. Emmet (its closest cognate) derives from the Hebrew word for truth.\nNotice again the missing signal *e.* Emmit, I submit, means 'false truth.'\nAs for Pendleton, pendle = pendant (OED), and a pendant weighing a ton\nrecalls the millstone of Bibilical provenance (\"Whoso shall offend one of\nthe little ones which believe in me [remember Paul means small], it were\nbetter for him that a millstone were hanged around his neck and that he\nwere drowned in the depth of the sea\"). \n\nEmmit also mentions a previous suitor of Janey's--\"Nice fellow, a German.\nName was Curtain--something like that.\" I submit the word Emmit means is\n'kirchen,' German for churches. The suitor in question, despite having been\npromised Janey's hand, has never returned, symbolizing God's withdrawal. \n\nThen there are the chickens the Pendleton's used to raise for their\nlivelihood; all of them have died of sickness, and if we accept the egg as\na potent sign of rebirth, this symbolizes their failed rebirth as humans.\nThen there are a number of images that play off of blindness. Perhaps it's\nbest at this point to remind everyone that St. Paul was struck blind, but\nrecovered and converted to Christianity. Remember the pearl-colored eyes of\nthe Masters, as well as the growing ocular opaqueness of the dead woman\nPaul has killed? Emmit's sister Clara (despite her name) is born blind in\none eye, and later Janey will have to be veiled because there is \"a\nblankness of eye\" to her that betrays her as non-Master. All of these\nsymbolize the Pendletons' inability to see (i.e., believe in and accept\nGod). Lastly, notice how machines tear up the Pendletons' farm the night\nbefore Xmas and how a brother named Tom has his leg impaled by a\ntwo-by-four (read Crucifixion), whereupon \"rot\" sets in (cf. the de Vries\ndiorama), and he dies. Almost all of the Pendleton family history is tied\nup in images of blindness, death and oblivion. But does this in turn mean\nthey can never achieve salvation? Not in the Catholic religion, and even\nEmmit seems to realize he's made mistakes, as he confesses to Paul, \"Even a\nbad man can love his child.\"\n\nAlso notice how Wolfe describes Paul in the very next paragraph as he and\nJaney leave together. \"*Her husband* took Janey and led her out of the\nruined bus.\" (Italics mine.) This very obviously is meant to recall St.\nPaul's oft-quoted dictum from 1 Corinthians 7:9: \"It is better to marry\nthan to burn;\" i.e., sex outside of marriage will lead to hell; and recall\nnow the fate of the female Master who specifically mentions not being\nmarried to the fat man she accompanied.\n\nNo consummation between the new Mr. and Mrs. Gorou takes place, although in\nthe very next scene Janey is wearing a grotesque parody of a wedding dress,\ncomplete with red veil. Here she is less Little Red Riding Hood and more\nthe Scarlet Whore of Babylon ('lupa' in Latin means both she-wolf and\nprostitute), and she and Paul manage to trap a potential victim in a\ndownshaft. It's important to note here Janey's physical (as opposed to\nspiritual) hunger as she takes the lead in chasing after the boy; Janey\nalso has no dialogue in the entire story, although she does moan and sob,\nand she delights in cutting up her victims while they're still alive,\nrecalling animals who play with their prey like cats. All these images play\nto her unredeemed bestial nature.\n\nBut then something miraculous of a sort happens. Paul is trapped in a\nclosing door by his foot, like an animal in a trap, and Janey must gnaw his\nfoot to the bone so he can escape. Her concern, in other words, has turned\nto the altruistic, to something other than satisfying her baser needs, and\nthis is symbolized by the act she ritualistically performs on her husband,\nnot of eating meat, but freeing him from the fleshly bonds that constrain\nhim. I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the Eucharistic significance of\nthis.\n\nThe last image we have of Janey then recalls Mary Magdalen (another\nreformed 'lupa') washing the feet of our Lord: \"Over the pain he could feel\nthe hot tears washing the blood from his foot.\"\n\nLukos has now become leukos. Redemption has been achieved and both Paul and\nJaney may yet know God. \n\nMy very last words on their salvation? \n\nForever and ever amen.\n\nRobert Borski/scolex (who's surprised he can spell his own name correctly,\nhaving gotten Delage wrong every time in his previous post)\n\n \n\n \n " } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "mary whalen", "address": "marewhalen at yahoo.com" }, "date": "1998-07-02T01:17:44+00:00", "subject": "(urth) St. Paul & the Werwolf", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "This is Sean Whalen (prion).\n\nOn June 29, 1998, Robert Borski wrote a comparison of the story the\nHero as Werwolf to St. Paul, and other Biblical stories that I feel\nwas very perceptive.\n\nHowever, it seems that you (if I'm wrong I apologize) think that\nalmost no time passes between the scene where Paul takes Janie away\nfrom her father to when they attack the child. You say that Paul\n\"marries\" her, but doesn't consummate the marriage.\n\nActually, it's been quite a while since they met at that point. Long\nenough for Janie to have gotten clothes from Paul's house (or a new\nvictim), for her to get used to him and develope an attatchment for\nhim, and long enough for them to have hunted together, so I think they\nwould have had plenty of time to consummate their \"vows.\"\n\nAlso, you say that since Paul's last name is Gorou, as in the French\nword loup-garou (werewolf), that since the loup is taken off his name,\ngarou would correspond to man and make him symbolically the \"Son of\nMan.\" However, garou is the term that meant werewolf in the word\noriginally. Garou from garoul from garulf from gwerewolfe which also\ngave werewolf in English. It's a Germanic root, and the French forgot\nthis and added the loup part to make it sound right to them. Wolfe\nwould probably have known about this, so how does it fit your theory\n(not that your theory needs to be concerned with this minor detail)?\n\nOn another topic, has anyone noticed just how often Wolfe puts people\neating other people in his stories? It's in Fifth Head of Cerberus,\nTracking Song, the Book of the New Sun, and probably others, too. Is\nall this just related to the Eucharest?\n\nprion" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Jim Jordan", "address": "jbjordan at gnt.net" }, "date": "1998-07-06T23:23:18+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) St. Paul & the Werwolf", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At 01:17 AM 7/2/98 -0700, you wrote:\nThis is Sean Whalen (prion).\n\nOn another topic, has anyone noticed just how often Wolfe puts people\neating other people in his stories? It's in Fifth Head of Cerberus,\nTracking Song, the Book of the New Sun, and probably others, too. Is\nall this just related to the Eucharest?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tIt is most definitely related to the Eucharist in the Severian Cycle,\ngenerally in a \"counterfeit\" form. I can't recall it in 5th Head, but it\nhas been a while since I read it. I don't think it carries that freight in\nTracking Song, though.\n\nJim Jordan" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Jim Jordan", "address": "jbjordan at gnt.net" }, "date": "1998-07-07T01:12:24+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) St. Paul & the Werwolf", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "At 11:25 PM 6/29/98 -0500, R. Borski wrote regarding \"The Hero as Werwolf\":" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Paul, our titular hero, is symbolically innocent when we first meet him,\nalthough he will receive wisdom in the course of the narrative. This is\nsignaled by the very first sentence of the story, where an owl shrieks and\nPaul flinches. Notice as well how Paul derives from the Latin word for\n'small' and the way he is sitting, with his knees together (the virgin\nposition), while later, when he contemplates luring potential victims he\nconsiders crying like an infant (significantly, however, he rejects this\nnotion and plans on using a silver bell, a much more Christian image). The\nvictims in this case are the new stewards of Earth, the so-called Masters,\ngenetically re-engineered humans, whereas Paul and his kind have remained\ntrue human. " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tI'm not sure how you're seeing this story. Do you see it as an allegory,\nwith the Masters as the Church, and the older humans as Jews and pagans? If\nso, I find trouble seeing it through. Or, are the Masters a false\ndevelopment of humanity, with Paul as a potential savior of what remains of\nhumanity? The latter is how I take it.\n\n\n These so-called Masters also revere science" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "over religion, as witness the four-dimensional diorama built to Hugo de\nVries, the father of mutation, who undergoes, as Paul watches, death,\n\"rots\" and then is reborn in the manner of Christ (although \"rots\" conveys\nthe truer nature of de Vries' artificial resurrection). " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tI don't see how this shows that the masters revere science over religion,\nand I don't see how the diorama, which starts de Vries over as an embryo,\nconnects to the idea of resurrection from the dead. It just does not seem a\nvalid parallel. But they HAVE been tearing down churches, so in general I\nthink your first point is right.\n\tHmmm. As I think about it, maybe I see what you mean. The de Vries diorama\nis the new replacement icon for the cross or icon in the Church. But unlike\nthe Christian \"diorama,\" we don't have death and transfiguration to a new\nkind of life and existence, but an endless cycle of rebirth in the present\nworld. Man playing at being God, but getting no farther than endless\nrepetition; as in \"Fifth Head.\"\n\nPaul's stalking of" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Masters might also be considered a parallel to St. Paul's persecution of\nChristians, whom he considered traitors to Judaism, at least until he\nhimself converted. " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tMaybe, but then he should be \"Saul,\" not \"Paul.\" I'm not trying to be\ncontentious, but this just does not quite seem to \"fit.\" He's PAUL. He's\nfighting \"principalities and powers in high places.\"" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "But just as Paul is about to attack his two victims--a fat man and a woman\nwearing a dress \"of flowering vines the color of love\" (the flowering vines\nmay represent orchids, research on which allowed de Vries to formulate his\ntheories on mutation; they also represent sexuality, as does the serpent of\ngold supporting the woman's breasts)--two other figures join the scene, a\ngrey-haired man named Emmit Pendleton and his young daughter Janey. " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tThe golden serpent attacks Janey, recalling the serpent's attack on Eve in\nthe garden. The \"masters\" (recall Maitre, in *5th Head*) are antichrists,\ndominating a future world that has gone to evil under the mask of progress\nand scientific achievement. The serpent does not succeed, which might\nrelate to the serpent that bit Paul in Acts 28, which bite had no effect. (?)\n\nThe" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "trio of humans kill the two Masters, but a quarrel breaks out after the\nslayings as to how they will divvy up the goods. Paul is also immediately\nattracted to Janey (he senses her \"femaleness, the woman-rut\"), symbolizing\nhis growth from childhood to adolescence. But Paul and the Pendletons soon\npart, each with a dead Master, although already Paul is contemplating life\nwith Janey. (Note however how Paul mentions the dead male Master's meat\nwill be tainted by his testicles i.e., sexuality spoils corporeal worth)." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tNot only testicles, but also feces spoils the meat. I'm not sure this has\nany meaning other than to add to the realism of the narrative." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Then in one of the story's more surprising moments the dead woman Paul is\ncarrying speaks to him. This symbolizes a false resurrection (cf. the de\nVries diorama scene), and eventually the woman will be totally dead," }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tWell, the woman SAYS that she is already dead. Since she does not see this\nas any kind of resurrection, I'm not sure we can. Again, this seems to me\nto be merely part of the \"SF realism\" aspect of the story, without any\nsymbolic overtones. Given that Paul kills these masters immediately, the\nonly way we can see him have a conversation with one, and thereby learn a\nbit more about the scenario, is for them to live on for a while. I don't\nthink, today at least, that Wolfe had any further intention.\n\n but" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "the scene also conveys several important plotpoints. Asks the woman of\nPaul: \"How come you didn't change? When the rest changed their genes?\"\nPaul's reply: \"We didn't want to. We are the human beings.\" Thus some\nchoice has been involved with his remaining human (unlike the Pendletons\nwho have had changing withheld from them). The woman also tells Paul she\nand the other dead Master were not married. It's important as well to\nnotice how her eyes' growing opaqueness signifies the imminence of true\ndeath." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tYes, that they weren't married hints that these masters are not morally\nsuperior, and would militate against this being an allegory. (Of course,\nmaybe they were just friends.) " }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Libidinously aroused by Janey, however, Paul delays eating the dead Master\nand instead goes looking for the Pendleton's lair, which he finds in an old\nbus. Notice how Paul's house has a turret, with its association of\nchurchliness (it's also respected by the Masters, who fear destroying it\n\"will bring back the old times\"), while Janey's father calls their home \"a\ndump.\" The bus also stinks of blood (an image of death). " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tPaul's house IS a church. A garden between the two wings hints at it, as\ndo the 8 windows in the turret. Paul thinks people should be superstitious\nabout this particular kind of building, though the woman says that the\nmasters had torn down plenty of them. Again, the masters seem to be\nantichrists.\n\tThis is as good a place as any to point out that the Bible, and Jesus of\ncourse, require that Christians be servants, not masters. \"If any among you\nwould be great, let him be servant of all\" (Mark 10).\n\tThe bus with darkened windows reminds me of the catacombs. If I am right,\nwe have Roman Masters persecuting Christians in this story." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Emmit Pendleton subsequently begins to fill Paul in on his family's\nbackground and one of the things we learn right away is that the Pendletons\nhave been rejected as candidates for gene therapy/mutation because they\ncarry potentially deleterious genes (do bad genes equal original sin?);\nthus their humanity has nothing to do with choice, it's theirs by\ncircumstance; i.e., to bring in the Christian parallel, they are not\nbelievers by choice, but falsely so, by omission. " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tWell again, these are the kinds of people Christians are supposed to be\nespecially solicitious of. The masters clearly are not. So I don't think\ntheir failure to be accepted into the masters connects to their not being\nmade Christians. Rather, they don't fit the \"brave new world.\"\n\n\nNow consider the name" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Emmit. Emmet (its closest cognate) derives from the Hebrew word for truth.\nNotice again the missing signal *e.* Emmit, I submit, means 'false truth.'\nAs for Pendleton, pendle = pendant (OED), and a pendant weighing a ton\nrecalls the millstone of Bibilical provenance (\"Whoso shall offend one of\nthe little ones which believe in me [remember Paul means small], it were\nbetter for him that a millstone were hanged around his neck and that he\nwere drowned in the depth of the sea\"). " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tHere I think the opposite is meant. Emmit seems a good man, though like\nevery good man he is aware of his badness. He wanted to marry his daughter\nto Curtain (Kirchen), which you rightly say is doubtless \"church.\"\nMoreover, he moved to the city to get her a husband; he's not clinging to\nher. He seems to have good intentions throughout. Pendant might just as\neasily allude to the cross Christians often wear around their necks." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Emmit also mentions a previous suitor of Janey's--\"Nice fellow, a German.\nName was Curtain--something like that.\" I submit the word Emmit means is\n'kirchen,' German for churches. The suitor in question, despite having been\npromised Janey's hand, has never returned, symbolizing God's withdrawal. " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tI don't think so. All the story says is that the masters probably got him.\nAnd we know that they've been destroying churches, so it fits the theme." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Then there are the chickens the Pendleton's used to raise for their\nlivelihood; all of them have died of sickness, and if we accept the egg as\na potent sign of rebirth, this symbolizes their failed rebirth as humans." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tMy tendency is to go with the story's own explanation: the masters did not\ncare to provide for the remaining humans, and so the chickens also died.\nNot only people but nature suffered.\n\tPerhaps there is an allegorical element, derived from Matthew 23:37 -\nJesus wanted to gather the people as a hen gathers chicks, but they\nrefused, and so they died. The Masters kill the chicks. The Masters are the\nRomans, who kill the Jews (chicks) and persecute the Christians (Paul,\nEmmit, etc.)." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Then there are a number of images that play off of blindness. Perhaps it's\nbest at this point to remind everyone that St. Paul was struck blind, but\nrecovered and converted to Christianity. Remember the pearl-colored eyes of\nthe Masters, as well as the growing ocular opaqueness of the dead woman\nPaul has killed? Emmit's sister Clara (despite her name) is born blind in\none eye, and later Janey will have to be veiled because there is \"a\nblankness of eye\" to her that betrays her as non-Master. All of these\nsymbolize the Pendletons' inability to see (i.e., believe in and accept\nGod). " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tMaybe, but I'm coming to think that the humans are the good guys, and the\nmasters the bad guys. Recall that in the Bible Leah had bad eyes, but she\nwas a good wife to Jacob. Also, the girl in \"Westwind\" is blind and has a\ndiscolored eye, but she's a Christian. I can see that the imagery is eye\nand sight is in the story, but I'm not sure you've got it put together aright.\n\n\nLastly, notice how machines tear up the Pendletons' farm the night" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "before Xmas and how a brother named Tom has his leg impaled by a\ntwo-by-four (read Crucifixion), whereupon \"rot\" sets in (cf. the de Vries\ndiorama), and he dies. " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tWell, if it's crucifixion, then Brother Tom is \"Jesus\" and Emmit is\ndefinitely \"Truth.\" It seems to me.\n\nsnip" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "No consummation between the new Mr. and Mrs. Gorou takes place, although in\nthe very next scene Janey is wearing a grotesque parody of a wedding dress,\ncomplete with red veil. Here she is less Little Red Riding Hood and more\nthe Scarlet Whore of Babylon ('lupa' in Latin means both she-wolf and\nprostitute)," }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tI think not. Mary Magdelene is portrayed in a red robe, and Janey is\ndefinitely Mary Magdelene in the last scene. Of course, the red robe is\nalso that of the Whore of Babylon, which I suppose is why MM has the red\nrobe in iconography. But I don't think the Whore of Babylon is in view\nhere, but simply MM.\n\n\n and she and Paul manage to trap a potential victim in a" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "downshaft. It's important to note here Janey's physical (as opposed to\nspiritual) hunger as she takes the lead in chasing after the boy; Janey\nalso has no dialogue in the entire story, although she does moan and sob,\nand she delights in cutting up her victims while they're still alive,\nrecalling animals who play with their prey like cats. All these images play\nto her unredeemed bestial nature." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tYep. She's Mary Magdelene." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "But then something miraculous of a sort happens." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tBefore we get there, we have to notice that Paul and Mary ASCEND on air.\nThere has to be some reason why Wolfe wrote such an event into the story,\nand describes it in detail. Have they ascended to a counterfeit heaven,\nwhere they will be discovered and judged? \n\tIt seems, though, that they escape, and therefore descend again. But along\nthe way:\n\n Paul is trapped in a" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "closing door by his foot, like an animal in a trap, and Janey must gnaw his\nfoot to the bone so he can escape. Her concern, in other words, has turned\nto the altruistic, to something other than satisfying her baser needs, and\nthis is symbolized by the act she ritualistically performs on her husband,\nnot of eating meat, but freeing him from the fleshly bonds that constrain\nhim. I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the Eucharistic significance of\nthis." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tI'm not sure of the Eucharistic overtones, but Paul does receive the\nbiblical foot-wound (Genesis 3), making him a Messiah. Meanwhile, a voice\nis saying that a certain girl is going to grow up to be a physician, and\nJesus is the Great Physician. The hint is that Paul will change from being\na killer to being a healer, with Janey at his (churchly) side.\n\tMaybe. :-)" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "The last image we have of Janey then recalls Mary Magdalen (another\nreformed 'lupa') washing the feet of our Lord: \"Over the pain he could feel\nthe hot tears washing the blood from his foot.\"" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tYes. I think she has been MM all along.\n\n\tWell, I'm sure this is not the last word! Thanks to Robert for getting\nthis started. \n\tNext?\n\nJim Jordan" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Jim Jordan", "address": "jbjordan at gnt.net" }, "date": "1998-07-07T01:21:22+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) St. Paul & the Werwolf", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At 11:25 PM 6/29/98 -0500, you wrote:\nOver the years I've recommended quite a few of Gene Wolfe's short stories\nto my stauncher Catholic acquaintances, citing New Testament readings as\ncollateral gloss. \"The Detective of Dreams,\" for example, draws much from\nthe Gospels of Mathew and Mark, while \"Silhouette\" obtains from the Gospel\nof John and the Pseudepigrapha. " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Have you shared your interpretation of Silhouette? If not, please do so (so\nwe can rip into it, of course!)\n\nJim Jordan" } ] } ] }