Subject: (urth) Suzanne's secret

From: Alice Turner <al at interport.net>
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 1997 09:13:51 +0000

[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

OK, mantis, I'll bite. What is Suzanne's secret origin? (I'm guessing it's
a link to another story.)

OTOH, how many people have discovered the secret origin of "Suzanne
Delage," a quiet little story in ENDANGERED SPECIES?  I mean: I
figured something out (largely by accident, as per usual) and asked a
lot of people if they'd spotted anything intratextual (it really is a
needle in a haystack) and then (when none of them had seen it) told
them what I'd found.

-alga-

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From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 1997 20:14:00 +0000

Reply:  Item #8155535 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET#

alga,

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

     She spoke to me of myself, my family, my social background.  She
said: "Oh, I know your parents know some very nice people.  You're a
friend of Robert Forestier and Suzanne Delage."  For a moment these
names conveyed absolutely nothing to me.  But suddenly I remembered
that I had indeed played as a child in the Champs-Elysees with Robert
Forestier, whom I had never seen since.  As for Suzanne Delage, she
was the great-niece of Mme Blandais, and I had once been due to go to
a dancing lesson, and even to take a small part in a play at her
parents' house.  But the fear of getting a fit of giggles and a
nose-bleed had at the last moment prevented me, so that I had never
set eyes on her. I had at the most a vague idea that I had once heard
that the Swanns' feather-hatted governess had at one time been with
the Delages, but perhaps it was only a sister of this governess, or a
friend.  I protested to Albertine that Robert Forestier and Suzanne
Delage occupied a very small place in my life.  "That may be; but
your mothers are friends, I can place you by that.  I often pass
Suzanne Delage in the Avenue de Messine.  I admire her style."  Our
mothers were acquainted only in the imagination of Mme Bontemps,
who having heard that I had at one time played with Robert Forestier,
to whom, it appeared, I used to recite poetry, had concluded from
that that we were bound by family ties.  She could never, I gathered,
hear my mother's name mentioned without observing: "Oh yes, she
belongs to the Delage-Forestier set," giving my parents a good mark
which they had done nothing to deserve.

[Oh, now who could =that= be? <g>]

[Proust, THE GUERMANTES WAY, Chapter Two, p. 381-382]

=mantis=

P.S.  There is, of course, more to this story.  For example, what was
the book the narrator was reading that set him off on his mental
journeying?  It =might= be Proust, it certainly =reads= like Proust,
but if it is Proust it didn't jump out at me, even after I'd found our
girl SD in Proust (and that =is= her only Proustian appearance).
Otherwise the story seems like another PEACE satellite tale (I don't
believe the town is ever named, but the tenor is the same).

=m=

P.S.S.  What if I'm making all this up? <g>

=m=

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From: Jim Jordan <jbjordan at gnt.net>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 08:23:06 +0000

Yeh, lotsa Proust in Wolfe.

I guess my question is: Is there a fantasy element in "Suzanne Delage," and
if so, where is it? The story feels like *Peace,* so it is probably a ghost
story, but how so? Anybody know?

Anybody up for discussing "The Changeling"? I've read it about ten times
over the years, and it still puzzles me. I'll give it one more try and then
post my questions, if anyone wants to join in.

Nutria

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From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 14:00:00 +0000

Reply:  Item #0156759 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INTERNET#

Nutria,

The PEACE/Proust aspect of "Suzanne Delage" is probably the fact that
the narrator is sitting/lying in the old house he's lived in all his
life, casting his mind about in nostalgia and detective work.

The "fantasy" element that occurs to me is the Wolfe favorite of
reincarnation--Suzanne's daughter looks exactly like Suzanne did at
that age.  This isn't fantasy in the hands of most authors, or in
our everyday minds when we use such analogies, yet Apu Punchau =
funeral bronze = ("second") Severian . . .

Which does tie in nicely with the Peter Pan/communist, identity
hijacker/history erasures complex of "The Changeling."  Which, in its
own turn, links to "A Cabin on the Coast" with fairy deals . . .

=mantis=