What the elm?

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 06 Jun 2007, 17:21 · from 2007-June.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 10:21:05 -0700
Subject: (urth) What the elm?
Message-ID: <1f7617370706061021l58ab60d9mb061d38f49a33bef at mail.gmail.com>

H'mmm.

Sometimes in looking at the way we discuss Wolfe, I am
reminded of a pair of comments Alan Moore made during
the publication of the classic comic, WATCHMEN, which
he wrote.

Early on, he mentioned in an interview that "everything" in the
comic meant something.

During its twelve-month span of publication, there was an
incredible correspondence on Usenet, in which (it seemed)
every single detail of every panel of each issue was
dissected, compared to details in other panels, etc.

After several months of this, Moore said, in another interview,
that, while everything in the comic meant something, not
everything meant *much*.

This is *not* a put-down to the work Matthew King has done
on the elm. I believe it very likely that Wolfe had at least some
of this in mind when he chose an elm tree for Weer's grave
decoration. The question in my mind, though, is this: how
much does knowing this affect my reading of the book? Does
knowing the significance of the elm help me to peace, uh,
piece together the crabbed and mysterious timeline of
Weer's life; to understand why he is (seemingly) trapped in
this particular afterworld; or any of the mysteries associated
with the individual accounts?

If not, then this is a case of "means something, but not
much."

But, it still means *something* ...

(wanders off, scratching head and pondering the significance
of short-person behavior in penal-depressive and other
highly ambient domains)

-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, writer, trainer, bon vivant
-----
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer
http://www.danehyoakes.com
Soon, where Toon Town once stood will be a string of gas stations,
inexpensive motels, restaurants that serve rapidly prepared food. Tire
salons, automobile dealerships and wonderful, wonderful billboards
reaching as far as the eye can see. My God, it'll be beautiful.

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