What the elm?

Matthew King · 06 Jun 2007, 18:19 · from 2007-June.txt.gz

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From: automatthew at gmail.com (Matthew King)
Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 13:19:22 -0500
Subject: (urth) What the elm?
In-Reply-To: <1f7617370706061021l58ab60d9mb061d38f49a33bef at mail.gmail.com>
References: <1f7617370706061021l58ab60d9mb061d38f49a33bef at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4BB1A159-5DE4-4650-BE1E-53234D90ABF6 at gmail.com>

On Jun 6, 2007, at 12:21 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:

> 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?

Knowing (or guessing) the connection to the Aeneid doesn't help in  
the interpretation of Peace unless Wolfe borrowed much more than just  
an elm.  Peace is packed so full of fragmentary and subverted stories  
that another classical allusion is hardly illuminating.

If we were to unearth Vergilian (or Dantean) monsters in the  
menagerie of Weer's musings, or if we find some other Aenean  
analogue, then perhaps the connection would be more than merely  
interesting.

Matthew

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