Memorare again

Matthew Keeley · 12 Jun 2008, 01:39 · from 2008-June.txt.gz

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From: matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com (Matthew Keeley)
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:39:38 -0400
Subject: (urth) Memorare again
Message-ID: <44fb53d10806111839u2a3ca183h42924a3b5efa6ad9 at mail.gmail.com>

I know there are some very good discussions of eclipses, shadows, and solar
sails going on now, but I thought I'd take a moment to bring up a
slightly-more-obscure story.

 I finally got around to reading Memorare tonight, and really liked it. I
looked up the past discussions of it, but there are several questions I
still have.

(By the way - though the story was originally published only in the print
version of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, it's been more than a year
since release and the story now appears on the F&SF website:
http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/fiction/gw01.htm )

By the way, did that hardcover edition of Memorare ever appear? I've heard
it was delayed until June 2008 at least, but I haven't heard much more. Is
it still on track to come out this month? If it's out, is it a quality
product?

Spoilers follow
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Questions:
1. What exactly IS March's religious background? He's clearly a lapsed
Catholic of some sort, but he knows a lot more Catholic lore than most of
today's Catholics. He more or less knows the Memorare, and he's even read it
in Latin. There's also a short passage where he contemplates the
relationship between Jesus and his mother. Plus, March, though perfectly
capable of living in sin with Kit, seems very interested in actually
marrying her. Given that March is 43 or so, presumably born a few years from
now, are we to take it that Wolfe posits a future move back towards
conservatism in Catholicism? I can't think of other plausible reasons for
March to know so much about his religion.

2. In a similar vein, March seems to be a pretty competent historian - he's
heard of the Thugees and how they operate, and I think his knowledge is just
a *bit* more complicated than what you could glean from watching the second
Indiana Jones.

3. What exactly are "the Founder's" goals for Earth? Is he really sending
people back there? What exactly do these hypothetical people do? (Perhaps
there are clues to this in An Evil Guest, which I gather may be set in the
same universe)

4. If, as several other Urth readers have posited, the Founder is supposed
to represent Wolfe, what does that mean? I wonder if it's a comment on a
magazine "idolizing" Wolfe by devoting an entire issue of a magazine to him?

Thanks,

-Matt
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