Cues and Lolita?

Jonathan Goodwin · 11 Sep 2009, 23:29 · from 2009-September.txt.gz

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From: joncgoodwin at gmail.com (Jonathan Goodwin)
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:29:33 -0500
Subject: (urth) Cues and Lolita?
In-Reply-To: <39ed084f0909111557s61491cc4rf77abe684eed1e83 at mail.gmail.com>
References: <39ed084f0909111557s61491cc4rf77abe684eed1e83 at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <37bfbeb60909111629m4d120015v836eda23d23960f9 at mail.gmail.com>

I'm actually teaching Island of Dr. Death, etc., in an introduction to
short fiction class in a few weeks.

The title of the story is actually "'Cues" (i.e., "Cues [unless it's a
misprint]). It's an opaque story, and I'm thinking about what I'll
have to say about it in class. I recall some discussion on this list
about scatological imagery. Wolfe's stories also allow for a ready
introduction to questions of interpretation and intention, as the
recent discussions about An Evil Guest show.

On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 5:57 PM, Matthew Groves
<matthewalangroves at gmail.com> wrote:
> Glad to see some activity on the urth list.? In the interest of possibly
> stirring up a little more:
>
> I Lolita for the first time a few months ago -- Amazing!!!? (But difficult;
> I recommend an annotated copy or an accompanying class notes booklet.)
> There's lots of wordplay throughout, and one that I seem to remember
> reccurring frequently is play with "Q" (as in "Quilty"), "cue," and maybe
> "clue."? Has anyone made any connection between Lolita and Wolfe's short
> "Cues" from TIoDDaOSaOS?? I haven't even reread "Cues" in a year or so, but
> I thought I'd throw this idea out there anyway.
>
> If any of you doesn't have any of Wolfe's collections, then that one (The
> Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories) is the one to
> begin with, both because it's first and because it's best.
>
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