Urth Net
mountain and laundress
Gwern Branwen · 04 Jan 2010, 05:50
· from 2010-January.txt.gz
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From: gwern0 at gmail.com (Gwern Branwen) Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2010 00:50:28 -0500 Subject: (urth) mountain and laundress In-Reply-To: <1bf4dd40810201039s45e1e172x233d471e31813f8f at mail.gmail.com> References: <1bf4dd40810201039s45e1e172x233d471e31813f8f at mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <cbf55b101001032150r17a25b67gfdc8de8208d4b4d8 at mail.gmail.com> On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 12:39 PM, Dave Tallman <davetallman at msn.com> wrote: > Marc Aramini wrote: >> >> I normally don't think looking at other texts is extremely >> enlightening for Wolfe's works but I feel differently for Evil Guest. I >> happened to be looking on my computer and came across "someone comes to >> town someone leaves town" and started reading it. It had a blurb from >> wolfe and in the opening it says: >> >> "Alan's father was a mountain and his mother was a washing >> machine... his brothers were a dead man, a trio of nesting dolls, a fortune >> teller, and an island." > > I think you've nailed it with this reference. I took a quick look at the > online html version of this book: > http://craphound.com/someone/Cory_Doctorow_-_Someone_Comes_to_Town_Someone_Leaves_Town.htm > and it's a perfect fit. > > 1) The mountain quakes when it's angry. > 2) There are gnomes and golems in its caves. > 3) The setting is near Toronto, Canada. (The protagonist goes to Willowdale, > a suburb of Toronto, at one point). > 4) The nearest large mountain to Toronto is Blue Mountain. There is a trek > to the summit which takes about 2.5 hours on foot. > 5) The mother of Alan and his siblings is a literal washing machine. His > father is a mountain. > > With this mystery settled, there is no longer any real connection to > Margaret as a laundress. Seconded. Reading through, the very first time, even before the rumbling was mentioned, I thought, 'Didn't I read a story with that already?' I didn't even need to look up Doctorow's book to check. -- gwern
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