Suzanne Delage redux

David Duffy · 08 Dec 2010, 06:20 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: davidD at qimr.edu.au (David Duffy)
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 16:20:23 +1000 (EST)
Subject: (urth) Suzanne Delage redux
In-Reply-To: <96E71857907947A1B754CC2324B21BDE@jill>
References: <cbf55b100904232015s6733272fi68bcd844a1587506 at mail.gmail.com><AANLkTimp=1wGqU64+QMifC9wAQfm9y9O62ib7j_-rPdS at mail.gmail.com>
	<96E71857907947A1B754CC2324B21BDE@jill>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.1012081614280.23223 at orpheus.qimr.edu.au>


>
> From: "Gwern Branwen" <gwern0 at gmail.com>
>> On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 11:15 PM, Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> So, someone complained it was quiet around here...
>>> 
>>> To rectify that, I'd like to offer up a little experiment of mine.
>>> This is sort of an attempt at what I think a wiki article on Wolfe
>>> stories could look like: the story or a detailed summary, followed by
>>
>> I recently gave it another polish and put it on my website:
>> http://www.gwern.net/Suzanne%20Delage.html
>>

You needed to polish this bit a little more ;)

"but that lie has, nearly always, been so conditioned to consider himself 
the roost mundane of creatures"

On Wed, 8 Dec 2010, Gerry Quinn wrote:

> I believe I have an explanation of the story, which falls close to the 
> category of 'Missed Chances' in your list,.but the link there from Alice 
>
> Suzanne Delage is a kind of horror story, but the supernatural element is 
> something we do not think of as supernatural, because it is the stuff of 
> every romance novel - only Wolfe has inverted the story.  The element is as 
> follows: there is one person who is made for us, and when we meet them we 
> will fall in love, perhaps have to overcome some vicissitudes, but eventually 
> live happily ever after.
[...]
> By some perverse conspiracy of chance or fate he did not, and his life has 
> been wasted.

I like this, except for the fact that the passage he is meditating on says 
that the extraordinary experience is what is forgotten, which implies he 
did see SD when he and she was young.

Cheers, David Duffy.

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