Suzanne Delage redux

Gwern Branwen · 09 Dec 2010, 22:28 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: gwern0 at gmail.com (Gwern Branwen)
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 17:28:25 -0500
Subject: (urth) Suzanne Delage redux
Message-ID: <AANLkTinxpCL_NOaNSx+9tCUa77CdzGZ-qU4k67bTrY1E at mail.gmail.com>

> From: Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com>

> I pretty much agree with this--it's "the dislocation of all we expect from
> nature and probability"--but I suspect supernatural intervention.? I see no
> connection to Snow White and greatly doubt the one to sea urchins.? In other
> words,?in the unlikely event that Wolfe meant them, he didn't put them in the
> story in a way that helps me enjoy it.
>
> An easily overlooked clue is that Pie Club.? What kind of pie?? Only one kind is
> mentioned, very close--chess pie, an old Southern dessert.? This reinforces the
> reference to chess, with its intimation of powerful beings moving people around
> like pieces on a board.? See the end of?Canto 3 of Nabokov's?/Pale Fire/ and,
> even more Wolfean, Borges's sonnets on chess.
>
> These clues are also connected to debate--Wolfe anticipated that people would
> debate interpretations.? And he provides an response to that.? What is chess pie
> like?? Pecan pie without the pecans.? Thus Wolfe tells us unmistakeably?that the
> chess interpretation is the only one that isn't nuts.
>
> Jerry Friedman

Where is the Pie Club described as baking 'chess pie'? 'chess' is used
exactly once in the story, and nothing to do with pies ("the chess and
debating society types").

-- 
gwern
http://www.gwern.net

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