Suzanne Delage redux

Jerry Friedman · 09 Dec 2010, 22:53 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: jerry_friedman at yahoo.com (Jerry Friedman)
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 14:53:14 -0800 (PST)
Subject: (urth) Suzanne Delage redux
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTinJO974jX+j-gH+34NxEF5Ry+iCdqn6u9EGG6Cf at mail.gmail.com>
References: <AANLkTinJO974jX+j-gH+34NxEF5Ry+iCdqn6u9EGG6Cf at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <761809.67640.qm at web114703.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>

From: Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com>
[missed-chances theory]

> I don't like this theory in general because while it works on its own
> terms, its terms call for ignoring all the strange parts - Kidd's
> introduction, the narrator's promise, the detailed incidents, the
> pictures, etc etc.

I think that if you imagine that unknown supernatural forces are causing all 
this it works, except for Kidd's introduction.

The quilting business is because otherwise the reader would say, "Come on, in a 
small town there would be connections between people even if they weren't in the 
same clique in high school."? So Wolfe provides a connection (with small-town 
atmosphere) and a reason it doesn't lead to a meeting between the narrator and 
Suzanne.

The pictures were another thing for the supernatural forces to interrupt, and of 
course, to answer the question "Doesn't the narrator have yearbook pictures?"? 
(I hadn't realized high school yearbooks with photos of clubs were that old, but 
they are.? Next: were there high school debate teams at the time of the Spanish 
flu pandemic?)

Jerry

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