The Nebraskan and the Nereid

Mo Holkar · 17 Apr 2011, 10:01 · from 2011-April.txt.gz

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From: lists at ukg.co.uk (Mo Holkar)
Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2011 11:01:49 +0100
Subject: (urth) The Nebraskan and the Nereid
In-Reply-To: <35AFC7E28F5E43209C81C07F92484FAE@jill>
References: <1302999008.1802.16.camel@august>
	<35AFC7E28F5E43209C81C07F92484FAE@jill>
Message-ID: <892310.57001.qm at smtp815.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>

At 09:16 17/04/2011, Gerry wrote:

>From: "Andrew Dubbeld" <andy at foisdin.com>
>
>
>[SPOILERS BELOW, for anyone who hasn't read it]
>
>
>>I was recently reading through Endangered Species, and came across The
>>Nebraskan and the Nereid. It all seems relatively straightforward, right
>>up until the end, when Dr. Thoe Papamarkos dives into the sea, leaving
>>her things behind, including a canteen which seems to contain salt
>>water, and suddenly there's a dead woman on the beach.
>>
>>"She smiled, then when he realized he could not convey the news of a
>>tragic death with any decency in his inadequate Greek. Thoe would have
>>to tell them. He would wait until someone came."
>>
>>I'm left with a couple of questions that perhaps someone on the list
>>might be able to help with:
>>- Who is the girl? Is she the woman Sam's seen in the water earlier?
>>- Where did she come from and why is she dead?
>
>
>My understanding is:
>
>The dead girl was the maid at the inn where he stayed, and to whom 
>he made love to in the cave.  After he went back to the inn, he 
>complained about the bed not been made.  Later the landlady must 
>have said this to the maid.  She realised that he had not recognised 
>her, and drowned herself.


My understanding is the same, except for this last bit about how/why 
the maid died. I think that the Nereid took her life, in exchange for 
facilitating the experience. (Or possibly that she just drowned in 
the treacherous waters, although that seems less likely.)

On reading it back now, I realize I can't actually see any evidence 
for my theory, but then I can't see any for yours either :-) so I 
guess it may come down to narrative preference.

I do have a further question, though, which is: why did the Nereid 
scratch the letter psi into the sand by the body? (Or is it intended 
to be read as a trident shape denoting allegiance to Poseidon? But 
that seems a bit clunky when earlier we've seen Poseidon explicitly 
symbolized by a letter pi.)

BTW the stories from Endangered Species are mostly quite sketchy on 
the wiki -- if anyone would like to fill in a few interpretations, 
that would be very welcome:
http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=WolfeWiki.EndangeredSpecies

best,

Mo




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