one-two-three for me

Jonathan Laidlow · 12 Jan 2000, 15:53 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: "Jonathan Laidlow" <LAIDLOJM at hhs.bham.ac.uk>
Subject: (urth) one-two-three for me
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 15:53:27 GMT
Message-ID: <urth-v0028-0683 at digest.urth.net>
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Oh joyous day! Today is the day bookshop.co.uk supplied me with a copy of=20
'Strange Travelers'. What fun! And to think, there'll soon be another Wolfe=20
tome out. Three books in the space of twelve months. Fantastic

Anyway: to the discussion on 'one-two-three for me' which I read just now.=20

SPOILERS=0F


Nick's exegesis of this difficult tale is excellent, but.

BZZZZZ Challenge:

I like very much what Nick has written, but I would ask for more evidence f=
rom=20
the text to support it. I haven't read the companion tale, and while I take=
 the=20
point that so much of Wolfe's work has inter-relations, the short story has=
 to=20
work on its own, especially on original publication (although its nice to s=
ee the=20
two traffic jam/folk singing stories bookending this collection)
Nick wrote:
>All right, taking up the matter of "One-Two-Three ForMe": I haven't assign=
ed it a=20
specifically religiousmeaning. For me, the story corresponds closely to "An=
dWhen They=20
>Appear", perhaps occurring much later in thesame general future. The civil=
ization whose=20
>remainsthe protagonist of "One" investigates has, like thatin "And When", =
committed=20
>suicide, apparently from anennui born of the loss of meaning of all cultur=
al symbols=20
>(including, very prominently, God).
I presume Earth is the major cultural symbol in this tale, although its sig=
nificances to the=20
culture of the protagonists are eroded and indistinct - everything is filte=
red through the=20
'bots'. Jak sees the stars differently when he abandons the 'bot', for exam=
ple.
> In "One",Jak's girlfriend summons up the figure >(pusher andpsychopomp) t=
hat=20
> brought the killing drug to membersof the now-dead >civilization, in effe=
ct placing=20
>theorder by phone. Death is preceded by ecstacy; thepeople >of the past co=
uldn't even=20
>face Death square in the face.
Okay - well yes, but where is the evidence that the drug killed this civili=
sation. The city=20
ruin is a relatively recent civilisation - what about all the others?
>Jak's own culture is an experiment >in averting thissyndrome: its members =
live rough=20
>outdoor lives, andare supervised in >certain crucial respects by AIs or"bo=
ts".
Is it all of Jak's culture, or just their excursions to Earth. I wasn't cle=
ar whether the=20
framing tale of Jak and the kids with the sticks also took place on Earth. =
The arrival of=20
the figure 'called' on the phone suggests it was, but Jak says 'on Spring w=
alk we went=20
back to the old one, back to Earth'. Rather than some specific death by eut=
hanasia=20
device I think the rediscovery of the phone symbolises a re-entry into dial=
 a convenience=20
culture/dial an escape culture, which ultimately brings some kind of spirit=
ual death.
> Thus their curious mingling of the >primitive(playing with sticks by the =
campfire) and=20
>the advanced(interstellar travel). My >suspicion, given the gloomytenor of=
 STRANGE=20
>TRAVELERS as a whole, is that this >formula, which seems Godless, is also =
doomed=20
>tofailure.Key questions: What is the >significance of the numerical sequen=
ce1-2-3?=20
>(Possible answer: it's the simplest >possiblephone number, underscoring th=
e past=20
>culture'spreoccupation with easy.
In the UK 1-2-3 is the number for the speaking clock..... What does it spel=
l on a US=20
handset with letters? [and I like Nutria's reminder of the difference betwe=
en six and=20
seven as mystic numbers]
I'm not sure it does symbolise the failure of this culture. It feels more l=
ike a folk tale=20
warning to the young to avoid the dangers of the past. They aren't visited =
by the 'pusher',=20
they merely hear sounds of its awakening, and they quickly destroy the tool=
s (the sticks=20
of firewood). Is it too late? The bots claim they've found many phones and =
so Jak's=20
phone is  unimportant. Yet they conspicuously place it in his belongings, e=
ven though it=20
was found and kept by Jo Ann. Are the bots up to something? Are they spread=
ing the=20
seeds of cultural downfall.
Which leads to a further point: if the story really is critical of our easy=
 push-button culture=20
(as I read the description of the numberpad of the phone I thought first of=
 a TV remote=20
until I got to the asterisk description) what are we to make of its suggest=
ion that our=20
culture is corrupt, decadent, and liable to self-destruct.
 > death.)What is one to make of the appearance of the "pusher"(what we hea=
r of it)?"
The only descriptive symbol is of hair, isn't it? The yeti is drug pusher? =
:-)

One further thought: any other appearances of the telephone in Wolfe's fict=
ion? Must=20
investigate its use in Castleview.

And when oh when is 'Green's Jungles' due out?

Jonathan
Visit Ultan's Library - A Gene Wolfe web resource
http://members.tripod.co.uk/laidlow/index.htm
Jonathan Laidlow
University of Birmingham, UK

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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