1-2-3 for me

Jonathan Laidlow · 18 Jan 2000, 09:47 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: "Jonathan Laidlow" <LAIDLOJM at hhs.bham.ac.uk>
Subject: (urth) 1-2-3 for me
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 09:47:06 GMT
Message-ID: <urth-v0028-0701 at digest.urth.net>
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William H. Ansley wrote

> I think the most salient feature of this story is that it is a ghost stor=
y.
> Not just that, it is a ghost story being told around a camp fire. It is
> also a future ghost story that uses ruins from a mysterious past which
> seems a lot like our present. In these ruins a "cursed object" is found: a
> cell phone. This phone has to be, if not cursed, at least supernatural in
> some way; otherwise it is hard to explain how a portable phone could still
> be in working order after being buried in the ground for 800 years or mor=
e.
> Even its battery still has a charge!

> Jonathan Laidlow seems convinced that the sounds of "something, an animal
> or something, moving around in the dark" that occur when Dik started
> tapping two sticks together "trying to get the noise right" were the soun=
ds
> of the being that brought the powder to Jo An rising up. I am equally
> convinced it was just an ordinary animal, or the wind, and the timing was=
 a
> coincidence. After all, there are no mysterious movements in the underbru=
sh
> when several people are banging sticks earlier, before they all had heard
> the story. Wolfe is just emphasizing that Dik and the others were genuine=
ly
> scared by Jak's story. It's also slightly humorous, since Dik obviously
> scared himself.

I think you're correct to point this out - I failed to suggest in my=20
original post that there is an ambivalence about this final scene: it=20
*could* be the mysterious figure summoned by the noise, or it could=20
just be an animal which ties in with the warning at the end of the=20
tale. Either way the campfire participants have been reminded (and=20
scared) of some folk evil (the boogeyman) which they must guard=20
against.

Jonathan
********************************************************

Jonathan Laidlow
Modern Languages Office, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B=
15 2TT, England
0121 414 5996


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