strange dream in A Borrowed Man

Marc Aramini · 29 Mar 2018, 13:37 · from 2018-March.txt.gz

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From: marcaramini at gmail.com (Marc Aramini)
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2018 06:37:37 -0700
Subject: (urth)  strange dream in A Borrowed Man
Message-ID: <CAF1072xW6zMeBnpR6Nd0ywgizYbOay+5wgA4kU+EaNO6huAzBw at mail.gmail.com>

I also believe that Wolfe's works are self-contained and separate for the
most part, but as I was trying to work through the significance of a dream
in "A Borrowed Man" I think perhaps just one time Wolfe might have broken
his usual modus operandi.

(This dream still might apply to events in A Borrowed Man, but I think it
does something more) -

"Only to dream about wrestling a monster with a man's head at one end and
an ape's at the other end, and one hell of a lot of arms. This desperate
struggle was in a grave thinly disguised as a wormhole through Mars. A
wormhole that was already starting to flood. I guess they have a lot of
water on Mars, when you are dreaming." (50)

I am still going to try to apply this dream to the text, but it strikes me
as far more metacommentary than usual, given my thesis for the book of the
short sun, in which I argue that Blue is in fact a flooded Mars. Apes,
wormholes, and multi-limbed beings all feature in the solar cycle. Perhaps
just once Wofle felt his puzzle was a little bit too hard. However, we will
see if I can do something with this in the context of A Borrowed Man.
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