Suzanne Delage

Redhaven1 · 20 Aug 2000, 20:44 · from urth-v0029.mbox · original

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From: Redhaven1 at aol.com
Subject: (urth) Suzanne Delage
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 16:44:29 EDT
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    I haven't posted on this mailing list in a long time, but now I have a=20
question and don't know who else to ask.  I'm trying to stay away from WHOR=
L=20
for a while, at least until I read In Green's Jungles.  Anyway, I've been=20
reading Endangered Species, a collection of Wolfe's short stories and I ran=20
across this:

"The idea which has so forcibly struck me was simply this: that every man h=
as=20
had in the course of his life some extraordinary experience, some dislocati=
on=20
of all we expect from nature and probability, of such magnitude that he mig=
ht=20
in his own person serve as a living proof of Hamlet's hackneyed precept-- b=
ut=20
that he has, nearly always, been so conditioned to consider himself the mos=
t=20
mundane of creatures, that, finding no relationship to the remainder of his=20
life in this extraordinary experience, he has forgotten it."

This quote is from the beginning of a story entitled "Suzanne Delage",=20
published in 1980 in Edges.  The story then goes on to describe the=20
narrator's uneventful life and his relationship with a seemingly unnotewort=
hy=20
woman named Suzanne Delage.  I have two questions.  The first relates to th=
e=20
quote itself and probably sounds very niave.  I'm unfamiliar with much=20
Shakespear and simply wonder what "Hamlet's hackneyed precept" is and how i=
t=20
relates.  My second question is regarding the story itself: does anyone=20
understand it?!  And if so, could you please illuminate me?  The beginning =
of=20
the story hints that something fantastic and half-remembered took place in=20
the narrator's life, and as the story progresses you keep waiting for it to=20
be revealed.  The narrator however, seems to not remember, or at least only=20
remember pieces.  I'm sure there's something in the story but I'm just too=20
dense to realize it.  All in all, the story is a riddle, as most of Wolfe's=20
stories seem to be, but I'm not getting this one.  (Which is not unusual; I=20
most often am too dense to understand the whole of most of his stories, but=20
just deep enough to enjoy them nonetheless.  Not fully understanding is wha=
t=20
I believe makes them so appealing to me.)  Anyway, I'd appreciate help in=20
understanding this one.

Thanks,
Steve

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

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