Jonas <> Pinocchio

Alice K. Turner · 26 Sep 2002, 02:36 · from urth-v0209.mbox · original

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From: "Alice K. Turner" <aturner6 at nyc.rr.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Jonas <> Pinocchio
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 22:36:07 -0400
Message-ID: <urth-v0209-1785 at digest.urth.net>
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Maybe a little background on the Tin Woodman, for those who are familiar
mainly with the movie or the first book only. We know that Wolfe knows the
Baum books well, through "Eyeflash" and references elsewhere. Baum wrote 13
books in this series (and it was continued by other writers, but that is
irrelevant). Among them was -The Tin Woodman of Oz-., which recounts the
story of the TW (Nick Chopper) and his brother, the Tin Soldier (Captain
Fyter), and which I think influenced Wolfe without the least doubt, when he
conceived of Jonas. ((I think he intended the reference to be humorously
picked up by those in the know.)

Both brothers were in love with a girl named Nimmie Amee who had rather a
thing for metal.As various body parts were chopped off or blown away and
replaced with tin by Ku-Klip the Tinsmith she was more and more attracted.
Both men liked their new bodies too, as they gradually became more and more
artificial: "brilliant and durable" (TW 207) and "a great improvement on
their meat bodies" (223). Ku-Klip made a Frankensteinian monster-man
(Chopfyt) of the brothers' cast-off parts, but he was not a
success--awkward, whiny and always hungry. At any rate, the brothers, who
had each been incapicitated by rust long enough to lose track of Nimmie
Amee, go off to find her to ask her to choose between them and find that she
is married--to whom? To Chopfyt, of course--Ku-Klip had given him one tin
arm, which excited her fetish. And she thinks she'll keep him, since she has
spent a good deal of time training him to be a good husband. This is rather
an amusing scene.

The point, re Jonas, is that both brothers are extremely grateful to be made
entirely of metal (each had gone through a period where they were part tin,
part meat), and look down on Chopfyt, made of their old parts.

Also, just for fun, you should look up Terry Bisson's short-short "They're
Made Out of Meat" on the web--it's been illegally copied everywhere (almost
literally) and there is an amusing illustrated version at Seeing Eye
Theater.

-alga

--=20

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