FLF: the four and who/what they are

Roy C. Lackey · 11 Dec 2002, 06:46 · from urth-v0212.mbox · original

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From: "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey at stic.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) FLF: the four and who/what they are
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 00:46:50 -0600
Message-ID: <urth-v0212-2391 at digest.urth.net>
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mantis wrote:
>Catharine Margaret Garth, aka Candy, is the massive (250+ pound) pale
>prostitute who wears white (a virginal color) which is sometimes (e.g., as
>she is singing at the bar in the Consort hotel) mistaken for blue (blue and
>white being the colors of Mary, mother of Jesus, iirc).  To escape from
>Belmont, the mental hospital, she has to put on the uniform of a black
>nurse (note the contrast); after which, since people assume she is a nurse,
>she begins to act like one, and becomes a healer.

I can't address the OZ stuff, so just a few notations. Pink is often
mentioned in connection with Candy, especially her hands. She was wearing a
garish pink robe in the morning before she took Free to breakfast. She
changed into a pink sweater and black skirt. Her open-toed sandals were also
pink. FWIW.

>I wonder if Candy is "normal girl of Earth" Dorothy to the Witch's Ozma
>"sorcerer-princess of Oz"?  I make the tentative link between Stubb and Tin
>Woodman mainly because I think Stubb's "hard boiled" persona shows his
>inability to feel (the Tin man's problem) as well as the slighter details:
>Stubb vaguely suggests to me something cut (like the stump of a felled
>tree); Stubb is the one who retrieves the axe after the accident in front
>of Free's house.

I took his name to be related to his height. As in stubby. The "hard boiled"
persona is straight out of old books/movies. IIRC, at one point Stubb even
recalls one such movie role played by Robert Mitchum. I don't see Stubb as
hard boiled; he just doesn't wear his emotions on his sleeve. He is often
sympathetic to people, especially Candy.

As for assigning OZ roles: there is one point, near the end of chapter 14,
when Candy and Barnes are together in the hotel lobby, before they have ever
gone up to Serpentina's room. She had just spoken to Stubb on the house
phone. She said **to** Barnes: "Seventh floor, room seventy-seven, Ozzie.
We're off to see the wizard." So how can Barnes be the wizard? Only the
witch and Stubb were up in the room.

-Roy

--=20

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